AD Wandering-Bobby Long, Columbus

I bought tickets for Bobby Long's performance the same day the show was announced. I'd only discovered him a few weeks prior, but I was still pretty hooked. The album came a week or so before the gig and I loved every second of it. I knew, knew, knew it was going to be an excellent show! I'd seen quite a few interviews and clips of Long performing on his couch at home. His painful shyness always amused me. It never occurred to me that his timidity would affect his performance. That's exactly what it did, though.

Not to say it wasn't a good performance. He voice was as lovely as on the album and his picking was sensational. He sounded exactly like he did on 'A Winter Tale.' There's a connection you can feel with an album that's incredibly important. Equally important, though, is the connection you can feel with an artist during a gig. A good show can take those emotions from the record and quadruple them. They can turn a packed venue into a cathartic event, no matter how big the crowd. A great gig will leave you still feeling the emotion of that night, under those lights, with all those other people long after you've returned home. That connection is hard to make when the singer spends the entire hour staring down at his feet.

The opening act, local band Yellow Light Maybe, was definitely the highlight of the evening for me. Not only did I get my fair share of eye contact, but so did the rest of the audience. Even after a fowl-up at the beginning, the guys pulled it off with a laugh and a story. For a bar packed with Bobby Long fans-there was much more movement during YLM. Afterward, while the local guys hammed it up with friends, fans and bartenders, the England-native stood behind a merch table while his keeper herded fans through the line as quickly as possible.

Maybe I've become spoiled. I spent last year following a band around who's crowd size tripled in 6 months. Those fine gentlemen still came out after each show, signed autographs, posed for pictures and hugged fans. They scream out to people in the balcony and tease rowdy, swooning girls in the most charming way possible. Then, when they perform, they do it with passion, power, musicianship and tons of eye contact with their fans. Yes, I'm definitely spoiled. But if a relatively unknown band like Yellow Light Maybe can make me happy, I feel like Bobby Long should have been able to have done a better job, too.

All in all, I don't regret driving the hour and half to Columbus or spending my money on the ticket. Yellow Light Maybe would have been worth my 15 quid even without Long. I missed the connection with Bobby and skipped his show when he came to Cincinnati. He sounds great live, he puts on a less than moving show. I will, however, head out to see Yellow Light Maybe again.