Three hundred and sixty-eight days ago, I climbed the stairs of the Crystal Ballroom, camera in hand, ready to cover my first show for melophobe. Ghostland Observatory was playing that night, and I thought that it was going to be like any other concert. I loved their albums, but the live show was a completely different experience than anything I could have expected. Now, a year and change later, I climbed those steps again, thinking that this time I really was prepared for the evening's festivities--but nothing can truly prepare you for the spectacle that is Ghostland live.
Front man and sometimes guitarist Aaron Behrens jumped around the stage, whipping his hair back and forth harder and faster than Willow Smith ever could, as though he was a puppet being tossed around by synth-man and drummer Thomas Ross Turner's beats. The room was filled with more fog, strobe lights, and lasers than an orgy at Prince's house, and the neon-clad crowd jumped around more than any crowd I've ever seen.
An hour into their set, Ghostland took a brief intermission, and returned to the stage with Aaron yelling out a thank you to the Portland crowd and a welcome to those who were "new to the tribe" before asking us, "Are you ready to keep on going?!" He repeated his question three times, the crowd screaming louder and louder and bouncing higher and higher every time, until Ghostland launched into the first line of "Sad Sad City," one of the songs we'd been waiting to hear all night.
Before the last song, Aaron told us, "This is your last chance to dance," but when the lights came on at the end of the show and the house speakers start playing "Another One Bites the Dust," the crowd kept bobbing their heads. Even out on the street, you could feel everyone moving to a collective beat. Here's hoping that in another three hundred and sixty-eight or so days, the tribe will get to come together to be blown away again. And maybe by then I'll stop seeing strobe lights out of the corners of my eyes.
