Promo Director Aaron Vilk and fellow Lobster/MC David Massimini took the stage to auction off the first round of available companions. As they scoped the room, I was an immediate target as a first contender. (I really should start mixing in the crowd more.) With my head perched high and a perky, marketable smile, I took the stage with a $15 Donkey coffee gift certificate. The dollars climbed and it was Vilk who succeeded the auction at $13.
Throughout the night, the bands catered the kind of music worthy to put on a love-drenched mix tape. Columbus' Stomp the Condor had an off-step sort of punk, guitar and drum madness layered with slammed piano keys - even more so with vocalist falsetto cries. The "ballad" they had for the night, of which afterward the band resumes from the "love bullshit," took my mind to a scene of a punk-a-fied Romeo and Juliet, of which Juliet is actually a 17-year-old Husker Du fan named Sheena and Romeo is on his knees singing this Stomp the Condor song. So fitting.
The other Columbus band, Tin Armor, returned to Athens two years after a Smiling Skull gig. Instead of sticking to a set list of the pop-punk/indie hybrid in "A Better Place Than I Have Been" and "S/T 7," the surprisingly long set heavily consisted of newer tracks, which leaned towards the latter genre. Fans of Tin Armor were nonetheless enthralled of the band's return, and the onstage charm gave them no reason to fall more in love.
ACRN successfully raised money for the 2010 Lobsterfest. While some auctions faltered towards the end of the night, those who didn't spend too much money at the bar bid generously. Some of the top auctions that night included a pair of Black-Eyed Peas concert tickets, Sales/PR Directors combo pack and ACRN's own Melissa Burant.
--Rika Nurrahmah, Senior Writer
Photos courtesy of Melissa Burant
