Nighttime falls upon downtown Columbus, Ohio with a heat wave of a whopping 37 degrees. Across from the Ohio State University campus sits Newport Music Hall where the line of people seems to stretch on for miles. Next door at the Chipotle, students stare out at the line wondering who is in town that could possibly create such a traffic hazard. Well it’s none other than the 2011 Glamour Kills Tour featuring The Ready Set.

With a full house intact, the night certainly started out with a bang. Canada’s very own Mariana’s Trench kicked off the evening with a set that kept people off their feet for the full 30 minutes. If you weren’t jumping up and down within the first five minutes, you had come to the wrong show. What was more impressive was the band’s ability to command the room and hold the audience’s attention. On top of that, Josh Ramsay’s vocals were spot-on, and it was refreshing to hear that he could actually sing. The award for second-best performance of the evening went to Mariana’s Trench.

Unfortunately, however, not all bands on the bill were as captivating as Mariana’s Trench. We Are the In Crowd got off to a rocky start when the crowd could barely hear frontwoman Tay Jardine singing until about three songs in, and it seemed to go downhill from there since hardly anyone showed a trace of interest until the last song of the set, “Both Sides of the Story”. Though the band’s sound is consistent from recording to live performance, there’s definitely room for improvement. But it was a noble effort.

The energy began to pick back up when The Downtown Fiction took the stage, immediately followed by an uproar of high-pitched screams and sing-alongs. At first glance, one could’ve mistaken them for the Nickelodeon boy band, Big Time Rush, but you forget all of that when the beach balls come flying and the water guns come out. Not to mention the debut of the harmonica in their new song “Thanks for Nothing” which is essentially a middle finger to all of the haters and a foot-tapper nonetheless. In all honesty, their music and live performance were like a rich dessert: it was enjoyable good on the surface but really just empty calories.

Once Allstar Weekend hit the stage busting moves, it felt like being back in the middle of a teenage heart-throb boy band concert with girls in the crowd holding up signs confessing their undying love for the band.

9:30pm finally arrives with fading lights and girls in the audience chanting “Jordan, Jordan, Jordan!” until drummer Travis Rountree appears on stage for a mini drum solo encased in smoke and multi-colored lights. At that point, you already know you’re in for a truly great rock show. Frontman Jordan Witzigreuter walks on stage and breaks into “More Than Alive,” and the crowd have already lost their minds. Witzigreuter’s energy skyrockets on stage throughout a set of songs both new and old such as the piano-driven “Sixty-Eight” and the recently released single “Young Forever”. Smoke and lights continue to engulf the entire room, making each inch of the 1500-cap rock hall feel like front row of a stadium. As the set comes to a close, all four members of the band take to the drums for an intermittent African-infused cadence of sorts, and for a moment, you forget you’re at a rock concert. Before you know it, the band is wrapping up the evening with the platinum single “Love Like Woe”. The kids as well as the parents lining the walls explode with excitement and start singing louder than Witzigreuter himself. The night concludes with an encore of their cover of “Airplanes” where kids have already started fleeing for the merch tables in hopes of meeting the rock star. From start to finish, the band’s performance over delivers on so many levels, and makes the show worth both your time and money. Congrats to The Ready Set for stepping it up a notch and putting on an exceptional show.

So, all in all, what can you expect from this year’s GK Tour? A lot of fun, dancing, good music, and crazy antics.

*This review was composed by Kimi Sugiyama