The audience should probably be more excited than anyone when a hometown band comes through Columbus on a national tour, but that’s not the case with Walk the Moon.
“The big Columbus show is the one I’ve been looking forward to the most for a while, if not my whole life,” said Kevin Ray, bassist of the Cincinnati- and Columbus-based band Walk the Moon. “Hopefully we don’t mess up that bad.”
Walk the Moon is scheduled to perform at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Playing this venue is especially significant for Ray, who grew up in Columbus.
“I used to work for the LC, and to go back there, play that place and sell that place out is really bizarre,” Ray said. “It’s our biggest headlining show to date.”
Walk the Moon always tries to create a certain atmosphere at its shows, and Columbus will be no different, Ray said.
“It’s just becoming part of the Walk the Moon experience, creating this little community, this little otherworld at the show where people can just let loose and go nuts,” Ray said. “It sounds so hippie, but it really is what I think the live music thing is all about.”
Ray said being a local band makes hometown shows like this even more of a special experience for the audience and the band.
“The people who have been with us the longest, who have been supporting us the longest, are back home in Cincinnati and Columbus,” Ray said. “Those shows have a special energy, because everybody knows the words, everybody’s been there since the beginning. It’s definitely a special thing going home.”
An important part of creating that atmosphere comes from the audience’s love for the music, and in Walk the Moon’s case, their love for one specific song, Ray said.
“We’ll play (‘Anna Sun’) probably at every show until the end of time because it’s how most people discovered us, and we’re totally proud of that,” Ray said. “We love the fact that there’s a song out there that people have really grasped onto, and kind of taken as their own … ‘Anna Sun’ will forever be a part of our set list, I think. It’s a really important song to us.”
The show, originally set for the Newport Music Hall, was moved to the LC to encourage more ticket sales.
“We thought we could sell more tickets, and it was going to fill (the Newport),” said Marissa Luther, marketing manager for Promowest Productions. “It’s sold out already (at the LC).”
The LC’s indoor venue holds 2,200 people. The Newport holds 1,700 people.
Ray said selling out this show is a bittersweet feeling for Walk the Moon.
“It’s been a mixed thing, because you want everybody who wants to come to be able to get to a show, but also it’s kind of a mind-blowing thing to be selling out a bunch of venues,” Ray said. “Especially places like the LC. It’s a fixture on the Columbus music scene.”
Opening for the show will be Pacific Air, a band that Ray says is making its impact on Walk the Moon.
“We are quickly falling in love with them,” Ray said. “They’re awesome dudes, and we love the music.”
Samantha Earlywine, a third-year in medical laboratory science, said even though this will be her first Walk the Moon show, she knows it will be something to remember.
“I’m very new to the band, so I’m just looking forward to hearing a lot of their songs,” Earlywine said. “I feel like they’re a pretty upbeat band, so I’m excited for the experience.”
Tickets for the concert are sold out, but any tickets bought for the Newport location will be honored at the door of LC.