Airbourne: Runnin' Wild, The Return Of Rock N' Roll

Airbourne has been nominated for BEST NEW BAND in the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards in the UK.

Go here to vote

http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/GODS/

4/20/2008 - I headed off for my first Airbourne in concert experience. I had been told to expect a kick ass show, that turned out to be a total understatement!

The ticket price for this show was way under priced, at only $10 per person, at that price there was no way this concert could go wrong. For the $10 price, we got to see 3 great bands! StoneRider, Endeverafter, and of course the headliner Airbourne.

The venue was a small one, the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. There seemed to be some confusion inside the venue, as it was the venue's first all ages concert, that allowed an open bar. Division between minors and the drinking audience made things a little complicated, upon walking inside the theater. Staff and security were very helpful in pointing out the rules, and which area was which. I must mention for a small venue the security was very relaxed and did not appear to be over bearing control freaks. I had to mention this after reading a review posted about the Roseland, claiming the security there was very strict, maybe it was an issue in the past, who knows, but they seemed very relaxed, reasonable, and allowed everyone to have fun.

By my estimates, this venue only held maybe 250 to 300 people, which allowed a very close concert experience.

The band opened with the hard rock anthem Stand Up For Rock N' Roll, within seconds of the first chord struck by Airbourne, I guessed the room temperature jumped at least 30 degrees, and the crowd came alive!

Joel O'Keefe's vocals were dead on! The band never missed a beat, these boys had the crowd in the palm of their hands from beginning to end! The show was very loud, but surprisingly clear as you will see in the videos I have posted from this show. Just like the The Runnin' Wild CD, Airbourne ROCKED all the way through!

I spoke to several audience members before, and after the show, and was very surprised to find that the majority of them had never heard of Airbourne before. Airbourne made most of them fans, by the end of the concert!

I purchased a hoodie and a Tee, and the band's, Roadie/Merchandiser informed us to stick around after the show, saying the band always comes out and meets fans, and signs autographs afterward. We took him up on his invite, and sure enough we got to meet the guy's afterwards. We found them to be very low ego, and eager to meet, and speak to fans, and allowed us some great photo opportunities. The photo posted here is of myself, Joel O'Keefe, and some guy who just had to jump in the shot.

One of our concerns going to this show was our groups age, myself being 31, and the rest of my group in their 40's were worried that we'd be in with a bunch of younger kids. We were very surprised to see many people enjoying the show who were older than us amongst all the younger crowd and everyone got along great, and had an awesome time!

I must recommend, going to the next Airbourne concert near you, and as soon as possible these guys have it all, and will with little doubt in my mind, be the next mega-stars! Now is the time to see them, while they are still playing the small venue circuit.

In conclusion, I have been to over 300 hundred concerts in my lifetime. I have seen many bands large and small, from 80,000 in attendance to 40 attending. I would say Airbourne, is within my top 5 best concerts list. There was no fancy stage production, and no FX, not even as much as a banner. This was just a straight up and across, high energy, no frills, real hard rock show!

AIRBOURNE Set List

01. Stand Up For Rock 'N Roll
02. Hellfire
03. Fat City
04. Diamond In The Rough
05. What's Eatin' You
06. Girls In Black
07. Cheap Wine & Cheaper Women
08. Heartbreaker
09. Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast
10. Blackjack

[Encore]
11. Runnin' Wild