[Top 5] Hottest Shows at New Brookland Tavern

1) Colour Revolt/Manchester Orchestra/Eric Skelton/All Get Out

Friday, August 10-2007

Temp inside-126

Temp outside-107.1 °F

People passing out-Yes

Stopped Show because of heat-Yes

Musicians Leaving the stage from exhaustion-Yes

According to the National Climatic Data Center August 2007 was one of the worst heat waves to roll through the Southeast since 1895. Temperatures were highest the 7th-11th, 10 degrees above the average on those dates. 50 people died during this heat wave, at least 15 people passed out during the Colour Revolt/Manchester Orchestra/Eric Skelton/All Get Out show that balmy late summer evening.

We got first hand accounts of this show from a handful of people. New Brookland Tavern employees and local concert goers almost unanimously chose this as the hottest show ever at the Tavern.The five year old memories of everyone we talked to about this show were vivid and nearly spot on. No need for exaggeration or a tall tale with this story.

On this tour Manchester Orchestra was recording the “What’s Left Behind” DVD. It documents the preshow heat, showing MO keyboardist Chris Freeman getting tattooed in the back of their van. The heat was a focus of conversation, but what happened inside later that night couldn’t have been imagined. Much of the actual show went undocumented because the heat inside the Tavern was too much for the cameras to handle, and cut their battery life in half. Along with the camera malfunction, the stage monitors were going out and the vocalist from each band was getting electrocuted by the microphone.

According to Manchester Orchestra front man Andy Hull “It was 126 degrees inside and 106 degrees outside. When you stepped outside it felt like a cool 76 degrees because of how horrible it was in the venue.” The venue was maxed beyond legal capacity, and the bands were forced to stop their sets time after time to hand out water to the crowd and to leave the stage and catch their breath themselves. Drummer Jeremiah Edmond remembers leaving the stage several times. Something that was confirmed in Andy Hull’s recount of the show.

All Get Out front-man Nathan Hussey remembers this show for different reasons than the heat. This was one of the bands first shows with what would be their main line up for years to come, and the first time he handed over a burned copy of the Spitting EP to the Favorite Gentlemen crew. Hull also remembers this vividly, as he listened to their EP in their van with Jesse Coppenbarger of Colour Revolt. Hussey remembers it as one of the first times they felt like a real band and felt like they were part of the Favorite Gentlemen community.

Eric Skelton’s band then consisted of Nate Poole on guitar, Josh Kean filling in for Mike Mewborne on drums, and Taylor Bray playing bass. Skelton’s memories of the show were more than the heat also. He remembers as soon as they finished playing, Hull jumped on stage and started throwing out waters to the crowd. For the local openers it was about something else. Manchester Orchestra was on the verge of national fame, and Colour Revolt was the darling of Spin magazine and many a music journalist were coining them as one of the next big bands in America. Skelton remembers the energy and excitement of the crowd. There was a reason they were bearing the heat.

2) Thursday/Murder by Death/This Day Forward

June, 2003

Temp Outside-89.6 °F

Punk News Show Review

There is no reason this show should have been at New Brookland Tavern. At the time Thursday was selling out much larger venues, but loyalty to the scene that spawned Stretch Armstrong brought them back to the Tavern. The AC at New Brookland was especially terrible this summer. A window unit sat on a bar stool at the end of the bar, cooling down a 1 foot radius and blasting more hot air throughout the bar.

How hot was this show? Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly kept leaving the stage to throw up. They ended up only playing 8 songs.

 3) Hawthorne Heights/Emery/Alexisonfire/Silverstein/Burns out Bright

June 15, 2004

Temp Outside-87.8 °F

I remember it like it was yesterday. This was the early show and Pedro the Lion was the late show. It wasn’t just that it was hot outside, actually it was only 88 degrees that day, a deceptive temperature only because it was raining. Inside it became stifling. Hundreds of emo kids, drenched. Crowd surfing. Getting kicked out. Blood and tears left on the floor. At one point they had to stop the show because a kid passed out and they crowd surfed his body towards the front door. EMS came and took him out on a stretcher, though he seemed alright by that time. This crowd pushed the limits of heat exhaustion for the love of screamo.

4) New Found Glory/Lemuria

August 28, 2010

Temp Outside-91.4 °F

I left this show after Lemuria played. It was stupid. 400 people packed into a 250 capacity venue. Hotter than Satans toenail. Skinny little girls sweating like hostages. After New Found Glory finished their set, lead singer Jordan Pundik ran off stage and threw up in the back. Not long after he took off his shoes and poured sweat out of them.

5) Washed Out

July 1, 2011

Temp Outside-97 °F

This show was the opposite of chill wave. Just weeks before the release of their début album on Sub Pop, Washed Out came back to Columbia for the first time as a full band. It was also SceneSC’s 3rd Anniversary show, and the first significant show we had booked as a website. The show officially “sold out” before doors even opened, but overselling is the name of the game. During Washed Out’s set the room was hazy from the heat coming off people’s bodies. That show was one of our most proud moments as a website.

This show could have moved up the list of hottest, but no one passed out, and none of the bands threw up.

What’s the hottest show you can remember at New Brookland?

Thanks to the staff at New Brookland, Jeremiah Edmond,Chris McLane, Nathan Hussey, Erich Skelton, Andy Hull, and the many people I talked to that attended these shows.