Hamster Drawings and Turned-Up Amps: The Orphan The Poet and AJR Deliver Chrismukkah Magic in Columbus

By Erin Lee

South Florida Concert News traveled to Columbus, Ohio for WNCI’s Acoustic Chrismukkah at Newport Music Hall Monday night.

Singer-songwriter Ray Jones opened the evening with an excellent performance.

Next up was Columbus-based The Orphan The Poet. Singer David Eselgroth has a commanding presence that grabs your attention from the second he bursts onstage. With a mischievous grin, he took to the microphone to announce they “didn’t really get the memo” on this being an acoustic show and asked the audience if it was ok to turn up. We responded with cheers to show approval.

Playing a tight 5 song set, the audience was treated to old favorites like “Headstone” and newer track “Eureka.”

Bass guitarist Jake Floyd really delivers, contributing his solid performance to the equation. 

This dynamic duo left an impression with everyone around me standing in the crowd: I overheard chatter about how fun their set was, watched a young fan video record their entire set, and saw people follow them on social media in real time. 

This was my second time seeing TOTP, and I always know l will be treated to an energetic, engaging performance.

Finally on deck was AJR. What a win for the radio station, to have this wildly popular band playing an acoustic set in an intimate venue. 

Opening with “Sober Up” from 2017’s The Click, the crowd was quick to sing along word for word.

My cousin was attending her first AJR show, and she was fascinated by all of the audience members wearing Jack’s signature hat.

If you’ve seen them live before, you know audience members will challenge the band to different activities to “win” the hat. Ryan scanned the audience, settling on a hamster drawing challenge with a kiddo in the front. After a moment, Ryan and the young fan showed their drawings for an applause vote. Obviously, the fan won, hands down. Instead of a hat she was treated to an autographed drumstick and got to keep the drawing. 

A beautiful rendition of “The Big Goodbye” from the band’s recent What No One’s Thinking EP was a reminder in of how effortlessly AJR connects with fans of all kinds, as I looked around me at an audience filled with small children, teenagers, and adults of all ages.

A well-received fun cover of Smash Mouth’s hit “All-Star” found its way into the set.

All told they packed in 9 songs.

After closing the show with “Weak,”

The audience spent several minutes chanting “ONE MORE SONG!”

Persistence paid off as we were given “Steve’s Going to London” for an unplanned, spur of the moment encore!

Seeing AJR is always a special experience, but in this small venue it felt even more so.

This Floridian is glad she made the trip to frigid Ohio. What a show!

All images by Erin Lee:

The Orphan The Poet:

AJR: