Social networking does wonders. In a matter of a few days, word got out about this show over Facebook event invites and twitter updates. The result: about 175 people packed into a living room/kitchen to watch Transit and Man Overboard in the most up-close-and-personal performance possible. Along with this, there were also about 160 live views on a webcast announced a few hours before the show.

I drove down the CDA street in search of parking (usually a lost cause), and saw the long line of kids waiting outside to be let in. This, of course, was against the wishes of the house residents who want to remain on good terms with their neighbors. Despite this, there was a calm feeling inside as things were being set up. Instead, the sense of urgency was to get the kids inside and out of the view of the neighborhood (the phrase “Please don’t hang out in front of the house” comes to mind).

Transit quickly set up seemingly nose-to-nose with their audience (at this point, my friend Vivian messaged me from Baltimore to say the webcast was online). Transit began with a short instrumental build-up intro before launching into their first song. Thanks to the audience reaction, I found myself behind a guitar cab where I would remain for the rest of the night. The crowd was going absolutely crazy on the first song! In fact, I witnessed a sight I’ll never forget: people crowd surfing into a living room from the hallway while leaving footprints on the ceiling. There was very little room for the audience so I can only imagine how difficult it was to play guitar with barely enough room to move your fingers up the fretboard. An oscillating fan that wasn’t doing much for cooling was crowd surfed to the back of the house in order to save it from breaking and to make more room. The most obvious casualty of the small space was the overhead light being broken off of its ceiling-mount to hang from the wires. The living room was hot, steamy, loud, and pretty uncomfortable, but Transit toughed out being pushed around while still managing to play a full set to a crowd of very excited fans.

Man Overboard came forward to close things out for the night. It seems like any space limitations were multiplied for their set, causing multiple performance problems. One of the guitar cabs was plugged into a power strip that kept getting stepped on and turned off, the band’s backs were literally up against the equipment (including drums), and the amount of crowd surfing was a little much. I even noticed some frustration as Zac avoided multiple kicks to the face while trying to sing. Sitting on the bass drum gave him some extra breathing room and the set went on while kids continued to sing along. People were still crowd surfing in from the kitchen and hallway (this is still so weird for me to type) until the end of the set. Despite the room falling down around them, Man Overboard managed to put on a great performance that had everyone smiling.

This show was absolutely insane. I had an amazing time singing along and sweating it out with everyone. My one complaint is that I wish people respected the house a little bit more. Hearing the stories about people trying to go into bedrooms or peeking into kitchen cabinets was a little ridiculous. Still, it’s good that the majority of people were just there to have a good time and that’s exactly what they got.

I can’t thank the residents of CDA enough for opening up their home to 170+ people at one time. That was one hell of a show. A big hello to all the friends that hung out tonight and put up with my excitement after seeing Hayley when we went out to eat. GOOD TIMES!