Fun Facts And Pizza
On Memorial Day, Mom, Dad, Ryan, Luke, Josh, Pop-Pop, Sara, Eva, Zach, Paige, and I entered Dad's studio to clean up from Josh's graduation party two days prior. Shortly after we arrived, Josh's classmate, whom he had shared the party with, showed up with his parents to help. When we finished, we all piled into Dad's big work van and went to the Leveque Tower, where Aunt Alicia and Austin stayed. Leveque Tower is a staple of the downtown Columbus skyline, and I've been looking at it my entire life, so it was really cool to be inside. After that, we went and got lunch, dropped Eva and Zach off at the airport, then went to a giant bookstore called the Book Loft. Finally, we went to a music store because Ryan had promised Luke a new guitar for his birthday, but he wanted Luke to pick it out.
After the guitar store, I took Paige home. Even though I wasn't looking at her, I felt the weight from all the socializing we had done that weekend hit her about halfway through the drive. I didn't want to burn her out by hanging out with her too much for the rest of the week. So after we had said goodbye and she was getting out of my car, I said, "See you at the show on Thursday!"
"See you then," she replied.
As you may know, Luke and Josh are in a band called Box Seats. Luke is the lead singer, and he plays guitar, and Josh plays drums. The other two band members, Freddy and Max, attend college out of town, so they couldn't play shows during the school year (though they did still release music). As I explained in the installment about Luke's graduation (Graduation, Box Seats, and Chicago), Box Seats played Luke and Freddy's joint graduation party. I was excited for Box Seats to do the same for Josh's. However, because the guy Josh had his graduation party with is not in Box Seats, they decided it would be a good idea for them not to play it. I could only accept this because I knew they were playing the next Thursday, June 1st.
That Thursday, Paige and I hung out for a little bit. We picked up Noah at 6:50, and we Lyfted to the venue. They played at a place called Kafe Kerouac. Half of the venue is a coffee shop plus a full bar, and the other half is a small room with a stage for live music. It was a small venue, but it was packed with fans for both Box Seats and the band they were opening for. There were a few people there that I knew. My parent's neighbors, Stephen and Robin; their daughters, Megan and Rachel; our friends Kristin and Tim, both Freddy and Max's families; and Josh's new girlfriend, Lindsey.
Now I love Box Seats' music; it's excellent. But my favorite thing about the band is the fact that Luke and Josh don't have stage personas. I'm a great storyteller in real life, but I tend to ramble. This blog/podcast and my books give some much-needed structure to my storytelling. I am not saying that my personality doesn't bleed into this series; it's just a little bit restrained.
Luke and Josh, on the other hand, don't restrain their personalities at all when they're performing. My first example is their song "Old Friends." I can't explain to you why this song is so special without literally breaking the entire song down, but it's the perfect encapsulation of Luke's personality. My second example is, between two of their songs, Luke asked the crowd, "So does anyone know any fun facts?" Nobody responded because we were all caught off guard, But when Luke saw me standing in front, he said, "Mitchell, I know you have some fun facts!" In middle school, I got the worst case of poison ivy ever! It was all over my face, chest, legs, feet, arms… everything! I was miserable. It was so bad I couldn't sleep, so I spent a few nights watching TV. On one of these nights, I discovered the TV channel Investigation Discovery… And I got really into True Crime. So when Luke asked me if I knew any fun facts, I could only think of weird true crime statistics, and I knew I couldn't repeat any of them! So I awkwardly stared at my brother until he giggled and continued with the show!
My third and final example: shortly after Luke asked me the fun facts question, they performed a new, untitled song they have not released yet. This new song doesn't have drums till the very end. Josh took this time to go to the green room, and grab a slice of pizza, then came back on stage, sat at the drum set, and finished the pizza just in time for him to play. My point is… the level of goober you have to be to do either of those things while performing is ridiculous, and the level of confidence you have to have to pull it off is even more so. I hope that I can be a little more like them someday.
Have a Greattastic Day and be Safe!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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