By Ava C. Green, Features Editor
Over the summer, my sister and I bought tickets to see the band Peach Pit in Cleveland. It wasn’t until about two weeks ago that we both remembered our purchase and had to then figure out how this event was going to fit into our very busy schedules. Despite the cacophony of reasons why the night should have been a disaster, it ended up being a great time. Was it kind of a stupid idea to go to a weekday concert four hours away? Yeah, probably. Do I regret it? No. Not one bit.
I power-walked out of my math class on the day of the concert and booked it to my car. I went so fast I forgot to put any jewelry on (a true tragedy). I ignored my concerningly low tire pressure — which I, Ava Green, go on record to say that I do not condone — and made my way to I-90 towards Erie, PA to meet up with my sister. Much to my surprise, this route was the same one that all of the stadium traffic for the Bills game was instructed to take. I was already going to get there just in the nick of time, but going 20 miles per hour on the thruway put a huge damper on my ETA.
I can’t say my car ride was a great way to get the concert vibes going. Although I was absolutely jamming out to Peach Pit, my mind raced with worries about all the school work that needed to be done, the state of my tires and the overwhelming feeling of dread that fills a punctual person’s soul when they realize earliness is impossible.
Two hours and a few wrong turns later, I made it to my sister. I nearly tucked and rolled out of my car to get into hers, which also had some funky sounds coming from it. We ignored the loose heat shield, picked up her friend Thomas and then we were bound for Cleveland.
Although we hardly got there before they opened the venue, the three of us used our brute strength to push ourselves as close to the front as humanly possible, moving into any little openings in the crowd that we could find. We even somehow got away from the super annoying tall guy that kept flipping his hair like a 2010s Justin Bieber and ended up having a great view!
This concert was seriously amazing, it was just a lot of laughing and dancing and positivity. The Districts opened the concert, and, although I didn’t know too many of their songs, their energy was infectious and the crowd absolutely lost their minds when the lead singer randomly started playing the harmonica.
Peach Pit came out and I immediately fell madly in love with their lead guitarist and his magnificent mustache. They started off rocking out, playing an instrumental metal-esque interlude that I found odd yet exciting for the softer indie band. It got us all completely hyped up.
The hype continued as they played their hits, including but not limited to the following: “Up Granville,” “Alrighty Aphrodite,” “Tommy’s Party,” “Shampoo Bottles” and, of course, “Peach Pit.” They unfortunately did not play my two absolute favorite songs: “Live at the Swamp” and “Everything About You,” but I suppose I won’t hold it against them. Every song sounded even better live, regardless of the fact that they already sound great on Spotify. The entire time felt like a main character moment, surely because I made eye contact with all the performers (or at least I did in my mind). It was so much unadulterated fun.
As we were leaving we got a text from a friend of Thomas’ who was also at the concert, telling us to meet her in a back alley to meet the band. All of us had class the next day, were on the verge of passing out from hunger and were scared to go into a random alleyway in a city we’d never been to before, but we knew we just couldn’t pass up even a tiny chance to meet the band.
After waiting for a bit and debating whether or not we should just go, the lead singer, Neil Smith, came out to greet the dozen of us that found this cove where their tour bus was parked. After he met us all, out came my mustachioed heart throb, Chris Vanderkooy. I even made him giggle a little, so we’re, like, totally married now. I could hardly believe how eager they were to meet fans, chit-chat, take pictures and sign things. Seeing them rock out and own the stage, then talk to us casually like kind, old friends made me fall in love with the band even more.
As I went through the next day running on less than 5 hours of sleep and a large coffee, all I could think of was how lucky the three of us were to have experienced what we did the night before. Time crunches and car troubles be damned, we got to that incredible concert and made out like bandits.
Once I had realized the setbacks we would encounter that night, I kind of figured we’d be in the back row: sweaty and unable to see anything. I never would have guessed that we could get that close to the stage, eat really good fried pickles and even meet the band. I can only thank the universe — or maybe the Peach Pit gods — for this wonderful experience.
Now, I’m not saying you should drop all of your schoolwork and become a roadie, but sometimes you need to be stupid and do something impractical and nonessential purely for your own enjoyment. For example, a Monday night concert two states away.
Guess what? My work got done, I made it to class, took a nap and jumped back into the academic mindset. Although I’m still quite sleep deprived, without doing something spontaneous, stupid and stressful I wouldn’t have had one of my favorite concert experiences ever. I want to challenge you to throw caution to the wind and trust that you have the ability to catch back up on things in order to do something dumb just because it will make you happy.
Academics find a way to envelop your entire life and become your entire persona at times. Without moments like these to escape it all, you’ll lose yourself. So find your balance of studiousness and stupidity. You won’t regret it.
But if you do end up regretting it, please don’t quote me on any of this.