This is the story of how an ordinary, albeit quite good-looking and of above-average intelligence and wit, group of friends went out for a quiet night with a few beers and live music and ended up bringing home the band.
Because of the long weekend, much of the campus community has fled Eugene for Sasquatch, home, and wherever else got them out of this cloud-covered town for a few precious days before we wrap up this term. Looking for something to do, I scanned the Eugene Weekly for any kind of event or entertainment. Sam Bond’s Garage was hosting an alt-folk band, and after listening to their MySpace band page, I was at least intrigued enough to suggest it to the amigos as a good-time-in-the-making.
We had barely even paid our cover (don’t you love sliding cover charges—flexibility for the cash-strapped college kid!) when my friend Tyson turned to me to state a not-always-the-case fact: There were really cute guys present. As a predominantly female group (and the one member of the opposite sex amongst us is still interested in the same team as the rest of us), we momentarily patted ourselves on the back for picking a good night to get out to the Whiteaker and hear live music, with the slightly hipster hotties as a bonus.
So imagine our delight when the cuties took the stage a couple minutes later! And they were good!!
The set was unfortunately very short, but afterwards the band mingled with the crowd, and we saw our chance. We ended up chatting with the band for a few hours and they were so down to earth! They told us how much they liked Eugene, the great local brews, cat videos on YouTube and about LA and their tour schedule and social media outlets.
When we finally left, Cassie gave her phone number to the lead singer and we gushed in the shuttle on the way back about how cool it would be to hang out with the band some more.
And then they texted!!!
In retrospect, it might have been the Sam Bond’s mason jars of delicious Willamette Valley beer that lent us the enthusiasm, but regardless, as Cassie dramatically read the text message aloud and we overanalyzed every sentence, we were giddy.
When the singer, guitar player and drummer were actually sitting (on the floor—they were good sports) in Tyson and Cassie’s living room, it went back to being the same chill chatty atmosphere it had been at the bar, with good banter and beers.
Hopefully next time they swing through town, we can meet up and show them some of real Eugene… but even if that never happens, we’ll always have last night—surreal, hilarious, awesome.
