My boyfriend and I made it to Goosetown Tavern in Denver with enough time for me to talk to my friends and to interview Buddy Bench about that night’s show, and I anxiously played with my bracelets and jewelry as the clock ticked closer and closer to 8:30 PM. There was a heavy, velvet curtain dividing the stage and performance space from the rest of the bar and I felt my heart pick up speed as it parted, allowing everyone in to the stage area.
On the stage, microphone stands had been adorned with bouquets of live flowers, and from the spot by the stage where I stood, I could smell them, creating this atmosphere of whimsy, magic, and the outdoors, even if, in reality, I was standing a few inches from the edge of the stage and alongside more than one-hundred other A Place For Owls fans inside of a small space in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.
The excitement in the air was tangible – not only was the legendary Denver emo band A Place For Owls playing their new album, but up-and-coming emo powerhouse Buddy Bench would be playing their new EP live for the first time, and Colorado Springs-based emo band Viewfinder would be performing songs from their 2022 album, which is an incredible work of art.
Before all of this, though, I got the exciting and genuinely super fun opportunity to interview the members of Buddy Bench, Christian and Joey, and hear about their EP “Dibs on First Rips!” as well as share the excitement with them of the EP being performed live for the first time.
Valor: Correct me if I’m wrong, but is this the first show after the release of Dibs on First Rips!?
Christian: Yeah, absolutely.
Valor: Okay, so what song from the EP are you most excited to play tonight? And to see the reaction to?
Christian: I mean, “The Observer” has popped off a lot harder than we thought it would.
Valor: I love “The Observer”, so I mean, I agree with that.
Christian: That seems to be the crowd favorite.
Joey: I was going to say the same thing. I did not expect that song to blow up as much as it did, so I’m excited to see people singing along, dancing, whatever they’re going to do.
Valor: My favorite is “Doll” and that one’s been popping off a bit too. What was the coolest part of the reaction online to the EP?
Christian: Just the fact that anyone even listened to it. We’re such a little baby band, like the fact that anyone gave us the time of day is cool. It’s cool meeting people from this EP release, from this EP release we now have people in our lives.
Valor: That’s awesome! That is so sweet. Okay, so you and I talked about this a little earlier, but what’s the Denver music scene like from a Buddy Bench perspective?
Christian: The Denver scene is smaller, and there definitely are, like – like everyone that I’ve met has been super friendly – but it can be a little clique-y. So on one hand it’s cool, but I see a select handful of groups and bands more often, so it’s nice that I’ve developed like, real friendships with these folks. But yeah, Ben Sooy [A Place For Owls vocalist] has been telling me that it’s his mission is to be the one who kind of merges everything.
Valor: That’s so sweet.
Joey: I meet everyone in this community through Christian, and Christian will be like, ‘hey, have you heard this band yet?’ and will start playing it for me, and that’s how I’ve met everyone.
Christian: I’m the terminally online one.
Valor: Every band has to have one. So, is there anything you do for or during shows, whether in preparation or on stage, that was inspired by something you saw from another musician, movie, or show?
Christian: Not really, although I have taken some real bad advice with like, YouTube stuff before. It’s like, ‘if you want to lubricate your vocal cords, just put some olive oil in some water and drink it’. So I’ve definitely tried that out before. No fun pre-show rituals or anything.
Valor: I will say, a strange tip I’ve seen on YouTube before was to like, drink a glass of milk and then drink lemon juice. It’s always the strangest thing that they suggest.
Christian: I still need to try that one.
Joey: An inspiration for performance, I shouldn’t admit this openly, but I’m a Blink-182 fan.
Valor: You know what, me too.
Joey: So, just watching videos, growing up, of like, Travis Barker, and his presence on stage and his kind of energy, that’s always what I’ve been trying to bring forth into the world.
Valor: I was a Linkin Park kid. So, are there any bands that you dream of playing a show with?
Joey: A Place For Owls.
Christian: Yeah, this is a dream show.
Valor: That is awesome!
Christian: We met the boys a year ago and we’ve just been trying to get it going since. I’d say 95Corolla.
Valor: I love 95Corolla. What song from the new A Place For Owls album are you most excited to hear live?
Christian: I mean, the last three tracks are probably my favorite three-track run in recent memory, so any of those three, but this is presumably the only time Ben is going to play “desmond hume” live, so I guess just for the history, that one.
Joey: Probably “hourglass”. I don’t know why that one hits me so hard, but I’ll be at work, washing dishes, screaming “there’s a Starbucks across the street” [a lyric from “hourglass”].
Valor: Okay, so now I have some silly questions, just for funsies. If you were a wizard, would you be a good wizard or an evil wizard?
Christian: Evil wizard.
Joey: So, I actually play D&D [Dungeons and Dragons] on the weekends, and I find it really hard to be a bad guy.
Christian: I’m a double Scoprio, so I have to be an evil wizard.
Valor: I’m a Scorpio too, that’s crazy. If you had to be an animal, what kind of animal would you be?
Joey: Like a Costco teddy bear, like large and huggable, couldn’t really hurt anyone.
Christian: Some little, rodent-like, maybe a ferret.
Valor: Last question – when you were a kid, what was your dream job?
Christian: Paleontologist – I was hella into Jurassic Park, it comes with being nonverbal until you’re four, it’s kinda just how my brain works. I love dinosaurs.
Joey: I always said studio musician, I started drumming when I was six, but that being said I’m not good enough to do that, so I make do with what we’re doing right now.
Valor: That’s real. I wanted to be an astronaut ballerina.
Christian: At the same time.
Valor: Exactly.
When it was finally time to get to the music, Buddy Bench played first, and they opened with “Doll”, my favorite song from their new EP. Christian has such innate star power that he commands the room effortlessly, everyone signing along or dancing with the music, Joey absolutely killing it on drums, and Ryan from A Place For Owls destroying the bass parts. They played “Amoxicillin” next, and then a cover of “Lazy Eye” by Silversun Pickups. After that was “The Observer”, another one of my favorites from the EP, and then they finished it out with “Venus” and “Creme Pod”.
[Pictured below: Buddy Bench band and Ryan from A Place For Owls.]
After Buddy Bench performed, Viewfinder got set up and we were prepared to be stunned. The Colorado Springs-based band played songs from their 2022 album Voices Echo and myself and the audience were blown away by both their performance/stage skills and the music itself. Viewfinder has an incredible sound that evokes so much energy and so much emotion. It was absolutely amazing to see them live.
[Pictured below: Viewfinder band.]
Finally, A Place For Owls took to the stage, and it felt like one could cut the tension in the air with a knife. We were all prepared to experience something completely unique to that night and that moment. Ben, the vocalist, began by explaining that they would first play an older song, then the album in full, and then another older song to finish out the performance. I was on edge, anxious to get into how we dig in the earth, and I forced myself to let out a big breath and stop being impatient. A Place For Owls launched into their first song, and it almost felt like we were all pre-gaming emotions before diving into what is one of the more emotionally-charged albums released this year. After that appetizer of emotion, it was time for the main course. A Place For Owls began playing “go on”, the first single of how we dig in the earth, and I felt my face get warm and my vision get a little blurry (I’m not crying, you’re crying!). It almost felt like all of the audience’s heartbeats had combined into one, pumping blood throughout the building, the walls moving in and out with our breathing. Colored lights on the ceiling illuminated the band, bathing Ben (the vocalist) in red-orange light, almost as if the sun had decided to come back and shine directly through the ceiling and into A Place For Owls. The next song, “hourglass”, one of my favorites from the album, floored me, and I felt so held by their sound, and then they broke into “broken open seed”, another incredible track. It was so much fun to see it live after hearing it over and over through my earbuds for months prior. The next two tracks, “huston lake” and “find your friends and hold them close” were equally flooring, forcing me to both release all the tension in my shoulders and to hold my breath, just so that I wouldn’t miss a single beat. After those came “a tattoo of a candle”, a song that I love more than anything. I listen to it on repeat regularly, the melody reaching between my rib cages and squeezing my heart softly, almost to remind it to keep beating. With the next track, “desmond hume”, and the one that followed, “haunted”, I finally gave up trying to hold back tears and I felt myself choke up and my shoulders shake softly. There is nothing more beautiful, or electrifying, or more uniquely powerful than seeing those songs live (and “desmond hume” won’t be played live ever again!) and I felt this moment of catharsis that completely captured and unraveled my soul. I was awash in the divinity of community, of love, of grief, and of this pure joy at the simple idea of being alive in that moment. These feelings didn’t fade as A Place For Owls began their next song, “when your eyes close”, and they lingered through “no plans on saturday”, the emotions holding me like a quilt holds in heat in the winter. With “what i have to say” I let out another shaky breath, allowing myself to calm down and to revel in the energy of the hot, crowded room, and with “help me let the right ones in”, I felt a momentary feeling of release, like something that had been holding me down had finally taken its jaws from off of my throat. With the conclusion of how we dig in the earth, A Place For Owls played their final song, an engaging song that brought back the energy in the room – almost as if they were reviving the audience, curing our colds and forcing the weight from our shoulders. We danced, we celebrated, we sang, we held onto ourselves throughout the entire journey, we had survived the storm at sea. We could’ve asked for no better captain than A Place For Owls.
[Pictured below: Ben and Jesse from A Place For Owls.]
After the show concluded, Nick (one of the guitarists) allowed me to take some of the flowers that had been decorating the stage, and I left the venue with a living reminder of that night, a piece of the earth. After I’d said my good-byes to everyone, my boyfriend and I stepped out into the chilly night air, and I felt as though any ghosts that had been following me had dissipated, and that the mountains didn’t seem as tall as before.
Show Picture Gallery
[Pictured below: Nick from A Place For Owls.]
[Pictured below: flowers decorating a microphone stand.]
[Pictured below: Viewfinder band.]
[Pictured below: Buddy Bench band.]
[Pictured below: flowers decorating a microphone stand on stage.]
[Pictured below: myself and Buddy Bench displaying our matching “APFO” friendship bracelets.]
Buddy Bench
Viewfinder
A Place For Owls
Written by Valor
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