what’s so special about The Maine? I mean, they’re just a band
If I had a dollar for every time I’d received that comment, I would have enough money to buy my own private island. Unfortunately, the magic money fairy doesn’t leave a shiny new dollar bill every time I receive that comment. Instead, I find myself explaining, or at least trying to, what’s so special about them. This is where things can, and often do, get a little more difficult. How could I possibly try to explain to somebody else why they’re so great, if I can barely pinpoint it myself, let alone put it all into a simple explanation? I’m fully aware of the basic stuff, their music, live shows and so on and so forth, but I can’t just leave it at that, because that doesn’t really do much in explaining why they’re so much more than just a band.
If I’d go a little further beyond their music, I’d say the next thing to follow would be the epic wall that is 8123. To most, that would just be a random, 4-digit number. Nothing special. To some, though mainly Tempe residents I would assume, it’s a local parking garage. Again, nothing special (unless you’re a part of the group of people that spent enough time there for it to have such a significant meaning that it became a line in a song and, further down the line, the name of a music collective). I’d say that the time when those four numbers got the special meaning it holds today begun a little over 2 years ago. In the spring of 2013 the first ever 8123 tour was announced and it had possibly the best line-up of any tour, ever. It was the very last tour of A Rocket to the Moon. It was just great (says me who didn’t even attend). But regardless, a close-knit community was starting to form, later named the 8123 family. Now, mind you, The Maine’s fanbase has always been, generally speaking, full of acceptance, love and friends in every corner of the world. It’s something so great to be a part of, and I genuinely mean it when I say that this truly is something out of the ordinary. A lot of people claim that they have “the best fans in the world”, but it’s only in this case, if you ask me, that this is absolutely, 100% true. I may be biased, but when even various media outlets can pick up just how dedicated and close-knit a fanbase is, you know it’s true.
At the time of the inception of the 8123 family, I was at the perhaps lowest point I’ve ever been. After spending years of desperately trying to please everybody, and shape my life according to how others thought I should, I finally cracked, after realizing that I couldn’t please everybody because no matter how hard I tried, my attempts always fell short. I reached my breaking point, and fell down the deepest hole of self-deprecation, confusion and guilt. A lot of ugly emotions came tumbling over me all at once, to the point where I found the simplest tasks, such as just getting out of bed and proceeding to have a semi-normal day, became difficult. Forever Halloween came into my life, followed by the 8123 family, and I found a place of acceptance, trust and support. Simply put, it felt like coming home, despite the fact that this wasn’t a place at all, nothing tangible. This was when I truly realized that home isn’t a place, it’s a group of people.
Finding this thing, this outpour of love and support, not only meant that I’d found my way home, but I could finally start to accept myself for just that: myself. That realization that living my life by my own accord is okay. Again, huge milestone for me. It wasn’t a change that happened overnight, it’s been a long process with a lot of ups and downs, with days feeling like I was fighting a losing battle. Hell, I’m still working on it, but I am positive that I can make it. I’d like to think of myself as a bit of a control freak. Actually, I don’t like it, but this is all a part of the acceptance aspect. But knowing and accepting my flaws also means I have a way of dealing with them. My way of dealing with this particular part of myself? Forcing myself out of the comfort zone. As a self-proclaimed control freak, I don’t like going into scenarios without at least some sense of control, which usually means just having at least an idea of what’s to come. This, in turn, has meant that I’ve turned a plethora of things over the years, as well as simply choosing to not do things, because that would mean spontaneity, not knowing what to expect and therefore discomfort. But then, one day, I just thought to myself fuck this. I’m not gonna let this thing, this stupid thing, dictate how I live my life. I refuse to let this thing restrict me from doing things I know that, deep down, I actually want to do. I knew from the moment I made this decision that it wouldn’t be easy, and at the time I didn’t want easy. First thing on my list of things I wanted to conquer? The UK tour. This happened to fall right by the time when The Maine announced they were bringing the 8123 tour across the pond. I’d wanted to do a full tour, or at the very least several dates, for years, but never did. So this really was my time to shine. The weeks flew by and I booked the things I had to, ended up finding a travel buddy along the way, which helped ease that nagging worry immensely. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t scared shitless the weeks leading up to my departure, but it was that exhilarating kind of scary. Like when you’re going up the highest peak of a rollercoaster. Actually, scratch that, I’m scared of heights and going on a rollercoaster is essentially my worst nightmare. But all of the fears I’d had prior to the trip vanished as soon as I set my foot in Brighton. I don’t think I can explain how good it felt to be at a concert again, theirs in particular. There is something so special about going to a show, that very moment when the lights go out and they come on stage, playing that first bar of the opening song. You’re flooded with this rush of euphoria and for the next hour-and-a-half or so you can enjoy the music, sing along at the top of lungs and just be, forget anything that’s troubling you.
One would think that after almost two weeks of little sleep, long bus journeys and singing to a point where you lose your voice, you would feel like you’d had enough of concerts and tour life for a full year. Hell, I thought that would be perfectly sufficient to last me another year. Wrong. After coming home and finally getting rid of the nasty cold that got hold of me halfway through the tour, I wanted to get back at it. I proposed the idea of maybe going to America for their next tour, which seemed completely crazy and improbable at the time. But I couldn’t shake the thought of how badly I wanted to do this. I’d been bitten by the tour bug. Turns out, it is true that once you’ve done it once, you never want to stop. Once the idea started to really sink in and the tour was announced, I became more and more determined to make this happen. And it did. Did that do anything to settle this constant itch to travel I’ve had for almost a year? Nope. Turns out, this tour bug has also made me completely insane, because in less than two months I’m getting back at it. This time, I’m about to fulfill a dream I’ve had since I was 10 – I’m going to Arizona, baby.
I don’t know if I’ll ever know exactly why The Maine mean so much to me. They’ve enriched my life in so many ways, ways that go so far beyond just providing me with kick-ass tunes. They’ve given me a place to call home. A sense of belonging that I’ve yet to find someplace else, even to house I loosely refer to as my “home”. Friends. Confidence. There are so many things I wish I could thank them for, but any way I can think of falls short, because it doesn’t do shit to repay them for what they’ve done for me. They give so much, yet they ask of nothing, or very little anyway, in return. I may not know why they mean so much to me but what I do know is that 8123 means everything to me.
thebeautysquirrel 