look, i really don’t think i’m poetic, and i’m pretty dense about that kind of thing anyway. and i’m pretty new here (“here” being a fan of the maine and a person who understands the reference to 8123 rather than a person who makes a confused face and figures it’s a joke she’s not in on) so maybe you’re not supposed to define it. maybe johno was right and the whole point is you can’t explain but you don’t have to. and i mean, most people call that love, right? you can’t really explain it, but you don’t really have to, because the people you love already feel it too. what he’s describing as 8123 is actually just love. maybe that’s the point. maybe they’re the same. maybe whenever you feel this elusive ~8123~ thing you’re supposed to think wow, this feels a lot like love. that you’re supposed to conflate the two. i guess that would make sense to me. i think i like that idea.
but we keep trying to define love anyway, in smaller and smaller increments. and i don’t know if anyone has tried to define 8123 since johno said it couldn’t be done. but here’s what it means to me:
when the maine reached the end of their festival set, they closed the show with another night on mars. and all i could think was how many times i had heard this song sitting alone in my dorm, alone in my bedroom, playing it alone in my car, listening in headphones, singing along at the top of my lungs but alone, alone, alone. i never would have known about it if not for my friends. i never would have found american candy, or 8123 fest, or the maine, if not for my friends. and i never would have met those friends if not for music. it’s a uniting force, a connection, a bridge, and yet i had spent most of my time listening to another night on mars alone.
and suddenly i was surrounded by people who loved music the way i love music, and people who loved me the way i love them. johno said this one goes out to my closest friends, the ones who make me feel less alien; i do not think i would be here if not for them, and it was actually true. i never would have found my way to phoenix, arizona if not for my friends. i can probably count on one hand the people i know in real life who really get it - who really love music the way i love music, or even understand the way i love music. and finally here i was, within arm’s reach of the people who make me feel less alien.
what’s another night on mars? johno said. with friends like ours, anywhere is home.
what’s another night on mars? what does it matter if we’re weird, if we’re crazy, if we love in strange ways, if we care about things that no one else cares about? what’s another night telling stories we wouldn’t tell anyone else, gossiping about things that don’t matter in the grand scheme or even in the smaller scheme, communicating in a vocabulary the general public couldn’t even begin to decipher? what’s another night as aliens, as long as we’re aliens together? with friends like ours, anywhere is home.
music is so much better to love when there’s someone to love it with you. and you don’t always get someone like that. when i fall in love with a song, the first thing i want to do is share it with the people i love. i want someone to hear it and feel what i’m feeling. i want to put it on in the car and roll the windows down and play it at max volume so i can’t even hear myself screaming along, and i want to look over and see that the person in the passenger seat is feeling it too. that’s how it felt to be at that concert and sing along with the crowd and turn and look at my friends and see them all singing it, too. it felt like finding my way home. and as long as i have my fellow aliens on mars with me, i’m home. whether mars is maryland or texas or arizona or the interdimensional kitchen table.
so i don’t know. maybe that’s nothing. maybe i’m waxing poetic for no reason. but they played another night on mars and for the first time ever i got to put my arms around my friends and sing it straight to them, and i think - i think - that’s what 8123 is supposed to be. it is for me, anyway.
love you guys. @tirednotflirting @reveriesofawriter @pxrxmoore
