Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Food for Thought with Billy and Jenny,
brought to you by the Box Center.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
For more than fifteen.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Years, this dining duo has been eating their way through
New England, mixing it up with top chefs, jumping behind
the line of the hottest restaurants and giving you the
inside scoop on where to whine, dine and spend your time.
So get ready, it's Food for Thought giving you something
to chew on.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hey, everybody, welcome into Food for Thought, brought to you
by the Box Center. Now this only happens a couple
of times a year where I get to say brought
to you by the Box Center. And I have mister
Bach in front of me right now, my longtime friend Billy,
and my longtime friend Ernie Bak. It's so wonderful to
welcome you back into the studio.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Well, thank you. Being physically here is very cool.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
We were talking about how important in person is and
we're also very excited to have Casey Sword with us.
You're president and CEO, and it's the first time we've
done this in person as well too.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yes it is, but I think let's actually start there.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
That is one of the great pieces of going to theater,
of experiencing restaurants, of experiencing culture of a city, no
matter where you are, is the fact that you are
in person, you're sharing that energy.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
We were just talking about that absolutely.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
And you know, during COVID there were people that actually
thought that live music would never happen again, and that
it was basically over for intermingling. I never thought it.
I never thought. I knew it was at a crazy
point in history. And we're back with a war ever
(01:37):
absolutely cooking at the theater.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh my gosh, you guys are I mean the number
of times I get an email being like added.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Show, added show, like extra night, Extra night.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I mean, people are so excited to be experiencing live
theater in so many different ways. But today is an
extra special day because we're talking about the fact that
the Box Center is celebrating a one hundredth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
One hundred years. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Billy's not here, so I have to say what he
would say, Ernie, you look great for a.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Hundred But I tell you, we do do tours. We
do do tours, and if you've never toured officially toward
the Box Center, it is a sight. It's the inner
workings and the air conditioning unit alone. We've talked about go.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
There, can I do it?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Okay? So what we have at the Box Center is
giant vats like your brew beer giant vats, and we
make the ice and we pour the ice in the
vats and then blow the cold deer into the theater.
That's insane wo And it works really well.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It works really well.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Yeah, it's green, it's efficient, it rarely breaks. It just works.
And if you bought a new HVAC, maybe it lasted
twenty years, restings lasted one hundred.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Right, It's true because during the renovations, when you know,
when I first got there, the hardcore renovations, they looked
at it and they said, oh, it works great, you
should keep it. And I'm like what, and.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's it's I mean, some things, when done right, can
last a century.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Well. I want to go back to talk about the
tours because I've done one of the tours.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
We brought the cameras in.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
We had a lot of fun the last time we
were there, and we're obviously going to talk about sort
of the evolution of this amazing iconic space in the city.
But for a tour talk about some of the things
that people can experience when they come in the door,
and how they're going to experience the history that we're
talking about today.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Absolutely. So our tours team is run by Scott Towers,
who is you know, he's also our theater historian. You know,
the two jobs kind of go hand in hand. So
he and his team have done a you know, huge
deep dive on the history of the theater, you know,
so patrons will learn about the building itself, where the
theater was connected a hotel above it. At the time
(04:02):
it was built, it was the tallest building in the
city of Boston, you know, at the time, and it
was really built to be you know, to compare Boston
with New York and Chicago and these other cities that
had these grand theaters and Boston didn't have one. And so,
you know, it's just an amazing story. And the fact
that it's hundred years old right now, it's amazing and
(04:23):
it has taken so much effort by so many people,
over so many different chapters of its life to get
it where it is now.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
What strikes me is when I'm at the theater, I
don't think I've gone on an official tour. But I've
been in every nook and cramp class. But first of all,
during the tour, there's nobody there, So to see the
theater with nobody there is amazing. And then when you
go down into the bowels and you see the HVAC
(04:54):
with the vats and everything, and then you see the
walls with the artists that have played their sign that
is so cool. I happen to be when the Hollywood
Vampires played there, when when they were all doing it
and Johnny Depp was, you know, drawing his little picture.
He Johnny handed me the pen and you know, and
(05:16):
I put my little initial on. But when you look
at the people that have been there and how incredibly
creative they are by just signing their name, that that
alone is one of the great things.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, I mean that goes back to what we started
the show with the energy, because that energy, all of
that energy is in that sacred space. Over a century
can feel it of so much, you absolutely can feel it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm going to make a suggestion.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Since you've never been on an official tour, I feel
like what you should do is like find a good
group and be like I'm just gonna slide in and
just like show up, but you're taking a tour of
the Box Center for thirty box do it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I do yourself in someday.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
You know. The thing was when I my first show
was at the Music Hall. It was called the Music Hall.
My first show and the very first time except for
out back in the woods in high school. It was
the first time I had ever seen people smoke pot
(06:22):
in public. Now, you've got to remember early seventies, it's
like you could go down the corner now and buy it.
When I went down there and starting and it was like,
you know, I was very young, it felt it felt
dangerous to me. Not dangerous like you're going to get hurt,
just dangerous, like, oh my god, the cops are.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Going to like living on the edge by Wait, so
that was your What was your first show?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
My first show was Kat Stevens nineteen seventy three seventy four.
Anytime I talk about the seventies, it gets blurry. Yeah,
you know, I get approximately the right dates and you know,
I yes, I could go on Google and figure yeah,
that was my first show.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Cat Stevens.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I cannot even imagine that. I think that is my
first show was incredible, so amazing, Okay, we're going to
take a break. We're going to come back. We're going
to talk more about so much that you guys are
doing to celebrate this iconic number one hundred.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Such a big deal.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Crazy to think that it was at one time the
tallest building in Boston.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
That's so wild. Okay, we're going to take a break.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Be back with Casey Sword and also Ernie back in
just a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel in Sweet.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Welcome back to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center. So Ernie and Casey are talking to
us about the one hundredth anniversary that the Box Center
is celebrating right now. Ernie, but you just talked to
us about your first concert Cat Stevens in the seventies.
I want to talk about sort of the trajectory. And
we've obviously talked about this on the show before, but
(07:59):
there is obviously a progression for you. You obviously are
you know, a musical genius, someone who's loved music in
so many different ways throughout the course of your life.
But when you committed to the Box Center and the
way that you did now a long time ago, you know,
talk to us about that process. What was it that
made this so important?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Well, I mean, I'm a local guy. I have a
local business. I've been in this market for I don't know,
probably close to forty years, gosh, and I've always like
we discussed in the last segment, it was the Box
Center at the time. The Music Hall was the first
(08:37):
show I ever went to. I slept on the sidewalk
in front of the box office many times to get
tickets when I was younger, and it was it always
had a special place in my heart, and I never
thought that I would ever do anything like that because
to me, when you when you know Gillette Stadium, Mercedes
(08:58):
Benz Stadium, you know it's at and T. You know,
that's that's who puts their name on venues like that.
Not me and Joe Spalding, who preceded Casey for thirty
eight years. Joe was here for thirty eight years. He
called me up, gave me the idea. I told him
(09:19):
now and then we Then I went home and I
woke up one wine and I say, well, I don't know, maybe,
And then I went to lunch with him and a
couple bottles of wine later, here we are, and I think, what,
I just.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Re upped it till twenty thirty six, twenty.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Thirty six, So for twenty thirty at least twenty thirty six,
it's going to be the boxer.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I love that so much.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
We if I'll be here, but it will be the Boss,
he'll be here.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So but I mean, think about all the things that
you've done in your life, and is this one of
those things that feels important in ways that are like
hard to kind of describe.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
No, okay, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
No, it's just it's just it's just what I do.
I don't know, it just it felt so natural. Yeah,
I mean I love it what to bring friends there.
And I get hit for tickets of course all the time,
especially when the show sells out. That's when I that's
when they all they trust me.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Billy, and I know a thing or two about the
calls for the tickets, probably about that they need for
tickets to exactly well, don't worry. Everyone's always been calling
me to call so yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
So it's it's it feels pretty it feels pretty natural.
It feels good.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah. Yeah, And we were talking about the tours and
the opportunities that people have separate from the show, and
I want to dig a little bit deeper into that,
but let's talk about what you're doing specifically to highlight
this special year.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yes, I mean, it's it's such a momentous occasion. And
I started working here actually almost exactly a year ago
to the hundredth birthday, you know, so it was the
first thing I was thinking about, is we're turning one
hundred next year. We've got to put a plan into place.
And it's been an amazing first year, and Ernie's commitment,
you know, to to this place has just been totally transformative,
(11:10):
you know, for us. We wouldn't be here to celebrate
our hundredth birthday without Ernie and so many folks who
have put their blood, sweat and tears into this place.
But so for this year, we started out actually with
a program called the hundred Acts of Kindness, which you know,
you know, just made sense because so many have given
so much to support us over the last hundred years.
(11:31):
We want to give back to the community. So we're
doing you know, kind of these random ticketing upgrades for
patrons that come in, you know, up upgrading people in
the back of the balcony to the front of the
theater or into prime.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Kind of like what Van Halen did.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Yeah, yeah, stuff like that, you know, because a lot
of times the true fans end up not with the
best seats, right, you know, especially with the secondary market,
So we're trying to put those people into prime seating.
That's gone well, and some of these things we want
to maybe continue beyond the hundred year because it's just
so much fun to do that. We did things like
when we had River Dance here, you know, we gave away,
(12:04):
you know, a trip to Ireland, you know as as
part of that, you know, and people were just you know,
over the moon as part of that. Was a partnership
we did with aer Lingus.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
The way I saw it too, my daughter's jaw dropped
for the entire two hours.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
It's really amazing to watch.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
So so so things like that, you know, we're we
have a deep partnership with our education program in local schools.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, let's let's let's talk about that for a little bit.
I mean, just this idea of you know, one hundred
acts of kindness, like this is something that you're doing
to celebrate this great number but acts of kindness are
something that is really part of the ethos of the
Box Center.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
It absolutely is so. For many many decades now, we've
had youth development focused education programs. We have a six
week summer program that that brings in kids from the
Boston public schools. We pay them a full time wage
to be there for the six weeks and they learn
life skills they you know, through through the vehicle of
(13:01):
kind of teaching them arts and dance and song and
you know, but also really just telling their stories, you know,
because everybody is a storyteller. Everybody has an interesting story.
And some of the kids they come in, they're shy,
and then they leave and they've written like a Broadway
musical that they're performing on this.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, it's really incredible. The Box Center is not just
a theater that opens up at five. We do the
show when we close. The Box Center is a living,
breathing part of the community. It's really an amazing it's
hard to describe it. It's but we're not just the
(13:40):
theater by any means. We are not just the theater.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
The way that it expands into the community is incredible,
and I know that that commitment has been long standing
and continues in so many ways.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
A couple of years ago, I think we do it
every year where the kids do the interview. Yes, so
what we do is we bring all these business titan
into the Box Center and we have these kids and
they I don't know kids, They probably I don't know teenagers, Yeah, teenagers,
and they pretend to interview for a job and you
(14:14):
sit there and you see it. And I did it
to a bunch of kids, and I was like, no,
don't do that, do this, do this, do this. This
is how you're going to get a job. And I
tell you, I wish somebody did that to me. Yes,
it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, well that commitment is I mean, that is the
thing that makes I think that. That was sort of
my question about sort of the nostalgia behind it for you,
is it is so much more than a name and
a building.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
It's the reverberation.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Effect that it's having on the community that all of
us collectively care so much about.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So I love that impact.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Everything we do. It's about transformation, whether you're going to
a show and it's taken you out of your every
day it's bringing you know, like what you were talking
about Jenny, how these third places that they call them
are so important, you know, to changing the lives of
a kid. You know, that that review that you have
with them, the back you give it, I mean that
can set a trajectory on somebody's life. That it was cool.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I mean, let me tell you, they started out slouching.
By the time they were done with that interview, they
were standing.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Up to show. Oh it's so good. I mean, what
an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And that's so separate from all the magic that happens
on the stage, right, So keep going, Casey, tell us
more about what's happening.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, So in addition to the hundred acts, I mean,
we you know, I have to hand it to our
programming team, you know, put together quite a lineup for
you know, especially around the month of October where we've
had David Byrne.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
He was great, incredible. It was very sphere like. Yeah,
it's new technology that he had. I had never seen
it done on stage.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
Yes, yeah, yeah, no, it was a totally immersive experience
for his show.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So so what does that mean. Give me an example,
what were some of the things that you were saying?
Speaker 5 (15:51):
So there, so he had you know, a video wall, backdrop.
So so that was basically his whole set was a
complete video wall floor to ceiling, and then the floor
was also a video wa it was, it was all
into so. One of the songs he wrote it, he
wrote it during COVID and it was about his apartment.
And so you go out there, you see the apartment,
see the apartment. Then it starts to shift around different
(16:13):
angles and the floor starts changing, and it gives you
this really amazing.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Completely wireless, yes, no equipment, no amps or anything, completely wireless,
and it was so immersive. I mean I felt like
I was literally standing next to him.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yes, and the band doesn't sit down at all. They're
up walking around for the whole dancing, dancing choreograph.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
And the star of that show, of course, David Byrne
was amazing, but that bass player, she.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Was knocked it. Yeah, my gosh. Three nights, three nights
night amazing three nights.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
You've had a couple of those where there's three I remember, like,
what was one that recently you had? You sold the
second Omel Robbins or something, so on second and you
had to pop up a third.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Night, three three sold out show. We just had John
mulaney for.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Five six show.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Between so between September and the December thirty first, we
have one hundred shows at both venues, so kidding me. So,
you know, we're just trying to you know, as Ernie said,
to places on fire, people are coming, people are loving it,
and the programming just keeps it getting better.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Well, the programming is amazing, but it's also so interesting
to hear how actually actually the production of these things
has evolved so much sophistication.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
That they're rolling with and the technology is quite impressive.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mean, the idea that it's wireless. If you think
of how much time and effort goes into everything the
setup and to take that away, but to be able
to have such an immersive experience like that is unheard of.
But we know it's just going to continue to get
bigger and bigger. We're going to take a break. We'll
be back with more Food for Thought by the Box Center.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
In just a minute.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Sailing Waterfront Hotel in sweets.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Welcome back to Food Thatught brought to you by the
Box Center. Ernie and Casey are hanging out with me
right now. This is our quick little break. So I
want to ask something a little bit personal. So you're
in this space because music, performance the arts is something
that is just so much a part of your soul,
so much a part of who you are. So I
want to get a little quick background from each of
you about where music, where entertainment came from you and
(18:29):
what instruments you played, and what part of it you
had growing up.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Casey, I'll start with you.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Yes. So for me, my parents realized immediately that music
was going to be a huge part of my life.
They put me in piano lessons when I was three
years old and studying classical piano. Eventually I moved on
to trombone, started playing in bands, started playing in rock bands,
any band I could find. That got me to Berkeley
School of Music, where I studied record production and I
(18:55):
played music. I learned more instruments, had the best experience,
and then but then ended up working in the theaters.
Uh you know through and I think it was really
just my love of being around people and meeting the
most the most interesting people. You could imagine.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
You're still playing in this business.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
I have not picked up the instrument in a long time.
But I feel very creative in my job.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Okay, that's where it's all the juices are going. And
I mean, we know that you are so musical, but
I don't know if there's multiple instruments that.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
No, no, there isn't. But let me ask you a question, Casey,
when you were at Berkeley, did you go to the
to the mixing lab? I did. What was the name
of that mixing lab? I can't remember what was the
name of.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
It was a familiar what's it called? The block name was.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
When they redid it. And Roger Brown, who was president
at the time, was a you know, I considered a friend.
And I was on the board and one thing led
to another, and I had the naming rights to the
mixing and I said to Roger, I said, Roger, that's good,
but I also want the naming rights to the bathroom
that is right next. And he looked at me, he goes,
(20:09):
he goes, Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Okay, so that what was for sale? Okay, when I
did the name You're hilarious.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I did the naming rights for Norwood Hospital, which which
unfortunately got flotted out building a new one along with
that I had the name and rights to the Morgue.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Okay, so list of the oddest requests. I guessing is
you wanted the morg That was a request. Absolutely, You're like,
I'm doing this as long as my name's on the moor,
on the door of the mork Oh my god, Ernie,
you were the very best.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay, I told you. That was a quick break.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
We got a little bit about your musical genius, a
little bit about the very interesting places we can see
the back name around. This is awesome state of Massachusetts.
We're going to take a break. We'll be back with
more Food for Thought brought to you by the Box Center.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and sale and Waterfront Hotel in sweets.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Okay, guys, I didn't know were that last bright was
going to take us, But lord knows. When you're in
the room with Ernie, you go down some very interesting direction. Okay,
but I do want to talk about you, Ernie. So,
guitar is obviously a big part of your life, but
you play other instruments.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
I played piano for a bit. I understand the instrument,
but with me or what happened with me is I
was a little kid. Everything was good. I grew up.
I was born in fifty eight, so in sixty eight
I was ten, and in sixty eight rock and roll
was like a rocket. It was really really unbelievable. And
(21:34):
what changed my life was Woodstock. When I saw Woodstock,
when I saw all those bands together that I liked
and all those people that look so cool, you know
that really that really catapulted me to play and to
get together with other musicians and find out that I
(21:55):
had most of my friends musicians, most of my friends.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
And we've talked about this a lot. But like the
conversation that takes place for you guys, like the obviously
the interests are the same, but the way your brains work,
like when you were musically inclined, it's just a different
it's a different part of your brain.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
It's a different language, literally, a different language. With me.
My problem is, see, I mean, I play, but I'm
not really a great player, you know. But and the
reason I'm not a really great player goes right back
to the beginning. If you talk to the really great
players when they were growing up, they were never the
(22:37):
best guy in the band ever really they were. No,
it's the worst thing to be the best guy in
the band. It wasn't until I was much older that
I became the worst guy in the band. Which is
always the best place to be, always, always the best
place to be.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Because why because your brain is constantly searching for more, because.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
You're learning from others. You are you were like you
if you're hanging out, if you're a football player and
you're hanging out with Brady, You're going to be a
better football player. That's just how it works.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Exposure absolutely see things in a way that you wouldn't
see things.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
So that's you know. And I probably didn't put in
my ten thousand hours, you know, Gladwell's ten thousand hours.
It probably didn't do that. But you know, I just
love music. It just does something for me.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
And you know, you may not want to get into details,
but like when you said, my friends are musicians, like
your friends are some of the greatest musicians of all time.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Well, I.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Just I just end up hanging out with musicians. I
don't know what it is. It just happens.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, what, let's go back at your time at the
Buck Center. What are some of the greatest I mean,
you can think of so many, there's been a bazillion.
We just talked about River Dance and he said, God,
that was a good show. But talk about some of
the most memorable shows that you've seen.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Okay, the most memorable show I told this story before,
so I'll condense it. The most memorable show that I
saw was when I was I want to say, seventy
four seventy five, I slept out in front of the
Box Center to get tickets to Purple, and forty years
(24:13):
later I opened up for them at the exact venue
we were going from. The last tour that I did,
we did a national in Canada and the United States
with Deep Purple, and as we were coming through the
East Coast, we played at the Box Center. So I
slept on the sidewalk to see this band that I
eventually tought.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
You what a full service and that crazy.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
And you wonder why I love the venue. I love
the venue.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Well, actually I want to talk about the venue and
other venues because you travel all over the world. I
want to talk a little bit more about your travels.
And obviously you always come back here to Boston and
always come back to the Box Center. So compare the
Box Center to some of these other iconic theaters around
the world, certainly around the country.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Right, I think we are only second. Oh, I like that,
only second to the Fox in Detroit. That theater is
the Box Center on steroids. It's like the Wang Theater
on steroids. It's amazing. I traveled the United States for business,
and I travel, you know, with with my people and stuff.
(25:17):
And we'll go through a city and I'll look at Stan.
I go, Stan, this this place is Familia, and he goes, Earn,
you played right over there, right, That's.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
What it is.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Okay. So what's so great about Detroit? The Fox?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Oh, the Fox Theater is like the Wang Theater, except
bigger and more intense.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Yeah, truly a great world class as is the Wang
at the Box Center. World class theater. The Fox Theater
in Detroit.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
It has I think five sets.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Okay, wow, So it's almost twice as olde.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Okay, wow, okay, but old iconic in.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
That way, same vintage, same vintage. So it has all
the beautiful detail, but it's even bigger.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
But give me, give me like a new theater, Like
is there somewhere that's new? I mean we know the
feeling of being in a historic space and I think
nothing compares to it. But is there anything that's new
that stands out as something the gym?
Speaker 4 (26:10):
The MGM is good.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I mean, like that is what I say.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Yeah, anywhere five thousand stand up. I've been to many
shows there. I I like it. The backstage at the
MGM is like the Four Seasons. It really is. They
have these the casings on the doors and really wide,
and it's it's beautiful, it's new, it's luxurious.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
I like they did a beautiful job. I mean, as
consumers in this market, we are so lucky right to
have so many options absolutely for places to see shows.
And you know, I think of it, it's kind of
like the automile concept, whether the more you have, the more.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Fish, where the fish are exactly fish.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Absolutely, Yes, a lot of new venues have come online,
but we're doing the.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Roadrunner understood that little that little venue near near.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Where the Celtics, Yep, the New Balance and that.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, that's that's a cool little venue.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
I mean, I have to say, it's great to be
in the city where we care about this stuff, where
there's the opportunity to have multiple theaters that are constantly
selling out. We're going to take a break. We'll be
back with more Food for Thought in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you buy
the Box Center and Sale and Waterfront Hotel and Sweet Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Ernie always gets started with the story and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, wait,
because I like to hear it when we're actually recording.
So I said, I want to talk about the Folk
Americana Roots Hall of Fame, which is a key part
of what you guys do at the Box Center, and
tell me what you were thinking about.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
To say Farhof Farhoff is what we think much easier.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
To say Hall of far Haff, which lives at the
Wang Theater in the Box Center. It's on this second floor,
it's on it's.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
In the lower level, the third floor, in the.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Fourth Okay, third and four, Okay, I know, I close,
it's there. But if you haven't been there, that alone
is great. You have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Now you have far Haf, which is a folk Americana
Roots Hall of Fame in Boston. And we did our
first induction documentary two years ago. Two years ago, we
(28:24):
inducted the first round and we filmed it. We filmed it.
It was Joe Spalding's idea. We filmed it, and you know,
he edited it up and had a program and Joe
submitted it for Daytime Emmy and it got nominated. So
(28:46):
we got nominated for Daytime Emmy for the first induction
of Farhof. I mean it's great. I know, you know
Emmy's You've won a few Emmys, haven't you.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
We have we have you have of some, but we
I have some in my house right I.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Won about two years ago for Life in Six Strings
my TV show Life in Six Strings and Charlie Moore
Local Guys.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So eighteen. Yeah, he's amazing.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I got with him really three yet.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I love that I haven't seen him in a long time.
You got to say hi to him for me. So yeah,
I mean that that is a special I mean beyond
a special exhibit. It is something that if you have
not seen, you have to go in to see. And
I like you calling it far off because it's much
easier to say that. But but what are some of
the pieces in there that you guys?
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Tell him? A couple of pieces.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
I mean, right now we have a brand new exhibit
on Levon Helm in the band, you know, I mean
we were the first Americana act ever, right right, Dylan.
So we've got we've got his couple of Grammy Awards,
we have his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award there.
We've got one of a mandolin that he played for
(30:00):
like three decades touring with Dylan everybody that fell off
the top of his tour bus and broke. He told
the tour manager to throw it away. The tour manager
kept it fixed up, and now it's in a case.
I love the story, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Casey, give us a little bit of the background, like,
how does something like this happen? Is this an exhibition
that goes throughout the country and you guys are gunning
forward to make sure that you have a slot for it.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
How does it work?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yes, going in Boston.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
So this is an exhibit that we created as the
Hall of Fame, and we're actually going to be touring
it around the country. So next next spring it'll go
to Arkansas. We're hoping it will tour a lot of
the different presidential lie libraries, you know, and that will
be a way for us to build the brand around
the country. So with these exhibits that will create.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
And what's cool about Farhoff is some of the guys,
the nationally and internationally famous guys musicians from Boston personally
brought the stuff down. Like Peter Wolf walked in with
his stuff. Tom Schultz from the multi platinum selling band
(31:07):
Boston walked in and gave it to him. I got.
I got Joe Perry's guitar, shoes, pants and shirt. Took
me a while thanking Joe, thanking Joe, but we have it.
They personally gave it to us specifically for far Off.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
And we have a permanent exhibit about Boston on the
third floor of the Wang Theater and all the different
genres of music at the Feedler. It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
One of the things I love about the fact that
this is going to tour is this idea that you're
connecting Boston to the rest of the country such an
iconic and impactful way.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
The idea is to make it a national platform that
shines a spotlight on Boston, because Boston is not always
thought of like Nashville and New York in these other
music cities, but it isn't just as rich of a
music history, and.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
You have the rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You
have the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, you have the Blues
Hall of you have every genre almost has it. And
here we are in Boston with far off Folk Americana
Roots Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So awesome. I love it.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I love how much it's grown. I love how much
it's expanded. And again that goes back to that energy.
You walk through these things, have the opportunity to see
them and you know, write your story about where that
item has been and hear so much and learn so
much about it.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It's it's it's.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Incredibly infectious and educationally fueling, which is so awesome. I
want to talk about an opportunity for people to come in.
You guys are having an open house to celebrate this
one hundred year.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Yes? We are unfortunate and O casey, I'm not going
to be here. I'm not going to be here this Ah,
I can't. I can't get out of what.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I have to.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Well, then tell it, So what are we missing? Because
I'm not going to be here.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
We're going to make everybody will be Yeah we know, yeah,
Billy's going to be there. So it's going to be
on Sunday, October nineteenth and we are, you know, as
Zernie said, we are. We are here as a community resource.
So we're opening up. We're bringing it back to nineteen
twenty five. We're bringing back ping pong because they used
to actually play ping pong when people were waiting to
get in line for the movies. The way in the
(33:07):
theater really love. As soon as you get there, we'll
be out on the plaza. We're gonna have ping pong tables.
We're gonna have food trucks right before you even go
into the theater bringing that. And I love a good
game of ping pong.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Heck, yeah, are you good?
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I'm pretty good.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I'm pretty good.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yeah, I love the game.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, you can be you can be our referee.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Okay, so so and then and then you'll go in.
You know, we will have our tours people there, so
we can take little groups on people on tours. We're
going to have you know, stuff about upcoming shows. We're
gonna have prize wheels, face painting up on the third floor. Uh,
We're going to have an exhibit with Gibson guitars, the
thing for kids down in the lower lobby. We're going
(33:53):
to have performances all afternoon as part of the Folk
Americana Roots Hall of Fame. You better go down there,
have a drink, watch your local perfer former play, go
up on stage. There's photo opportunities up there. So it's
just going to be a really really fun.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Well you had me at face paint.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
So we have to remind people that this is clearly
family friendly and great.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
I mean family litter tattoos. You know what those are.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Okay, I very much know what litter tattoos are.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I can't tell you how many I have had to
scrub off of my children. But this is a great thing.
I mean, this is a great time to be in
the city. I love Boston in October. I mean, just
it's Chris. You put on an extra layer. It's beautiful.
The lighting is so beautiful. But to be able to
be in an iconic space like that on a gorgeous Sunday,
So tell us more about the hours, how do people
(34:39):
find out more inventiation.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
So it's ten am to four pm all day. Yeah,
so it's pretty much all day on Sunday. We're going
to also just want to put this out there for
our big holiday show twas the night before we're going
to be running a special discounted ticket opportunity that you
can only get if you come in person.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I love there.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
You have to show up at the bottom Mars and
there'd be an opportunity to get some great tea.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
It's been a while since you guys have been here.
But when you have children who are seven and three,
a Sunday is long.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
It is very long, it is.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
And this is a perfect way to do something that
they will remember in a big way and you will
save yourself some Sunday out.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
We even have stroller parking inside the theater. We thought
of it there were thinking of you've ever.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Thought of everything? Oh my god, it's so fun. The
Wing Theater History book, what's happening there?
Speaker 5 (35:28):
So we will have We are putting together a book
that will be ready to purchase on the history of
the Wing. Our designer and our marketing team have done
a huge deep dive on the history. They have found
all kinds of archival photos that you will really appreciate
seeing this, Jarni, because I've never seen any of this stuff.
So the book will be available for the first time
(35:50):
on Sunday the nineteenth. My god, so cool.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
I mean the way that these things are preserved. I mean,
I have so much appreciation for the fact that this
history is going to be able to live on and
you know, and you just you can experience your own
history looking at something like this, and it's very very impressible.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
I'm so happy you guys are doing that.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Yes, and it is the Box Center, but we have
to give a little props to mister Wang. I mean,
I mean it's the Wang Center in the Schubert Theater.
That is the Box Center. But the vision that mister
Wang had to preserve this structure is second to none.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Absolutely. I mean, as we said before, there have been
people throughout this hundred years that have stepped up at
critical times to get us where we are today. So
this is all about telling that history. And we see
ourselves not only is the stewards of the theater, but
the stewards of the history.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
And we have a Wang on the board.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
We do.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
We have a Wang on the board. His name is
Courtney Courtney Wang, which you want to see something that
he is just freaky. So Courtney Wang is on the
board and you know his family, doctor Wang. And my
daughter went to a school after first grade. Whether those
(37:09):
schools are elementary school. So it went to that and
the school is housed at the Wang's first home.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
You're kidding me, isn't that crazy?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
No?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
That is it?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Like that is life, like those things about life that
are just so unbelievably magical.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I was facetiming Courtney and I'm going Courtney, look, he goes, Oh, yeah,
my bedroom was just right down the hall to left.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
These are some of the greatest stories in life. We're
gonna take a break. We'll be back with more Food
for Thought in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
You're listening to Food for Thought, brought to you by
the Box Center and Sale and Waterfront Hotel in sweets.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
I have to say this hour fulew by with you guys,
and I could easily do another hour. We're wrapping up,
but I want to talk about some of the things
we have upcoming, not only to celebrate one hundred years
with some of the some shows you guys have.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Yeah. Absolutely, we're really looking forward to bringing Circles Twas
the Night Before back for twenty seven performances between the
Night Before Thanksgiving through December fourteenth.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Steve Martin and Martin Short and Short.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
What I saw, guys, I might be the person calling
you for that one.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
I saw them last year and I called h Brian
the book. I said, Ryan, can I can I meet
Steve Martin and then Martin short and He's like, no problem.
They were the nicest, doubt it, and I never posted
the pictures, but they posted her pictures. It was. It
was fantastic. I don't I'm going to go to that
show again. They're so fun.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
The one that I'm really excited about is Ingrid Michaelson.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
That's like not like necessarily a mainstream, but she's a
wonderful artist. Got a beautiful, very kind of unique sounding voice,
really soulful, like she's just she's just got a beautiful voice.
She is.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
She can make you cry, that's what she could do.
Speaker 5 (39:02):
She's a great She's like a folk artist, but you know,
more on the kind of alt contemporary rock. I don't know. Nice, yeah,
really good.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
I'm not familiar.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
And then what's this happening with Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
I got so many calls for that, Oh my god,
so many calls.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
So he'll this will be next. This will be on
the fourteenth of October, and he's got the new John
Candy documentary that he produced, and he's so passionate about
about this documentary that he's doing a little tour. He's
doing Q and as with the audience afterwards, and we'll
be having that at the Schubert Theater on October four.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
That's very cool.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Yeah, the list goes on and on. Of course, I
go to the Urban Nutcracker every year with my daughter.
Show so much with kids, and there is nothing that
gets you in the spirit, and then.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
You want to get a jolt of the holiday season,
go to the box.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Exactly how you do it. Go have yourselfself a nice meal,
go see a nice show. Doing from your show with
the kids. I mean, I will say some of the
greatest memories I have with my kids, with some of
the greatest memories for my kids, or inside the Box Center.
I think that's what's amazing about it is it's rare
that you have an entity that can span generations in
the way that a theater can.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
You can be eight or eighty and experiencing the same
kind of bliss together at the same time, and it's
very rare to have that.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
I brought my daughter when she was maybe four or
five to meet the Grinch. Oh, she just cried in
my arms, but I'll always remember. I don't know if
she will.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Nothing more exciting than watching those kids get so excited
about those kind of things. Okay, so everywhere all this
information that everyone needs to know that we've talked about
for this past hour. How do people find out more?
Speaker 5 (40:48):
It's all online at boxcenter dot org. You can follow
us on Instagram, at box center Facebook. We're everywhere.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Yeah, I mean, I want to go back to sort
of how we started this show was just, you know,
it all being about energy, right, and sometimes we live
in a world that feels like everything is like a
big catastrophe.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Everything is, you know, there's so much concern and frustration
and stress.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
This is the opportunity to go and let everything go by.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Absolutely, No, don't watch news as much.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
It don't. That's another good thing to say too as well.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
But like, this is really the opportunity when you get
in touch with your heart, when you get in touch
with the people that you love. And I have to
say that I'm so grateful for all of the amazing
things that you do, because truly, some of the greatest
memories I have with my kids and my family are
inside the Box Center. So happy one hundredth you vibrant
looking Centennians. But anyway, we love you guys so much
(41:40):
and we love the opportunity to be able to have
you guys as our partners on this show too.
Speaker 4 (41:44):
Well, thank you, it's always a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Ernie Bach, Casey Sword, I adore you guys. Happy one
hundredth and we will be back next week. Back Billy
will be back from Africa, hopefully safely and not mulled
by some kind of animal, and we.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Will see you more next week. More for a thought
brought to you by the Back Center. Cchou Choo
You are listening to Food for Thought with Billy and Jenny,
brought to you by the Box Center.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
For more than fifteen.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Years, this dining duo has been eating their way through
New England, mixing it up with top chefs, jumping behind
the line of the hottest restaurants and giving you the
inside scoop on where to whine, dine and spend your time.
So get ready, it's Food for Thought giving you something
to chew on.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hey, everybody, welcome into Food for Thought, brought to you
by the Box Center. Now this only happens a couple
of times a year where I get to say brought
to you by the Box Center. And I have mister
Bach in front of me right now, my longtime friend Billy,
and my longtime friend Ernie Bak. It's so wonderful to
welcome you back into the studio.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Well, thank you. Being physically here is very cool.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
We were talking about how important in person is and
we're also very excited to have Casey Sword with us.
You're president and CEO, and it's the first time we've
done this in person as well too.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yes it is, but I think let's actually start there.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
That is one of the great pieces of going to theater,
of experiencing restaurants, of experiencing culture of a city, no
matter where you are, is the fact that you are
in person, you're sharing that energy.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
We were just talking about that absolutely.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
And you know, during COVID there were people that actually
thought that live music would never happen again, and that
it was basically over for intermingling. I never thought it.
I never thought. I knew it was at a crazy
point in history. And we're back with a war ever
(01:37):
absolutely cooking at the theater.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh my gosh, you guys are I mean the number
of times I get an email being like added.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Show, added show, like extra night, Extra night.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I mean, people are so excited to be experiencing live
theater in so many different ways. But today is an
extra special day because we're talking about the fact that
the Box Center is celebrating a one hundredth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
One hundred years. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Billy's not here, so I have to say what he
would say, Ernie, you look great for a.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Hundred But I tell you, we do do tours. We
do do tours, and if you've never toured officially toward
the Box Center, it is a sight. It's the inner
workings and the air conditioning unit alone. We've talked about go.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
There, can I do it?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Okay? So what we have at the Box Center is
giant vats like your brew beer giant vats, and we
make the ice and we pour the ice in the
vats and then blow the cold deer into the theater.
That's insane wo And it works really well.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It works really well.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Yeah, it's green, it's efficient, it rarely breaks. It just works.
And if you bought a new HVAC, maybe it lasted
twenty years, restings lasted one hundred.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Right, It's true because during the renovations, when you know,
when I first got there, the hardcore renovations, they looked
at it and they said, oh, it works great, you
should keep it. And I'm like what, and.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's it's I mean, some things, when done right, can
last a century.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Well. I want to go back to talk about the
tours because I've done one of the tours.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
We brought the cameras in.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
We had a lot of fun the last time we
were there, and we're obviously going to talk about sort
of the evolution of this amazing iconic space in the city.
But for a tour talk about some of the things
that people can experience when they come in the door,
and how they're going to experience the history that we're
talking about today.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Absolutely. So our tours team is run by Scott Towers,
who is you know, he's also our theater historian. You know,
the two jobs kind of go hand in hand. So
he and his team have done a you know, huge
deep dive on the history of the theater, you know,
so patrons will learn about the building itself, where the
theater was connected a hotel above it. At the time
(04:02):
it was built, it was the tallest building in the
city of Boston, you know, at the time, and it
was really built to be you know, to compare Boston
with New York and Chicago and these other cities that
had these grand theaters and Boston didn't have one. And so,
you know, it's just an amazing story. And the fact
that it's hundred years old right now, it's amazing and
(04:23):
it has taken so much effort by so many people,
over so many different chapters of its life to get
it where it is now.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
What strikes me is when I'm at the theater, I
don't think I've gone on an official tour. But I've
been in every nook and cramp class. But first of all,
during the tour, there's nobody there, So to see the
theater with nobody there is amazing. And then when you
go down into the bowels and you see the HVAC
(04:54):
with the vats and everything, and then you see the
walls with the artists that have played their sign that
is so cool. I happen to be when the Hollywood
Vampires played there, when when they were all doing it
and Johnny Depp was, you know, drawing his little picture.
He Johnny handed me the pen and you know, and
(05:16):
I put my little initial on. But when you look
at the people that have been there and how incredibly
creative they are by just signing their name, that that
alone is one of the great things.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, I mean that goes back to what we started
the show with the energy, because that energy, all of
that energy is in that sacred space. Over a century
can feel it of so much, you absolutely can feel it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm going to make a suggestion.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Since you've never been on an official tour, I feel
like what you should do is like find a good
group and be like I'm just gonna slide in and
just like show up, but you're taking a tour of
the Box Center for thirty box do it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I do yourself in someday.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
You know. The thing was when I my first show
was at the Music Hall. It was called the Music Hall.
My first show and the very first time except for
out back in the woods in high school. It was
the first time I had ever seen people smoke pot
(06:22):
in public. Now, you've got to remember early seventies, it's
like you could go down the corner now and buy it.
When I went down there and starting and it was like,
you know, I was very young, it felt it felt
dangerous to me. Not dangerous like you're going to get hurt,
just dangerous, like, oh my god, the cops are.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Going to like living on the edge by Wait, so
that was your What was your first show?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
My first show was Kat Stevens nineteen seventy three seventy four.
Anytime I talk about the seventies, it gets blurry. Yeah,
you know, I get approximately the right dates and you know,
I yes, I could go on Google and figure yeah,
that was my first show.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Cat Stevens.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I cannot even imagine that. I think that is my
first show was incredible, so amazing, Okay, we're going to
take a break. We're going to come back. We're going
to talk more about so much that you guys are
doing to celebrate this iconic number one hundred.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Such a big deal.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Crazy to think that it was at one time the
tallest building in Boston.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
That's so wild. Okay, we're going to take a break.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Be back with Casey Sword and also Ernie back in
just a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel in Sweet.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Welcome back to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center. So Ernie and Casey are talking to
us about the one hundredth anniversary that the Box Center
is celebrating right now. Ernie, but you just talked to
us about your first concert Cat Stevens in the seventies.
I want to talk about sort of the trajectory. And
we've obviously talked about this on the show before, but
(07:59):
there is obviously a progression for you. You obviously are
you know, a musical genius, someone who's loved music in
so many different ways throughout the course of your life.
But when you committed to the Box Center and the
way that you did now a long time ago, you know,
talk to us about that process. What was it that
made this so important?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Well, I mean, I'm a local guy. I have a
local business. I've been in this market for I don't know,
probably close to forty years, gosh, and I've always like
we discussed in the last segment, it was the Box
Center at the time. The Music Hall was the first
(08:37):
show I ever went to. I slept on the sidewalk
in front of the box office many times to get
tickets when I was younger, and it was it always
had a special place in my heart, and I never
thought that I would ever do anything like that because
to me, when you when you know Gillette Stadium, Mercedes
(08:58):
Benz Stadium, you know it's at and T. You know,
that's that's who puts their name on venues like that.
Not me and Joe Spalding, who preceded Casey for thirty
eight years. Joe was here for thirty eight years. He
called me up, gave me the idea. I told him
(09:19):
now and then we Then I went home and I
woke up one wine and I say, well, I don't know, maybe,
And then I went to lunch with him and a
couple bottles of wine later, here we are, and I think, what,
I just.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Re upped it till twenty thirty six, twenty.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Thirty six, So for twenty thirty at least twenty thirty six,
it's going to be the boxer.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I love that so much.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
We if I'll be here, but it will be the Boss,
he'll be here.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So but I mean, think about all the things that
you've done in your life, and is this one of
those things that feels important in ways that are like
hard to kind of describe.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
No, okay, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
No, it's just it's just it's just what I do.
I don't know, it just it felt so natural. Yeah,
I mean I love it what to bring friends there.
And I get hit for tickets of course all the time,
especially when the show sells out. That's when I that's
when they all they trust me.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Billy, and I know a thing or two about the
calls for the tickets, probably about that they need for
tickets to exactly well, don't worry. Everyone's always been calling
me to call so yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
So it's it's it feels pretty it feels pretty natural.
It feels good.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah. Yeah, And we were talking about the tours and
the opportunities that people have separate from the show, and
I want to dig a little bit deeper into that,
but let's talk about what you're doing specifically to highlight
this special year.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yes, I mean, it's it's such a momentous occasion. And
I started working here actually almost exactly a year ago
to the hundredth birthday, you know, so it was the
first thing I was thinking about, is we're turning one
hundred next year. We've got to put a plan into place.
And it's been an amazing first year, and Ernie's commitment,
you know, to to this place has just been totally transformative,
(11:10):
you know, for us. We wouldn't be here to celebrate
our hundredth birthday without Ernie and so many folks who
have put their blood, sweat and tears into this place.
But so for this year, we started out actually with
a program called the hundred Acts of Kindness, which you know,
you know, just made sense because so many have given
so much to support us over the last hundred years.
(11:31):
We want to give back to the community. So we're
doing you know, kind of these random ticketing upgrades for
patrons that come in, you know, up upgrading people in
the back of the balcony to the front of the
theater or into prime.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Kind of like what Van Halen did.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Yeah, yeah, stuff like that, you know, because a lot
of times the true fans end up not with the
best seats, right, you know, especially with the secondary market,
So we're trying to put those people into prime seating.
That's gone well, and some of these things we want
to maybe continue beyond the hundred year because it's just
so much fun to do that. We did things like
when we had River Dance here, you know, we gave away,
(12:04):
you know, a trip to Ireland, you know as as
part of that, you know, and people were just you know,
over the moon as part of that. Was a partnership
we did with aer Lingus.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
The way I saw it too, my daughter's jaw dropped
for the entire two hours.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
It's really amazing to watch.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
So so so things like that, you know, we're we
have a deep partnership with our education program in local schools.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, let's let's let's talk about that for a little bit.
I mean, just this idea of you know, one hundred
acts of kindness, like this is something that you're doing
to celebrate this great number but acts of kindness are
something that is really part of the ethos of the
Box Center.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
It absolutely is so. For many many decades now, we've
had youth development focused education programs. We have a six
week summer program that that brings in kids from the
Boston public schools. We pay them a full time wage
to be there for the six weeks and they learn
life skills they you know, through through the vehicle of
(13:01):
kind of teaching them arts and dance and song and
you know, but also really just telling their stories, you know,
because everybody is a storyteller. Everybody has an interesting story.
And some of the kids they come in, they're shy,
and then they leave and they've written like a Broadway
musical that they're performing on this.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, it's really incredible. The Box Center is not just
a theater that opens up at five. We do the
show when we close. The Box Center is a living,
breathing part of the community. It's really an amazing it's
hard to describe it. It's but we're not just the
(13:40):
theater by any means. We are not just the theater.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
The way that it expands into the community is incredible,
and I know that that commitment has been long standing
and continues in so many ways.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
A couple of years ago, I think we do it
every year where the kids do the interview. Yes, so
what we do is we bring all these business titan
into the Box Center and we have these kids and
they I don't know kids, They probably I don't know teenagers, Yeah, teenagers,
and they pretend to interview for a job and you
(14:14):
sit there and you see it. And I did it
to a bunch of kids, and I was like, no,
don't do that, do this, do this, do this. This
is how you're going to get a job. And I
tell you, I wish somebody did that to me. Yes,
it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, well that commitment is I mean, that is the
thing that makes I think that. That was sort of
my question about sort of the nostalgia behind it for you,
is it is so much more than a name and
a building.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
It's the reverberation.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Effect that it's having on the community that all of
us collectively care so much about.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So I love that impact.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Everything we do. It's about transformation, whether you're going to
a show and it's taken you out of your every
day it's bringing you know, like what you were talking
about Jenny, how these third places that they call them
are so important, you know, to changing the lives of
a kid. You know, that that review that you have
with them, the back you give it, I mean that
can set a trajectory on somebody's life. That it was cool.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I mean, let me tell you, they started out slouching.
By the time they were done with that interview, they
were standing.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Up to show. Oh it's so good. I mean, what
an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And that's so separate from all the magic that happens
on the stage, right, So keep going, Casey, tell us
more about what's happening.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, So in addition to the hundred acts, I mean,
we you know, I have to hand it to our
programming team, you know, put together quite a lineup for
you know, especially around the month of October where we've
had David Byrne.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
He was great, incredible. It was very sphere like. Yeah,
it's new technology that he had. I had never seen
it done on stage.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
Yes, yeah, yeah, no, it was a totally immersive experience
for his show.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So so what does that mean. Give me an example,
what were some of the things that you were saying?
Speaker 5 (15:51):
So there, so he had you know, a video wall, backdrop.
So so that was basically his whole set was a
complete video wall floor to ceiling, and then the floor
was also a video wa it was, it was all
into so. One of the songs he wrote it, he
wrote it during COVID and it was about his apartment.
And so you go out there, you see the apartment,
see the apartment. Then it starts to shift around different
(16:13):
angles and the floor starts changing, and it gives you
this really amazing.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Completely wireless, yes, no equipment, no amps or anything, completely wireless,
and it was so immersive. I mean I felt like
I was literally standing next to him.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yes, and the band doesn't sit down at all. They're
up walking around for the whole dancing, dancing choreograph.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
And the star of that show, of course, David Byrne
was amazing, but that bass player, she.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Was knocked it. Yeah, my gosh. Three nights, three nights
night amazing three nights.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
You've had a couple of those where there's three I remember, like,
what was one that recently you had? You sold the
second Omel Robbins or something, so on second and you
had to pop up a third.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Night, three three sold out show. We just had John
mulaney for.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Five six show.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
Between so between September and the December thirty first, we
have one hundred shows at both venues, so kidding me. So,
you know, we're just trying to you know, as Ernie said,
to places on fire, people are coming, people are loving it,
and the programming just keeps it getting better.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Well, the programming is amazing, but it's also so interesting
to hear how actually actually the production of these things
has evolved so much sophistication.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
That they're rolling with and the technology is quite impressive.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mean, the idea that it's wireless. If you think
of how much time and effort goes into everything the
setup and to take that away, but to be able
to have such an immersive experience like that is unheard of.
But we know it's just going to continue to get
bigger and bigger. We're going to take a break. We'll
be back with more Food for Thought by the Box Center.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
In just a minute.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Sailing Waterfront Hotel in sweets.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Welcome back to Food Thatught brought to you by the
Box Center. Ernie and Casey are hanging out with me
right now. This is our quick little break. So I
want to ask something a little bit personal. So you're
in this space because music, performance the arts is something
that is just so much a part of your soul,
so much a part of who you are. So I
want to get a little quick background from each of
you about where music, where entertainment came from you and
(18:29):
what instruments you played, and what part of it you
had growing up.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Casey, I'll start with you.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Yes. So for me, my parents realized immediately that music
was going to be a huge part of my life.
They put me in piano lessons when I was three
years old and studying classical piano. Eventually I moved on
to trombone, started playing in bands, started playing in rock bands,
any band I could find. That got me to Berkeley
School of Music, where I studied record production and I
(18:55):
played music. I learned more instruments, had the best experience,
and then but then ended up working in the theaters.
Uh you know through and I think it was really
just my love of being around people and meeting the
most the most interesting people. You could imagine.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
You're still playing in this business.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
I have not picked up the instrument in a long time.
But I feel very creative in my job.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Okay, that's where it's all the juices are going. And
I mean, we know that you are so musical, but
I don't know if there's multiple instruments that.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
No, no, there isn't. But let me ask you a question, Casey,
when you were at Berkeley, did you go to the
to the mixing lab? I did. What was the name
of that mixing lab? I can't remember what was the
name of.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
It was a familiar what's it called? The block name was.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
When they redid it. And Roger Brown, who was president
at the time, was a you know, I considered a friend.
And I was on the board and one thing led
to another, and I had the naming rights to the
mixing and I said to Roger, I said, Roger, that's good,
but I also want the naming rights to the bathroom
that is right next. And he looked at me, he goes,
(20:09):
he goes, Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Okay, so that what was for sale? Okay, when I
did the name You're hilarious.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I did the naming rights for Norwood Hospital, which which
unfortunately got flotted out building a new one along with
that I had the name and rights to the Morgue.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Okay, so list of the oddest requests. I guessing is
you wanted the morg That was a request. Absolutely, You're like,
I'm doing this as long as my name's on the moor,
on the door of the mork Oh my god, Ernie,
you were the very best.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay, I told you. That was a quick break.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
We got a little bit about your musical genius, a
little bit about the very interesting places we can see
the back name around. This is awesome state of Massachusetts.
We're going to take a break. We'll be back with
more Food for Thought brought to you by the Box Center.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and sale and Waterfront Hotel in sweets.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Okay, guys, I didn't know were that last bright was
going to take us, But lord knows. When you're in
the room with Ernie, you go down some very interesting direction. Okay,
but I do want to talk about you, Ernie. So,
guitar is obviously a big part of your life, but
you play other instruments.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
I played piano for a bit. I understand the instrument,
but with me or what happened with me is I
was a little kid. Everything was good. I grew up.
I was born in fifty eight, so in sixty eight
I was ten, and in sixty eight rock and roll
was like a rocket. It was really really unbelievable. And
(21:34):
what changed my life was Woodstock. When I saw Woodstock,
when I saw all those bands together that I liked
and all those people that look so cool, you know
that really that really catapulted me to play and to
get together with other musicians and find out that I
(21:55):
had most of my friends musicians, most of my friends.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
And we've talked about this a lot. But like the
conversation that takes place for you guys, like the obviously
the interests are the same, but the way your brains work,
like when you were musically inclined, it's just a different
it's a different part of your brain.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
It's a different language, literally, a different language. With me.
My problem is, see, I mean, I play, but I'm
not really a great player, you know. But and the
reason I'm not a really great player goes right back
to the beginning. If you talk to the really great
players when they were growing up, they were never the
(22:37):
best guy in the band ever really they were. No,
it's the worst thing to be the best guy in
the band. It wasn't until I was much older that
I became the worst guy in the band. Which is
always the best place to be, always, always the best
place to be.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Because why because your brain is constantly searching for more, because.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
You're learning from others. You are you were like you
if you're hanging out, if you're a football player and
you're hanging out with Brady, You're going to be a
better football player. That's just how it works.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Exposure absolutely see things in a way that you wouldn't
see things.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
So that's you know. And I probably didn't put in
my ten thousand hours, you know, Gladwell's ten thousand hours.
It probably didn't do that. But you know, I just
love music. It just does something for me.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
And you know, you may not want to get into details,
but like when you said, my friends are musicians, like
your friends are some of the greatest musicians of all time.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Well, I.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Just I just end up hanging out with musicians. I
don't know what it is. It just happens.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, what, let's go back at your time at the
Buck Center. What are some of the greatest I mean,
you can think of so many, there's been a bazillion.
We just talked about River Dance and he said, God,
that was a good show. But talk about some of
the most memorable shows that you've seen.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Okay, the most memorable show I told this story before,
so I'll condense it. The most memorable show that I
saw was when I was I want to say, seventy
four seventy five, I slept out in front of the
Box Center to get tickets to Purple, and forty years
(24:13):
later I opened up for them at the exact venue
we were going from. The last tour that I did,
we did a national in Canada and the United States
with Deep Purple, and as we were coming through the
East Coast, we played at the Box Center. So I
slept on the sidewalk to see this band that I
eventually tought.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
You what a full service and that crazy.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
And you wonder why I love the venue. I love
the venue.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Well, actually I want to talk about the venue and
other venues because you travel all over the world. I
want to talk a little bit more about your travels.
And obviously you always come back here to Boston and
always come back to the Box Center. So compare the
Box Center to some of these other iconic theaters around
the world, certainly around the country.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Right, I think we are only second. Oh, I like that,
only second to the Fox in Detroit. That theater is
the Box Center on steroids. It's like the Wang Theater
on steroids. It's amazing. I traveled the United States for business,
and I travel, you know, with with my people and stuff.
(25:17):
And we'll go through a city and I'll look at Stan.
I go, Stan, this this place is Familia, and he goes, Earn,
you played right over there, right, That's.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
What it is.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Okay. So what's so great about Detroit? The Fox?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Oh, the Fox Theater is like the Wang Theater, except
bigger and more intense.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Yeah, truly a great world class as is the Wang
at the Box Center. World class theater. The Fox Theater
in Detroit.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
It has I think five sets.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Okay, wow, So it's almost twice as olde.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Okay, wow, okay, but old iconic in.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
That way, same vintage, same vintage. So it has all
the beautiful detail, but it's even bigger.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
But give me, give me like a new theater, Like
is there somewhere that's new? I mean we know the
feeling of being in a historic space and I think
nothing compares to it. But is there anything that's new
that stands out as something the gym?
Speaker 4 (26:10):
The MGM is good.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I mean, like that is what I say.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Yeah, anywhere five thousand stand up. I've been to many
shows there. I I like it. The backstage at the
MGM is like the Four Seasons. It really is. They
have these the casings on the doors and really wide,
and it's it's beautiful, it's new, it's luxurious.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
I like they did a beautiful job. I mean, as
consumers in this market, we are so lucky right to
have so many options absolutely for places to see shows.
And you know, I think of it, it's kind of
like the automile concept, whether the more you have, the more.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Fish, where the fish are exactly fish.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Absolutely, Yes, a lot of new venues have come online,
but we're doing the.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Roadrunner understood that little that little venue near near.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Where the Celtics, Yep, the New Balance and that.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, that's that's a cool little venue.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
I mean, I have to say, it's great to be
in the city where we care about this stuff, where
there's the opportunity to have multiple theaters that are constantly
selling out. We're going to take a break. We'll be
back with more Food for Thought in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you buy
the Box Center and Sale and Waterfront Hotel and Sweet Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Ernie always gets started with the story and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, wait,
because I like to hear it when we're actually recording.
So I said, I want to talk about the Folk
Americana Roots Hall of Fame, which is a key part
of what you guys do at the Box Center, and
tell me what you were thinking about.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
To say Farhof Farhoff is what we think much easier.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
To say Hall of far Haff, which lives at the
Wang Theater in the Box Center. It's on this second floor,
it's on it's.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
In the lower level, the third floor, in the.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Fourth Okay, third and four, Okay, I know, I close,
it's there. But if you haven't been there, that alone
is great. You have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Now you have far Haf, which is a folk Americana
Roots Hall of Fame in Boston. And we did our
first induction documentary two years ago. Two years ago, we
(28:24):
inducted the first round and we filmed it. We filmed it.
It was Joe Spalding's idea. We filmed it, and you know,
he edited it up and had a program and Joe
submitted it for Daytime Emmy and it got nominated. So
(28:46):
we got nominated for Daytime Emmy for the first induction
of Farhof. I mean it's great. I know, you know
Emmy's You've won a few Emmys, haven't you.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
We have we have you have of some, but we
I have some in my house right I.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Won about two years ago for Life in Six Strings
my TV show Life in Six Strings and Charlie Moore
Local Guys.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So eighteen. Yeah, he's amazing.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I got with him really three yet.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I love that I haven't seen him in a long time.
You got to say hi to him for me. So yeah,
I mean that that is a special I mean beyond
a special exhibit. It is something that if you have
not seen, you have to go in to see. And
I like you calling it far off because it's much
easier to say that. But but what are some of
the pieces in there that you guys?
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Tell him? A couple of pieces.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
I mean, right now we have a brand new exhibit
on Levon Helm in the band, you know, I mean
we were the first Americana act ever, right right, Dylan.
So we've got we've got his couple of Grammy Awards,
we have his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award there.
We've got one of a mandolin that he played for
(30:00):
like three decades touring with Dylan everybody that fell off
the top of his tour bus and broke. He told
the tour manager to throw it away. The tour manager
kept it fixed up, and now it's in a case.
I love the story, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Casey, give us a little bit of the background, like,
how does something like this happen? Is this an exhibition
that goes throughout the country and you guys are gunning
forward to make sure that you have a slot for it.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
How does it work?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yes, going in Boston.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
So this is an exhibit that we created as the
Hall of Fame, and we're actually going to be touring
it around the country. So next next spring it'll go
to Arkansas. We're hoping it will tour a lot of
the different presidential lie libraries, you know, and that will
be a way for us to build the brand around
the country. So with these exhibits that will create.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
And what's cool about Farhoff is some of the guys,
the nationally and internationally famous guys musicians from Boston personally
brought the stuff down. Like Peter Wolf walked in with
his stuff. Tom Schultz from the multi platinum selling band
(31:07):
Boston walked in and gave it to him. I got.
I got Joe Perry's guitar, shoes, pants and shirt. Took
me a while thanking Joe, thanking Joe, but we have it.
They personally gave it to us specifically for far Off.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
And we have a permanent exhibit about Boston on the
third floor of the Wang Theater and all the different
genres of music at the Feedler. It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
One of the things I love about the fact that
this is going to tour is this idea that you're
connecting Boston to the rest of the country such an
iconic and impactful way.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
The idea is to make it a national platform that
shines a spotlight on Boston, because Boston is not always
thought of like Nashville and New York in these other
music cities, but it isn't just as rich of a
music history, and.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
You have the rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You
have the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, you have the Blues
Hall of you have every genre almost has it. And
here we are in Boston with far off Folk Americana
Roots Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So awesome. I love it.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I love how much it's grown. I love how much
it's expanded. And again that goes back to that energy.
You walk through these things, have the opportunity to see
them and you know, write your story about where that
item has been and hear so much and learn so
much about it.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It's it's it's.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Incredibly infectious and educationally fueling, which is so awesome. I
want to talk about an opportunity for people to come in.
You guys are having an open house to celebrate this
one hundred year.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Yes? We are unfortunate and O casey, I'm not going
to be here. I'm not going to be here this Ah,
I can't. I can't get out of what.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I have to.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Well, then tell it, So what are we missing? Because
I'm not going to be here.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
We're going to make everybody will be Yeah we know, yeah,
Billy's going to be there. So it's going to be
on Sunday, October nineteenth and we are, you know, as
Zernie said, we are. We are here as a community resource.
So we're opening up. We're bringing it back to nineteen
twenty five. We're bringing back ping pong because they used
to actually play ping pong when people were waiting to
get in line for the movies. The way in the
(33:07):
theater really love. As soon as you get there, we'll
be out on the plaza. We're gonna have ping pong tables.
We're gonna have food trucks right before you even go
into the theater bringing that. And I love a good
game of ping pong.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Heck, yeah, are you good?
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I'm pretty good.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I'm pretty good.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yeah, I love the game.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, you can be you can be our referee.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Okay, so so and then and then you'll go in.
You know, we will have our tours people there, so
we can take little groups on people on tours. We're
going to have you know, stuff about upcoming shows. We're
gonna have prize wheels, face painting up on the third floor. Uh,
We're going to have an exhibit with Gibson guitars, the
thing for kids down in the lower lobby. We're going
(33:53):
to have performances all afternoon as part of the Folk
Americana Roots Hall of Fame. You better go down there,
have a drink, watch your local perfer former play, go
up on stage. There's photo opportunities up there. So it's
just going to be a really really fun.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Well you had me at face paint.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
So we have to remind people that this is clearly
family friendly and great.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
I mean family litter tattoos. You know what those are.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Okay, I very much know what litter tattoos are.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I can't tell you how many I have had to
scrub off of my children. But this is a great thing.
I mean, this is a great time to be in
the city. I love Boston in October. I mean, just
it's Chris. You put on an extra layer. It's beautiful.
The lighting is so beautiful. But to be able to
be in an iconic space like that on a gorgeous Sunday,
So tell us more about the hours, how do people
(34:39):
find out more inventiation.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
So it's ten am to four pm all day. Yeah,
so it's pretty much all day on Sunday. We're going
to also just want to put this out there for
our big holiday show twas the night before we're going
to be running a special discounted ticket opportunity that you
can only get if you come in person.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I love there.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
You have to show up at the bottom Mars and
there'd be an opportunity to get some great tea.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
It's been a while since you guys have been here.
But when you have children who are seven and three,
a Sunday is long.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
It is very long, it is.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
And this is a perfect way to do something that
they will remember in a big way and you will
save yourself some Sunday out.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
We even have stroller parking inside the theater. We thought
of it there were thinking of you've ever.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Thought of everything? Oh my god, it's so fun. The
Wing Theater History book, what's happening there?
Speaker 5 (35:28):
So we will have We are putting together a book
that will be ready to purchase on the history of
the Wing. Our designer and our marketing team have done
a huge deep dive on the history. They have found
all kinds of archival photos that you will really appreciate
seeing this, Jarni, because I've never seen any of this stuff.
So the book will be available for the first time
(35:50):
on Sunday the nineteenth. My god, so cool.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
I mean the way that these things are preserved. I mean,
I have so much appreciation for the fact that this
history is going to be able to live on and
you know, and you just you can experience your own
history looking at something like this, and it's very very impressible.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
I'm so happy you guys are doing that.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Yes, and it is the Box Center, but we have
to give a little props to mister Wang. I mean,
I mean it's the Wang Center in the Schubert Theater.
That is the Box Center. But the vision that mister
Wang had to preserve this structure is second to none.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Absolutely. I mean, as we said before, there have been
people throughout this hundred years that have stepped up at
critical times to get us where we are today. So
this is all about telling that history. And we see
ourselves not only is the stewards of the theater, but
the stewards of the history.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
And we have a Wang on the board.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
We do.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
We have a Wang on the board. His name is
Courtney Courtney Wang, which you want to see something that
he is just freaky. So Courtney Wang is on the
board and you know his family, doctor Wang. And my
daughter went to a school after first grade. Whether those
(37:09):
schools are elementary school. So it went to that and
the school is housed at the Wang's first home.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
You're kidding me, isn't that crazy?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
No?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
That is it?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Like that is life, like those things about life that
are just so unbelievably magical.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I was facetiming Courtney and I'm going Courtney, look, he goes, Oh, yeah,
my bedroom was just right down the hall to left.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
These are some of the greatest stories in life. We're
gonna take a break. We'll be back with more Food
for Thought in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
You're listening to Food for Thought, brought to you by
the Box Center and Sale and Waterfront Hotel in sweets.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
I have to say this hour fulew by with you guys,
and I could easily do another hour. We're wrapping up,
but I want to talk about some of the things
we have upcoming, not only to celebrate one hundred years
with some of the some shows you guys have.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Yeah. Absolutely, we're really looking forward to bringing Circles Twas
the Night Before back for twenty seven performances between the
Night Before Thanksgiving through December fourteenth.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Steve Martin and Martin Short and Short.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
What I saw, guys, I might be the person calling
you for that one.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
I saw them last year and I called h Brian
the book. I said, Ryan, can I can I meet
Steve Martin and then Martin short and He's like, no problem.
They were the nicest, doubt it, and I never posted
the pictures, but they posted her pictures. It was. It
was fantastic. I don't I'm going to go to that
show again. They're so fun.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
The one that I'm really excited about is Ingrid Michaelson.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
That's like not like necessarily a mainstream, but she's a
wonderful artist. Got a beautiful, very kind of unique sounding voice,
really soulful, like she's just she's just got a beautiful voice.
She is.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
She can make you cry, that's what she could do.
Speaker 5 (39:02):
She's a great She's like a folk artist, but you know,
more on the kind of alt contemporary rock. I don't know. Nice, yeah,
really good.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
I'm not familiar.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
And then what's this happening with Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
I got so many calls for that, Oh my god,
so many calls.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
So he'll this will be next. This will be on
the fourteenth of October, and he's got the new John
Candy documentary that he produced, and he's so passionate about
about this documentary that he's doing a little tour. He's
doing Q and as with the audience afterwards, and we'll
be having that at the Schubert Theater on October four.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
That's very cool.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Yeah, the list goes on and on. Of course, I
go to the Urban Nutcracker every year with my daughter.
Show so much with kids, and there is nothing that
gets you in the spirit, and then.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
You want to get a jolt of the holiday season,
go to the box.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Exactly how you do it. Go have yourselfself a nice meal,
go see a nice show. Doing from your show with
the kids. I mean, I will say some of the
greatest memories I have with my kids, with some of
the greatest memories for my kids, or inside the Box Center.
I think that's what's amazing about it is it's rare
that you have an entity that can span generations in
the way that a theater can.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
You can be eight or eighty and experiencing the same
kind of bliss together at the same time, and it's
very rare to have that.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
I brought my daughter when she was maybe four or
five to meet the Grinch. Oh, she just cried in
my arms, but I'll always remember. I don't know if
she will.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Nothing more exciting than watching those kids get so excited
about those kind of things. Okay, so everywhere all this
information that everyone needs to know that we've talked about
for this past hour. How do people find out more?
Speaker 5 (40:48):
It's all online at boxcenter dot org. You can follow
us on Instagram, at box center Facebook. We're everywhere.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Yeah, I mean, I want to go back to sort
of how we started this show was just, you know,
it all being about energy, right, and sometimes we live
in a world that feels like everything is like a
big catastrophe.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Everything is, you know, there's so much concern and frustration
and stress.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
This is the opportunity to go and let everything go by.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Absolutely, No, don't watch news as much.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
It don't. That's another good thing to say too as well.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
But like, this is really the opportunity when you get
in touch with your heart, when you get in touch
with the people that you love. And I have to
say that I'm so grateful for all of the amazing
things that you do, because truly, some of the greatest
memories I have with my kids and my family are
inside the Box Center. So happy one hundredth you vibrant
looking Centennians. But anyway, we love you guys so much
(41:40):
and we love the opportunity to be able to have
you guys as our partners on this show too.
Speaker 4 (41:44):
Well, thank you, it's always a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Ernie Bach, Casey Sword, I adore you guys. Happy one
hundredth and we will be back next week. Back Billy
will be back from Africa, hopefully safely and not mulled
by some kind of animal, and we.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Will see you more next week. More for a thought
brought to you by the Back Center. Cchou Choo
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.