Life in a Box episode 2.5 (on Instagram from Friday, April-24, 2020.)
Background. The wonderful Landon Doak & Matt Finlan are presenting episodes of their apocalyptic-friendship-stoner-musical Life in a Boxlive on Instagram (@landondoak) every Friday at 4:20pm.
They perform about 15-20 minutes of the show in succession, playing the instruments live and using wifi lightbulbs for the effects, have incorporated some new music, and then after do a talk show-style chat about the show, life, weed, etc. with some good news stories thrown in.
I love the show when I saw it live. Here’s my review of the full show when it played the Grand Canyon Theatre last year.
In this week’s episode Landon Doak and Matt Finlan know their ‘time machine’ works and they have been sent back to the past in order to leave a note for their future against the impending conflagration. They are then ready to return to the future. They realize that if that doesn’t work, that might be the last time ‘they can hang together.’
This episode has several examples of the clever word-play in the songs and of Doak and Finlan’s beautiful harmonizing. Their performances are full of energy and dazzling timing. Again, they riff off each other, never miss a beat (until they tell us they did later in the chat section. Even that is expressed with gleeful enthusiasm.) And while Life in a Box is described as a ‘stoner musical’ you don’t have to be high to enjoy the artistry, musicality and wild imagination of the two.
The chat session happens after they (supposedly have ‘a bowl’ to unwind). There they give their shout-outs to all those who helped put the segment together, or donated equipment. They always end with a bit of good news. In this segment they championed the good neighbours of their ‘hood’ at Brunswick and Wells who come out to bang pots or sing or listen to the local trumpet ‘concert’ at 7:00 pm or so.
All the episodes are available on YouTube and on their Instagram page. The details are below. Check them out. In our worlds of isolation, Life in a Box is a breath of fresh air even if it might be filled with the fragrance of weed.
@landondoak) every Friday at 4:20pm.
And their Instagram handle for the show is: @_lifeinabox_