Aquinas HS musician wows crowd with ‘mystery box’
LA CROSSE, Wis. — The Aquinas High School pep band has a little extra pep in its step this year.
Senior Greg Lamb’s ‘mystery box’ has opened up a new way to get fans’ blood pumping and toes tapping.
“I am classically trained as a pianist. Like, I play Bach, and Beethoven and all the people who are dead,” said Greg. “I realized, hey, the audience really likes it if I can play what’s on the radio.”
Aquinas basketball fans can catch Greg playing the keyboard, the key-tar, and what he calls the mystery box.
“I’m not even sure what it’s supposed to be called. Everybody just calls it the mystery box because nobody knows what it’s going to do next,” said Greg. “It changes my voice. It can make me sound like a girl, like a whole group of people.”
Aquinas High School music teacher Ann Wenzel said it’s an innovation the band — and the crowd — is embracing.
“This is something new we’ve never had before,” said Wenzel. “You can see people down the row checking out, ‘What was that?’ or ‘Where did that come from?'”
18117706Greg said the song that draws the most laughs from the crowd is Taylor Swift’s song ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together.’
“It’s kind of hard to describe the feeling. It’s like all those hours of work that you might have put in at home maybe learning a new song or trying to get it to sound just right, it really pays off in the end,” said Greg.
Greg is graduating at the end of this year, but he’s training a freshman to be his replacement.
He plans to study engineering in college, but said he’s going to bring all his music equipment with him so he can continue to play as a hobby.
