"Waiting Room" - Real Friends / Single Review

"Waiting Room," released on June 28th by Real Friends, a self-proclaimed emo band from the suburbs of Chicago, is a cathartic elegy to the father of Bassist Kyle Fasel. This song beautifully demonstrates the five stages of grief in a way only pop punk music can. Pulling the listener into the mental rollercoaster that the band's bassist, Kyle, is going through. Kyle wrote this song as a necessary aid in processing his father's passing. His Father, Ken, passed away in a hospital bed, which he compares to being a waiting room of sorts after learning there was no hope of his father recovering. 

This song brilliantly depicts the five stages of grief through the lyrics, coupled with melodies that reflect each stage. Verse 1 depicts stage 1—denial. "I had to leave before you left/'Cause I was too weak to watch your last breath," Kyle admits to denying the reality of the situation and being incapable of being in the room for his father's last moments. 

Anger is represented by the song's chorus, along with the most aggressive melodies, which communicates anger as the most prominent emotion he felt in his grieving process. This is true for Kyle and most who lose a loved one. With lyrics like "I thought time healed every wound 'til I lost you/I swear life has been so cruel," Kyle is speaking directly to the unfairness of losing someone close to you, especially a parent. You lose a guiding light, making you question how your world is supposed to move forward. 

Kyle then introduces the third stage of grief, bargaining, in Verse 2 with the lines, "Now it smells like cigarette ash in my backseat/ Somehow, it feels like you're next to me." Kyle masterfully depicts the haunting feeling of your loved one still being with you in your daily life. In this instance, he's recollecting the smell of smoke from his clothing after donating them. After this line is said in the music video, the image of his father is depicted. 

With flashes of scenes between the hospital waiting room and a bare white room serving as the inner workings of his mind, Real Friends takes viewers through the grieving process. With Kyle's father on the other side of a window, the band can visually depict the third stage— bargaining. You see his father emerge in the way he chooses to remember him, dressed up in his typical suit and smoking a cigarette. As opposed to the last memory he has of his father slowly dying in a hospital bed. He can keep the image of his father alive and feel him next to him. 

With the melody progressing in intensity while transitioning into the bridge, the song depicts the heavy pain that comes with stage 4— depression. The lyrics are delivered with such magnitude and weight that the listener can truly feel Kyle's emotions in this stage. In the music video, the band is furiously performing the lines "I need you right now 'cause I can't see the end/The space you left goes on forever" for the ghost of Kyle's father. Scenes flash from the waiting room into scenes of the father looking at the band.

This scene transitions into the song's final chorus, symbolizing the final stage— acceptance. This is also the first time the viewer can see the father's face in the music video, seemingly representing the first time Kyle can face the reality of his father being gone. The delivery of this chorus continues the power of the previous bridge but then tapers off after the line, "but the pain/I'll just lie, say I'm fine as tears run dry/ I thought time healed every wound 'til I lost you." The melody slowing down seemingly abruptly is a handhold to himself, almost signifying that it's ok to process the death of his father. 

This new song is a poignant requiem to fans who may be struggling with the same painful process of grief. 

Review by: Juliana Nicholls