Gimme a V.....Gimme an E.....Gimme an R.....Gimme a......
1. Yup. I'm happy. My knee hurts like hell and I think I'm going to borrow some of my mother's vicodin today but that's OK because we had a WONDERFUL time last night.
2. The Vertebrats sounded wonderful....I'm sad that Roy wasn't there....if for no other reason to have that visual image of all of them on that stage together. However----the bass playing of Mark Rubel is pretty damn wonderful so they did sound great. Their voices sounded really strong----so it wasn't just their playing---between Jimmy, Matt and Kenny combined with the power of John Richardson's drumming and Mark's bass....they were....well....they were my Vertebrats and more.....
3. Milktoast was wonderful....ragged but right to quote a George Jones song.....and of course I love hearing Ernie sing. Owen was in awe of them....he kept turning to me with his mouth open and his hands spread, yelling, "I can't believe they're this good. I didn't KNOW Dad could sing this great" in great joy. Of course in the chaos of getting there and getting the guys settled I didn't change the settings of my camera so my pictures of Milktoast look like this:
Does anybody out there have a good picture of them? All photo contributions welcome!
4. Owen was not just in awe of how many drumsticks Pat broke or how wonderful Milktoast was or how exciting it was to be at Cowboy Monkey (on the way there he confessed that he thought we'd be going someplace out of town.....like.....Urbana). He was, of course, over the moon....because.....yes....he met ADAM SCHMITT. And Adam could not have been more charming. I already thought Adam was a lovely guy but for being so sweet to an adoring young fan I will love him forever. Owen's mantra on the way home and this morning....."Adam seems like a REALLY nice guy" and then a few moments later, "Adam seems like a REALLY nice guy." Leo and I were outside waiting (the noise and crowd was a bit much for Leo although he says his father was 'wonderful' when Ernie and Owen burst out with Owen holding two drumsticks of Pat's saying in an awed voice, "Mom.....Adam says he wants to see me AGAIN sometime."
Life is good.
5. One of my favorite moments of the night was sitting outside with Leo waiting for Ernie and Owen to come out so I could drive the boys back to our neighbor Dave's house. I introduced Phil Harris (whom I adore and yes you're going to get a lot of comments like that in this post) to him and Phil said, in perfect understanding, "so are you having a shitty time right now?" Leo blinked up at him and said, "what?" perhaps amazed that someone other than his father was using this word so Phil repeated his questions and Leo said, "well kinda." My sweet pea. It's always so nice when someone understands....
6. So many people that I got to see and not talk enough to....but tonight there will be more chances hopefully....
7. Look what our beloved Jim Dennison created for the evening. They were in hot demand.
8. Personally, I thought Berni and Ernie (WHY do Berni and Wendy have to live so far from us?) were the two best dressed last night.....
9. More to come of course.....and in the meantime if anyone has any pictures they wouldn't mind me posting of the weekend please send them!