I Didn't Even Have To Use My AK

Yesterday was a good day. It began when Mike sent me a text containing a single word: THROWDOWN.

I've known Mike for a long time. However, the word "throwdown" has only occasionally come up in conversation. On those occasions, it refers to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Hometown Throwdown, a series of five concerts in five nights at a club in Boston. Before the band broke up several years ago, the Throwdown was an annual event. Mike loves the Bosstones. He introduced me to their music, and as a result I too love their music. When I lived in NY I saw them a few times (once with the Dropkick Murphys, which was unreal), but I never had the chance to see them here. So when I read that text, and knowing Mike, my thoughts immediately were as follows:

Bosstones reunion? No fucking way. Can't be.

Turns out my intuitions were correct - the 'Tones are reuniting this December for the first Hometown Throwdown in about five years. And they're doing it at the Middle East, one of the best places to see concerts in Boston. Mike will be flying out here for at least one of the shows. He has his plane tickets already, much to the chagrin of his understanding wife. If you've been reading his blog, you'll know that Mike is going to be a dad soon... "soon" meaning early December. I'm super excited to see him and to go to the concert too.

Yesterday evening was just as much fun. My band played down at Felt, one of the swankier clubs in Boston. Even though we went on very late by Thursday night standards (11:45, and in a city where public transportation stops running at 12:30), we still had a good crowd and a dynamite set. I know it was the most comfortable performance that I've given, and everyone else was on fire as well. It might've had something to do with the shirt that Bryan handmade for me (seriously cool that Bryan started a t-shirt company), but it was probably the fact that the musicians in the band are just awesome. I've gotten to the point where I'm comfortable enough with my own part to shift my attention to everyone else and really enjoy the sound of the group as a whole. And it definitely had a lot to with the crowd; we have our faithful who came out in the rain to support us on a late night.

On the drive home, I was wired and felt the need to listen to James Brown at high volumes. It was a surreal drive - at 1:00AM the roads are empty, and the skies above Boston were dramatic and roiled following the huge rainstorm. Flash lightning illuminated the wet streets, and it invigorated me... I felt like I was driving through some sort of tinted alternate universe. All in all, a very fine day.