"Heavy decibels are playing on my guitar..."

Well, the trip down memory lane was a good one! This weekend, Fletch, Dave, Patty and I dusted off the old INTENT CITY machine and played a set at the Boro for their 20th annual BOROSTOCK show.

It was rusty in places, and I blew my voice out after the third song and sounded like a cross between Tom Waits and Phil Anselmo for the later portion of the show, but I gotta tell you folks...we ROCKED THE F****N' HOUSE!!!!

Sure we were older, grayer and a step slower, but I was amazed at how easy it all came together. And, oh by the way, did I mention that we only had TWO HOURS of rehearsal? We got LOTS of comments about how people couldn't believe we hadn't played in 15 years and we only had that short amount of rehearsal time.

The crowd was good sized, loud and very appreciative (and quite understanding about my vocal woes.) My undergraduate Theatre mentor was there and she told me afterward that I sounded fine, but that if I was one of her students NOW and I ragged my voice out that way, she'd kick my ass! There were also lots of old faces from the past. My buddy Lonesome Cowboy Bill and his pal Mark (who was up from Birmingham), our friend Helen who drove in from Jackson just for the show, my old buddy Neal who used to play in a band with me in the mid 80's...and tons more! It was a beautiful experience. And you know what it taught me? That despite what the cynics say, sometimes you CAN go home again! (the coolest moment of the night was when Patty, the bass player who's the only one of us still actively gigging, leaned over to me after we started the first song and said "Welcome back!" What a great moment!) And that I really wanna do it again!!!! How will that manifest itself? Who knows. Maybe we'll get together every six months and play a show, or maybe we'll record some. Hell, if that doesn't work out maybe I'll find some folks around here who wanna play. But I really feel that it's something my life has been missing. And now that I no longer harbour any illusions of doing this as a full time occupation, the pressure's off and I can just have fun. (I'm thinking Rick probably gets this better than most!) Of course my plate is ridiculously full, and between work, kids and all that goes with it, I may never get the opportunity to play like that again, but I am truly grateful for the privilege to have shared the stage with these men one more time. It was, as they say...a gas, gas, gas!!!

So here's to the men of INTENT CITY. Hope to see you again down the road boys. And please, as Lars (the guitarist from LAUGHING STORM DOGS) said after our set "Don't wait 15 years to do this again!"

...cause then we'll REALLY be old!

2 million points for the song reference. And as soon as we get the youtube links active, I'll post those.

AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE IN THE POLL!