[thebends]

So many memories over the years, so many tears. One of my faves is 1998 at the Wetlands Preserve in NYC. Very small intimate venue. I was working with a colleague in Allentown NJ and managed to talk him into driving his rental to NYC to see if we could get a couple of tix for that night (I think they played 5 straight nights on that stint). It was not an easy convince on this Idaho born and raised IT geek but he eventually agreed and off we went. The show was magical and transcending, enough magic to turn my colleague into a solid Hip fan and eventually a great friend. I'll never forget the WTF was that??? smirk on his face after the show. We've attended several Hip gigs in small venues in the US since then, but that night at the Wetlands I saw an unsuspecting music lover get slapped and smacked with pure and hard live musical genius.