I'm not sure if this belongs on my music blog or on this one... hell I'll probably copy it over there, too... but I had a chance to go see a band play at a teeny little club (actually called "Teeny's") that I've probably played twenty-five or so times. The last time I played music there was probably 1995-96. Oddly (or maybe not), the place hasn't changed a single bit. Well, I take that back - there was a couch in the very back of the bar where there used to be a couple tables, but other than that, it was identical... same decorations, same lights... even the same people working behind the bar.

The highlight wasn't the fact that I was there, though. The highlight was who I was watching.

Twenty years ago I started playing music in my first high school rock band. Scott Douthat, Brian Jenkins, Eric Drake, Dane Morgan and myself... We would get together after school, almost every day, and just played and played and played and played (and then I would go home and play some more)... I have said this to many people but in all the music I have played in my life, playing with these guys was absolutely the single best experience I've ever had (playing with Jarrod and Brandon was a very close second, but...). We were just a bunch of kids, no pretense, no ego, nothing to prove to anyone - we just played... whatever we wanted, however we wanted, whenever we wanted... It was absolutely great.

So I read in my local music newsgroup that this band, Second Hand Smoke, was playing... I glanced through the post and saw that Scott and Eric were in the band. Holy shit! They're playing music together, again? Incredible.

I walked in the bar and there they were... They hadn't really changed a bit in 20 years... both sporting Van Dykes at this point, but they really didn't look any older, honestly... When I saw them, all these memories of sitting in Scott's basement came flying back (they honestly hadn't flown that far away, or anything, but visual triggers can be pretty intense, sometimes, I guess). I walked over and said hi... and it was like we had all said goodbye from our last time playing together just yesterday... They were the same guys I remembered... totally goofy, totally themselves. It was so cool.

Eric Drake (vocals) and Scott Douthat (drums), circa 1986. You can't tell who my hero was, can ya?

Eric Drake (at the congas) and Scott Douthat (at the drums), 2006.

The show was really cool, too... Scott hasn't missed a beat playing drums in the years since we all played together and Eric sounded just like he did back then... The other three guys were all great, too. Dr. Miller sounded like he had learned a couple new blues licks since I saw him play with my friend Duncan in '90-'91... and he played those new licks in every song. Eli and Rick were totally rock-solid, too... but I was there to see Scott and Eric... and I really had a great time watching them... watching them all... but seeing my old bandmates... my old friends - two guys I looked up to so much and was practically inseperable from twenty years ago - granted, playing much different music than we played back in the day - it was really a treat and I was so happy to see them and to see them having such a good time playing music, again.