On This Day: Aug 4, 2013

My favorite pic of Dave Belden (violin) and me. Taken 8/2/2013 at Riverwest Public House, Milwaukee.

Late late night Friday. MIDWEST had a gig in Milwaukee at a dive bar called Riverwest Public House1. It was loud, a little depressing (very small crowd), we didn’t get paid, and I didn’t play particularly well. I got back home to Chicago at 3:45am, then up again at 7:30 for work at TVPC2.

MIDWEST at Riverwest Public House, Milwaukee, 8/2/2013. Heather, Nicolette, and Andy up front. I’m lurking in the back with Nate on drums. Dave is conspicuously missing in this photo.

I got home from work around 11:00 and took a nap before Lara and the kids (Hailey, twelve, Jackson, nine, and Alex, seven) got to town. We chatted for a while at the apartment about their vacation through North Dakota and Michigan, and looked through some twenty-five-year-old photos.

Later, we packed up and headed out to Loyola Beach to catch bandmate Andy Lutz perform in a production of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. He was incredible in an emotionally complex role. Then, Lara and the kids followed me to MIDWEST’s second gig of the weekend at Uncommon Ground in Wrigleyville. Back in 2005-06 when I was living with Lara in Norfolk, Sheriff John Stone3 would regularly rehearse in her basement. In those days, whether they wanted to hear us practice or not, they got an earful. So it was a nice feeling to have them in the crowd as we performed last night.

I talked to Hailey afterwards. She said she liked Sheriff John Stone better than MIDWEST, which tickled me.

MIDWEST at Uncommon Ground 8/3/2013

Last night’s performance was much better than the prior night in Milwaukee, and the latest reminder of why I love making music with these beautiful souls. It is performances like this one where I cease to be a mere “musician,” plodding away one note at a time—when I instead become a channel for the emotional message of the song—no longer sensing nor acknowledging the physical. PURE RADIANCE.

PURE RADIANCE

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PURE RADIANCE 〰️

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FOOTNOTES:

1 Just another casualty of the Covid pandemic, Riverwest Pub closed its doors for good in September, 2020.

2 The Village Presbyterian Church in Northbrook, where I was employed part-time running sound for a Christian Contemporary band.

3 Band I played in from 2002-2006.

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