It was a day like any other day, or so it seemed. It was late afternoon and I decided to go down to Stuffs (now Howiee's On Front, 16 N. Front St. Medford OR) for a couple beers. I realized that something strange was in the air when I walked in, grabbed a couple beers from the cooler and went to pay for them. Usually when I went down for a couple beers I would get there around four and leave close to midnite. Howie and Barry, the owners, were in the midst of a discussion about who was going to go, and who was going to stay and watch the shop. Some one had given them some free tickets for something or another and they were actually trying to encourage the other to get some time away from work. They had apparently decided when Barry looked at me and said "Hey Pauly, you wanna go see Bruce Hornsby at Brit?" A free show, why not. So we hopped into a car with Jesse and Jeff and headed out to the hills of Jacksonville.
We got there just as the show had started. I got in and began to snake my way to the front, and when I say front I mean, right there. The stage was only knee high. I know because my knees kept hitting the edge of the stage. I looked up and just a few feet away from me was Bruce and his band. But they were not alone. Three other players were up there with them, Future Man, Victor Wooten, and Bela Fleck. Both The Range and the Flecktones doing the whole show together. Well the dancing ensued and the nite rolled on. I looked to my right and saw this blonde chick. "Hey, get on stage and dance." "I will if you go up first" she replied. I'm not sure if the words were out of her mouth yet, but I was on stage reaching out to pull her up.....and then the security came. "Hey, you cant be up here now." I thought to myself, "now, that means there's going to be a later" (yes I do consider myself to be some what of a genius) and sure enough later rolled around.
I'm not to sure what Bruce Hornsby said, but I heard "now". So up I went. No movement from the sides. Then up came the blonde, followed by about 50-100 other people. I was standing right next to Bruce as he was playing his accordion. It was truly an awesome moment. As the stage started clearing I made my way over to shake Victor Wootens hand. As I was stretching out my arm I accidentally hit a security guard across the chest. I must have caught him off balance because he landed right on his butt. I joined the rest off the stage crowd with the main crowd, dancing until the last note faded into the cool nite air.
The show was over. Time to go home. But where was Barry? No one could find him. I stopped and asked a member of the security crew if they had a lost and found for people. Much to my chagrin he picked up his radio and said "Hey (whatever his name was) I got that guy who knocked you over on stage." I blurted out a quick apology and we both let out a laugh. Not sue where we found Barry, but we all made it home alive and...well?
Stay tuned for part II, ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE
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