Sweatin' To The Oldies

Everyone has that little "golden time" in their lives. The days where everything seems like it was so idyllic. Warm but not hot summers, snowy but not cold winters, and everyone was friends and hung out together. My idyllic year is all thanks to my little sister.

She fell in love with a musician.

His band was playing across the street from where I lived; I was lucky enough to have the best pub in the city across the street from my apartment! So, on the appointed Saturday night, I sauntered over and met said boyfriend and the rest of the band, their hangers on, their girlfriends, their moms and dads and I think a brother or two.

As a band, they weren't bad. They were hockin' their new album (on cassette) of all original material. But, where they really cooked was on the old rock and roll covers. By the time summer rolled around, bookings were on the downslide. The band needed cash, so 4 of the 5 guys started a covers band, and played a tiny, teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy, little pub in SE Portland.

Seriously, this place would hold 25 people. Comfortably. I think by mid-summer they were jamming 50-75 people in the place! We had to get there at 6:45pm for the 10pm show! The dance floor was probably 8x8 if that. But, we crammed in every soul we could, and when it was over full... there was dancing wherever there was empty floor. And, dancing may be a misnomer. It's more just moving up and down, or twisting your body at the waist. That's about all the room we had to move!

So, an overpacked, rockin' pub, in the dead of summer without A/C. made "Sweat" the magic word. I think more people got a summer cold by going out into the 2am cool air, drenched to the skin than from snogging influenza patients around the side of the building where the street light didn't reach.

We recorded one show. They went on at 7pm and all was still. My family were all there, and we're pointed out several times during the show. But, it's amazing to hear the din of the crowd grow from virtually nothing, to a mere dull roar at the end of the show. The beer spillage, the screams to play Beatles tunes, the disappointment when they had to leave the stage to allow the 10pm band to set up.

Yes, it was an idyllic summer. I wasn't long out of a relationship and trying to figure out what to do with my sudden free time. I found it in a sweaty little pub in SE Portland 3 nights a week.