When it all comes together

It's no secret that Chris, Wendell and I love to see Lenny play at the Comet Grill. We've been doing it for years now. In fact, the Comet Grill just had their seventh anniversary. Last Saturday was a special night at the Comet. Wendell had gone out there earlier and I was going to stay home and watch some of the World Series and mess around on the Xbox a little bit.

Somewhere between nine and ten Jill calls and says she is going out to the Comet to see Lenny (Jill and Lenny are married and I live on the route she takes to the bar). My evening home alone had grown boring and I accepted Jill's offer of a ride to the show.

That night Lenny was playing his acoustic guitar which he hooked into a synthesizer. It allows him to create all kinds of useful sounds like the pan flute and the harmonica. At one point during the night we were looking the harmonica player but it was just Lenny on the guitar. Pretty cool stuff.

Playing his Fender Stratocaster with the fretboard with all the varnish worn off was Bobby Donaldson. Bobby is an amazing and incredibly accomplished player. John, who runs the place along with his wife, was playing drums and adding background vocals.

Around 11 Chris shows. We're all surprised and gave him a rousing cheer. Around midnight the band takes a break and a few of us go outside to cool off and chat. We come back and the bar has emptied out and there are less than ten people left. The place had been pretty packed earlier.

After midnight at the Comet is the best time to see Lenny and the guys play. The show is over and he just plays for himself and for us. He no longer has to worry about bad requests for Jimmy Buffet and he knows whatever he plays we'll listen to. We also know that he is going to experiment and jam and take us for a ride and that it will always be familiar but never the same.

I can't say enough how much of a privilege it is to be able to have experiences like last Saturday every few weeks or so. Lenny has started playing every Friday now at the Comet. There is an open invitation to anyone who reads this blog to join us there.