Behind the Velvet Curtain

A fellow bandmate sent this 1993 shot of when the Veebs (the Velvet Brothers) played the Regatta. We were the warmup, warmup act I think or there might have been three, including us, before the headliner. Such is fame and glory. I have stated before that these things run from me. I swear to God it's true.

There's Nelson, myself (in smoking jacket, shorts and ponytail! Gadzooks!) and Greg.

Lately, we've accomplished the impossible: we are all on friendly terms with everything in the past forgiven. Every band that broke up has the same tiresome stories, so I will spare you the mundane details, but suffice to say, ours was fairly painful. Personally, I have adopted an all-is-forgiven attitude with the hope that my fellow bros forgive me for my own bad behavior.

At one point, it got really, really bad. I was so pissed off that I didn't speak to many of these guys. People behaved badly. I am just as guilty. Ego got in the way. Egotism breaks things down.

As my mate told me, "I would have never believed that these guys would have ever decided to make music together again." He's so right. From where does this forgiveness come from? Time. What holds our interest? The music we make together. The music has had an almost healing effect on us.

As Dylan says, "A lot of water under the bridge and a lot of other stuff too." Perfect.

I am surprised as anybody how enthusiastic I am about playing with the VBs. Our last rehearsal had everybody smiling. There it was. That magic. The old flame slowly making its way up to be felt.

At the rehearsal, I watch everybody. At one point, everybody is lost in their instruments, looking at fingerboards or the floor. I laugh to myself. "Where is the eye contact? Where is the communication?" I look over at Greg and we smile at each other. It's for real, like "We're doing this, aren't we?? Holy shit!"

Yeah. We are.

Velvet style.