We're with the Band

Through a convoluted means that I won't bother explaining here, my father is friendly with Michael, the piano player for the Neville Brothers. So, when the Brothers were playing Boston, Michael told my father that I should come to the show. No one had to tell me twice. After a dinner at Legal Seafoods (I decided that I deserved lobster tonight. No reason why, I just did), we met up with Michael at the Marriott Copley. I asked how I'd find him, and he said, "I'm huge, I'm bald, and I look like George Forman." We recognized him instantly. Up we went to the ballroom, where the place was set up with row after row of chairs. "Where are people going to dance?" I asked. "I don't think it's that kind of event," he said. Oh, didn't I mention where they were playing? It was a private party for the Massachusetts Dental Society. (Adam said, "Should we go out and find the one in five who doesn't like Trident?") Sponsored by Oral B. Huge banners proclaimed "Oral B." Clean teeth and the Neville Brothers. It's like they were made for one another. Anyway, Michael takes us to the back, and we're hanging, you know, with the band. Aaron is sitting around, going over his schedule with his tour manager. Charles's son is playing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on his laptop. It's chill. Michael's totally cool and introducing us to everyone. Not that my life is filled with meeting bands, but this has got to be the nicest band ever. Everyone is so friendly. The tour manager is telling them how they're going to be requiring in the contract riders healthier food, which I found vaguely amusing. After a short while, we went to watch the opening act, which to our surprise was... Dennis Miller. Dennis Miller playin' for the dentists. (You can imagine our disappointment when Michael had told us that because this was a private party, we'd have to watch the show from backstage. Aw gee, what a tough break). Dennis Miller was in good form, although I have to admit, I'm not his biggest fan. When he was done, they leapt right into the Neville Brothers. Let me tell you, a roomful of middle-aged dentists is not exactly what I would call the Neville Brothers' ideal audience. I think they all had toothbrushes up their butts, because these people just sat there. During the Neville Brothers! I'm bopping away on the sidelines (they played, among others, "Yellow Moon," "Tipitina's," and "Iko"), getting into the music, and these stiffs in suits are just sitting in their chairs. One woman--a Tipper Gore look-alike--bounced in her chair a little bit, but really that was the only sign of life. These two kids in the front row obviously wanted no part of the whole evening and were dying to get out of there. Toward the end the dentists loosened up a little, especially as Earl, the back-up singer, began his act, with a lot of ass shaking, and then the whole place was clapping along and wiggling in their seats. After the show (with a beautiful encore song of "Amazing Grace/One Love"), we met Charles and Cyrille (Art was already on his way out), and then we said our good-byes and made our way home, because as anyone who knows us even a little bit knows, we are not late-night folk. But this, well, this was definitely worth staying up past bedtime for.