The Dark Side

Played a solo gig last night and it went okay. Once I finished packing my shit and loaded it out, it was 1:15. I considered my options. I could’ve gone home (Tatooine) and gotten a decent night’s sleep, but I decided to see if my friend Jyl was working at The Garage (Alderaan) and have one more beer. She was off last night and it was emptying out (“The coordinates say Alderaan but it ain’t there”), so I got back in my car and drove down the street. Just around the corner, I saw the bright sign through the trees and there it was – The Nick a.k.a. the Death Star (“That’s no moon…it’s a space station”). Like the Death Star, The Nick represents the dark side of the force. Also like the Death Star, that place has a tractor beam- once it has a hold of you, there’s no escape.

Inside, The Nick really is more like the Cantina at Mos Eisley spaceport, complete with characters that you just never seem to catch a glimpse of during normal daylight hours (“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy- we must be cautious”). I walked in and immediately saw my buddy Allen behind the soundboard. The band finished a song and said “Goodnight”. Cool. Since I didn’t see anyone else I knew, I figured I could just hang with Al for a little while. After all, it was now 1:45. Wrong. It’s The Nick, so naturally there was another band coming on at 2:00.

I sauntered up to the bar. It was nearly 2:00, I’d only had 4 or 5 beers and I was pretty sober, so it was best that I stick to just drinking beer. “I’ll have an Absolut and water with a lime, please.” The force is strong at that place.

I watched the band from the soundboard and they were actually really good. They were a band from San Diego called Dirty Sweet. These guys were really going after that Black Crowes-ish 70’s vibe. In fact, I felt like I was watching a scene out of Almost Famous with Stillwater. Meanwhile, I kept mindlessly walking back to the bar and ordering more drinks (“We don't need to see his identification- these aren't the droids we're looking for”).

The next thing I knew, it was 3:45 and I’d had four vodka drinks. Somehow, I was able to make myself leave. Getting out of there at 3:45 is actually an accomplishment- the last time I was there I didn’t leave until 5:30. So I crawled into the Corolla (“She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts, kid- I've made a lot of special modifications myself”) and drove back to Tatooine.