Last night I went to see Gomez at the Avalon.  Jason Colton tracked me down.

Do you know Jason?  He used to work with Paluska handing Phish.  Now he’s moved on to Coran’s operation, Red Light Management.  And, in addition to looking after Mike Gordon, he’s taken on Gomez.  Which is why Jason was in L.A.  But not at the Avalon.  When I duly called him when we arrived I found him at In-N-Out.  He couldn’t venture all the way to L.A. and not partake.

We ensconced ourselves in the booth behind the board and waited for Jason to arrive.  Catching David Ford in the process.  Who quite rapidly won over the assembled multitude, changing them from whispering hoi polloi to fans.  Funny when you realize someone’s got talent, after enduring too many wannabes with MySpace sites as I do.

After Mr. Ford finished, twenty minutes after Jason arrived, we went backstage.  To hang with one of the three writers in the band, one of the three guitar players, Tom Gray, who thanked GOD they were off Virgin.  He told me he loved my list of "Don’ts".  And that it was all about relationships.  With friends, ANYTHING was possible.

Funny, you forget it’s about FANS!  And that’s who was at the show.  Bobbing up and down to the numbers, getting in the groove.

Jason said it was a struggle.  Breaking a band that had already been broken.  But they’d gotten "How We Operate" in the finale of "Grey’s Anatomy".  And they sold in excess of 8,000 records the first week, and over 5,000 the second.  There was something THERE!

And one is reminded how the world has shifted.  From radio to the gig.  It’s all happening at the gig.  There’s a vibrancy absent from the airwaves, an IMMEDIACY, that resonates, makes you feel alive, part of a COMMUNITY!

When the show was over we ended up in the upstairs bar.  Where Jason started waxing rhapsodic about roadfood.com, how he didn’t leave home without consulting it first.  And he’d had this SCRUMPTIOUS barbecue over the border in North Carolina, on his way to Asheville.

And after hearing about Jason’s attendance at piano camp in Bennington two years before, we headed out.  And on the way home from Felice’s, in the middle of the night, I heard something unmistakable.  Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler.

I bought "Grievous Angel" when it was released.  But I never purchased a single Emmylou Harris album.  I own every Dire Straits record, I believe it’s about "Making Movies", not "Brothers In Arms", you can’t eclipse "Romeo & Juliet", and I LOVE Mark’s playing on Dylan’s "I and I", but his solo trips of the past few years have not enraptured me.  Oh, there was one great track on the last record, "Boom, Like That", but the rest of the record didn’t make me want to play it again, and if I don’t have that desire, you’ve lost me.

So, I didn’t have high hopes for this Knopfler/Harris collaboration, and listening to Emmylou’s vocal I was reminded of the references to her in Barney Hoskyns’ "Hotel California" and how much I just didn’t get it and THEN, Mark started to WAIL!

It’s not about technique, it’s about FEEL!  And Mark Knopfler lays  down in the groove like a BMW motorcycle on a mountain road.  He locks on, you know he’ll never drift off the apex, never fall, he’s EMBELLISHING!  Without flash he draws no attention, but over time you realize THIS GUY IS FUCKING GREAT!

And then Emmylou comes back in wailing herself.  Like she’s about to reach orgasm, without all that control she normally exhibits.  And then the two of them are singing together and it feels like the backyard barbeque of your dreams, like being in a club thinking how you can’t WAIT to get home and tell everybody you know about your AMAZING EXPERIENCE!

And then Mark’s at it again.  And suddenly, it’s 1985 all over again.  But the music sounds dated not at all.  Sounds as fresh as the "Walk Of Life", but MUCH BETTER!

Oh, I read the endless reams of hype, I knew the album was coming out, but I didn’t need to hear it, but now I knew as soon as I got home I had to DOWNLOAD IT!

But then it got better.  Emmylou and Mark put down their mics.  And Mark went ALL OUT!  But the magic was enhanced by the piano playing underneath.  And then just when you thought the record was over, it WASN’T!  The whole band quieted down.  And the piano player suddenly emerged on top.  It was like a bunch of minstrels were suddenly leaving town and I didn’t want to see them go!  I just stared at the readout, hoping the track wouldn’t end.

It’s this passion that careers are based on.  It’s THIS passion that breaks records.  A NEED to get closer.  Knowing that what’s coming out of the speakers is made by MUSICIANS, that it’s not the product of a committee, but straight from the artists’ souls TO YOU!

First I googled.  I found Mark Knopfler’s U.K. homepage, which didn’t allow me to hear anything, but was offering live downloads in a PC-downloadable format only.  I ask you, what kind of machine did they MAKE this record on?  A MAC!  Find a musician using a PC and you find someone either not Net-savvy, or not happening, or BOTH!

So, I went to MySpace.  After firing up my P2P app and starting a download.  Knopfler has no site.  Not the real Knopfler anyway.  But a FAKE Knopfler does.  THAT’S a fan.  Somebody who establishes a site JUST to exhibit his favorite act’s music.

And the reason I was googling was to find a place where YOU could hear the music.  In case you’re not P2P savvy, or don’t want to waste the time.

Go to: Mark Knopfler MySpace.  "This Is Us" is the second track.

I hope WB doesn’t tell this dude to take the music down.  I hope EVERYBODY posts this music on his site, because then maybe people will HEAR IT!

Twenty years ago, "This Is Us" would have been all over MTV.

But even if there was a station that played a video today, the target audience wouldn’t see it.  How do you reach people who don’t listen to radio?  You’ve got to make the stuff AVAILABLE!

And, PDs at minor AAA stations might e-mail me telling me they’re spinning this, but I guarantee you almost ALL my readers have never heard it.  And you SHOULD!

This is us down at the Mardi Gras
This is us In your daddy’s car

Imagine yourself in New Orleans.  Cutting loose, and having FUN!  Just close your eyes and listen to this record and you will be transported THERE!

This is us on our honeymoon
In our hotel room
Sitting by the wishing well
Checking out of the love motel
Making plans for the Sunshine State
Waiting at the terminal gate
You and me making history
This is us

You’ve been to the love motel.  It’s where you go before you have kids, when you have no obligations, where you get high, randy and rowdy.

Memories are made of this.

And although it might frighten some to see the end of the movie at the beginning, if you make it to Florida when it’s all over, you’ve done quite well.

In between…  You create your life.

Oftentimes it’s dreary.  But if you do it right, there are moments.  Moments with your honey rocking out to great music.  "This Is Us" is that music.

(Meanwhile, go to Gomez and click to listen to "Girlshapedlovedrug", it’s my favorite song on the album.  As I told its writer it reminded me of the Candyskins, which, of course, reminded me of the sixties, and if you’re a fan of that decade, you should hear this.)