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CHICAGO
NATE’S NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
Chicago
was the night that Nate almost lost his life.
For those of you who saw any of the shows, I’m
sure you’ll agree that Nate is one of the most animated
drummers around, not to mention one of the best (in my humble
opinion). Well,
on this particular evening, the drum riser was set up right
in front of what we all assumed was a wall.
This “wall” was covered by a long curtain
and, it had never occured to any one of us to look behind
this curtain. Big mistake. Because
half way through our set that night Nate disappeared! We were nearing the end of the song “Fly
Away”. Andrew, on his keyboards, was lost in a moment
of sublime gospelness (as only he can be).
Daris was weaving in and out of tasty Hendrix allusions
(played with his teeth of course), and Siggy and Nate, on
my cue, were signaling the final downbeat of the song. But
when the music had built as much as it possibly could we
felt a pointed absence.
Something was awry.
There was no big Nate finale to be had.
The guitar and the keyboards petered to a stop and Siggy’s last bass note landed flatly
alone. We all
turned around to see what was going on, only to discover…No
Nate. He had magically disappeared from the
stage in a puff of smoke! As far as we knew there was no
back entrance to the stage so the only feasible explanation
was that he had been abducted by aliens or fallen into some
parallel universe, having finally blasted a hole in the
fabric of time and space with the ruthless violence he bestowed
nightly on his drum kit. We called his name. We asked the
audience if they had seen a strange light in the sky (or
at least on the ceiling over the stage). Everyone was at
a loss. Then,
when we were just about to call the evening to a close,
the curtain behind the drum riser moved..
Suddenly I saw the legs of Nate’s drum stool
push through a crack in the curtain. Two hands placed the stool back on the
riser, followed by none other than our disappearing drummer
Nate! Nate refuses to speak about what
he experienced that fated night of November the 8th,
other than to say “There was no wall; there was a
long tunnel (well okay, a long, steep staircase); and when
I followed the light it led me back to the stage….oh
and my head hurts!”
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