Rob did an exceptional job planning a birthday for me this year beginning with two very great gifts--a necklace and the book The Art of Monsters Inc. Both things that I really wanted but would never have bought for myself. Then he took me to Kennedy's Pub in North Beach for dinner. It's a funny place, Kennedy's is. It doesn't look that great on the outside, or on the inside for that matter, but they have a couple of air hockey games and they serve Indian food. Neither of us had been there before and Rob kept reminding me that it was "Pat's idea", in case it turned out to be crap. (It didn't, incidentally.) Across the street from Kennedy's is Bimbo's 365 nightclub which is a really fun place to see bands. Having just received the workshop schedule from the San Francisco Center For The Book, I was very dangerously trying to walk and read at the same time and so did not notice the marquis at Bimbo's, much to Rob's delight.
Not long after we arrived at Kennedy's, Iain, Parmjeet, Pat, Dina, Bruce and Julia all showed up to have dinner with us. Iain, not so discreetly told Rob "they were sold out when I went this morning but I was able to buy a couple of tickets just now." Something at that point made me believe we might be going to Bimbo's later that evening. This suspicion was confirmed with Pat walked in with a Ticketmaster envelope "almost introducing itself" out of Pat's shirt pocket. Bruce came in saying he hadn't had any luck at all getting tickets.
So while I was certain we were going to Bimbo's I was quite enjoying the suspense of not knowing what I was going to see. I managed to keep my head down all the way across the street, into the building, through the lobby and onto the dance floor right in front of the stage without seeing any signs indicating what tonight's venue was. All that was left, was figuring out the band once they walked on stage.
The opening act was a DJ, or a couple of them, and one of them looked remarkably like the guitar player in Los Amigos Invisibles--a Venezualan funk band we had seen at Bimbo's about five years ago. I asked Rob if it was them playing tonight and he said no. Then all these guys walked on stage and the audience went crazy, holding their hands out to shake hands with the band members, but I didn't recognize any of them (except for the one guy who still looked like the guitar player in LAI). Then the DJ mix segued into the band playing and look, the guitar player looks and SOUNDS like........Hey, it ISVLos Amigos Invisibles!! What a fantastically fun band to see on my birthday!!
After leaving the show, we drove Iain and Parmjeet home and were invited inside for a cup of tea and a FoodSaver demonstration. After vacuum packing a slice of bread, Iain concentrates on vacuum packing a wedding invitation into a lethal weapon. That PhD in engineering is ever so useful. I wonder if his tongue sticks out when he's developing computer chips?
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