Tie that Bind

There we were on the stage. Johny O on drums. Mitch "Renegade" Wesley slapping the bass. DDDedra playing the keyboard. Gordon was wailing on the mouth harp. I was playing guitar and singing. Sure it was only a one song performance but this was actually our second show having played our first gig on Jodee and Cheryl's porch the night before.

As headliners for Bar Church we needed a name. The Acoustic Savages no longer worked because we were electric (in so many ways). The Electric Pirates was an option since Bar Church is where pirates worship. Then it was decreed from on high (the drums are elevated a bit) that the bands name would be ... "FRESH LIVE LOBSTER"!

It was perfect! Our first album will be titled "$3.99/pound".

As we did our sound check, a speaker was set up on Tybrisa Street (which used to be 16th Street and is between 15th and 17th but the Tybrisa family evidently contributed a lot to somebody's re-election campaign. I need to ask Shirley Sessions about this.). When the sounds of FRESH LIVE LOBSTER filled the street on a high tide Sunday morning ...

Surfers dropped their surf boards and ran to Bar Church.

Mothers left their children playing in the waves and followed them.

The place quickly filled and Bar Church hadn't even started yet. So we stopped as the regulars showed up in their bathrobes, bikinis, tee-shirts and flip-flops. They brought with the things necessary to enjoy a church service ... coffee, Bloody Marys, sausage biscuits, Screwdrivers and lots of coffee ... and Bailey's. Gordon has a pocket Bible so that was covered.

DDDedra wowed the crowd with her first solo performance giving the prelude. It was an incredibly soulful rendering of "Color My World" which is so appropriate because if anybody's world is colored it is those of us who attend Bar Church. Our worlds are colored red. Visceen is available with the bulletin.

Samuel Adams grabbed me and embraced me with a smile. He is the coolest dude on the island and is the founder of Bar Church.

"You have have just enough time to grab a drink and kiss a girl," he said. Then he beamed into a bigger smile. "We can use line as another incentive to for people to come to Bar Church."

So I did as he suggested.

Then I grabbed my guitar and joined the band. We did an original song given to us by God. And the packed house were collectively slain in the spirit ... or passed out ... or not really recovered from Saturday night.

But we rocked! And we had fun! Celebration can be contagious and that is what church is supposed to be anyway. So we celebrated.

It was supposed to have been Grass Skirt Sunday but the idea went up in smoke. Evidently Bar Church members confused the kind of grass needed for skirts.

Regardless, there is this collection of friends who came together from different worlds at just the right time. We celebrated one another and shared the celebration with anyone who wished to be a part. When all was said, sung and done, we made our way to the Pier and toasted the majesty of the Cathedral that God built as the blue green ocean kissed the sand. Then we toasted one another. Then we feasted in community together.

Then everybody had to go their way. Life was getting in the way.

But the gift of doing what we did is another tie that binds us all together.

And that really is what it's all about anyway.