Where I probably should NOT have been....

My friend, Kristi, called me a few weeks ago and invited me to go and hear her niece play at a club. Cool, I thought, a few of us girls going out to hear her niece play piano at a nice little place where we could enjoy the company of other mothers and a nice cup of coffee. I really think in my head that I was thinking, "coffee shop" music or something like that. So, Kristi calls last Sunday night and tells me that everyone else has dropped out of going except for me. That's fine, we will have a great time anyway. We were off and stopped and picked up her sister on the way...still having a great time, talking about church, children's ministry and family. Then we start getting to the neighborhood where the place she is playing at is located. Yeah, should have been a HUGE warning sign...Flashing light saying, "Warning, DANGER!!" but of course, we were going to hear her niece play, so it didn't matter that there were people dealing drugs right beside where we wanted to park. Yes, we found a different spot and then realized that the club we were going into would probably be smoky and didn't want out coats to get all gross so we left them in the car. Yet another mistake, because it was 35 degrees outside Sunday night! But, we ran into the place, oh, you want to know the name of the place? It was called, The Curtain Club, in Deep Ellum, the Club district of Dallas, Texas. Still with me?

We were freezing, waiting for the lady who worked at the door of the club to let us in because I didn't have any I.D. with me....why would I need I.D., I'm a mom and I'm 33! I mean really, do I look like I'm under 21? Don't answer that question....we walked in the door and I'm not kidding, once you see though the smoke haze and get your bearings to the nearest corner where you want to hide from the mosh pit in the front of the stage, we heard the F word about 20 times in less than 2 minutes. I honestly think these guys were going for some kind of record or something. So, we stuck around for about 5 more minutes, could not understand any words of the songs that the band was playing except for the bad ones, and then the rest of Kristi's family showed up and we all went outside to huddle together. Her brother in law found us a "safe" restaurant/bar to go and stay warm in while we waited for her niece to play. We sat, out of the wind and shared a pitcher of Dr. Pepper with Kristi's sister's Mother-in-law, whom they lovingly call "Me Me." All Me Me could say was, "I hope the Lord doesn't come tonight and see us in that place!" Several times. It was getting to be quite funny. It was even funnier when we saw her for the first time in the Curtain Club and she had ear plugs in her ears. Of course, now I think that was a pretty great idea because the other music in that club was NOT worth listening to that evening. I honestly would not even call it music, it was more like yelling into a microphone.

Of course, you know, all I could do was laugh. There were about 25 of us there to hear Kristi's niece play and we were having a fun time despite the situation that we were in at the time. Someone in their family commented, "I think that the people in the club can smell the church on us." Yes, still laughing.

Kristi's niece's name is Allie Farris, by the way, and she was in a "Battle of the Bands" competition that night. When we got back over to the scary club, it was about time for Allie's group to get up and play. It was so worth the wait. Allie (and her band) were so different from the other bands that had played before them. Allie plays the keyboard and sings her own music that she has written. She is AMAZING! I was blown away by her playing and her music. So, despite being scared to death to go in this club and listen to her play, it was a great experience. I would call her a Alicia Keys/Norah Jones type of player, but she is so much younger and has SUCH a great career ahead of her. I really encourage ya'll to click on the link in her name and hear some of her songs. She and her band won the battle of the bands contest that night and now they are in the finals. The winner of the contest gets recording time in a real studio. I don't think that Allie and her band mates will have to worry...they blew away the competition that night and me!! Thanks Kristi for a fun and VERY memorable late Sunday night!!