Weekend break to party

The night the Lone Star State's most honorable guv Rick Perry threatened to secede from the U.S., we had tickets to hear the Texas-based Flatlanders at the Birchmere and thought we'd best get on our boots and get in the car before the Flatlanders needed passports. (Not that that would/could ever happen. The Flatlanders are way too cool to heed Rick Perry's raving ramblings.) Now that I'm older I love that the Birchmere (we'd been there already once this week for the Felice Brothers) makes people keep quiet in the main music hall and not block my view with annoying over-jubilant "dance" movements. I could totally focus on the warble of Jimmie Dale Gilmore's pure, angelic voice singing "Dallas" (okay, i jumped out of my seat and gave a Texas shout-out); when Joe Ely broke into the encore song "Gimme a Ride To Heaven Boy," the packed house gave in to pent-up energy and hit the floor hands in the air. The crescendo came when all five guitarists and fiddle player (and warmup act) Jenny Scheinman jammed to a frenzied mid-show climax. A woman at the next table said, "They're really good," and I realized, hello, drinking beer and downing burgers at the table right next to us was a whole table of long-time Bethesda friends. We caught up, and then those folks started ta lking to a man at the table behind them because they regularly see each other at the same bus stop on Old Georgetown Road. I wondered, “How many more of us are here anyway?” Wow, just think, if we had a music venue here, hmmm, let's say maybe in Silver Spring, we could all go there and not only buy tickets, but salads, burgers, Stellas, Buds, T-shirts and CDs--and we'd only have to drive a couple of miles. But so far, not happening. So we make the drive out to the Birchmere on a regular basis. And we love it. The Birchmere keeps on delivering the goods. And in MoCo, we remain grateful not only for the music, but for an excuse to wear cool boots and serendipitously catch up with neighborhood friends.

www.birchmere.com

theflatlanders.com