Steve Pearson had the line of the night.

“The next time I see this many old friends in one place it’s gonna be at my funeral.”

British Racing Green opened the sold out New Years Eve show at China Harbor last night. They graced us with several BRG ditties, a few Steve Pearson songs and even dropped a couple Heats standards.

The gang was all there – even though I couldn’t place a lot of the names. Some of those faces you never forget: Rick Smith, Jack Hanna and Marty Waycoff. But a funny thing happened when I ran into someone I hadn’t seen in about 20 years.

My plan was to leave in the middle of the show to meet some other friends at another event, so I showed up early and squatted in a prime location to see that bands – a table clearly reserved for someone more important than me. Everyone was cool when they showed up to claim their table. I struck up a conversation with one of them, Terry Date.

His crew was recording the event. I laughed when he introduced himself because we’ve met several times – though neither one of us recognized each other. I think the last time was about, uh…1988. If you don’t know Terry, he’s one of the best music producers in the business – and still is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Date

So, I promptly bought him a beer and took a few minutes to reminisce. There was the Metal Church release party, and the time Steve Pearson and Pat Hewitt invited me down to Bad Animals while they were recording, “Rough Town.” Well, I think it was “Rough Town” It was all a long time ago. All good memories. Last night was a good memory too.

The faces fade but the memories last forever.