A good time was had by all.

Last night I met Ed at a terrible little club in Silver Spring to see Brave Combo. I believe that a good time was had by all, possibly even by the smokers at the bar who weren't paying attention to anything other than their cigars.

The place was awful, to put it mildly. It's supposed to be an Irish pub. Whatever. It had a lot of green neon and it served up Guinness on tap that several patrons remarked was at the right temperature. On the whole, the only thing worth mentioning was that the service was really slow.

The crowd seemed old to me, but I'm used to Fruvous show, where I'm older than most of the crowd by ten years.

Brave Combo took the stage in the dark and started playing. The dark didn't seem to bother the band, but after a few songs, they asked if there were any stage lights, and found somebody to turn them on. At the same time, Carl requested that the televisions in the back be turned off and asked if those people were paying attention. He was clearly having a great time, but then, you expect that.

They played two great sets, both a lot of fun. How cool is this: A room full of mostly adults, probably a lot of real estate brokers and computer geeks, getting down to the funkiest Hokey Pokey I've ever heard. It's so great to be in a room with a person who's so over the top about the music he's playing. Carl Finch is that kind of person. Every time they were going to do a polka, he'd tell us something about the song: "Down at the Friendly Tavern" was originally recorded by Lawrence Welk, "The Westview Polka" is named for a Slovakian neighborhood outside Cleveland, "People Are Strange" is by Jim Morrison and the Doors.

You didn't know that "People Are Strange" could be a polka, did you? Did you know that "Sixteen Tons" rocks? Well, it does.

People were dancing last night, and I noticed something interesting. In many of the couples dancing together, the man seemed to be the better dancer. Actually, a fair number of the women were shuffling their feet and way out of time with the songs. I danced a little, but as I was wearing my new Birks, I found my ability to move laterally somewhat limited. I'll also admit that I got dizzy in the "turn yourself around" part of the Hokey Pokey.

That's just so lame...

I left the club feeling better than I'd felt in weeks. The Combo is a nearly seamless ensemble with a charming, almost casual delivery. The second set was filled with requests and nothing about the show seemed to be done by rote. I particularly appreciated that. Overall, the show was refreshing when I needed to be refreshed.

before - after