A Pretty Decent Night All-Around

Barbara got home from work an hour early on Friday, then we headed out to dinner at six. The restaurant wasn’t high on our list of preferred dining spots, but since they’d sent us a card good for $15 off, we figured we could get away fairly inexpensively. I had fish, shrimp, and chips; Barbara had calimari and chips, and we each had a nice G&T. Plus, the weather was perfect for eating outside on the patio.

Then it was off to the Crystal Ballroom for the Ray Davies acoustical set. Our seats were in the fifth row; Davies was thirty-odd feet away, and we were right next to the divider he walked behind on his way to the stage. A great mix of old Kinks tunes and material off his “Working Man’s Cafe” album, with lots of encouraged sing-along.

There was an added bonus, too. When I shouted out “Cowboys in Vietnam” mid-show, Davies launched smoothly into the intro to “Vietnam Cowboys” from “Working Man’s Cafe.” So apparently, I can control his mind, at least in close proximity.