Well, a lot happened this weekend so you’re gonna get the highlights in a stream of conscious as fast as I can type them.

Thursday night we gathered at The Curve Inn for the Fun DMC and Friends Friendship Is Magic Tiki Bar Kick Off. The band was joined by a roster of some of the area’s finest artists including:

• Lance Stone of Lick Creek
• Dace Littrell of The Station, The Shenanigans, and The Deep Hollow
• Brian Armstrong , founding member of Fun DMC, now retired
• Janet Morris, formerly of F5, 808
• Brandy Kristen of Brandy Kristen & The Revival
• Dane Vincent of Smashtag
• Peter Scott of Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters
• Liz Christofilakos of The Mix
• Billy Cooper of The Mix

We could not have been more thrilled to share the stage with such a stellar line up of artists. The intensity of each performance increased every time a new face took the stage and Fun DMC had a blast playing the role of the band for all every one of them.

Near the end of the show, I noticed a young woman in a white dress dancing in a circle with her friends. She was soon joined by a young man in a suit and it was apparent we had newlyweds among us. The dance floor was cleared, leaving room for Drew and Amanda to have their first dance. I thought back to how The Curve Inn has served as the venue for so many special moments including Brian Armstrong proposing to Julie, our 100th Show, a spontaneous rendition of “Amazing Grace”, passing out roses to ladies on Mother’s Day, our annual Christmas At The Curve concerts and so many more. Small wonder that as we closed out the night, we asked Ami Merchant to join us on stage for “Sweet Caroline”. Ami has long been a friend of Fun DMC and what she has done to support local music is incredible.

The band wrapped up, loaded out, and had a day to rest (or work) before Saturday night took us to our favorite Taylorville venue, Y-Zoe’s. As promised, our pre-show dinner found us at the local Taco Gringo before firing up the show. Having recently purchased color coordinated scrubs for last weekend’s video shoot, we thought it only right to get some further use out of them for a live performance. They were so comfortable, I will do my best to convince the rest of the band that we should always perform every show going forward in them but I’m sure my campaign will be met with much resistance. Special thanks to Brett, Vanessa, and the Y-Zoe’s crew for having us out.

This Friday night we return to Champaign for a performance at Memphis On Main. Hope to see you there!