YESTERDAY . . . LAST NIGHT

Way back in November, on Thanksgiving Eve, the missus and I took a little road trip across our town line into the sprawling Boston suburb of Dedham . . . specifically to a truly nondescript watering hole called Rick’s Pub. From the outside it looked like it could be a bikers bar, though there were no “bikes” to be seen. And inside there were no known bikers to be seen either among the rather thin (not to be confused with slim) crowd. Feeling conspicuous enough entering what appeared to be a rough-and-tumble milieu (“milieu”—a word probably never before used to describe that joint), we were made to feel even more so when the live music stopped as we stepped inside the door and a voice announced over the speaker system: “Well, the riff-raff just arrived . . .” Not easily taken aback, I asked the missus: “Does the singer in the band know us?”

Well, it turns out it wasn’t the singer’s voice that welcomed us into that world so irreverently—it belonged to the rhythm guitarist (and occasional soloist—see below), an old friend who was the real magnet drawing us out of ourselves and into that hole-in-the-wall. We go back almost 30 years with Chris . . . so aptly enough the band he plays in is named “Yesterday”—and the music they play is “classic rock”: hits mostly from the ’60s and ’70s. (As it turns out, we also go back quite a few years with the drummer, Dan—and even further with his wife, Vicki, a student of mine 23 years ago: it was an added treat to see her that evening . . .) “Yesterday” covers an impressive range of bands: The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Cream (and other Clapton-centric configurations), the Kinks, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Paul Revere and the Raiders . . . and whatever the fella at the end of the bar is having. And they cover them well. The whole evening was . . . “classic”; but for us the musical highlight was Chris’s marvelous note-for-note rip-off of Eric Clapton’s searing solo on the Yardbirds’ version of “Ain’t Got You”: utterly smokin’! (When we got home I even jacked up the original on my iPod so my daughters could be impressed with Chris in absentia . . .)

But . . . did I describe that visit to Rick’s Pub as a “road trip”? Maybe I should have said “field trip”—as in Sociology 101. The first lesson of the evening occurred immediately when, belly up to the bar, I received a supercilious response from the barman when I requested a Guinness: “supercilious” and “Guinness,” two more words probably never before used with reference to Rick’s Pub. So we settled on a couple of Buds . . . possibly the best (certainly the coldest) bottles of beer we’ve ever had. The lessons continued after we took our seats “down front,” right at the edge of the makeshift dance floor, and found ourselves quite literally part of the sideshow of happily tipsy women (of every age, size and shape) gyrating around that small space. (The very few men in the place hit the floor only for the slow dances.) At more than one point I was sure I was going to be lap-danced by a blonde with a gold bellybutton-ring and an interesting tattoo across her lower back. . . . As it turns out, we were also quite literally part of the main show as we quickly discovered that the band’s sound man, who was set up at a table right behind us, also plays tambourine and sings background vocals: now, that's what I call "surround sound"! Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, though as we were driving home, I said to the missus: “I am truly at a loss for words” to describe the overall experience—the setting, the people, the motley crew of the band. I’m still mostly at a loss for words!

But that didn’t stop us from slipping out to Rick’s Pub last night to see “Yesterday” again. And again it was fun: this time Chris’s wife Kathy was there, along with Dan’s wife Vicki—as I said to Dan during one of the breaks, at least I can claim the evening as a “date” with my wife: I doubt that, being married to boys in the band, either Vicki or Kathy would think that way about their night out! The crowd was even thinner (again, not slimmer) this time and no one graced the dance floor during the two sets we heard. But the vibe was still in the room . . . for now. Alas, rumor has it that Rick’s Pub has been sold and will become a “Wings” franchise within a couple of weeks. I wonder if the finger-lickin’ patrons of that joint will hear an echo of The Beatles tune that I assume lent “Yesterday” its name: “Now I need a place to hide away, Oh, I believe in yesterday . . .”