A few weeks ago, a couple allowed me to live out my longtime fantasy of playing at the Boston Opera House. When I first moved to Boston at the age of 18, the very first concert I ever saw (and practically the first time I was ever on the T) was Miles Davis at the Boston Opera House. In fact, a few weeks before moving to Boston, I had met the bass player Darryl Jones (who currently plays with a little dance band called the Rolling Stones) at a Sting concert in Pennsylvania. I went down to the Opera House the afternoon of the show, found him backstage and reminded him of our previous encounter. I ended up watching the whole show from the wings of the stage with an all- access pass and even met Miles Davis. Fast forward to 2009 and, my ballet chops not being what they once were, I had not yet had occasion to perform at the Opera House until a very cool couple named Lara and Jon hired Flipside to play their wedding reception there.

Lara is, in fact a photographer who shoots rock and roll people and weddings (check out thestudionouveau.com if you’d like to see her work) and Jon is in a rawking dub- heavy band called Destroy Babylon who have toured with The Wailers, Lee Perry and many cool reggae artists. This couple did everything right to personalize their wedding and make sure everybody had a wonderful time. The vibe was the opposite of uptight. The groomsmen all wore very natty suits with Chuck Taylors and looked fantastic. From the bandstand, it was easy to tell that everybody in the room cared deeply for this couple and were ready to have a great time. They had Flipside set up in the center of the stage with tables one either side of us. The caterers did a great job of running their very busy show in the wings of a commercial theatre, with scrims and screens placed strategically so that none of the guests saw all the work going into the event. The whole night was a blast, but of particular note was the first dance. The cocktail hour was in the lobby of the Opera House and then they invited all the guests to come in and sit close to the stage. We played “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney as the curtains opened on them already dancing. I’m a giant McCartney/Beatles fan and had seen him at Fenway Park the week before, so I was totally pumped to sing that one for them, and it was really a beautiful moment. The little moments that the band gets that the guests don’t see are what makes this job special. Lara and Jon going over their dance just one last time with our piano player, little nervous giggles and all, and then they totally nailed it. Lara promises to send video when it is edited, so we’ll post that at some point as part of my series: “great moments in first dance history”. In the meanwhile, check out the video footage I show with my little flip camera. This shows some of the operations backstage, the centerpieces (vintage cameras, a very cool touch) and a bit of music from a viewpoint that the rest of us do not get to see: the drum stool. Lara and Jon had a photo spot set up in one corner where their guests could put on funny wigs and hats and take a photo. Of course, people started walking around with the props and this video will show that sometimes all it takes is one man with a phony mustache to turn a background dinner song (on ukulele, no less) into a full- on dancing romp.