Miss Jacquelyn and I began the day of the storm watching the waves crash around the Balinese Room, until it got too dark to see what was happening. As we sat down to supper, the news announced that "Everyone still on Galveston Island faced certain death". After we were finished eating, we moved to the back porch to watch this bad boy named Ike unfold. The yard flooded as the eye approached, but we were very lucky because, the water didn't quite make it into our house! When we went to bed, after the back edge of the eye wall had passed directly over us, we had no idea what we would see in the daylight.
The first indication of how bad things really were was when we saw that the Balinese Room was gone! That magnificent part of Galveston's past had stood its ground against every hurricane to come our way since 1923! When we realized what had happened, we could only hope that the local music community could bounce back from this storm after losing one of our most enduring symbols!
As we toured areas north of Broadway, we saw just how bad the flooding had been closer to the Harbor; the losses were staggering! Would the City be able to recover from this? It wasn't long after that when we saw members of the Gonzalez family and said that Willie needed to return from San Antonio, because we needed some spiritual nourishment in this time of stress and trauma; we needed Rock and Roll!
The next day, we drove by The Spot and saw Dennis and his crew cleaning up and getting ready to open. It was most encouraging to see it open the next day. There was at least one live-music venue that had survived and was open for business!
The next day, Willie called, and I told him that The Spot was open, and that we needed some Rock and Roll. It was my hope that he and Stacy and Jeff would return soon. He said that he would call Dennis and see if they could put something together.
A few days later Mark Lee called to say that his house in Jamaica Beach had survived, and that all of his guitars and amps had made it through the storm without damage! These were all good omens of a return of the live-music business to our battered and bruised island.
Do to the lack of local phone and Internet service, Willie was unable to let me know that The Line Up launched the new music season at The Spot last Sunday! The even better news, for those of us who missed it, is that they will be playing again this Sunday, 05 October, from 3 to 7 pm!
You don't want to miss this one! Come on out and join us, this Sunday at The Spot, 3-7 pm!