Wednesday - the day the Subaru got smooshed - was also the day Sons Of Nothing was to perform at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City as part of their Come Alive summer concert series.

The original plan for our family was that I would go up to the Gallivan Center as early as I could to help get things set up for the show and then Christine would bring the kids up a little later to watch the show. The kids had been talking about going to this concert for a long time.

Not having a car really messed things up and stressed me out. I called Stephen and asked him if he'd be willing to take me and my gear downtown, but by the time he got to my house, I was worried he wouldn't have time to take me up there, go get his girlfriend, and come back to see the show. My stress was rubbing off on Christine and she wasn't sure she wanted to go anymore. Eli had been acting cranky since the car accident.

It just wasn't looking great.

In the end, however, I got Christine to go with me. We didn't get up to the Gallivan Center until after 6:30. Double Helix was supposed to start performing at 7, so I was really short for time. I very, very quickly set up my equipment including the projector. Double Helix's sound check went a bit long- which helped some as well.

Christine wasn't having a lot of fun because the kids were pulling her every which direction. Eli wanted to run around. Lucy went into one of the portable potties without telling anyone and freaked Christine out for a couple of minutes.

After Sons Of Nothing started playing, I went and got Lucy and Maya and led them up to the dance floor in front of the stage where some other kids were dancing and having fun. They loved it! Christine and Eli soon joined them and had some fun too. Whenever there was a gap in between video cues or whatever, I would come out from backstage and hang with them. It was fun!

Christine hadn't seen the band since... probably 2003. She said they're a lot better than they were before. It's no surprise to me, though. The band has had a lot of practice in front of lots of different crowds.

The crowd at the Gallivan Center loved the show and wanted more, but city noise ordinances wouldn't allow for anything past 10 p.m. so the band had to stop playing before the planned set was complete. Thom was really peeved about that, but I think the enthusiasm of the crowd made up for it to some extent.

The all-ages thing was a big hit! In my opinion, we need to seek (or create) more opportunities to play to such crowds. The energy and feedback from the crowd just makes it a better show than when the band is playing to a bunch of "drunk off their ass" folks in a smoke-filled bar.

It was also nice getting home at a semi-decent hour. ;-)