June 18th marked the final show at Knappuccino's Coffeehouse.

It's bittersweet, you know?

The night started out with Delaware's own B'Gosh, which is Sam Williamson, Dan McCool and Alex Vallejo. Special guest Joe Trainor played a few with them, because it wouldn't be a Knappuccino's without a Trainor appearence! B'Gosh rocked the house in their funky, quirky way, and I'm so happy they finally got to grace my stage. I love these guys. Anyone who plays a saw in their concert wins my vote.

Headlining the night was Andrew Durkin's band, The Industrial Jazz Group. Knappuccino's was the final night of their east coast tour-- they came all the way from Los Angeles in support of the group's third album, The Star Chamber (released September 2004 by Innova Recordings), while providing a preview of their currently in-process work, Industrial Jazz-a-Go-Go. We held the coffeehouse in the sanctuary (which is also fitting, considering The Sanctuary was the name of the first studio in NJ that Andrew and I recorded in circa 1986), and it was simply way cool. They even let me sing a few with them, which made me very, very happy.

I met Andrew in high school-- he was my brother's friend. All the girls had secret crushes on him and his mad piano skills. In his senior year he wrote a rock opera in which I took a part, and since then (1987!) we have been collaborating musically. Together we formed bands under 100 names and incarnations: jazz combos, studio-only pop bands, funky vocal ensembles and experimental music entanglements; most notably The Evelyn Situation and Jay's Booming Hat. Andrew moved to California in 1995 and we even collaborated long-distance, and in 1998 released a four-track experimental pop disc called "Gruel" on the Superpickle Music Arts label.

Andrew has not only my life's musical inspiration for almost 20 years, but he is also a cherished friend. It's with great pride that I close up my coffeehouse by sharing the stage with the guy who made my musical aspirations a reality.

I was so happy we had a good turnout for the last show.

A million thanks to all my patrons over the two-year run, and also to the incredible performers who have graced my stage. It's been awesome, and you made a dream come true for me.

Peace.