Happy New Year!
I hope you all ushered in 2006 appropriately, whether with alcohol and revelry or simply quiet meditation (or just the Honeymooners marathon on Channel 11.)
I was invited by Chris Gibson to emcee at CBGB's which - if the courts and the new lease are to be believed - will be the last New Year's Eve there, with the 315 Bowery location closing forever on Halloween 2006.
Chris put together a bill of familiar Hoboken faces - End of October, Butterspy, Crewman #6 and his own band, High Speed Chase - all of whom cranked it up a notch for the special occasion. The crowd was excellent - the place was packed and everybody was in a party mood. I rocked a tune on the acoustic (Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life,) which seemed appropriate, and medley'd it with the Ramones' "Questioningly," which also seemed appropriate) and got to do the countdown at midnight and bring in the new year. Very cool.
The night was even more fun because my friend Lucy Rayberg came up from Atlanta GA for the event. She smuggled in a bottle of Jaegermeister in her purse and damn near polished the whole thing off by herself. I had about six beers and two Jaeger shots myself, so I was feeling no pain, but Lucy was absolutely toasted. Fun times.
After midnight, Black Market Radio - which features Chris Cornell's lookalike brother Peter on guitar/vocals - rocked a hard set of metallic rock. Their debut Cd drops soon and I suspect this band is going to be pretty huge. I was supposed to do another song after that but the last band of the night - whose name somehow escapes me - decided to be assholes and started playing as soon as they soundchecked, even though they saw me introduce all the other bands and I was standing right next to the stage with my guitar around my neck. Oh well. If that's the last time I ever get to stand on CBGB's stage, at least it was a memorable experience.

Lots of good rockin', good health, and good times in 2006. May Mother Nature be a little kinder to us this year, and hopefully we can all be a little kinder to one another too.