I had assumed I was heading toward the usual Friday night routine of XBox and Netflix, my faithful companions. Then I got a text from Reed, inviting me out to hear his roommate play a gig at Momo’s. It is always a good idea to say yes to Reed because a good time is assured.

I had never heard his roommate, Laura Lee Imhoff, play before and was curious how she sounded.  Fantastic, as it turns out. The bar above Katz’s Deli went from empty to full in the space of 15 minutes as people came in to hear this gorgeous voice akin to Annie DiFranco at the height of her power. Isaac and his fiancée Darla showed up, as did Shaggy. After the gig there was some milling about on the patio before it was decided that Isaac, Darla, Reed and I go down to the deli for a sandwich.

They thought they were introducing me to a long-standing Austin fixture, but halfway through the meal (I had a tasty pot roast sandwich), I realized that Katz’s was the very first place I had eaten in Austin, even before moving here. When Dave and I came out for Butt-Numb-A-Thon, that’s where we had eaten breakfast. Isaac and I had a great conversation about the works of Alan Moore and shared our horrified reactions to Frank Miller’s All Star Batman and Robin.

Isaac and Darla called it a night. Just as they left Shaggy and his friend walked up and invited us along to a Rock Band party. So off we went. Shaggy wasn’t sure exactly how to get into the apartment complex where the party was happening. No problem. We just ran into a girl he happened to know and she gave the entry code and coordinates.

This was a really slick pad with two beers on tap out on the balcony. Two of the people at the party were bartenders and there were about 50 bottles of liquor on the kitchen counter. But never mind the drinks and the hot girls. I need to tell you about the Rock Band setup. Big flatscreen, okay, I’ve seen those. Wireless mic, nice. Full size and weight replica guitar, wow. Someone actually bought the stage kit with colored lights and smoke machine? Hold on. What’s that in the corner? Is that the Ion drum set? No. Better. It was a complete Roland drum kit modded to play Rock Band. It had its own 19″ LCD display for the game. Amazing. Reed and I jumped in for a couple of songs. But then we headed back out.

We hung out at Molotov for a while and watched all the twenty-somethings do their thing before leaving to check out the new Ginger Man and people our own age. The new Ginger Man is actually an improvement over the original. They kept the warm vibe, the reading room, the hundreds of taps, etc. But the patio is better, there’s a kind of lounge now and the overall flow is nicer. We had a few drinks there and then headed back to our cars.

Good times.