Lento's Eleven

First, to fully get the reference, you have to have seen Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, so if you haven't, get up and go watch it. It's one of the best caper movies of all time, don't worry, it's not time wasted. I'll switch paragraphs to give you enough time.

Are we cool? Good. That scene at the end, where they're all together, maybe for the last time, but you know they have a friendship that is beyond even that - since the Velvet Underground tribute shows I was a part of this summer, it seems I now have that as well. It's a fucking awesome feeling.

What it was was this: a bunch of musicians, each used to either fronting their own projects or being an integral part of a HUGE one getting together to play VU songs, each taking turns singing. When ringleader Allan Lento, who has shared countless solo bills with me over the past 5 years, came to me with the idea, in 2009, I was already in. Time passed, and I thought the project had just disintegrated into nothing, until I got a call to join in on jam sessions in May for a June show.

But now it also included maestro Dave Lines on keys, Jordi Rosen on backing vocals and accordion, Will Austin on lead guitar, Patrick Hutchinson also on guitar, my favourite non-millionaire drummer in the world Jackie Gallant, Ingrid Wissink on violin, Richard Rigby on mandolin, Triangles Stuart on bass, Cassie Doubleday on percussion, and Zuzu Knew on viola and doing projections. And we had a blast.

And then we had a second show, at the request of the venue, but Ingrid couldn't make it, yet Luca Fantigrossi was added on bass and the extraordinary Caroline Glass on viola, wind instruments, and on the receiving end of accidentally spilled drinks.

Essentially, it was a supergroup.

And just like the movie, where Lento is Clooney - the brains behind it all, the one guy who puts the team together - then Lines became Pitt, the too-hot-to-look-at second-in-command who seamlessly ends up taking charge of the actual operation when it's running, the master of ceremony of sorts.

Since then, whenever one of us has a show, most of the rest show up and, each time, it feels like a reunion of long-lost friends. New bands have been started between bands members - Jackie alone now backs 3 groups made from these alliances, and I'm kind of jealous I didn't ask her myself the first time we played together, but I was too shy.

And all of this stemmed from a simple, innocent idea from Allan; all he wanted to do was have a good time with good people playing good music. And in the end, he made us into 13 friends who call each other's names out when we're on stage and we see them in the crowd - just because we're so happy to see one another.

It feels great each time. Thanks, Allan. Happy birthday. From the formerly-Lento's Eleven, now Lento's Thirteen.