On Friday night, my niece, my nephew-in-law and I traipsed downtown to a extremely sketchy area to support our friends at their first gig.

I've known Nadia and Dan since they were in junior high. Nadia sang at my niece's wedding...she has a gorgeous voice. Deep and soulful. Full of promise. I hope with time she will really get somewhere with it.

Dan is a bit closer of a friend. He's my nephew-in-law's best bud, and we spend a lot of time together last summer when he was living close by. He'd lost his license (boys and speed, dangerous combination!) so I helped him out. Great guy...and part of me wishes the age difference was a bit less. In fact, he was practically living at my place when I left for Hawaii last year. Nothing has ever 'happened' but the spark is there. Just too damned young, though. And besides, the friendship with my niece and her husband makes me a bit reticent as I would not want anything to come between that.

This place was, um, character building. It's a dark, dank roadhouse-type joint that allows young and inexperienced talent try out their stuff. Sort of an open mike idea. Mostly, though, the clientelle they get are along the lines of Eminem-wannabes. When Nadia got up and started to sing a gospel tune, it was probably not the best choice. In fact, a heckler yelled 'STRIP!' as soon as she started. But she continued, and we did 'The Wave' for her. They went on to do John Lennon's Imagine and another beautiful song about missing someone. In fact, so beautiful I am going to have to find out the name of it. I felt so proud of Nadia though...in that rough environment, she continued to sing and the more people heckled her, the stronger her voice became. I teased her after that I'll keep the pics so she can remember where she started.

I am glad we went though. It was one of those moments that you realize that supporting friends is just so important.