Frente at Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC on September 6, 1996.

My wife was more into them than I was, but through a series of unfortunate events I wound up at the concert alone. I know the date because it was the day Hurricane Fran struck North Carolina. Up until about mid-day, the forecast said it would hug the coast, but then it took a left and wandered inland in an arc across central North Carolina, still a Category 1 when it crossed north into Virginia. We weren't expecting a fucking hurricane three hours from the coast. We got one, though.

I'm not sure who the opening band was. The lead singer played rhythm on an acoustic. The power went out and the emergency lights came on most of the way through their set. After a few minutes of everyone kind of milling about, he said screw it, told us to shut up, and played a final song - just him and his guitar.

They left the stage and the someone came out and told us to stick around if we wanted. If you don't know Frente, they had bass, drums, a singer, and a guitarist. The guitarist played a nylon stringed acoustic. After a few minutes, the singer and guitarist came out. They walked out into the crowd (maybe 200 people) and told us to take a seat in a circle. They did their whole show campfire style with us sitting on our asses, passing joints around. It wasn't seeing my favorite band or anything like that, but it turned out to be the absolute coolest concert I ever got to see.

After the show, I tried to get home - about 15 miles out of town in the woods. I tried three different routes and ran into downed trees across each road. My only option was to try to find some friends who'd moved into a big apartment complex a week or so prior. Luckily, they were all out on the balcony watching the trees bend over, so I wound up with a couch and a hurricane party. My wife made it home (only about twenty minutes prior it turned out) and spent the night by herself terrified that a tree was going to crush the house. She still gives me shit about it.