Finals!!!

Phase 2 lost by 2 points. Check out http://www.panonthenet.com/tnt/2007/summary.htm to see results and hear samples of the bands. (Mostly just the introductions).
We are all disappointed. Being so close it seems we should have had it. Everyone has ideas of what went wrong. I have some too, but it would be unwise to speak them so soon on an open forum. Passions are still too high. Either way, I think most feel that it should have been ours. Some say that the judges would never let us have the championship 3 times in a row, the "hat-trick" as they say.
Sometimes, when onstage, the "magic" just happens, and EVERYONE feels swept away by the music. That has almost happened in practice. But when it happens in performance, there is no questioning it. But to get there requires work and discipline. And even then it's unpredictable. Sometimes you got it...
Either way the experience is really quite beyond explanation. This, and last years, are up in the ranks of the most exciting performances of my life. Many things are involved that take it up to that level. The location, the crowds surrounding you as you play, the hype that you see in the media, and not least of all the talk, the “vibe” of the band and its supporters, up to and including the “psyching up” and the energy onstage right into the count off, the “knocking” on the pan by Boogsie as he gives us the start. It IS intoxicating!

I've included some pictures. There's me and Rayann, who played next to me on the rhythm stand, (where the drum set, congas and iron play). There's also one of pushing the racks onto the stage. It was a long push from where we assembled the band to the stage.