Cents and Sensibility, Day 18. Here's to good friends.

My friend Anne had two extra tickets to Ray Lamontagne at Red Rocks last night, and she asked me if I wanted to come along and bring a friend. 

I couldn't say yes fast enough!

Anne and I go way back. We met in high school, and by my calculations, we've been friends for 33 years. Way back in the Dark Ages, back in the '70s, when times were cheaper and our motivation was high, we went to our share of concerts. Anne and I went to Rush concerts together, whenever they were in town. She'd imagine herself as the female Geddy Lee.

My friend Erin joined us last night. Both Erin and I repeatedly asked if we could pay Anne back for the tickets, but she mentioned that she didn't want to mess up my project. That's just Anne. Generous, supportive, hilarious, wry, smart-as-a-whip Anne. She couched inviting us to the show by saying she was supporting the project, but I don't quite buy that. Anne's a giver, plain and simple.

What a great show. Brandi Carlile opened up, and her pal Shawn Colvin made an unexpected appearance.

I bought a beer during intermission. A $7 Coors in a plastic bottle. Times have changed.

As for Ray, he rocked it. He's not much of a talker. Other than an occasional "thank you very much" in between songs, the only other patter he provided was a random, "fucking Wikipedia. You guys know everything." Because his birthday is today, and a group of merry pranksters in the audience, way up front, sang him a birthday song.

He's kind of eccentric, with the look of a guy who might work at Tattered Cover.

I took some nice pictures of our time with Ray.

As for how the past meets the present, Anne and I have sepia snapshots of who we were then, all the crazy crap we did, tucked away nicely in our heads.

Here's to good, old friends. Let's both nod and smile knowingly about the past.

And here's to another few decades of friendship.

The past is good, but the present is so much better.