Steep hill....

So I went to another concert the other night, this time put on by long time friend Brent Thompson and considering it was his first concert I gotta say I was extremely impressed. It made me forget all the bitterness that has stayed with me all these years, back when I was also a Brent.
It is a common misnomer that Brent is his actual real name, in reality it is the name of our original act, the Fabulous Brents. The way we got that name is kind of a funny story.

"Hey man, what should we call ourselves?"

“How about the fabulous Brents?”

“Isn’t that a little weird… what about the Fabulous Thunderbirds or something.”

“That’s taken.”

“Oh right, ummm…. Why Brent’s?”

“Well, Brent means steep hill, and our music is pretty steep, you know like it has a lot of meaning and we give people a lot to think about…”

“Dude, what?”

“Seriously, go with it people will love it.”

“Fine.”

And so the Fabulous Brent’s were born, and my ultimate squeezing out began. It became clear that Brent was only keeping me around so that there would be a handsome face to the group, someone people could look at and swoon, that sort of thing. We had a few gigs, here and there, singing in chapel with other people at Bible School, and under some of the girl’s dorm windows, good stuff although it wasn’t really paying the bills. He got a girlfriend ( I stayed single as I felt my responsibility was to the band, and having your “Face-man” being tied down to one woman is bad for business) and it became hard to find time to sit down and collaborate, although let’s be honest it was much more of me letting him steal my stuff by changing key words in the lyrics (like if the lyric was “Girl I think you look like fresh Belgian Waffles he would change it too “For you have called me here, that I should have no fear…” I mean it rhymes but still you can see the similarities.) I will say he could write good tunes, and I let him do that part cause it made him happy. Eventually it was evident that we were drifting apart creatively and I was dissatisfied. I got offered a lucrative contract with IHOP over the whole girl… waffle song and told my partner I was ready to move on. He was pretty upset with me, I suspect he felt much like a small ground squirrel left to fend for itself in the cold Canadian winter but I really felt I had no choice.

The bitterness came in when I went to record at IHOP. I show up, and they are all like, “Where’s the other guy?” to which I said, “Other guy?” Apparently they wanted the “talented” guy (their words, not mine) to come along too. I told them we had split up and they told me there was no work for me. Dejected I sat for a plate of homestyle buttermilk pancakes with Strawberry syrup (I was too upset for waffles) before heading back to school. My partner and I remained in contact but things weren’t the same after that. I had heard he was doing well and I did OK.

After a while I had heard he was releasing a CD, and I wondered if he could really pull it off, and he did, although the absence of freshly baked European breakfast foods really brings it down a notch for me. Still it was a solid release. I then heard he was doing a concert at James’ house, and the guy must have a big ego because he has this huge freakin sign out front that says “House of James”. He also has a lot of books and CD’s too, wow, nerd. Anyway, I went with a buddy of mine, and I was skeptical at first but I must admit his music had both steep and hilly parts that I enjoyed. “Brent” put on a good show. To be honest I think it is a much better name than the one I know him by…. Bojangles Dittenhoofer.


In all seriousness, it was a great show and I really enjoyed myself. The music was awesome, the band was good, and I firmly believe that one day I will be able to say, “I know that guy! We go for waffles together!