After collapsing on the bed and trying to dream away the nightmare trip home, I woke up in the kind of daze that can only be attained from being awake for 25 hours straight. I happily showered off the coating of covid, monkey pocks, polio, and plague that may have settled on my flesh and hair during the forced extra long airport experience. I put on some fresh clothes and made my way down to the 5 Spot $2 Tuesday, for the very last time.

I was meeting my neighbor and a few friends to have a late birthday celebration, so I decided to bring my small, kind-of-ok camera instead of my big, cumbersome but beautiful beast of a camera. I also promised myself I’d only shoot for a bit of each set instead of get into my normal OCD mindset of capturing ‘the’ shot.

Mostly shooting from down on the floor in front of the first row of tables,  one guy asked if I was down on the floor because the shots were better. LOL … I did tell him that it’s actually not the most complimentary angle, but I was just trying to stay out of everybody’s way so as not interrupt the show.

$2 Tuesday has been a pretty big part of my social life—one of the few things that gets me out of my studio to attempt clumsy communication with other fellow humans (and some animals and various hallucinations/ghosts).

Capturing the last of these special nights in some way that was better than a drunken iPhone snap to honor a tradition was my goal. That and tradition’s awesome and humble host, Derek Hoke, as well as his long time band mates Steve Latanation and Mark Robertson, and DJ Tim Hibbs, the superior spinner of vinyl and vibe.

Hopefully, this little gallery of photos catches a decent vibe, albeit a little grainy, of the final $2 Tuesday. Enjoy!