Some time in the last month-ish, Rusty Sutton, excellent bassist, road manager for Lost In The Trees, and sound dude par excellence, installed a single white light in the front-of-stage lights at Local 506. The 506, if you can’t tell, is my favorite venue in the Triangle; I’m a regular, Glenn books impeccably, it’s walking distance from my house, there’s Natty Boh on tap, I could go on and on — but Lord Almighty, it could be a real pit of blackness when it came to shooting. Case in point: I took the top photo, of Girl In A Coma’s Nina Diaz, in January. I took the second this past Thursday.

The difference isn’t just visible, it’s palpable. So today I would just like to appreciate Rusty, who listened carefully and patiently to all my endless complaints, and then of his own volition did something to fix it for me. Well, maybe not just for me. But for lots of people. It’s just that I appreciate it a lot personally and, you know, I wanted to say thank you to Rusty for that. You are an excellent human, Rusty Sutton.