In the style of Papa Lazarou: "Hello Dave."

Tiny Monkey got together for a slightly crippled practice on Wednesday night. My finger was still painful if I applied any pressure with it, and Mart's voice seemed to have started to re-break. I popped a load of Ibuprofen, we ate and drank heartily at the Basement and got to Banana Row more or less on time.

Doug and Davis were there already; we set up in something approaching record time and started battering away at some random riffs. Despite the absence of singing and the occasional muttered profanity as I forgot not to use my staved finger, there was a perceptible energy (God, I hate using that word in a non e=mc² way) and I was pleased with how quickly things got back to feeling like a normal session.

So, just as we're getting into the swing of things, the door opens and in wanders a dreadlocked blonde girl.

TM: "Uh, hello?"
DBG (sporting a strange hybrid American/European accent): "Hi! Davey said I could sit in for a while."
TM: "Davey?" <all point at Davis> "You mean Davis? Dave? David? This is Dave."
DBG, sitting on the couch: "Davey said I could listen to you guys for a while."
Davis: <shrug>
TM: "Do you have the right band- oh, never mind."

We looked at each other, then we looked at the now making-herself-comfortable girl on the couch.

"Christ. Oh alright then."

We played away for a while, exchanging a combination of meaningful and nonplussed looks as we did so. And then, much as icing is applied to a cake, Davey himself made his entrance, shaven headed and baseball capped.

TM: "Ah. That Dave. Hello Dave."

As an exercise for the reader, I'll leave it to you to ponder the implications of a vocalist returning unannounced (although mercifully bereft of a particular toy Casio keyboard) to a band that has spent the past three months adapting to a radically different, vocals-included lineup.

An interesting practice. And at the risk of offending any one of at least five interested parties, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that the new TM lineup is going to remain intact.