The Surrender Reunion

Left to right: Dave Unger on Keyboards, Marc Hamer on drums, Blake Thompson on guitar, Curt Bennington on bass and Marco Riva on guitar. Photos by: Sam Cali at the Bayou in Washington DC Summer of '87.





Twenty one years ago, man that is hard to believe. Twenty one years ago I was playing in a band called 'Surrender' and in that Summer of 1987, we were just hitting our stride. We were a hard rockin' band playing the Mid Atlantic circuit and having a blast doing it. Anyway, after all these years we decided to have a get together, play some music and catch up with each other. Well, most of the time went to jammin' as we were having so much fun, we never wanted to stop. Actually, the highlight of the evening for me was when Blake's wife Kate came up and played some tunes with us. She plays among many things, the electric violin and is amazing. I've never heard anyone get sounds out of a violin like that.

Well after many hours of of accumulated blisters, sawdust and yes, back aches, we had to give it a rest for now. The sun went down and it was time to go. We all have kids and jobs which has changed things a wee bit as you might imagine.

These days, Curt is a sound engineer based in Mesa, Arizona and does sound for the big boys all around the states. Blake, Kate and the wee one, Blake Jr. reside in Nashville and are working in the music industry. Dave is... well I'm not sure what Dave does but I was glad to hear he is living in the York, Pa area and attending a church there. And you all know what I've been up to. If not, then you can do some back reading on the blog and see what I've been doing for the last 4 and a half years.

We may do this again in December so stay tuned as that might be in a club, we'll see. In the nearer future, I am going to be playing a gig with Blake and Kate in Reading on August 2. Some time in September we'll be having Blake, Kate and Dave up to the church to help me lead worship and do a couple of songs. That's the coolest thing as we're all Christians now. As soon as I have a date I'll post it on the blog.

The pics below are from the reunion taken by various people on Curt's camera.