The Ballad of Dave Westerman
This weekend when I was holed up in the medical research facility being poked and prodded in return for money, I got bored and decided to Google some people from my past. One such person was Dave Westerman. I first met Dave when he and Liz (his wife at the time) were in a theatre production with me. I believe it was “Law West of the Pecos”. I played Johnny Loco, the villain. I hit it off with the two of them very quickly and being that we were all musicians, we started jamming together. I Previously met Gary Tatum also through theatre and had been getting together with him for weekend jam sessions. The four of us soon had our own little band going playing covers of The Cars, The Go-Gos, Pat Benatar, Dire Straits, Boston, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Huey Lewis and the News, Bryan Adams, and more. Dave played bass, keyboards and sang, Liz played keyboards and sang, I played guitar, keyboards, sax and sang, and Gary played guitar and sang. It was my first band, and let me tell you, we kicked ass. A few years ago I contacted an old friend from high school, Jeremy Hyman, and he said that one of his most vivid memories of me was coming to band practice with me one time, and being astounded at the incredible sound being created in that room.
We practiced for a while honing our set, and ended up only playing a gig or two before Dave and Liz decided to start playing with an old friend of theirs again so our band kind of fell apart. At the time, I was pretty gutted about it as it was my first band, and we were so damn good. That and the fact that I genuinely loved everyone in the band. Really awesome people. We’d never even settled on a name. We’d bandies about many silly names like “Gary Tatum and the Tots”, and “Poodle Grooming”, but I think we eventually used “Making Waves” for our few gigs.
Dave and Liz eventually moved away somewhere, I can’t remember where. Over the years I ended up getting together with them and some other musicians a couple of times to play an annual golf tournament in the Baytown area. We would all convene from our various locales for one quick rehearsal the night before, then play the gig the next day. I think I played this even two different years. After that, I think I pretty much completely lost touch with them. The last thing I remember was that he and Liz had separated, and I think I learned that at the last golf tournament we played together.
When I Googled Dave, I eventually found that he had moved back to Houston and was playing in at least two bands. I also learned that on September 23, 2006, he died after a battle with some kind of cancer. Further investigation revealed that he apparently left a wife named Lisa and a couple of children, I believe. I wish I’d looked him up sooner so I could have shared at least a few more moments with him and learned about his life in the intervening years. I wish I could have said goodbye. It may have been a long time since we were really acquainted, but that doesn’t make his absence have any less of an impact on me. There’s a little bit of low end missing from the sound of the world today.
Goodbye, Dave. Sorry I just missed you.
