Last night was Alto Heceta's final show. If you had the opportunity to go, and you didn't, then I'm sorry, but you missed out.

Most bands don't have final shows. They break up during the interim between tours or albums and release a tiny statement on their website. That's what Speed Of Sauce did. We never considered a final show, though I suppose we could have done one. But our hearts weren't in the right place for that.

Alto Heceta's hearts were. They didn't break up because they hate each other�which they fortunately don't. They broke up because they're all moving on, both geographically and musically. They did the right thing by having a farewell show. For some bands, it would have been unnecessary or even inappropriate, but that's not the case with AH.

Needless to say, the show was eminently enjoyable. Even more so than I anticpated. All day, and as I got to the Green Room, I was a little bummed out. I was looking forward to seeing all my friends in one place�perhaps the best thing about shows these days�but the circumstances were bittersweet. As Chad said before they went on, "Funerals bring everyone together."

But spirits were not moribund. Dino made a statement a couple songs into the set telling people to be happy. "Let's put this in the best possible light," he said. "We didn't have this show so we could be sad." At which point Chad shouted, "Ah, so it's a wake!"

They played all the hits, so to speak. And they sounded better than ever. Although the mood was happy, I found it regrettable that the band should be stopping when they're at the top of their game musically. The new songs they haven't recorded yet should be recorded; the old songs that have been improved over the years should be re-recorded. At one point I said to Jenn, "For every good band that makes it big, there are a hundred that end up like this."

If not more than a hundred. Think of all the great bands you saw in small clubs over the years. Now ask yourself how many of them have record deals and are still playing. Then ask yourself how many have since packed it in. It's unfortunate. It's sad. It's probably not worth dwelling on, but it's a sad truth I found myself revisiting over the course of the night.

And I'll admit it: I cried when they played "For Everything Left Unsaid."

If this is a wake, then stories are in order. Here are a few of my memories of Alto Heceta:

We first met them when Speed Of Sauce was starting to play out in Iowa City. They booked shows with us at the Green Room. We were jerks to them. Dino remembers me ordering a beer from him (he also bartended at the Green Room) and not even realizing he was in the band we'd just shared the stage with.

We toured with them in the spring of 2001. This was the only experience with extended touring we had. There were snags, but we weathered through them. The night our show got cancelled in St Paul, we drove around town asking if we could play at various venues. Each place would tell us no, then recommend another place we should try. That's how we ended up playing at Mario's, a German restaurant that served traditional German cuisine on the top floor and traditional German beer in the basement. We had a blast.

The next night of that tour, we played a great venue in Minneapolis called Sursumcorda, which is Latin for "lift up your hearts." When they played "Nobody Knows Or Nobody's Saying," I was riveted in my seat. That was the precise moment that Alto Heceta went from being a band we knew and toured with, to being a great band that I really enjoyed quite apart from the fact that they were acquaintances of ours. That night, after Speed Of Sauce played our set, I came down off the stage and Matt approached me. I extended my hand to shake his and he said no, no, and gave me a hug.

That's the tour during which we really got to know the band as friends and realize they shared our absurd, often crass, sense of humor. The ridiculous thing about the tour was that none of us�this was almost two years ago�had cell phones. So to communicate with venues and friends in each town, we had to stop and use payphones, and to communicate between vans, we had to resort to hand gestures and handwritten signs. At one point we stuck a sign in our back window that said, "U Guys R Gay." That was the same day we declared a breakfast jihad on Denny's. Our waitress loved us.

Then, a few months later, Speed Of Sauce broke up, and Alto Heceta went on hiatus, if you can call it that: they spent this hiatus�about nine months when all was said and done�recording their first and only full-length. If you can get your hands on a copy�and I anticipate doing so will only get harder and harder with time (you know how it is with unsigned bands)�I strongly recommend it. What you will find is a rewarding and at times challenging rock record that combines the best elements of more traditional guitar rock with sophisticated but tasteful experimentation. The sound is excellent, the lyrics are heartfelt, the playing is top-notch. But I�m probably preaching to the choir here.

After Speed Of Sauce broke up, I took a great deal of comfort in the fact that Alto Heceta was soldiering on. They improved a thousand percent from the moment they formed four years ago until now, and it was exciting to watch a band evolve right before my eyes. Last night was the apotheosis of that evolution, and it was perfect.

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