On Thursday, February 6^th, the good folks at Lincoln Hall in Chicago will be hosting the second annual Danstock.

Danstock is a night of cocktails, rock, and fund-raising for which the proceeds go to Northwestern’s Lurie Cancer Center.  And all in the memory of Chicago songwriter, musician and sound engineer, Dan Stock.

So, to recap, it’s booze, rock, and raising money to help fight cancer.  These things, I think we can all agree, are good things.  I like these things.

But I want to talk about Dan right quick.  I want to talk about what is, to me, the real reason for Danstock.

To know Dan was to understand that, in a lot of ways, Dan was more that just a person you knew.  He was somehow bigger than the space he inhabited.  You could walk into a crowded room sense whether or not Dan was there just by the general vibe.  Dan effected people like that.  Even large numbers of people.  He was a force of nature in almost a literal sense.

And when we lost Dan that’s exactly the way it felt.  It was as if the world had suddenly lost the ability to achieve a certain color, or a specific scent, or a certain kind of weather.  The world goes on but is, sadly, less for the loss.  Our lives go on but are diminished for his absence.

And that’s mostly why I’m looking forward to Danstock.  Not because of the booze, though I may raise a glass or three.  Not because of the rock, though I will be thumping the bass with DeXter.  And not because we’ll be raising money for one of the finest cancer treatment centers in the country.

I’m looking forward to going to Danstock so I can once again be in a room with that “Dan is here” vibe.  A room where every time you look at the door you half-expect to see the beard and to hear that voice that could somehow carry even over the sound of the band.

And you know what he’d say when he saw all of us there.

“Outstanding!”

And he’d be right.