Okay, here's what happened, from Nat's point of view:
Tuesday, October 26th, 1999. My girlfriend Lara and I attend the performance of the Canadian quartet Moxy Fruvous at the Troubador in Los Angeles.
About halfway through the show (around 11:15), Jian (who sometimes passes as frontman for the rather egalitarian group) starts talking about what L.A. brings to mind for him. He asks if Nat Gertler is in the crowd. I wave a hand. He starts spinning the story of the fan suggestions for names for the second album, and how some guy named Nat Gertler from California had suggested one of their fave names: Songs For Nat Gertler. The audience seems amused by this, and I'm acting a little embarrassed for all the attention. Then Jian beckons me on-stage, and I start to wave it off, but at the urging of the crowd I go up.
Jian asks if I came with someone today (couples at the show having already been a theme of the night), and I point out my girlfriend, The Lovely Lara. The band start playing Lara's Theme (from Dr. Zhivago), and she gets beckoned on stage.
Jian then confesses to Lara that I knew I'd be dragged on stage, that this was all planned, but that I have something to say to her. I'm handed a mike. I drop to one knee, the lights focus on us, and at this point the crowd is going wild and I have to pause for a few seconds to make sure that I'll be heard. I say something to the effect of: "Lara Hughes, I love you and I adore you. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" At this point, she appears to be laughing and crying all at once, and she leans over to hug me and says yes. We hug and smooch, and head off-stage.
One kindly and faithful Fruvous fan gave us the set list for one of the performers (Murray), which includes the notation of where this event was to take place during the performance. I've gotten that framed along with the tickets for the night.
Big thanks go out to Moxy Fruvous... and to Judith Coombe, of their
management group, who helped in setting this crazy thing up.
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