Grand Prize Winner is Happy

Congratulations to the grand prize winner of our Nesmith fan appreciation awards, Nick Bonsanto, and his girlfriend Andy, for receiving the autographed Musicman guitar!

Here’s Nick’s story in his own words:

When Flying Colors came out I was so excited. Mike Portnoy is my idol and Dream Theater was my favorite band of all time. I had to convince my parents to drive up to the Best Buy Theater in NYC to see the show, having never listened to the band before, but trusting that any band with Mike Portnoy must be worth seeing. I stood up as close to the stage as I could and my parents decided to sit in the back of the theater.

Jolly absolutely blew me away and after the show became one of my prog obsessions for quite some time. Meeting them was great on the Progressive Nation cruise and I love all of their albums. Two guys standing next to me in the crowd recognized me from my guitar store and one guy thought I was Steven Wilson and tapped me on the shoulder to ask hahaha.

After Jolly was finished a girl had pushed her way through the crowd to get closer to the stage for Flying Colors. Her name, she told me, was Andy and she was wearing a Mastodon T shirt. I felt like it was love at first sight. She told me she was a bass player and her favorite band was Rush and she was seeing them in concert in two days. Her brother, also a drummer and also named Nick brought her here because he idolized Portnoy as well. After Dave LaRue stunned the two of us with his bass solo and the show rolled on to the finale I got her name written down and as she left the venue with her brother I waved goodbye.

After that day, I found her online and we hung out a few times, getting tattoos and listening to records. Today, years later, Andy and I are together, she sits beside me as I type this fond memory, our most recent conquest was seeing Rush on the R40 tour in Newark, NJ. My first Rush concert! I saw Flying Colors on the Second Natour in Philadelphia as well and was brought to tears, a magical night. Cannot thank Flying Colors enough for the outstanding tunes and incredible memories and for bringing love together. — Nick Bonsanto