So many firsts that day. The first time Kimberley Dahme played bass guitar in public. It was also her first gig with the classic rock band Boston, and she became the first female member of that “More Than A Feeling” group. And oh yeah, all this went down in front of more than 74,000 people, at college football’s 2002 Fiesta Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

Boston played an instrumental version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the game. Guitar hero Tom Scholz did some six-string fireworks to start the song off before segueing into the familiar melody. Then the rest of the band, including Dahme (her last name rhymes with “bomb”) on bass, joined in. It was a very huge, very Boston sounding “Star-Spangled Banner.” The musician played from atop a stage behind and above one of the end zones, as a giant American flag was unfurled across the field.

“I remember walking out,” Dahme says of the moments leading up to the performance, “and internally I was basically hyperventilating. But then Tom and Brad [Delp, Boston singer/guitarist) were so kind. They were just like, ‘Hey, take a breath. We’re good.’ And then when we all set up, I remember looking to my right – oh man, it gets me every time – and there’s Brad beside me. And right beside him is Tom and I just was like, this is really happening.” That sweet memory is now bittersweet, after Delp died by suicide in 2007.

Adding to the surreal nature of her debut with Boston, Dahme is a lifelong fan, who by the time she was in sixth grade was covering Boston hits like “Peace of Mind.” Dahme got the gig after Scholz saw her play electric guitar at a gig with Tommy Hambridge (who’s worked with the likes of Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi and Johnny Winter) at the Sit ‘n Bull Pub in Maynard, Massachusetts.

Scholz was actually there to scout the drummer for Boston possibly. Instead, Scholz offered Dahme a job, that very night at the pub. “He was so such a gentleman,” she says, “and told me I did a great job, all really nice things. And then he said, ‘Do you play bass?’ And I said, ‘Sure. Yeah, I do.’ He said, ‘We have enough guitar players in our band.’”

To get ready to join Boston on bass, Dahme, a California native now based in Nashville, woodshedded on the instrument like crazy, using one of Scholz’s patented Rockman headphone amps, which are sort of a hybrid of a miniature guitar amplifier and Sony Walkman portable cassette player.

She dissected every bass note in Boston’s classic repertoire. This part of her prep was made more difficult because the vintage mixes of Boston albums are very vocals-and-guitar forward. To make things even more challenging, Dahme became pregnant two months after the Fiesta Bowl. She’s convinced her daughter, now a young musician herself, could feel the bass strings’ vibrations in the womb.

When many music fans think of Boston, they think of all those radio-eating hits, Delp’s jaw-dropping vocals and Scholz’s liquid mercury guitar leads. But once Dahme dug into the bass playing on vintage Boston recordings, she found them “beautiful.” (Fran Sheehan was the band’s classic era bassist and Scholz often played bass in the studio). “They’re brilliant. Not all the time but there are a lot of lead-ish bass parts. It’s not your standard thing and I love that.” She cites the swinging bass breakdown on “Foreplay,” off Boston’s 1976 debut album, which has sold more than 17 million copies. “Everything is made to sound simple, and I guess once you get there it becomes fluid, but it’s not simple at all.

Dahme made a big enough impression on Scholz and company, Boston included Dahme’s song “With You,” with her singing lead, on the band’s 2002 album “Corporate America.” It was a thrill for her, especially to hear Scholz’s trademark lyrical lead guitar on the track and Delp singing background vocals. “It was unreal,” she says. “Life has pinch me moments, and this is one of them.”

Dahme toured with Boston as their bassist until around 2012, and her favorite places to play include Jones Beach Theater in Nassau County, New York. She also contributed on vocals with the band. Dahme was no stranger to big gigs, even though Boston’s been her biggest, as she’d previously toured Europe and in her late teens sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” at a major league baseball game.

Singing with Delp in Boston was special for her, obviously. But so was spending time with Delp offstage as well. “He really, really cared,” she says of Boston’s iconic lead vocalist. “You know what I mean? He really, he really cared about each note. He was so empathetic how I was doing.” She and Delp would do a lot of the band’s interviews out on the road. “He had a quiet sense of humor. He was very quiet. But he had this quiet sinister humor where he would just drop a one liner, and everybody would fall with their knees like it would just come out of the blue every now and then.”

Dahme has fond memories of Delp discussing his deep appreciation for the music of The Beatles. And of him giving her vocalist advice like using a humidifier to help take care of her voice out on the road.

After her initial run with Boston, she returned to the band for 2014 shows on guitar and helping out on vocals again.

These days, Dahme and her husband, Kristopher Fisher, who she met at a gig decades ago and later reconnected with, collaborate in a project called K2. Their material includes the song “Higher Ground,” a gumbo of rock, R&B and country. Of her K2 music, which finds her and Fisher sharing vocals, Dahme says, “It’s a little swampy, a little bluesy sometimes. And there’s a big story behind each song.”

Her solo material includes the rootsy album “You Make Me Believe.” In addition to her work with various projects, she also teaches music fulltime.

In conversation, Dahme’s love and joy for music is clear. Her verve is particularly impressive since she was diagnosed with BIA-ALCL (Breast Implant Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma) in September. She’s had two surgeries since. “I’m just trying to stay positive,” Dahme tells me. “It was a horrible diagnosis, and it sucked having to take care of it and having to think about it. So in my spare time I try not to. I’m trying to stay out of that house, like going kayaking. Nature helps and writing songs. If I’m breathing, I’m making music.”

Kimberley Dahme and Kristopher Fisher are performing a duo show at K2 tonight in Huntsville, Alabama’s PorchFest Five Points music festival, which runs until 9 p.m. K2′s set is at 6:45 on the Rocket 95.1/Star 99.1 stage at 1007 Pratt Avenue. The festival is free to attend. More info at facebook.com/PorchFestFivePoints. A map for the fest’s various stages, all on Pratt Avenue, can be found at google.com/maps. K2 will also be performing May 25 at Florence’s Swampers Bar & Grille and May 26 at Muscle Shoals spot Birdy’s. More info at kimberleydahme.com and linqapp.com/K2Official.

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