Photos by Tim Dwenger
The Scene: Mother Nature shined her light down on us last Wednesday night with the first rainfree evening in Denver in what felt like months. The gardens were beautiful as the dark clouds of a storm loomed to the South and as evening took hold, the clouds lit up in a brilliant pink sunset. With all the beauty surrounding us, and the fantastic performers on the stage at the center of it all, it was a true pity that the “VIPs” in the tent at the top of the lawn were doing their best to drown out the music that we had all come to hear. I’ve been to many shows at the Botanic Gardens over the years, but this was simply the rudest and most embarrassing display of selfishness that I had seen. It’s well known that the Gardens has a hard decibel limit for their performances, and there is even an announcement made before the performance about respecting your neighbors and letting them listen. “If you feel you must talk, please take a stroll through the paths of the gardens.” I think it would have been appropriate to ask those “VIPs” to take a hike, but that’s just me.
Opener: John Fullbright. John Fullbright took the stage promptly at 6:30 for a great set that left many in the crowd wanting more. After opening with “Happy” and “Satan and St. Paul,” Fullbright nodded to Townes Van Zandt “because he lived here in Colorado for a while and I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for him.” Throughout his set, the singer’s dry humor shined through during his between song banter and even stretched to an anecdote about his most recent experience with Marijuana here in Colorado which, he said, was nothing more than a panic attack that cost him $44 and left him with a dry mouth. He then thanked us all for not staring at him with “Demon Eyes” before slipping into a song that he wrote from “God’s point of view.”
Shovels & Rope: As most people who are reading this know, last Wednesday evening there was a horrific mass shooting in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. While that in itself makes it worthy of mention here, the headliners of the year’s second concert at the Botanic Gardens, Shovels & Rope, are from Charleston and early on in their set they made mention of the “long and muddled history of South Carolina” and the fact that the blood of black and white alike has soaked into the earth in South Carolina and been filtered into the water. “The very water that we now raise our children on” as the very pregnant Cary Ann Hearst put it.
Apparently the shooting had taken place just a few minutes before the duo took the stage, so it’s unlikely that she knew about what had happened in their hometown when she made this comment, but one can imagine that they were stunned when they left the stage and heard the news. The depraved racial motivation behind the shooting is a crushing blow to the already tenuous state of race relations in this country, and surely a painful step back in time for the people of South Carolina. Our thoughts go out to the family’s of the victims as well as the people of South Carolina.
While most of us sat peacefully in the Gardens in ignorance of the tragedy that had just occurred, Shovels & Rope delivered a energetic and powerful set of music that brought to mind a folkier White Stripes as the husband and wife duo swapped spots between guitar and drums throughout the night. Their rich harmonies and pounding beats brought a group of dancers off the hill for songs like “Mary Ann and One-Eyed Dan,” “Birmingham,” and the eerily appropriate (given the shooting) “The Devil Is All Around.”
While I wasn’t very familiar with their music before last Wednesday night, I’ve found their most recent album, Swimmin’ Time, coming out of my speakers more than a few times since. These two are a force to be reckoned with and if this show was any indication, will continue to rise up the ranks of Americana musicians in this country.
Energy: A
Musicianship: A-
Sound: B-
Stage Presence: A
Set / Light Show: N/A (The Gardens is a beautiful backdrop for any show)
Overall: A-
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