One of Denver’s most beloved “main drags,” and home to many of the cities best live music venues, Colfax avenue is just the right blend of seedy and hipster around The Bluebird Theater these days. The storied venue played host to a great night of music last Saturday with The Lil Smokies, Cris Jacobs, and some memorable sit-ins.
This past weekend, Bob Weir and Wolf Bros made their triumphant return to Denver to celebrate the end of the their Fall tour. While no member of The Grateful Dead has ever really needed to tour “in support of” an album, it could be argued that this tour was in support of Weir’s recently released Live From Colorado – Volume 2 which dropped on October 7th.
As time passes, we lose more and more of the greats, so no matter what flaws the show might have had, it was still a privilege to see Nick Mason on stage bringing those classics to life. There will never be another Pink Floyd, so any piece that still exists must be held onto until the very end.
True to their word, over the course of three hours, the band played songs from no less than 15 albums dating all the way back to their 2012 debut 12 Bar Bruise with well over half the material having been released before the pandemic. It was truly an incredible show and one that cemented this band’s place on the Red Rocks schedule for years to come I would imagine
“He didn’t even puke!” That is not the response one expects to hear when chatting with a girl near the bar after a set. “Insane, right?” I was talking about a Viagra Boys set so wild it prompted a kid to do a backflip off the balcony into the crowd. “Amazing,” she replied, “he didn’t even puke!” Obviously, I wasn’t up on the latest Viagra Boys scoop, but evidently, the lead singer, Seb, is usually accompanied by a bucket on stage, just in case he needs to vomit between songs.
Broken Social Scene always seemed more like an idea than a traditional band. The Canadian collective was established as a gathering of like-minded artists in Toronto with a laissez-faire philosophy. The various “members” of the group were free to come as they were, when they wanted, and leave the same way. And it worked. For the first half of the first decade of the 21st century, the unofficial leader of this “scene,” Kevin Drew, brought together no fewer than twenty musicians to release three Indie Rock albums considered canon.
Damon Albarn’s project Gorillaz brought their massive world tour to Denver on Wednesday night and they had a variety of special guests in tow. While the show was definitely heavy on material from the group’s first three albums, the band featured a trio of tunes from their upcoming album “Cracker Island” including the title cut.
At this point in my concert going career, it’s fairly rare for me to go to Red Rocks to see a band for the first time. A few years ago I saw my first Stevie Wonder show at Red Rocks, my one and only Van Halen show was at Red Rocks and so was my only Lionel Richie experience. I’m sure there have been others but the list is short. So, when The War on Drugs, a band I’ve been chasing since at least 2016, announced their Red Rocks debut I didn’t care that it was a Monday night. I made it my business to get there.
It’s always a treat to catch Wilco anywhere, but Red Rocks (or “Rust Rocks” as Jeff Tweedy said was a little more appropriate) makes it that much more special. With the incomparable Margo Price handling opening duties, this was an incredible night on The Rocks!
Fans may have waited more than two years for this performance, but it was worth it. If Waters never tours again, this show go down in history as it set the bar higher yet again and may well live to be the litmus test against which all other arena shows are judged. What a incredible experience.