Tour 7.5: December 2011
Let’s get Motherloaded
The Motherloaded Tavern in Breckenridge was our last gig on the most recent Colorado tour. We had so much fun there that we’ll be playing it again on February 18th, around 10p.
To kick it off, our buddy Ty from Gunnison drove up to party with us. Sweet. Then right before the show started three friends from Austin surprised us at the bar! My buddies Harrison, Andrew, and Bryant, whom I’ve known since elementary school, just happened to be in town that weekend for a ski trip. They wandered into the Motherloaded Tavern earlier that day and were told an Austin TX band was playing that night, so they came back to check it out. At the time they didn’t have a clue it would be us.
This weekend happened to be the “Dew Tour” weekend, which means that Mountain Dew and a bunch of other companies build a halfpipe in the middle of town and bring in a bunch of snowboarders to do crazy cool stuff in front of audiences in town and on the mountain. It also means that Motherloaded was packed. People danced on the tables from the first song, and didn’t stop until the end of the night.
Apparently Breckenridge can be a fickle town, so the bar encouraged us to only take one small break during our three hour set. Forget that, we said, we’re playing straight through. So we did. No breaks, three hours. People going crazy dancing on the tables the whole time. Ty and his friend flipping each other around like crazy swing dancers.
We stopped playing and people cheered and cheered. “Keep going!” People, we just played for three hours straight. “Ok, if you’re still yelling for us by the time we get back from the bathroom, we’ll do one more song.” I tell them. In the toilet two rooms over, I can still hear them yelling. They kept at it. So we decided to keep playing.
One more song. “Keep going!” A guy hands some money. “At least one more!” OK, we’ll keep going. The crowd had started to thin out at the end, but now people are filling up the place again. The place packed out, so we kept playing. 45 more minutes, until the bar had to legally kick people out!
What a crazy fun night. We had lots of offers for places to stay, but at that point it was two days til Christmas and we did what we always do at the end of a tour, no matter how far we are from Austin, no matter how late in the night it is. We hopped in the van and drove all the way home.
Breckenridge – come out and party with us on February 18th! It gets better every time.
Quixotes: Bring the funk!
Old friends from Stillwater
Quixotes is what you would call a ‘Dead’ bar. Not ‘dead’ in the sense that it’s no longer an establishment in the community. ‘Dead’ in that every decoration on the wall (and there are hundreds of decorations) is in some way tied to The Grateful Dead or the Jam Band Culture that revolves around it. Everything from old concert posters to paintings of Jerry Garcia are represented. As you can imagine this makes the venue feel like a flashback to a different psychadelic time. This is our second time at Quixotes and this time around we played with local Denver funk band ‘In Due Time’. It was such a fun night of music. With fiery vocals and a funkin’ awesome horn section ‘In Due Time’ kept the crowd shaking their booties. To add to the musical excitement of the evening the ‘In Due Time’ horn section sat in with us on ‘Rock People’ and ‘Get Funky’. Man horns really make our songs more dynamic. So sweet…
I also got on stage with ‘In Due Time’ to help sing ‘Superstitious’ by Stevie Wonder. It was so much fun. The whole night was just great. I had several old friends from different times in my life show up to the show and that was really just icing on the cake. So as you can tell I love Denver and I think it’s safe to say the other guys do too. Thanks to my friends, our fans, and ‘In Due Time’ for making it an awesome night. Until next time Hooch over and out!
Shug’s a Smacking Success
Hanging out at Kate's after the show
Wednesday we played Boulder, one of my favorite towns. We hit up a new venue called Shug’s and it is a sweet place – nice stage, good sound, probably the only place in Colorado you can get Abita and Dixie Beer (its got a Cajun theme). The crowd definitely grooved and played along nicely with all of our participatory moments. The stage was also big enough to allow me to exercise my jumping muscles to the fullest extent.
The show was awesome, with our new friends Smack Thompson laying down sweet Colorado jams in the style of Phish, String Cheese, Grateful Dead, etc. Unfortunately I missed the first half of the show because I was… looking for the van.
Hooch and Ryan parked the van, and they didn’t get me the most precise directions. It was also really cold. I wandered around for about fifteen minutes until finally Hooch met me to ostensibly guide me to the parking spot. Yet, we still wandered about fifteen more minutes until we found it!
Ryan being silly
RyOther highlights of the day / night included:
- Friends from the deep histories of our lives coming out to rock with us, including Camp Olympia, Elementary School, college, New Orleans, and more.
- New fans we met in Winter Park came to see us play again!
- Getting to attend a pre-game mediation session with Julie & friends
We can’t wait to be back on February 11th at the Dark Horse!
Pagosa Springs
Pagosa Springs is a beautiful town in the mountains of Colorado. Because we have been to Pagosa and played at The Bear Creek Saloon several times I totally feel at home there. It’s pretty awesome in that we really didn’t know anyone in Pagosa Springs before we played a few shows and now we have a solid fans and friends that come out to our shows. There is a stange dynamic in Pagosa because it is a small tourist town. You will have a mix of people that are in town for the hot springs or the rafting as well as native ‘Pagosans’. That being said every time we play the crowd is responsive and just a ton of fun regardless of whether it’s tourists or ‘Pagosans’. This time around we met some new friends through couchsurfing. Our new friend Jarrett and his family welcomed us into their home and we had yet another great couchsurfing experience. We had great food and spent time sharing our stories about traveling and playing music. Really great times in Pagosa Springs. This is yet another one of those places that is very hard to leave… That being said we have to keep moving on to the rest of Colorado! Hooch over and out!
Overcoming with Optimism on the road to Winter Park
The booking game is a crazy world… we finally confirmed the show that was supposed to happen on December 10th exactly ten days before it was to occur. On December 9th, I got a call from the booking agent saying that their email account had gotten hacked and he never confirmed the show, so we were SOL.
Luckily, we have been through this before and applied the Achachay! spirit. Focus on the solution, see the opportunity and make the most of whatever is in front of your face. After a few phone calls, it became apparent that nothing would happen that night. I’d have to wait until the morning.
We woke up at the usual time and I started calling all the bars in Winter Park. At first I got the usual run-around, but when I mentioned “We’re an awesome Austin TX funk rock band that got our show cancelled, do you want us to bring you an awesome show TONIGHT?” or something similar, they get things moving.
The Winter Park Pub came through in the 9th inning and opened their arms… not just a place to play, but a decent last minute guarantee, free food, free drinks. The show ended up being packed and well received. The staff was cool, and we’ll definitely be back! Even though Hooch and I both felt a little sniffly and hoarse, we played a top notch performance and had a great time busting out some covers we haven’t done in a long time. We closed off a three day weekend of 4-hour-a-night performances with gusto and energy.
We’ve been shown time and time again to keep the faith. In spite of whatever circumstances life throws your way, maintain an optimistic outlook while working hard to achieve whatever your objective is. Almost every time we’ve done this, the result is better than what we expected from the original plan. Even if it isn’t better, the experience is beautiful.
To top it off, we all three got to sleep in individual beds at the family place of a buddy I studied in Ghana with. We got to meet some of his family and catch up on six years of traveling, craziness, and life. All in all, a phenomenal day.
Durango a Go Go
the set list for the night
The first show on this mini-Colorado tour was in Durango at our favorite spot to play: the Summit. On Thursdays the Summit does $2 draughts and wells, so you can imagine the kind of crowd we got. Overall it was a very fun show with a lot of dancing and grooving. Colorado has a great vibe in general, and the Durango vibe is one of my favorites: people just want to have a good time and enjoy some great music in the company of friends.
After the show we headed to a small after party where we got to know some of the locals a little better. A funny side note: the girl who invited us to the party was so drunk that she had no clue who Jordan was when he started talking to her at the house. Hah!
We also couchsurfed with some new friends who were great as well. Andy and his roommates were great to hang out with the morning after and took us a great local restaurant for the largest $5 hamburger I’ve ever had. Another successful show in Durango. We will be back!
December in Colorado
A fun little 8 shows in 10 days jaunt to one of our favorite states!
Thursday, December 8th: The Summit in Durango, CO 10P
Friday December 9th: Bear Creek Saloon in Pagosa Springs, CO, 9P
Saturday December 10th: Winter Park Pub in Winter Park, CO 9p
Monday December 12th: Bubble Lounge in Telluride, CO, 9:30 P
Wednesday December 14th: Shug’s at the Shack in Boulder, CO w/ Smack Thompson, 10P
Thursday December 15th: Quixote’s in Denver, CO w/ In Due Time, 9P
Friday December 16th: Alma’s Only Bistro in Alma, CO
Saturday December 17th: Motherloaded in Breckenridge, CO, 10P
