Denver…….ahh Denver
Colorado has always been a cherished place for us and iconic for so many reasons. We always jump at the chance to get back there, and when we are there we are reminded of how truly unique the region is. We love it there, we always will; yet it is simultaneously the best and most taxing of trips full of unexpected challenges and laugh your ass off surprises.
Denver, 2008, we got together with a bunch of Leafers across the country that all chipped in to rent a house for a TLG weekend which will go down as one of my all-time great memories. This time around we went with a “quieter” approach. This trip was specifically to Denver to see Tea Leaf Green, with little else planned. In an effort to simply get back to basics, where it all began if you will, we intended to go with little fanfare and parties, rent a cheap hotel, and have only the expectation of a trip to a place we love to see THE band we love. We got a lot more that that!
Trying not to get sucked into the forums was a tough thing to do as the shows approached. We had limited planning and contact with folks, only a taper geek and a super cool Denver local (who, incidentally is probably the only person we would let babysit our children, ever).
Quietly random events began occurring………
Shortly before the event:
-we learned that a long time Leafer was planning to come out of hiding and surprise his roommate in Denver.
-we learned that the dynamic duo from Chicago were coming to Denver, both of whom were with us in Tea Leaf Denver 2008
We are scheduled to fly the day of the show, early enough to catch an acoustic in-store performance prior to the main shows. We board the plane and of course we sit, and sit, and sit some more. We cant for the life of us figure out what the problem is, then we hear that one of our pilots has been delayed. Then through super stealth communications we get this:
Apparently this joker was mucking around in the planes causing my co-pilot and my flight to be delayed.
Finally, after an uneventful flight we touch down in Denver. Scramble to meet up with Dave and Stubby (now that we are almost an hour late), careen to and fro to get into Denver proper, and finally to find our hotel. (A note about traveling for TLG and hotels: I like to find hotels close to the venue so I do not have to drive or cab it. This is very important to me but in Denver it keeps one limited to pretty much 2 options, The Ramada Inn or The Econo Lodge, both of which are on Colfax and about a mile away from the Bluebird Theater. The area around the hotels is great for out-of-towners and folks partying….lots of bars, restaurants, glass shops, dispensaries, convenience stores, liquor stores, etc).
The in-store performance is always a pretty cool event that seems to tie into the Bluebird Theater shows quite nicely. Twist and Shout is a relatively large record store on Colfax with cool poster room and low stage for performers. The shows here are just appetizers really and generally last no more than 30 minutes or so. In 2008 it was just Josh and Trevor acoustic, this time it was Acoustic Tea Leaf Green! Froey called this on the forum a week or two earlier, uh…err…”how nice it would be”, it was awesome. We had the whole line up (with Scotty and Cochran working a single percussion kit in tandem).
The in-stores always kinda freak me out a bit. Typically, I just drove, flew, drove, checked in and did some “Welcome to Colorado” pre-game formalities. By the time I get to Twist and Shout I am slightly disoriented, adjusting to my new environment, and feeling the effects of being a mile high. Just before the show started BillyBaroo comes jumping up to me screaming how he “… just moved to Denver 3 days ago, I said “no”, he said “yea”, I said “no”, he said “yea”, and that was it – never saw him again. This time I just happened to be hanging out up close to the stage when the band came out and that’s where I stayed.
Tea Leaf Green came out to cheers and began playing. Right off, I am kind of overwhelmed at all that has transpired to get me to this point. It was almost exactly 2 years to the day that I had stood in that very room embarking on a very similar journey. This was different though. Two years earlier the line up was different both for the in-store and for TLG in general, at that time all seemed a little less stable on all fronts. This time it all felt considerably more grounded both for me and the band as we eased into the set. Immediately I noticed a certain sonic structure to TLG, a control and musicianship that spoke clearly to years of experience ripe with challenges, opportunities, and growth. This was a different band now. Slowly a set emerged before my eyes and ears where perfection was found at every turn, as the band found their stride in complex rhythms, tight intricate layers of sound, and a sense of ownership and mastery. I was awestruck, once again, as I was from when I first found TLG in 2004 – this was new again!
As I stand there literally in front of Trevor, I notice how much he is enjoying various aspects of the performance. Of course I will never really know exactly what was going on but to me I really got the feeling that he was peaking off of the music and the composition. Trevor sounded strong and was very much on point for the whole in-store show, as he hit particular vocal peaks or phrases he would grin to himself in much the same way I must be grinning to myself when the band does something particularly colorful to my mind. Trevor was where I keyed in first, but rest of TLG also had strong performances. The duo of Scotty and Cochrane was simply unbelievable; the rhythmic steam power these two produced was awesome. The worked off of a single percussion stand and simply shared aspects of the structure at different times (cymbal, tom head/ compact conga, etc), picking up various instruments (egg shakers, seed rattles, tambourine, etc). The passion with which this set was unfolding put me into this kind of choked up state of mind. Once again I felt that emotional sense of witnessing all things possible and time captured. Yea I was a bit choked up, so much so I had to dial up Heady for a phone-cast of Carter Hotel – I never do phone-casts…………..
The in-store ended abruptly for me, not really knowing how long they played I was simply caught up in the moment……….then the music stopped. I kind of looked around and realized, “oh…it’s over”. Having a few hours till the Bluebird, it was on to the next mission……..supplies and drinks. Froey gave rides to a few of us and we made our way back to the Econo Lodge. They hooked Froey up with parking for the weekend which I thought was cool and we proceeded to the room for medication and supplies. The walk to the theater from the hotel is about a mile and a half, yet under the right conditions one hardly noticed the journey at all………ha. Our first stop was a bar that had a decent outdoor patio and was a nice rest stop on our way. At this point I was kind of feeling like crap, allergies and adjusting to the Colorado climate, I would play through though. Leaving the bar we took a few twists and turns for a session and wound up across the street from the venue. The GooseTown Tavern worked out to be a pretty good anchor for pregame drinks, local beers and mellow scene. Somewhere at this point I lost my voice entirely, allergies?, not sure why. FOTD and Jen had a field day with all the ways I was to communicate from here on in. Damn, the show did not even start and I had no voice at all…..i told them (in my custom sign language) that my dance skillz would speak for me.
The Bluebird Theater has one of the best setups for a venue I have been in; either that or the way the crowd interacts with the venue, but the venue simply is my number one place to see TLG. The band seems to love the venue, the sound (recordings cannot do it justice), and the lights all make this place an amazing canvas for TLG. As we walked in there was no security shuffle at all, very chill and very much ok on all fronts. Making our way to the bar and theater proper one of the opening bands was laying down a sick psychedelic Zeppelin cover that immediately caught us all into the moment. This was game on, and after a bit of arranging drinks we headed down to our home for the weekend. The Bluebird has about 4 tiers from the bar down to a floor area and the stage. The first tier before the floor provided a railing and puts you just about 15 feet from and level with the stage. Undeniably the most perfect place in the house and we owned that rail for two nights.
I was not overly partied all weekend, enough though (as the quality in Denver is over the top), and much of the motivation of this trip was to get back to the music of TLG and find my relationship with it once again. If the band has had growing pains so have I and I came looking for redemption, with an open mind free of opinions and targets. I did not care what TLG played, had no opinions of openers or closers, and wanted nothing more than for it all to come to me once again.
Here we go with the first night in Denver! Woohoo! I believe that no recordings can do these shows justice. TLG played expertly with a “structure” I have never heard from them. Historically, for me, TLG was always a strong first or second set band. Additionally, their jams never really formalized for me. In other words, when they got into the “meat” of song it would go somewhere and come back but never really got to the next level where they held their creation in suspension for any period of time (think Pink Floyd Echoes). It always seemed just a bit out of reach. Tunes like Devils Pay, Barnacle B, or Precious Stone all have strong themes that when properly formalized have the power to transform a venue to another place. In fact, maybe songs like that by their very nature could produce this affect, i.e. talking about spacey things sounds kinda spacey. Things have changed. TLG showed a maturity through their setlist that I have never witnessed before. Almost every song was developed strongly to another plane with thematic expressions played out powerfully with articulation and purpose. The interaction and communication on stage was simply electrifying. Now, I have no idea what they played, missed at least half the setlist, kept no record of the details, BUT; I can tell you without hesitation that everyone on that first tier was getting down to new songs and old. Glancing around found Stubby and Brew throwing down, Mr. T dancing as only Mr. T can and everyone else seemingly just as captivated as I was. I think I pretty much was swept up by TLG and carried away to be deposited down river with a black eye and missing one shoe.
Post show was (as often is) a hazy sort of lingering affair, fueled by incense and drinks and the sense that something (you are not quite sure what) just happened. As we spilled out into Denver the party continued easily and carried on until almost morning, easy and flowing much as it started. The Denver vibe is laid back and easy…..
Colfax on a Saturday morning in October has an odd sunny fall glow to it. I am not sure if the tone is of emergence or mending. Regardless, me and FOTD tended to our wounds (real or imaginary) and caught a simple if not cheap breakfast in the lobby, only to spend the day either drifting around Colfax (running into other leafers), resting, or sleeping, or performing the art of sleep-resting. Everyone we spoke to pretty much had the same experience. Lubage on the other hand was up at 8am texting me how awesome his hot tub was…….(303!!! ), and in the bar by early afternoon.
Getting back on our feet for round two was like pulling it together for the final round in a cage match. The mantra was …”play through”, for we knew that no matter how sick, tired, or burnt we felt in just a matter of a few days we would give ANYTHING to be right here again. As we get in gear texts start flowing and folks start gathering, we hit up Froey who meets us in our room for pre walk pre game preparations. As we head on our walk to the pregame bar everyone is just a bit disjointed and rattled getting the mind ready so the body will follow. As we step into the GooseTown Tavern once again we got the opportunity to mingle and drink a bit more freely than the in-store allowed us the previous night. Faces and names came together a bit better now and we all settled into a comfortable pregame exercise.
Deciding to head into the venue early the second night was a good choice. Trevor and Todd both mentioned how much they like Truth and Salvage Co. and Dave wanted to catch the local band after hearing some of their work the previous night. As we all met up again, things we nicely flowing with folks sorting out their various libations and positions, socially moving about. We never struggled once for space and easily commanded the first tier once again; I think anyone else there could see that we were collectively a presence work WITH versus against. Being in the venue for the two opening bands in fact gave us an evening full of music which made the huge TLG set more understandable. The Bluebird allows customers to come and go freely so if you wanted to smoke no problem, go to bar, no problem.
TLG Denver night two delivered the same articulate, though maybe a bit tired, performance as the night before. I found myself captivated by new and old songs alike. I was surprised at how what I thought was old, was really OLD, and what I thought was new was actually a bit older than I had thought (Reed and I negotiated those facts the night before…lol). As for a tour closer I cant look at one night or the other, as twin shows at the Bluebird are a single organism that begins and ends in a matter of 48hrs with all manners of peaks and valleys. Leafers as always made a killing though, and by Invasion and Baseball, Froey was throwing down harder on the floor than anyone prior as Josh played just for him…lol, all the while Stubby and Brew found a perch across the way and were throwing down their own moves above and across the floor. The energy by late into the second night was maybe even stronger than the first night (as we all realize the inevitable mortality of this event?). Strong collaborations between musicians and cheers dominated night two and TLG closed strong with G3. Another one in the books and cemented my fascination for the band once again, new and strong.
Post show hugs and libations followed and somehow we missed funckycree yet again, twice, until we got to say hello as we were leaving. Knowing we had to get up for an early flight FOTD, Froey, and I headed back to the hotel, said our goodbyes, and managed to sleep and actually get up the next morning on time. Brew was kind enough to give us a ride to the airport but due to the Denver marathon was stumped in getting to us. This resulted in us having to negotiate our way down Colfax about a mile to meet up with Brew and Stubby, ultimately this was a win/win as FOTD placed second in the marathon with full back pack no less…..! A few twists and turns later dropping off the rental, we all make it in to DIA and surprisingly catch our flights.
This was a stellar weekend, new and old friends, great times, great band, great city, great venue……It was great to see the return of Mr. T, and the addition of Reed and Cochrane really stood out as TLG moves into a new era. I am optimistic and look forward to doing it over again.
