2004-04-12 - 11:06 p.m.
There’s very little time to prepare for the trip and Monday is spent doing laundry and running last minute errands. Lets’ see…. clean clothes, plenty of books and music…. cell phone charger, phone book, pen, paper and pencil…strings…. fresh ground coffee and my new coffee press-to go mug, essential for making it across such coffee challenged places as Nebraska and Utah! I’m used to being home after 4 months and I’m torn about leaving. I know it’s what we do but knowing I’ll be away from my wife, my kitties and my home for 5 weeks makes me sad.
The boys (and Amanda, our new merchie) are supposed pick me up at my house at around 10 am but don’t make it until 12:30. Fine by me. I use the time to answer some final e-mail and watch the end of “Concert For George”. What a wonderful show! They arrive and off we go then. We make Joliet, Ill. by around midnight… sleep… then drive again. I take on Iowa and then a good portion of the mind numbing Nebraska. We spend the night near the Colorado/Nebraska border within easy striking distance of Boulder.
Our first show is at the Fox Theater. Of course the college is on Spring break and the attendance reflects this. Overall it wound up being a great show. We get to see a lot of old friends and the tour is off to a good start. Colorado Springs is next and I’m looking forward to it. Some of our most rabid fans hail from this town and the shows are always high energy. At dinner I strike up a conversation with the bartender. He’s a nice fellow and he’s playing some cool music on the CD player behind the bar. I ask him what’s playing and he tells me it’s a band he really likes called “Death Cab For Cutie” That’s probably the worst band name I’ve ever heard (this from a guy that played for years in a band called “The Blue Sparks From Hell”…. Ha!) A little while later he plays another cool disc from an artist from NYC called “Chocolate Genius”. They both go on the list.
The place is packed and rockin’! At times it seems the audience is levitating! It’s touching how people are so appreciative and friendly.
Denver’s next. It will be our first time in Cervantes; a venue also owned by the folks who brought you Quixote’s. We don’t have to arrive until 9 pm because there’s a Christian Punk/Metal show going on. When we get there there’s a band onstage called “Norma Jean”. The place is packed and the sound is deafening. The lead singer sounds like a strange mutation of Darth Vader and Chewbacca. I don’t understand a single word. At one point the guitarists (bass included) are playing the same riff while shaking their hair in the same direction in unison. The sound resulting leaves the realm of music and becomes what can only be described as a force of nature. After this the bass player hocks a big lugie straight up in the air moving just in time to avoid being rained upon by his own secretion. Some of the audience spit some gobbers in his direction. They’re shaking their fists and stage diving, presumably all in the name of Christ. God Bless America!
Our show goes great! This is our best showing in Denver ever. We’re up early to make the ride to Park City, Utah where we are to play the next evening. It’s a long way so we don’t get much sleep. Colorado was great to us as it always is!
