First and foremost, read a well written and great review here on the Westword site (where the above photo is from). I was more nervous for this show then I have been for any show in a long time. It was like the perfect storm of anxiety and I was a mess leading up to this show. So as soon as Liz and I hit the Goosetown Tavern for dinner the beer started flowing. We met up with some homies (Tom, Fuzz, John, Chad, CJ, Darin) and pre-partied until about the time the opening band went on stage. Turns out Shearwater pretty good. It’s always nice having a decent opening act.

Then came Dinosaur Jr. Gulp. They opened with See It On Your Side which is the last song on Sky. It was rad, but the sound was weird. They didn’t really get the sound fixed all night. They didn’t sound as awesome as normal, but they were actually playing pretty awesome. The Bluebird sound guy sucked it up. With all that said it was still an awesome show. They played six songs off the new album and a slew of Dinosaur classics including Sludgefeast which is my favorite live song ever. I probably drank too much. It seemed whenever I was almost finished with a beer someone (normally Fuzz) would hand me a beer and say “It’s your night man enjoy!” So awesome. Thanks to everyone for making it such a fun night and if you didn’t already know Dinosaur Jr is the greatest band of all time.

There were several reasons to bail on this show. First, I was on call for work. Second, the presidential debates were in Denver and they had been warning people for weeks not to come near Denver on this night. Third, I have been feeling pretty run down and fighting a cold. But the main reason to go to this show is the completely awesome and underrated Henry Clay People. I seriously love this band and their latest album Twenty-Five For The Rest Of Our Lives is their best effort yet. I really wanted to hear it live!

It seems like everyone used excuse #2 as I arrived before Chad, Dean and Fuzz and was literally the only person there while they did a sound check. Weird, but totally awesome because I got to mention a few songs I wanted to hear. An hour and a few more people later they went on stage. Even though the crowd was lacking they played a high energy set that pretty much ruled my world. All my favorites and left me with a new found respect for the song ‘Anymore/ Any Less’. I am super hyped on this show. I know it kinda sucked for them not pulling in a big crowd, but for me as a fan wow. It was like they played a personal set in my living room or something. It ruled. Please support this band!

Henry Clay People website.

The Mighty LZA and I were hyped for this show. Me especially. All day I sat around waiting for show time to start. Ok, well that was mostly because I had diarrhea and didn’t have a choice. Either way things worked out for the evening and after a super yummy dinner at Buenos Aires Pizzeria we went to the venue early. We were there really early it turns out. Early enough that I went and counted the Null stickers in the mens room. There were two of them. I doubled that and the opening band hit the stage. School Knights are from Denver apparently. Pretty clever name I tell you. They put on a good show. I had heard from John that they were horrible, but clearly he had the wrong band in mind as they were good. Mr Dream was really good. Total old style bass heavy rock like Jesus Lizard a bit. Both singers for that band had amazing voices.

Cloud Nothings came on and immediately went into the new material that’s been getting favorable reviews from the critics. The reason of course is because it’s really good. The opening song was “Stay Useless” and it set the bar high for the set. A few songs later they went into (what I consider song of the year so far) “Wasted Days”. This song destroyed in ways I didn’t think this band was capable of. The drummer is amazing to watch. He would hit the drums so hard. He would even stomp the foot pedals like he was killing them. It added a lot to the show. The end of “Wasted Days” was incredible. I thought they would have trouble maintaining that much energy throughout the set, but I was wrong. The last song was “No Future / No Past” and they started it with a rockin’ 4-5 minute jam that went right into it. So sick. Totally an amazing show. I’m sold on them.

After the show I went to show my support by buying a t-shirt. Well mr singer Dylan Baldi was at the merch booth and told me that the shirts run big so I bought a size large shirt. Of course when I got home it didn’t fit at all. Never listen to a hipster. Especially one that doesn’t know I’ve been working out a few times a week lately and related to the strongest man in the world. Oh well, I’ll forgive him.

I’ll start by saying Mudhoney is one of my all time favorite bands. It’s been several years since I’ve seen them play and my excitement level was very high. Especially since I’ve never heard anything off of The Lucky Ones live and it’s become my favorite album of theirs.

The first band was Purple Fluid. They were young and the twin brothers in the band are the son of Rick Kulwicki, the member of the Fluid that died a few years ago. The show was a benefit for the them. With the exception of the glam kid that didn’t seem to fit into the band at all I thought they were great. Later on Mark Arm would thank them for opening and said how proud their dad would have been. Awesome.

This show had the most gray hair I’ve ever seen at one show. At one point the singer for The Fluid announced that he wrote a song for his daughter when she was born. Then said that she was at the show and she was now 25. I guess that explains the gray hair everywhere! The Fluid played a long set. I wasn’t that impressed. Zach was though and he’s in a band so we’ll say that The Fluid was great. Ha.

Mudhoney came out and completely ruled it. The start of the set was mostly early stuff. Superfuzz Bigmuff and the s/t album with some other classics mixed in. I was kinda worried they wouldn’t play anything off The Lucky Ones. Luckily near the end of the set Mark Arm put away the pedals and set down the guitar and they went into several off of the Lucky Ones. Stoked! They have such a great stage presence. At one point a water bottle was thrown onstage and Mark Arm held it down in field goal position for bassist Guy Maddison to kick it back into the crowd. Mudhoney completely killed it. It’s gonna be hard to top this show in 2012.

After a short, but tiring session on campus Carleigh and I went to Community Cycles to see Black Dots open for a couple Chicago bands. It was pretty awesome that it was so low key at a bike shop and the Chicago bands had promise so we stuck around. Black Dots were great as usual, well, maybe even better. They seemed more rockin’ and lively on stage. We even got to hear a new song that killed it.

The second band was BUST! They had the fastest drummer I have ever seen. They played fast and energetic music and looked like they were having a blast. I couldn’t get enough of watching the drummer though, he seriously killed the drums.

And the drummer is clearly a huge fan of Max. Awesome!

The last band was called The Please & Thank Yous. They were also better than expected. Not as fast as Bust, but still rocking and awesome. They had their new album on cassette only. None of us have tape players. Ha. Thank you Black Dots for playing with all these awesome bands and exposing me to new stuff.

Liz and I are fully on the bike program these days so of course we biked to the Bright Eyes show. It’s the first show we’ve ever biked to.

Which comes in pretty handy when they are putting Pabst in glass and Fat Tire in plastic. Not that we had very many of those though. We did learn a new trick which is to go into the external bar through the door near the restrooms and save a few bucks on a beer. Hyped!

The first band was Omaha’s Conduits. They proved that they were from Omaha by being almost amazing, but trying to hard to hold back rocking out and therefore being pretty boring. This is such a typical characteristic of smaller bands from Omaha. Haven’t you learned anything from the likes of Bright Eyes, Cursive and The Faint? It’s just fine to rock out sometimes! Anyways, they were decent for sure, but there is so much more potential.

Next up was Bright Eyes and the theater had gotten pretty crowded. They came out sounding good and played a lot off I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning and Digital Ash. They were great. For awhile. The crowd wasn’t helping. People yelling cat calls and “I Love You Conor” during quiet songs suck. Seriously, you jerks took the show down several levels.

Although I have to admit the mixed signals from the man in charge didn’t help. Conor was clearly wasted by the end of the set, talking about how he wants to be a party band, wearing a funny hat he picked up that day and went on a 10+ minute drunken rap about the members of the band. Yes, I said “rap”. I think it’s great how much Conor values the members of this band, but this was overkill. No one else on stage was partying. Liz and I have seen Bright Eyes so many times and most of those shows he’s so wasted it kind of bums us out.

So I don’t know. I love the music of Bright Eyes. They played a great set. The sound was great. I think Conor Oberst is probably normally a great guy. But I left that show very confused about what I saw and heard. I hope he gets it figured out soon.

How do you make an epic skate trip even more epic? You start it off by seeing your favorite band put on perhaps the best show you’ve ever seen them play! Everyone here knows I’m as big of a Dinosaur Jr fan as they come and when I found out that Dinosaur Jr would be playing in Boston the first night of my skate trip my excitement went through the roof. The first two days of Boston were rain, but it didn’t even matter, we saw Dinosaur Jr!

And did I tell you that Carleigh was in Boston for a day too! Awesome. Carleigh, Joe, Pat.

Carleigh took this photo of Joe, Pat, me and Charlie. And no, I wasn’t double fisting it.

Epic Bug shirt purchased.

OFF! opened and they killed it. OG Black Flag steez.

Did I mention I’m friends with the guitarist for OFF!? Dimitri rules.

The second part of the show was Henry Rollins interviewing Dinosaur Jr. We had made a joke that you would have to drink everytime J Mascis responded with a blunt one word answer. Not the case, he and the rest of the band were on point. I’m pretty sure there are multiple times where I freaked out and was like “This is the best thing ever!”

Someone recorded and posted the interview. Without a doubt between OFF! and the interview this was the best opening for a Dinosaur Jr show ever. Top it off with good friends, a good crowd, good beers, a good venue, a great setlist (Bug) and you get ..

Quite possibly my favorite concert ever. Words cant really describe how insanely awesome I thought this show was. They played In A Jar and The Wagon before starting Bug. Bug didn’t use to be my favorite, but I’ve always thought the 1-2-3 punch of They Always Come, Yeah We Know and Let It Ride was the best three song combo on any Dinosaur Jr album. It didn’t disappoint.

Instead of Lou screaming WHY DON’T YOU LIKE ME? over and over during Don’t two dudes got on stage and screamed their lungs out. It was amazing. Carleigh took this awesome photo. They played Don’t for almost 15 minutes of pure destruction. After a short break came an encore. Lou announced, “Wouldn’t it be awesome is we played a shit load of Black Flag songs?” Then they went on to play Out There and The Lung. Ha ha J Mascis is one hilarious dude. Indeed one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and I haven’t stopped listening to Bug since.

After missing Bright Eyes due to uncontrollable circumstances a week before we decided to spend the $$ and see one of our favorites, Titus Andronicus. After a few poses in the alley this was the best I could come up with. Then we went to dinner.

Liz and I were cheapskates for dinner and shared a meal. We did got all out and get Pabst though.

The first “performer” was Julianna Barwick. She played the worst shit I have ever heard in my life. Literally, the worst “music” humanly possible. It was just her voice, dubbed over and over without words. Just ambient nothing horribleness. Whoever setup the show to have her open for a punk rock band is a moron.

So we wandered around and got a photo op with Mr Titus Andronicus himself, Patrick Stickles! He’s a really nice dude and a nerd! So we love him! We told him he better play loud after that Julianna crap. He said he’d try. Ha.

Titus Andronicus came on and did not disappoint. They played only songs form their latest album The Monitor. It was great.

The crowd up front was a weird one. Punk rock looking dudes with their ears plugged. Pretentious 20 year old hipsters that were annoyed with Titus fans yelling some of the words. It was easily the weirdest billing I’ve witnessed. Titus ruled it though.

The headliner was Okervil River. They were mediocre hipster rock. We left across the street for a drink and then fanned out with the Titus dudes some more. Fun night.

After some pizza at the Backcountry Pizza place most of Trick Factory went to Astroland to see Black Dots.  None of us had been there before.  Turns out that place rules.  Just a warehouse, BYOB, DIY steez.  Love it. I was feeling kinda sick so I went with some Ginger Ale with a bit of whiskey in it. Yum.

The first act was Lizzie Huffman. She was great. Like really great. Super mellow acoustic music with some revealing lyrics about relationships or drinking or both. Good stuff. I apparently didn’t take a great cell phone shot of the next act. It was a solo guy called Disorder maybe? He had some good crowd support.

At first glance it looked like the Brandow’s were grabbing pills from a bag. Turned out to be ear plugs.

Next up was a punk band from Pittsburgh called “Run, Forever”. They were super good. During the first song us old guys (and Carleigh) nodded to each other saying we liked it. There was a mosh pit going and us old guys were not in it. After the first song Brian announced “Votes are in, old guys like it!” I added, “But we’ll be in the back”. Maybe somebody laughed. These guys killed it though. Straight forward old school rock ‘n roll. They had t-shirts (no XL), patches, records and an amazing black/yellow minibus. Best of luck to that band.

Last up was Black Dots. John kept thanking everyone for staying out so late like it was a week night or something. It made me laugh. It’s saturday night! Whew! I have been listening to their cd a lot lately so this is their first show where I new most of the words. That added to the enjoyment of an already great show. And the Guided By Voices cover is always great. But the Neil Young song to close it down was the best I’ve heard them play it. So insane. When is that “In a Jar” cover coming guys? Ha. Great show.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that Astroland is my favorite venue in Colorado now. Host more shows please!

Liz and I went to the early showing of this video. We met up with Fuzz and Carleigh after some dinner with Darin and posted up next to one of the stars of the night, Shad. It was rad. Lots of teasers including a new Null one. The video itself was awesome. Not a hammer video with lots of raw street skating that can be viewed over and over. I can’t wait to get a copy of it. Liz and I bailed as soon as the credits started to get to the J Mascis show.

We said a quick hello to friends then posted right up front. I laughed as J’s guitars were brought to the front with the airplane tags still on them. Kinda hard to see in my cell phone photo above, but we shared a laugh with the guy next to us who might even be a bigger J Mascis nerd than me (not possible). The fire alarm at the Hi-Dive was going off which was pretty annoying.

J was walked up front looking frail and awkward and after a quick “Hello” busted right into The Wagon. Pretty much my favorite song ever. Although I’ll admit that’s one of those songs that benefits from the added noise of the whole band. Next up was Listen To Me off the new album and then Several Shades Of Why. Several Shades may have been my favorite song of the night. Then he went on to play mostly oldies including classics like Alone, Get Me, Ammarring, Quest. Oceans In The Way had one of the loudest crowd responses which kind of surprised Liz and I, but is just more evidence that Farm is one of their finest. I was surprised and excited to hear Not The Same. Not Enough went off. Flying Cloud is another runner up for my favorite song of the night. The encore was Raisons then Repulsion I think. The show was great. The only thing that takes away from it to me is this was the Several Shades Of Why tour and he only played four songs from it. A couple more would have made this show beyond epic to me. That being said, it was still a totally awesome show and J Mascis cannot be touched. After the show I went to get a t-shirt, but they had all sold out except one size large and a bunch of XXL (I’m not Mikey). Doh. Read a better review and see better photos at heyreverb.com.