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 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.

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.

One night after seeing a show filled with under 20 year old hipsters I found myself going to see Sebadoh – a 90s indie rock icon.  The crew was Ric, Brian, Maria, John, Zach and I and the place was filled with other aging indie rock nerds.  Quasi opened and they were awesome.  I enjoyed them more when the singer would play guitar, but they were good when he was on piano too.  Well, what’s left of the piano after he kicked it a bunch on the last song.Sebadoh was spectacular.  Click the photo above to go to Reverb magazine for more cool photos and big words describing how radical the show was.  On top of playing great musically they also proved that they are still socially awkward when interacting with the crowd.  Especially Jason.  That guy is crazy.  I love it!  Anyways it looks like they’re basically playing the same setlist every night and I found this one from Seattle’s show:

• 1 Intro
• 2 On Fire
• 3 Dreams
• 4 Too Pure
• 5 Soul and Fire
• 6 Sister
• 7 Shit Soup
• 8 Mind Reader
• 9 Got It
• 10 I Love To Fight
• 11 Drag Down
• 12 Magnets Coil
• 13 Ocean
• 14 Skull
• 15 Rebound
• 16 License to Confuse
• 17 Drama Mine
• 18 Nothing Like You
• 19 Crystal Gypsy
• 20 Careful
• 21 Beauty of the Ride
• 22 Not a Friend
• 23 Together or Alone
• 24 Forced Love
• 25 Sixteen
• 26 Give Up
• 27 Junk Bonds
• 28 New Worship
• 29 Brand New Love
• 30 Worst Thing
• 31 Not Too Amused
• 32 Willing to Wait

John gets the nerd award having successfully guessed the first song and was able to name the most tunes after hearing only the first note of the song.  Brian and Maria left early.  Ric almost puked in my car.  Zach used to make fun of me for liking indie rock instead of just punk rock.  They were charging $20 for a one color t-shirt and Lou was proud of it.  Some dork got called out for the first Dinosaur Jr request of the tour (and no it wasn’t me come on I know they wouldn’t be able to play it good anyways ha). All in all a fun night and they must have played good because I’ve been listening to Sebadoh ever since.Looks like there is lots of youtube clips of the show.

It’s been awhile since this show happened, but one thing or another and it took awhile to get this online.  Anyways, the night began at Fuzz’s favorite ska venue 3 Kings Tavern.  We were there to see my friend Zach’s band Straighten The Crooked open for some ska music that we would later have to pull Fuzz away from.  I was to shoot some video for for them to put up on youtube.  Unfortunately as soon as they went on stage 3 Kings shut off most of the lights and there wasn’t much light to film.  After filming one song I snapped these photos, but they didn’t come out too well either.  The show was sick though.  They have gotten tighter and a better stage presence.  So stoked.  Did I tell you I’m friends with the singer in the band?  Whew!   Both Carleigh and Fuzz blogged about the show too.  Well, maybe not so much about the show, but at least about how you can get socks in the vending machine at 3 Kings.Zach killing it on the bass.  After Straighten The Crooked we bolted over to the Larimer Lounge because I wanted to see The Henry Clay people.  A little band I didn’t know much about other than their new album is really fun rock ‘n roll.  We got there with plenty of time and ended up seeing an opening band called The Dig.  They started out pretty good, but by the end of their set none of us were feeling them.  They’ve got some potential for sure, who knows if they’ll fulfill it.I had taken enough “professional” photos already so I left my camera in the car allowing me to take such high quality photos as the one above.  Henry Clay people came on and immediately began rocking the house.  Lots of energy, lots of fun.  I figured they’d be pretty good live, but they exceeded all expectations.  As the show progressed it became evident that once again, an opening band at the Larimer would act like idiots, pretend they owned the floor and throw ice cubes at the headliner.  I don’t know if the Larimer requires this, but either way it’s annoying.  Henry Clay People took it in stride though.  In fact I don’t think a smile ever left the singers face.  I might even say that I’ve never seen a band have that much fun on stage.  They played most of the new album and quite a few covers.  Lou Reed, Op Ivy, Bruce Springsteen and closed with Neil Young.  I loved the covers.  I loved that it annoyed the hipsters.  They played them great.  The show was awesome.  Good times Rock ‘N Roll.  Everything and more I want to see in a show.  This band is awesome.

My third in show in little over a week. Also the third show in a row I didn’t have even a single beer. Weird. Anyways, Liz and I rolled in shortly before the opening band Free Energy. I had heard nothing about them before listening to some songs of theirs on myspace early that day. After what I heard I should have known better, but we don’t like just seeing only one band.This band was bad. Really really bad. Somehow they had a large following.Lots of them wore headbands.Or they were parents.Even some Ultimate Fighters in the house. It was seriously the weirdest crowd.Killing some time during the sucking we rolled back to the merch booth and noticed their name was wrong on their own 7 inch. That’s funny! The scary part was that the members of Titus Andronicus came out to play the Springsteen cover with Free Engery and it was also really bad. Liz and I were definitely a bit worried for Titus at that point.Titus Andronicus eventually arrived on stage. It started about as epic as one can imagine. A drunken fan recited the opening speech from The Monitor and stage dived into the crowd as the band exploded into “A More Perfect Union”. I haven’t witnessed a band get on stage and blow me away that quickly in a long time. The giant turd left in the air by Free Engery was defeated immediately. Thank god. Titus Andronicus went on to play one of the best shows I have ever seen. Tons of energy throughout, great setlist, great stage presence, it was loud, the sound was good, the crowd was very into it, everything you need for a great show. They came off more punk rock then I would have thought with lots of fist pumping anthems being yelled by the crowd. The ender “Four Score And Seven” was so intense and powerful that I actually hoped the show was done. No encore. That song burned the house down. Totally epic set.Lastly, sorry once again for the crappy cell phone photos. But if I brought my nice camera I’d feel obligated to spend my time trying to get the perfect photo instead of just enjoying the show.

The kids were staying over at a friends so Liz and I decided to go to this show.  After eating some good BBQ with TF and watching the Nuggets win we headed to Denver with Carleigh.  We got into the show about the time the opening band Cannon started.  They ended up being really good.  They were pretty heavy indie rock at times, somewhat metal at other times.  Next up was Lion Sized which was the only band I had seen before.  I liked them a lot the first time I saw them, but this time they kinda let me down.  The music is a lot like Hot Snakes, but it just didn’t do it for any of us this time.The headlining band was called Tauntaun.  We had never heard of them. We figured if they sucked or were even just mediocre we’d leave so we could get to sleep early.   They started the show by cranking the fog machine up so much that Liz left the front room.  Ha.  Within the first song it was pretty clear that they were awesome.  Really awesome.  I don’t like much metal, but this was incredible.  It reminded me of classic metal.  Sabbath, Maiden, Priest and Motorhead with a bit of grunge thrown in to make it completely incredible.  It was so good that Liz liked it, and she hates most metal.  It was also so good that I bought a Tauntaun t-shirt and record.  Check them out, they rule.

India was required to go to the Stock Show this year for her 4H Llama club.  Liz and I brought her with her Friends Leanne (left) and Ray (middle) and it was a hoot!Liz and I checked out the stockshow while the girls did their chores.  First stop, the Cowboy Bar.  But first, gotta sanitize those hands!  Ha, didn’t seem very Cowboyish to me.Liz was in love with the cowboy in the background.Oh just having a beer with the cows, nothing special.Don’t remember the last time I stood on peanut shells AND a manhole at a bar.This was next to the ducks/chickens/roosters/crazy birds and they meant it.Liz was mesmerized by this pig’s tail.