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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
 Posted - 10/01/2006 : 8:37:59 PM
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Where to begin....What a day, what a show, what a way to end this leg of the current run. I guess the trip in is a as good a place to start as any. So we had a ruff check-out of the hotel in Denver but after that it was all up-hill. LOL Literally driving into the Rocky Mts to our final destination on this run. Aspen, CO. We took I-70 out to the Copper Mt exit where we stopped at a gas station to fill up and to decide which way to continue to Aspen. Sidenote: I had saved my Hunter S. Thompson t-shirt for the Aspen show since he was from Woody Creek. While in the gas station some guy came up to me and was like "Nice t-shirt! I am from Aspen and I made all of Hunters t-shirts for him." KEWL, in close proximity to the "mojo" of HST. I left the gas station with my head swimming with thoughts of HST. Now it was TIMe to decide which way we were going to continue. There are 2 ways to get there, the longer, faster way continuing on I-70 or the shorter, slower way up and over Independence Pass and the Continental Divide next to Mt Elbert, the highest point in CO, 14,433 ft. Luckily we had made good TIMe and opted to take the more scenic drive. We were greatly rewarded for this choice. The trip was absolutely beautiful! Still snow on the higher peaks and the leaves were changing. The yellows were absolutely stunning. Almost surreal. The colors didn't seem real. It was a beautiful sunny day so the colors really jumped out at us.
It was a sweet trip into Aspen and then a quick check-in at the hotel and off to soundcheck. The venue was awesome! Great room, used to be the Aspen public swimming pool. The sound was amazing there. The room looked spectacular as well. Remember, I wan't here with TR when he played in Jan at this venue. I had only heard the stories from TR's experience earlier in the year. I was not let down with the room. Our old friend Ralph is the house engineer at the Belly Up so we were excited to see him and have him doing sound for TR again. He had done sound for TR on TR's previous trip to Aspen and also one of the shows we did at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA. That was the first place we met him. It's always great to see Ralph. In fact, Ralph recorded the last show that TR did at the Belly Up in Aspen and TR had done an impromptu blues jam with improvised vocals called "Skinny White Clouds". TR was so happy with the recording that that live version ended up on TR's new CD. I remember hearing it the first TIMe I listened to the CD and wondering where that recording was from since I didn't recognize it. I asked TR and he told me it was from that Belly Up show I hadn't been at. He also told me that the place was packed and the crowd was unusually loud but in a good way but it inspired him to just shoot from the hip since he felt like he was "playing to a room full of Hunter S. Thompsons". And so was born "Skinny White Clouds". I mention all this because last nites crowd couldn't have been any more the opposite than the January crowd. By everyone who had attended both it was another case "Wow! How could they be so different?" Last nites crowd was much smaller(in-season there are about 30,000 residents in Aspen, off-season less than 5000) and way more intimate and attentive I am told, which as I have come to learn, the crowd really affects which type of TR performance you get on any given nite. He really does feed off the crowd.
Last nites show was one of the best I have seen of TR. He was really ON! Steve(Belly Up manager) said both performances were brilliant but that last nites was something special even though it was a smaller crowd. I explained that is probably what made it so special. He said it was like watching 2 different people. I think Steve gets how I feel someTIMe. Unless you see multiple shows in front of different kinds of audiences it is really hard to understand how TR is different in front of different audiences. Same performer, different vibe.
So after soundcheck we had a wondeful buffet style dinner for all the bands and crew and venue staff. It was awesome to just hang out with everyone in the chill environs of the club before it opened. SPECIAL THANX to Emily for taking such great care of our every need this evening. Emily also commented on my HST t-shirt and said she had a friend who had Hunter as a neighbor growing up. She remembers their parents going out of town and having Hunter keep an eye on them while they were away. Emily remembers never seeing Hunter, but hearing him downstairs and they would go downstairs to see him and he would be gone and there would be a piece of lasgna missing and note on the kitchen table, scrawled on it, "I'm watching YOU!!" That's so HST. LOL
About 5 days before the gig, Emily called and asked if they could add another opener to the bill that nite. She informed me that he was in Aspen writing songs with John Oates of Hall & Oates fame. I don't know if you guys know this but (c)Rew is a HUGE Hall & Oates fan. In fact, just about a year ago Rew took me to see Hall & Oates at Wolf Trap in NoVA. It was great show and we had a great TIMe but we looked really out of place obviously. Well having no problem with another act on the bill I told her it was OK to add Reed to the bill and joked with her to see if she could get John Oates down to the club because I knew Rew would be excited to meet him. And boy was he. Imagine John Oates surprise as Rew, spiked wristbands and death metal t-shirts approached him and said he was a huge fan. It seemed John didn't know what to think at first or if he should believe him but after Rew dropped to his knees in idol worship John knew he wasn't joking. This all happened after Reed's soundcheck with John. We found out that John would be returning to sit-in with Reed on one song of his set. Rew, VERY EXCITED! As I waited for Reed to start his set I happened to be standing outside talking to Ralph and John Oates walked up, I had not met him earlier, so I introduced my self and began to assure him that Mr. Rew was serious about his love of Hall & Oates. John said he believed him once Rew dropped to his knees. He said that with a chuckle. hehe At this point John said to me "Nice t-shirt!" HST getting major props. LOL I said thanx and asked if he lived here in Aspen and he answered, "Woody Creek, in fact I was HST's closest neighbor. We shared a driveway." GULP, more HST juju! I asked if he had gone to the Depp event and he said yes and proceeded to tell me about the day HST took his life from his perspective. John has a 10 year old son and apparently he was pretty good friends with Hunter and it was really hard for him to find out his friend took his life. Imagine having to deal with that at the age of 10. John also said some of his fondest memories of HST were haning out with him at his house watching football games. I can't even imagine. John was wonderful and quite friendly. Guess we hung out for about 15 minutes chatting before he headed in to catch the beginning of Reed's set. Reed Waddle opened the evening with a wonderful set of acoustic music. Quite a good guitar player and great singer. He reminded me a bit of Dave Matthews vocally, but this coming from someone who doesn't know to much of Dave's music. To make sure I am not way out in left field you might want to ask a huge DMB fan if I am off the mark on this. Anyway, it was great set an he finished by bringing John Oates out to play one of the songs they had written together. It was a beautiful song. Wish I could remember the name, something like "Goodnight LA". Reed is from Florida and has 1 CD called This Paper Back Town. Thanx for sharing the evening with us REED!
Next Marcus took the stage and delivered a short but amazing set. Setlist is posted over on his message board. Marcus got the audience going as he always does. Fantastic performance. Too bad he had to leave immediately after his performance. He had to be back in Idaho for a show with his dad, Steve Eaton, at noon the next day. So he didn't get to encore with TR or see the amazing set by TR that followed his.
TR's setlist looked alittle like this:
Use the Force, Puke
Realm of the Dogs In Space Suits(Shorty's Trail)
Come Together
Betrayal
I'm Your Captain Goldfish In Ohio
The Truth
Che
I'm In the Mood - Whole Lotta
Indoctrinate
Flashy Lights and Frenzied Ferretts
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Ancestors
High In The Waist
Here Comes the Fuzz
Scream
Devils Bed
Revolution
Levee
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Smokescreen Albatross
Chatterbox/Loose but engaged briefly
Hands Full
Doom
Ocean
Hold
-yams? peacocks wail
Cold Sweat
It was subtlely, beautiful performance. TR came right off the stage and said "What a completely different audience than last TIMe!" It seemed to really catch him off guard but he adjusted and found his vibe and performed one of the best shows I have seen to date. It was recorded in both audio and video. I walked with the audio but will have to wait for Ralph to send me the DVD.
As I was loading out with Rew another gentleman approached me and said, "That's a GREAT shirt!" I said thanx and we introduced ourselves and he informed me that he had made the HST t-shirts for the Johnny Depp Memorial. I got very excited and asked if there was somewhere I could buy one and he said he didn't think so but he would be happy to send me one. WOW WOW WOW. A day filled with the spirit of Hunter, I couldn't have been happier. I know he was there that nite for the show.
I would like to extend a heartfelt THANX to everyone at the Belly Up for going above and beyond and making us feel so welcome. Like part of the family. We had a great TIMe and look forward to returning to Aspen very soon. Shout outs to Emily, Ralph, Steve, Amber and the entire staff who made it an unforgettable nite.
As this was the last nite of our run with Marcus and the gang I wanted to offer THANX and big hugs to Marcus, Glen, Kevin and John for traveling with us, recording us, helping us, laughing with us, fighting with us, and generally being really good friends to us. It sure made it alot easier having all of them along. Our crew expanded exponentially. hehe THANX THANX THANX, hope we can do it again soon. Hope your long drive back to Boise was uneventful and QUICK! Safe Travels!!
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Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy         
"THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS A CRUEL AND SHALLOW MONEY TRENCH-- A LONG PLASTIC HALLWAY WHERE THIEVES AND PIMPS RUN FREE AND GOOD MEN DIE LIKE DOGS. THERE'S ALSO A NEGATIVE SIDE..." -Hunter S. Thompson |
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PJK
Alien Abductee
USA
4159 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2006 : 12:31:47 AM
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Wow, awesome review. I have memories of Hall and Oats.....they backed out of a show they booked at my college way back in 1975! LOL Everyone was so pissed! That is what I always think of whenever I hear one of their songs on the radio (of course I am no longer pissed at them, LOL)
Very cool stories about HST! My son wants to follow in his footsteps as a jounalist.
Great review, great setlist and oh one more thing.........
GREAT PARAGRAPHS!!!!!! Who says ya can't teach an old dog new tricks...not that you are old....or a dog.....ya know what I mean! LOL |
"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!"Friedrich Nietzsche |
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jsemon2
Yak Addict
USA
920 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2006 : 2:04:47 PM
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the buffet was good, and fluffy the rolls were soft in the middle and good with butter.
just so everyone knows, ralph didnt just record it on video for dvd, it was shot on a Sony HDTV camcorder, so it will look fucking amazing.
i was able to snap a few pictures from the first two songs before we headed out, so i will post them shortly.
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OUT FOR LUNCH |
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Robin
Yak Addict
USA
598 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2006 : 5:54:26 PM
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What a great review and what a magical day! thanks as always for sharing in beautiful technicolor detail. It's funny last year you mentioned Rew had tix for a hall and Oates gig and I thought you may be joking...that's so kewl he got ot meet John. Safe travels guys. Peace, Robin |
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jsemon2
Yak Addict
USA
920 Posts |
Posted - 11/18/2006 : 9:22:32 PM
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UPDATE
i got marcus' set transferred from HD to minidv (how it goes) and shit if the video isnt amazing. high def video is just beautiful.
anyway, someone special from the board is going to give me money to purchase TR's HD tapes as well (i'm too poor to be the archiver, but i make due with what i can). i didnt see much of TR's performance because marcus and crew had to make a 14 hour trip in 10, but from the colors and detail i got from Marcus footage, you guys are in for a treat once i get the video and audio from the venue. |
OUT FOR LUNCH |
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09/30/06 Belly Up Aspen, CO
