On Tour

Tatanka made its way to a speaker near me on Feb 3rd, 2010.  Hodi’s Half Note in Fort Collins welcomed them with a free keg of PBR for this Wednesday night show.  Ladies, if you want to find your very own fried egg, you can probably pick one out from the sausage fests known as free keg night at Hodi’s.

I arrived after the keg had dried up and the remains of the crowd resembled a frat party.  However there are key differences.

It’s been four years since I have seen Reverend Horton Heat. The last show I witnessed the magic that this band projects was at the Wakarusa Music Festival in 2006. Coincidentally, it was the first review that I ever wrote. I was anticipating the same amount of energy, if not more since the show was in Boulder, and they always have a great cult following here. One notable pre-show note that I made was about the ticket prices.

The anticipation outside San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center was at an all time peak! Dead Heads everywhere with their long hair, dread locks, beards, hemp necklaces and tie-dyed clothing were lined up outside the venue either in line or holding up their pointer finger praying for a miracle ticket. This was the kind of atmosphere I had dreamt about for years! It was beyond a rock n’ roll concert! It was the indescribable coming together of thousands of Dead Heads, who are a tribe, who become joined into one strong force once they step a foot through those auditorium doors.

Catching hometown jamgrass legends Yonder Mountain String Band has become a Denver holiday tradition, as the band has performed New Year's Eve concerts here every year for the better part of the last decade.  From electric performances at the Paramount Theater, a supporting/collaborative effort last year with Widespread Panic at the Pepsi Center, to multiple showings at the Fillmore Auditorium the band has routinely and successfully rung in each New Year with the Colorado faithful.

For the entire first set of Furthur at the horribly oversold Hammerstein Ballroom on Wednesday night December 9th, I could not see the band at all. Lucky me.

While Phish was ending its musically-epic fall tour at John Paul Jones Arena, in Charlottesville, and while the world was being introduced to The Naked Guy, a new music venue prepared to greet guests for the ‘Official Phish Aftershow, with Toubab Krewe.”

Thanksgiving is a glorious time, here in Central Virginia.  The tourist-laden leaf season is over, yet plenty of post-peak autumnal glory hangs around to be enjoyed, for a little while longer.  Days can still be quite warm, and nights are deliciously cool and refreshing. Thanksgiving, football, and the coming Christmas season beckon.  And suddenly there are also lots of indoor bluegrass shows, especially in Charlottesville.

2009 has been one helluva year, hasn’t it?

We all started out in January, with the electric energy of a pending Inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States.  And we also had the knowledge that Phish was gonna tour again.  I for one, recall standing outside on NYE, and holding my hands wide to embrace what was ‘next.’

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