On Tour

Colorado based Americana Quintet The Drunken Hearts hosted their “Love & Thirst” album release party on a Thursday night at the Bluebird Theater in Denver.  A far cry from the soulless popular music seeding festivals and stadiums, The Drunken Hearts played an intimate and emotional set.

The potentially rainy day at the nation’s most beautiful outdoor venue made the perfect backdrop to what was about to transpire. The Flaming Lips, with their elaborate stage set up for over one hundred performers, were going to play their entire album entitled The Soft Bulletin with the Colorado Symphony led by conductor Andre de Ritter.

What to say about this show? I will say it was a Phish show: not a Mike show, not a Trey show, not Page show, not a Fish show. It was a Phish show, a whole band who interacted and engaged in a musical conversation throughout. Wrigley Field provided the place for them to engage us, the audience, in their conversation.

This was a big night at the Lazy Dog Saloon in Boulder, CO for the indie rock star supergroup All Chiefs. They just finished recording a new EP “Fashion Forward” at the famous Coupe Studios Inc. in Boulder, and they were ready to show their fans and the local crowd what they were made of. After a couple of opening acts, the anticipation was building.

This funk show was one of the most powerful shows that I have ever seen. Turkuaz is the best and hottest funk band in the world at this moment. There is no doubt in my mind. The Nth Power is not very far behind them in their mastery of their cross genre collaborative. Both of these bands days of playing in small venues like the Fox Theater in Boulder, are numbered.

Euphoric dancing paired nicely with a rock ‘n’ roll varietal that included flavorful notes of blues, psychedelia, and other jam-happy material on June 3, as performed by the David Nelson Band at the Center for the Arts in the Sierra Nevada foothill community of Grass Valley, California.

Hot Buttered Rum, one of the most honest-to-goodness fun bluegrass bands to come out of the San Francisco Bay Area celebrated the release of their latest project with a hint of class and a formal Black and Red Ball at The Fillmore on Friday, May 13.

It was red noses all around on May 22 in Southern Sonoma County, as thousands converged at the Mountain Event Center to celebrate Wavy Gravy in merriment and song on the occasion of his 80th birthday.  

Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, with John Mayer and featuring Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, better known collectively as Dead & Company, opened their highly anticipated Summer 2016 tour by announcing a free show at The Fillmore in San Francisco on Monday, May 23.

The Fox Theater in Boulder has started a Tuesday night bluegrass tradition. On this evening, after the extremely talented and quickly emerging Caribou Mountain Collective, a bluegrass all-star cast graced the stage to honor an important player in the bluegrass world. John Hartford is probably one the most underrated bluegrass musician ever.