Thursday: Headed to Boulder (via Denver) on a middle of the day flight, which actually proved to be quite comfortable. We left Atlanta at 1:30 PM, and with the time change, we landed in Denver and made it to the Boulder Theatre in good time.
I finished up Can You Ever Forgive Me? (see the previous blogs if you don't know what I'm talking about). There was nothing else I wanted to see, so I tried out the documentary on Ruth Bader Ginsberg, titled RBG. Hot damn. It's really good.
Anyway. The weather for Boulder was supposed to be snow/rain, high of 38. Nooooooo! Not in May! Fortunately, there was no snow, and other than a few sprinkles, no rain.
After soundcheck, I squeezed in a short run (including picking up my order at the closest Indian restaurant). This Aloo Saag, which is a spinach and potato dish, served over rice. Looks like cat vomit (according to cat owners), but tasted great. It also stunk up all of the downstairs dressing rooms.
Boulder Theatre was terrific. Not quite sold out, but very full, and the audience was excellent (and there was plenty to look at). The stage sounded good, and we all played well, too. It was a nice, relaxed start to this little run of shows.
Friday: We spent both nights at the same hotel in downtown Denver, and as a bonus, we each had our own rooms. I woke up at 6 AM, went back to sleep until 10, went downstairs for coffee, and then headed out for a run. The weather was gorgeous.
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| didn't go in, just ran past it |
Near the end of my run, I circled around to...ta da!...another Indian restaurant. Hello lunch buffet. Plate #1: the sign said that this was Aloo Paneer, but I think it's the same thing that I had the night before in Boulder. Note the similar cat-vomit-like color and texture. It had a good kick to it.
All you can eat, so plate #2! This was Aloo Gobi, which is mainly cauliflower and potatoes. Honestly, this one didn't really taste like anything. I still ate it, though.
I managed to run back to the hotel without throwing up, and after a shower, stretching, and a failed attempt to nap, I walked the .75 miles to the Ogden Theatre for load in.
This is another nice looking, nice sounding room, and sold out always makes for a good gig. After soundcheck, most of the band wandered down the street to feast on ramen (yes, I checked, and there are no Indian restaurants within walking distance--there is a vegan place a block away, but it's a lot of quinoa and raw stuff, and ramen sounded like a better option, and everybody else wanted to go there and it wasn't busy). This was good, even though I had to fish out the half of a hard boiled egg (yuck!).
So...jeez! Denver was sold out. This was a really fun night. We had a good laugh talking about the couple in the front row who looked so miserable for most of the gig--it turned out she was Nick's cousin and her husband!
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| you can count 'em if you don't believe me, but that's 1,600 people |
Saturday: 7:15 AM lobby call, headed to Houston for a private gig. It was our first time flying United--kind of interesting to deal with another airline after so many rides with Delta. Right before I passed out, I wondered if we were on one of those Boeing 737 Max planes. No? Great. I woke up somewhere over Texas as we bounced around the edges of a thunderstorm.
This was a 70s themed party for a corporate client. The doofuses that provided the backline were all over the place with the gear, and it took a while to get everything in the right place. The major bummer of this one (especially considering the difficult acoustics of the room) was that the backline guys forgot to provide the in ear monitoring system, so we had to use wedges. Needless to say, the stage sound was not what we were used to.
I guess we were at the end of a long party, because we had around five hours to kill after soundcheck. I went for a run, and we still had time to watch Pulp Fiction and Coco.
So, yeah, this was not the most inspired evening of our lives. There was some really good stuff to look at, but we were tired, we had to wait around all afternoon in, the room didn't sound good, and those two nights in Colorado set the bar really high.
Oh well. Back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep, and then we were off to the airport again, this time for a flight back to Atlanta. Once again, I was able to sleep the whole way. Home, lunch, church gig, laundry. We're off again tomorrow!
