Denver Blog

photo by Erin Tidwell and Kurt Ottaway (click to enlarge)

Saturday, March 20: The sun burned off most of the cloud cover as the crowd continued to swell. In the Bat Bar, the Von Bondies tuned up all of their gear for a DirectTV taping, then launched into a near perfect set of fuzzy soul blues mixed in with a pop love in. Big smiles and upbeat vibes. As the sun started to set, we made our way to the Congress Bridge on the river to watch the bats swarm from under. As they swirled skyward, boats on the river watched the gather to ascend. Stopped at a crepe shop for a kick start with a four shot iced mocha. Next stop Airborne Toxic Event. Airborne Toxic Event was packed to the wall and sounded like the official indie rock version of the hula hoop. A little too Scooby Doo for our taste. Upon recommendation we went next to check out Brooklyn's Dirty Projectors. Complicated indie art rock/math rock with a lot of complex original sounds. Challenging to listen to so we moved on. Back on Sixth Street sipping our coffees, we got a nice surprise in Gift Horse playing a small stage in a window at Club Agave, with colored lights streaming through the openings. It was a more psychedelic version of the Telescopes drony and very groove heavy. Running an hour late at The Red 7 Patio, Crystal Stilts played a spacey shambling velvet meets the Mary Chain at a Coney Island beach party with ghosts of Beat Happening floating in between. We wandered the streets as observers of the amense human condition before us.