- teecomb in Pitchfork Leaks Some of the 2008 Lineup Animal Collective rocks so hard. It’s has great melodies and most people who hate on it have only heard one era of them that didn’t...
- Mark in SonicBids & CMJ 2007: Anatomy of a Scam? …Meh. Sonicbids is a total scam. Our band was stupid enough to fall into it to. It didn’t take us long to figure out that they keep...
- Matt K in Just a small complaint… Agreed whole-heartedly. Nice observation.
That blurry abstract to the left is a picture of the backstage area at Red Rocks I took with my camera phone. It’s the only picture I took back there and dammit, isn’t it just a peach?
A week ago today one of my best friends had the chance to play on the famous stage. Not only were he and the band he plays bass for living out one of those ideal experiences, but they were good enough to organize a catered after party backstage for friends and family. Having lived in the Denver/Metro area for the better part of my life I jumped at the chance to visit the other side of the rock.
All of the guests with backstage access were lined up at an access point which was stage left. I’m guessing there have got to be about 3 or 4 access points to the backstage area because there’s no way that a fat ass like Jerry Garcia would’ve hiked his heroin filled man tits up the steep walkway where we were just to get to the backstage. We were a good 20 feet above the parking lot where the busses would’ve parked, so there has to be a lower entry point.
A guy came through the line and checked IDs. Since there were a couple of kegs of donated Coors Light available in the back, they wanted to make sure it was all legal. About 15 minutes later, we were ushered through a hole in a rock (an ample hole, mind you. We weren’t spelunking), and down a cement path. The rock quickly changed to painted white cinder block with photographs of famous people at Red Rocks lining the walls. We walked a fairly steep ramp down, took a right and were suddenly in a dimly lit room with carpet on the floors, more white cinderblock and celeb pictures on the left and red rock on the right. The room was filled with tables and chairs, couches and a full catered buffet. At the end of the buffet were 2 taps, both dispensing Coors Light… and the only cups to be found were used and in the trash. Did that stop people from using them? Fuck no.
Now, here’s the real secret about the Red Rocks backstage area: It’s the on place in Colorado where both prostitution and gambling are legal. Let me let you in on a 3 minutes window of my time back there: I had a roast beef sandwich in my hand and had a $15 dollar bet on the blackjack table I was sitting at. The dealer dealt me a dreaded 6 and followed it up with a queen. I rolled my eyes as I took another bite. Thee dealer’s up card was a Jack. When the dealer’s hand slid in front of my position I tapped the felt indicating a hit (another card) and he turned over a 3. I had 19. I stood on that. It was respectable, but maybe not enough to win. The dealer flipped his hole card - it was a 4 for a total of 14. He then pulled another card from the shoe - it was an 8. He busted. I made 15 dollars. I passed a $5 chip to the hooker who was giving me oral under the table. “Will that get me another 5 minutes?” I asked. She didn’t even open her eyes. She just nodded.
Ok - let’s just pretend that the above didn’t happen and that both gambling and prostitution are illegal in the Red Rocks backstage and let’s then also pretend that I’m not considered a “whale” who gets comped whatever he wants among the Red Rocks staff. Then the real secret would be that backstage areas - no matter where they are - are pretty boring. It’s a room in a venue that’s going to be used by a relatively small amount of people. It’s not like being on stage, or hell, even in front of the stage. The biggest benefit of being backstage is that it didn’t smell like puke, which I’d love to know how an open air park of that size can smell like vomit no matter where you are.
Oh, and since they let me experience that, I’m going to throw out a plug for my friend’s band. He knows it’s not my cup of tea so he won’t mind it when I say “It’s not my cup of tea” - but maybe it’ll be yours. Angie Stevens Band
I’m so going to get my butt kicked for continuing to mention unpopular bands in post titles, but if you’re from Denver you’ll get a kick out of this.
Streaming Fray concert on AOL
If you skip to minute 48, you’ll see a string quartet comprised of members of Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots, Tarantella, Bad Luck City, and too many other local bands to mention throw it down with hometown ‘heros’ The Fray.
As I told Kelly O’Dea when she got this gig, ‘The Fray, really lame; You playing with The Fray, really cool’.
