Day 11 & 12: Tony P's and The Cloud Station

Day 11 was set to be our last show in Denver at a pizzeria called Tony P's. After spending the last three days in Colorado's capital we were excited to cap it off with a good old fashion hang out. Unlike the other venues we had played, Tony P's was very much a "Bring your own crowd" type place so our entire crowd of 25 ended up being our Denver friends, and some folks who had seen us either Monday or Wednesday. 

The show itself was very fun and super casual, a very different vibe than the rest of the tour so far and everyone was having a great time! Tomorrow we would head back into the mountains, but it was nice to r out our Denver run with a bang!

We woke up on Friday and headed for Crestone. None of us, or anyone we met this far had heard of the small town, but we were still very anxious to get there and play. We arrived around 3 pm and went to scope out the scene. The town was a fraction of the size of our hometown of Wilton - with tons of huts and a very obvious down to earth community. 

The venue ended up being a health food store on one half and a venue on the other side. Upon entrance, we were immediately transported to a different time. There was a man on stage playing guitar and singing the most beautiful middle eastern type music, this man we would later find out, lives in a cave and was about to move to Mexico. He was also one of the best guitarists I have ever seen. 

A few minutes later we were introduced to the owner, Ben. He was one of the nicest venue owners I've ever met. So sincere and genuinely friendly, it was such a nice change of pace. By the end of the night we all walked out as good friends. The venue also did not sell alcohol - so it smelled amazing and it was so CLEAN - why don't more venues do that? We had a great sound check and explored the town a little more, locating a camping area for the night. By show time, locals were trickling into the room, paying the $10 ticket price with no qualms whatsoever. Try charging $10 in Connecticut, and you won't find the same results. These people were here to dance and they appreciated it beyond our knowledge. We played the first set and had the entire room dancing the whole time - everything was going so well. We even had a local harmonica player sit in on Camp Cut-Coulie. 

By set two everyone was still hanging around and continued to dance the entire time. At its peak we had around 40 people in the room, not bad for a town of population 150! We even met a couple from Wilton who moved out west over 30 years ago, what a small world!

After the show we hung out with Ben a bit more to discuss our camping situation and he pointed us to a great hike to take in the morning which I'll discuss later. We set out on our way up the mountain nearby to set up camp. We lit a Bon fire and reminisced on this great adventure. With only one show left, we were feeling happier than ever. Colorado is amazing.

Day 10: Quixote's

Our 5th show of the tour was at another local Dead bar called Quixote's True Blue - very similar to Sancho's, except it has two actual stages and is much more spacious. We had actually heard a lot of great things about Quixote's even before we came out to Colorado and were very excited for this set. But first! van maintenance!!

Driving 3,000 miles since Wilton, it was time for an oil change, a tire rotation and even to change our brake pads which Sam and I took care of for a few hours in the morning.



We headed to the venue around 7 pm and starting setting up for our two hour slot from 10-12. It was set to be our only 18+ show in Denver, so lots of Ethan's friends were able to come out and see us, very fun!

I just want to take a second to note that Ethan has been absolutely phenomenal playing bass with us. He learned all our songs in just a few weeks and is playing ferociously every night, having an absolute blast, we couldn't be happier to have him aboard for these shows.

The show ended up being fantastic, we impressed a lot of folks and had a crowd of about 30, half friends / half random locals. It was a fun night bolstered by the fact that after we finished, two more bands were playing, one after us on the main stage, and another on the smaller side stage. It was nice to enjoy music from a spectators position for a little while and definitely super fun to dance and relax.

In addition, we were quite affected by the death of Merle Haggard and decided to pay tribute by covering his song "Mama Tried" at the show, it was a truly special moment for us. RIP Merle.

Here's the setlist...

4/6 Denver, CO - Quixote's

Harley > Willy, King Kong, The Wave, Can't Have Both, Scarlet Begonias -> Fire on the Mountain, Yeti, Denver Jam -> Pancakes, Smoke Two Joints, Together Not the Same, Officer, Banana Jam -> Doc Brown, Mama Tried, C3PO, Smoke

Day 8 & 9: Sancho's and Red Rocks!

Day 8
Our eighth day of this colorado tour would mark our first show out of three in Denver. Besides the the fact that our friends in town could finally come see us, we were especially excited that we only had to drive 10 minutes from Carter's apartment to the first venue, Sancho's Broken Arrow. The club was legitimately a Grateful Dead bar. All over the walls hung old Dead show posters, photographs and psychedelic artwork. As we walked in, we were amazed at how crowded the bar was for a Monday and credited it to the Mens NCAA Basketball National Champion showing on TV in the bar. We were shocked however when the game ended and no one left or seemed to care - this was a built in crowd.

We set up in the middle of the bar, on the floor (there was no proper stage), and began playing around 10 pm. We had a lot of friends, old and new, in the audience and their energy seemed to rub off on the locals. Soon we had the interest of the entire (completely packed) bar. This was already the best show we had ever played on a Monday!

Midnight rolled around and we were planning on a set break, but considering we had a day off yesterday, no one was tired! So we kept playing what would end up being a 3.5 hour marathon set. Incredibly, the entire crowd stayed till the end of our double encore - we were on cloud nine. Later we found out that 149 people had come through the door, our biggest crowd of the tour so far.

Here's the setlist...

4/4 Denver, CO - Sancho's

Can't Have Both > Willy, China Cat -> I Know You Rider, Pool Rock, King Kong, Yeti, Smoke Two Joints > Banana Jam, The Wave, Pancakes > Ronnie, Camp Cut-Coulie, Officer, Together Not the Same, C3PO -> Garden Grove -> CP3O, Doc Brown, Denver Jam ->Rogue II, Lion in the Grass, Fire on the Mountain > Crossfaded Mammoths, What I Got, Reptar

E: Denver Jam #2, Harley

Day 9
We had another day off on Tuesday and spent it hiking at Red Rocks amphitheater right outside Denver. For those who don't know, Red Rocks is one of the most famous outdoor venues in the country. Built into actual "Red Rocks" national park in Morrison, the venue has hosted some of the greatest artists around since the 1940s. Here's a picture of Sam and I (peter) on the stage.

It was great to get some exercise and explore some mountains. Check out some more of these pictures from our hike...

Afterwards we met up with Carter to check out a local Brewery and then retired back at his apartment with a movie (Electric Apricot - A Les Claypool mocumentary about Jam Bands, I highly recommend it to fans of Spinal Tap) to rest up before Wednesday's show at Quixote's True Blue.

Day 7 & Photo Update

Sooooo... Sunday (Day 7) was pretty awesome. We ended up going skiing in Vail, which I guess is supposed to be the best mountain in Colorado! Ethan was able to get us lift tickets for just $99, a whopping 50% off the ticket window price! So we all rode up the gondola in celebration for our first ski run in the Rocky Mountains. Here's some pictures to sum up the trip so far...

Day 6: Vail!

The drive from Durango to Vail is a fun one. Lasting 5 hours, the road winds through the western side of the Rockies following different rivers and presenting daunting cliffs on all sides. We woke up early and decided to make a few stops on the drive for fishing and hiking. While we didn't find a good fishing spot, we ended up hiking up a mountain right on the side of the road. We got a new perspective from the top and gained some understanding for how difficult physical activity is at 10,000 feet. 


We finally got to the Vail area around 6 pm and checked into our HOTEL! in the nearby town of Eagle. The freezing night temperatures of Vail gave us the necessary inspiration to get a roof over our heads this evening. 

After some quick showers we got back in the van to head to the venue. Though in a weird spot, the place was absolutely packed, presumably with tourists traveling to Vail for their last week of skiing in 2016. 

Once set up was complete we began our set to minimal response. It wasn't until halfway through that we hit a break through. When we started our new song, 'Pool Rock' everyone got up to dance, and that's where they stayed the rest of the night. This was sure to be another amazing show for us on the Colorado Tour. Here's the Setlist...

4/2 Vail, CO - Vail Ale House

SET 1: The Wave, Harley -> Willy, I Saw Her Standing There, Banana jam > Smoke Two Joints, Ronnie, Can't Have Both, Crossfaded Mammoths, Pool Rock, Officer, Doc Brown, Yeti, China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider, Dance Circle Vail Jam, Camp Cut-Coulie, Lion in the Grass, Garden Grove

SET 2: Freak Out, Pancakes, What I Got, Together Not the Same, Reptar, Immigrant Song, Rogue II, Thunderstruck, C3PO, King Kong

With our third show under our belt we settled down at the hotel and awaited our alarms to wake us up to ski the next day in Vail!

Day 5: Durrrrrrango!

Balcony Bar & Grill

We hit the road at 10 am on our 5th day of travel. We were heading for an unknown prospect, Durango. Not only is Durango super far out of the way compared to our other shows, but no one had any idea about the venue, town or if anyone would even be there.

The drive itself was an absolute adventure and a true high moment for the tour. We drove through and around 14,000 foot mountains almost the entire drive until we hit the desert. 30 minutes later we were pulling to into the oldest pueblo looking town I had ever seen. It was Durango.

We found the venue pretty quickly and loaded in. The stage was huge and the room was equally as spacious and made entirely of wood. We started to getting really excited for the night ahead of us. 

After playing on the floor in Boulder it was really nice to have a proper club set up including a really amazing sound engineer, Matt. He allowed us to multitrack record the show and was very accommodating. A great sound engineer is sometimes overlooked, so we were sure to be extremely appreciative. 

By show time a few people had trickled in, but by the end of the first song, the entire place was packed. By the 3rd song we had everyone in the place dancing, how could it get any better? Durango was becoming a huge hit! Here's the Setlist...

4/1 Durango, CO - Balcony Bar & Grill

SET 1: The Wave, Camp Cut- Coulie, China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider, Pool Rock, Banana Jam, Together Not the Same, Reptar, Smoke Two Joints, Lion in the Grass, C3PO, Officer

SET 2: Durango Jam -> Rogue II, Doc Brown, Yeti -> Smoke -> The Other One -> Yeti, Can't Have Both, Harley -> Willy, Durango Jam #2, Crossfaded Mammoths, Ronnie, I Saw Her Standing There, Dirty Hippies > Pancakes, What I Got, King Kong

After the show we met some locals and were allowed to pitch our tent in this girl's yard right down the street. We quickly set up the tent and went to sleep, still beaming from the amazing show we just played.

Day 3 & 4: Getting to Denver and The First Show!

Day 3

We awoke in Kansas City at 6:30 am for our final driving stretch to Denver! The weather was clear and we had 8 hours to go until we reached the mile high city. Kansas was such a cool state to drive through. OK, it's all barren and flat, but how many other places in this country are like that? We saw miles upon miles of open land and farms, not a hill in site. Fast forward five hours and we were at the Colorado border! We took a mandatory group shot at the "Colorful Colorado" sign and started heading up! Now the entire eastern half of Colorado is very similar to Kansas except you gradually go up hill, no mountain peaks in site, but you can tell the elevation keeps rising. 

Fast forward another three hours and we arrived in Denver! After getting some Mexican food from a drive thru we met up with our friends Carter and Cody, who we are staying with while we're in Denver. After a quick catch up we drove to Ethan's college to practice for the upcoming shows! 

Ethan is going to be our fill in bass player for the tour. He's a music student at Denver University and has played with us before on numerous occasions.

After a rigorous 4 hour session, we retired to Carter's apartment for a nice long sleep.

Day 4 

We finally got to sleep in on the fourth day of our trip. It was a nice change of pace and we decided to head to a local diner for some good eats. Afterwards we stopped at a dispensary for some legal Colorado Mary Jane. We were treated like patients at a walk in clinic and showed some of the highest quality marijuana we've ever seen. In addition to the buds, there was a large selection of edible treats that will also get you pretty high. For any serious stoner - this would be heaven. We grabbed a few things and headed back to the apartment to rest up before our first show in Boulder later that night. 

The venue was called "Owsley's Golden Road," and it was a total Grateful Dead bar. We walked up to them blasting live dead music over the stereo and couldn't help but notice the giant Dead mural on the side of the venue. When we stepped inside, there was a very friendly atmosphere and we checked in with the bartender for the night to get the show details. 

We were setting up on the floor in a room adjacent to the bar. The room actually made it easier for us to set up in a line formation with Nick all the way on the left side of the room, instead of behind us like usual. As the show approached we were greeted by some old friends and new. It was really starting to feel like the tour was beginning in a great way. Here's the setlist....

3/31 Boulder, CO - Owsley's Golden Road

SET 1: Boulder Jam, Harley -> Willy, 65, Banana Jam, Together Not the Same, Garden Grove, Rogue II, Reptar, Ronnie, I Saw Her Standing There, Doc Brown -> The Other One -> Doc Brown, Officer, The Wave, Pool Rock

SET 2: Boulder Jam #2 -> C3PO, Pancakes, China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider, Yeti, Camp Cut-Coulie, Lion in the Grass,Smoke Two Joints, Boulder Jam #3, Can't Have Both, King Kong, Dirty Hippies -> Crossfaded Mammoths

Notably awesome versions: C3PO, Crossfaded Mammoths, Doc Brown -> The Other One -> Doc Brown, Together Not the Same

After a wonderful show in Boulder we headed back to Denver to crash before our early wake up and 6 hour drive to the south western corner of Colorado tomorrow for our show in Durango! Stay tuned for a post tomorrow about the Durango show.