Colorado Summer Tour - Part One

The anticipation is over! Finally after our show in Kansas, we made our way to Colorado on Thursday August 4th. We had a show later that night in Denver at a world renown Grateful Dead bar called Quixote's True Blue. Its a bar that we played on the last trip and from experience we knew it would be an amazing way to start out our Colorado run. The Drive from Lawrence was a whopping 8 hours - so waking up early was essential. Sleep was tough anyway due to the incredible 80 degree heat + humidity all night; and not to mention the coyotes howling nearby our campsite. None the less we arrived to Denver on time to load in for our 9 o'clock show at Quixote's.

Once again we are extremely lucky to have our good friend Carter Jennings in Denver, who has been more than gracious enough to let us crash at his house for the days we're in town.

The first show was incredible. We opened up for a national touring band called Groovement from Arkansas, and they were a blast! We had a great crowd and got everyone dancing by the end, it was a perfect start to playing in the Rockies!

The following day, Friday Aug 5th, we drove out to Breckenridge - a small ski town about two hours outside Denver. We were set to play at the Historic Brown - a 40+ year old hotel and restaurant. The good news about this show was that we would actually be provided a few hotels rooms after the show to stay for the night. Essentially we would just have to walk up stairs from the stage and BAM we could go to sleep - it was a real treat. The show here was a ton of fun. Lots of people our age were in attendance and started dancing right from the beginning - we even saw a few of our friends who live in the area. Though the stage was small and hot, we shredded through our sweat and created an epic experience for anyone in attendance. Here's a few pictures from the show...

After a great night's rest, the following day we took our van to the South Colorado town of Durango! Some of you may remember from the last tour that Durango was one of our favorite spots, and this time was no different. Upon arrival, the town was bustling and busy. We were incredibly surprised based on that fact that during the Summer months, Colorado is supposed to be a little slower - but alas, Durango was crowded. The show was no different. After about one song, people starting pouring in and ended up being some of the most attentive listeners of the tour so far. Not a lot of dancing ensued, but all eyes seemed to be on us and there was minimal talking. It wasn't until we played Z Z Top's "La Grange" that we got the entire crowd hooting, hollering and dancing! What an incredible show. 

Afterwards we spent the night camping underneath the stars in a large campground field near by - it was the perfect end to a great night. Here's some pictures from our drive through Southern Colorado

The next day we drove straight back to where we came for a show in the tiny town of Rollinsville. The venue, called The Stage Stop, was built in the 1800's and has been standing since! Made of all wood, it seemed to be a landmark to anyone passing by, though not a lot of people stopped by. Our set from 5-8 PM and performed mostly for these two guys who were incredible interested in our music. By the end of the set, they had convinced us that we needed to tune all of our instruments to 432 hz instead of the usual standard 440 hz. The theory behind this method is that 440 is a very sharp and aggressive sounding tone, while 432 hz is more mellow and actually resonates at the same frequency as every atom in your body. Naturally we had to try it out and it was actually quite amazing. I'm not sure exactly what changed, but the jams that ensued were blissful and relaxing. It ended up being a great end to our first run of Colorado shows.

St. Louis & Kansas!

Well... I'd never thought I'd ever play in St. Louis or Kansas. I imagine it's similar to as a child thinking you'll never get married, but then you get into a great relationship (band in this case) and suddenly its a feasible situation. 

Monday's show in St. Louis was billed as "Jerry Garcia's Birthday Party" for his birthday on that same day Aug. 1st. The opening band was an acoustic trio which paid homage to the great acoustic and folky elements of Jerry and the Grateful Dead. We followed with an original set to mix things up, then a rockin' electric Grateful Dead set! It was our first time playing an entire set dedicated to one artist - and what a treat it was! A large crowd was in attendance and absolutely loved every minute of it. It was so incredible to share the magic of the dead with all these strangers from Missouri, I mean come on?!! Come into a town for the first time and have the entire room dancing to some of your favorite music, it doesn't get much better! Here's what the set list looked like

SET ONE

mmmmmDOOF

Ramblin Man

Harley

Camp Cut-Coulie

Together Not the Same

Riders On The Storm

Yeti

Doc Brown

SET TWO

The Other One ->

Me & My Uncle ->

Not Fade Away ->

Drums ->

SPACE ->

The Other One

China Cat Sunflower ->

I Know You Rider

Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad

Scarlet Begonias ->

Fire On the Mountain

Franklin's Tower

El Paso

The following day we were onto Kansas for a day off at Sam's aunt's house in Kansas City. After some much needed rest, we grabbed some Southern BBQ and got even more rest gearing up for our first Kansas show the following day. 

We loaded into the Bottleneck the following day (the site of the Lawrence, Kansas gig). What an incredible room! Sam informed us that his Dad had played the exact venue about 40 years earlier, what a trip to be on that same stage. The bar looked even older than 40 years and certainly smelled like it! Though the crowd was small we had a lot of fun playing through a bunch of new tunes in preparation for the Colorado shows ahead!

Safety First Summer Tour Kicks Off!

On the road again! We've just hit the road on our 'Safety First' Summer Tour; based off of our recent album "Safety First". This is our longest and most expansive tour to date. Once again we will be taking Colorado by storm, but this time we are playing shows in New Hope, PA; St. Louis, MO; and Lawrence, KS along the way! Here's the full list of dates...



Day 1: We offically hit the road on Saturday, due to the first two shows being with reasonable driving distance from our hometown of Wilton. As everyone arrived to Nick's house to pack the van we soon realized we were going to be filling the van to max capacity.

We are very fortunate to have a light designer on this tour! Dan Howard, one of Connecticut's finest liquid light engineers, agreed to share his space-gift with us for the next few weeks. Here's a picture of his liquid lights in action at one of our New Haven shows...



In addition, we have our good friend Ethan Michael on tour again! During the last Colorado tour, he filled in on bass for Seth - but this time, he will be playing guitar and percussion. Throughout our band's four year history, he has been a constant source of energy and enthusiasm, so we are very excited to have him back on the road!

With these two extra people, we will have a whopping 6 people in the van throughout the entire tour. That also includes 6 bags of clothes, sleeping equipment, and everyone's musical gear. Basically we're stuffed!

Our first show is at Triumph Brewing Company in New Hope, PA - a venue we've never played before! The drive was quick and easy, but the load in was tough. We hit a freak thunder storm right as we were arriving to the show and had to race to get everything inside, whilst getting poured on. Once we were all settled inside, we quickly set up and had dinner before starting the first of our two sets. Here's the setlist from the night.

SET ONE: mmmmDOOF, The Wave, Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad*, Ronnie, Pool Rock, Ramblin’ Man**, Lion in the Grass, What Happened***, Together Not the Same, Crossfaded Mammoths, Can’t Have Both

SET TWO: Banana Jam, Officer, Pancakes, Me & My Uncle*, Reptar, Yeti, Riders On The Storm^, Rogue II, Sacrifice^^

* Grateful Dead Cover

** Allman Brothers Cover

*** Sublime Covers

^ The Doors

^^ Expendables Cover