a dandy weekend

Friday I swung by steph's for some apres work, then headed home to do homework. Finished up my assignment saturday morning, then steph came over after her 24 miler. We watched the Buffs down in jacksonville against Florida State. Lauren came over a while after that and we all headed into denver and met up with renn at the hornet for dinner. Then it was off to the gothic. Got there right at the end of the opener, the Upsidedown, who were decent. Darker My Love was up next and they were swell, all psychedelic rock and such, almost like a glamier version of the Black Angels. I've been digging their latest album recently. Funny, though, I pictured them older and more 'LA rocker' than they actually were in person.



Lauren was determined to be way down front, so we were. Luckily it wasn't overcrowded down on the floor like the last time I saw the Dandys - that was a cluster. Tonight we had plenty of room to shake and shimmy. They grooved through one kick ass set, as selected by zia, clocking in at just under 2 hours. I was kind of bummed they didn't have the horns with them this time around, but they still rocked the party party, so no worries.





Nietzsche
We Used to be Friends
Minnesoter
I Love You
Then I Dreamt of Yes
The Last High
Now You Love Me
(Tony, this Song is Called) Lou Weed
Bohemian Like You
Get Off
Horsepills
Welcome to the Third World
Not if You were the last Junkie on Earth
Wasp in the Lotus
(You Come In) Burned
Genius
The New Country
Godless
Be In
Boys Better
Country Lever

Sunday we chilled at milo, watched the broncos lose, went for a run around waneka, and headed to the Fish Factory in denver for steph's mom's 70th birthday.

selectah!

I can watch this repeatedly and it never gets old:

spiritualized®

Finished up class on monday - woohoo! I start my next one this monday, so I don't really have much of a break. No worries, steph & I celebrated by taking in a Spiritualized show at the Ogden last night. We got there in time to catch the opener, who was pretty boring. However, it afforded us the luxury of being down in the front where it never got too crowded. It was a raging show, Pierce and company were on point. UPDATE - here's the recording.

slept after watching

Had a chill friday - steph came over and we made meatball subs and watched the season finale of Weeds and the Jackass movie which, surprisingly enough, I had never seen - funny stuff.

Saturday I worked on my final paper for my current class while steph ran some crazy long distance for her marathon training. My parents called a little later on to see if we wanted to go to Sam's with them and, following in the great tradition of procrastination, we did. And a while after that we went to the mall where I bought some pants and we took in a viewing of Burn After Reading, which was pretty amusing. We watched SNL then called it a night.

Sunday all the ladies went to the last Rockies home game, and I cranked out the rest of my paper. I took a break to go running, and found some new trails heading up to Waneka which were a nice change of pace. While I ran I listened to the new TV on the Radio album which is pretty badass. Which got me thinking, I should prolly catch up on some of my album reviews since I have been listening to a bunch of great stuff lately...

blackout

Left work a bit early to meet up with paul and head to the sold out CU / WVU game at Folsom. We parked on the hill and passed many a tailgate on the way over to the alumni tent to grab some brews & brats. The alumni tent is great because they don't seem to care if you were actually alumni or not, and it's close to the stadium. Tonight's game was nationally televised on ESPN so we had our second annual 'blackout' where everyone wears black - the effect is pretty cool. I think Cody Hawkins even died his hair black.



The new Ralphie (VI) ran, and boy is she quick - at one point it looked like she she was going to charge the Mountaineers sideline!



CU scored 14 points in the first quarter, then let WVU come back and tie it up in the third. Our defense held on long enough for overtime, and after WVU's botched field goal, we triumphed 17-14.

monolith

Picked up a pizza on the way home from work friday and did a bit of homework before heading over to steph's where we watched Weeds and Baby Mama - bitch, I don't know your life!

Saturday we had another day at Red Rocks - this time for the 2nd annual Monolith Festival. On the way out of town we stocked up on sandys, for breakfast and lunch later, and made a quick stop at steph's mom's in Evergreen. The weather was perfect when we arrived nice and early to catch denver locals, Dressy Bessy, open the day from way up front since the place was empty so far.





Next up was the Foals from england with their punchy, angular tunes - great stuff!



There were 5 stages set up all over, but most all of the bands we wanted to see were on the main one, except for now we had kind of break to grab beers and eat our subs such while Superdrag made a comeback or su'in. One of the highlights was up next - Cut/Copy. They showed up 4 hours late to Pitchfork and then only played 4 songs well after we had already left, so this was a vindication of sorts. And they came correct - all 80's new order stylee. Look, we even oooooed and ahhhhed along:





Wow - super set, but now we had some more downtime as one of those ipod ad bands were up. And not one of the fun ones like the Ting Tings or CSS (coincidentally both were playing day 2 of the fest). Nope we had to sit through the Fratellis - borax. It started getting more and more filled up and darkness approached as Vampire Weekend took the stage - another great Vampire show, better even than chicago.



We had another break before Devotchka so we figured we'd take a break and move. Well all of the sudden some crazy weather started up - wicked cold winds and a dash of rain.



We retreated to the top of the venue where the weather was actually worse and caught the end of Del the Funky's set, went inside the stairwell for a bit to warm up, watched Atmosphere perform, finished my sub, then went back down to the mainstage for Devotchka. Hauntingly romantic as usual, Devotchka played a solid set augmented with 5 additional string players to accompany Tom Hagerman. A successful fest!

sound tribe september 6

Last friday was fairly uneventful, I stayed in and worked on a paper. I get a lot done friday nights for some reason, maybe because they are still pretty festive even if you're doing school work. I did some more work saturday morning then headed over to the bear to meet up with the rest of the gang and head to red rocks for the STS9 show. We got there pretty early and had a front row parking spot in the upper lot where we grilled out and participated in general merriment.



Got inside in time to catch the opener, Ghostland Observatory, who were novel enough but played a bit too long. Soon enough sound tribe took the stage and played a strong first set, clocking in at just under an hour, of mostly newer material. During intermission, Bassnectar djed 'in the round' up behind the soundboard, but I missed most of his set while I was getting some frosty brews. The second set owned, lots of heady jams, crispy goodies, and tasty sauce - hahaha! They closed with an excellent 'Baraka', and we all headed into the night. Well, we really just headed home, but it was really dark.



set 1:
New Soma
68>08
Ramone & Emiglio
Beyond Right Now
Looking Back On Earth
Tooth
EHM

set 2:
Unquestionable
ABCees
Evasive>Kamuy
Metameme
Aimlessly
Moon Socket
Shock Doctrine

encore:
Baraka

You can preview/buy the soundboards from the STS9 store.

laborious festivius

Friday afternoon was like the opening credits to the Flintstones for me, without the dinosaurs and large rocks. I picked up some flowers on my way to steph's and then we rode bikes down to the southern sun for dinner, where we spotted the 'heeeeyyyyy diver' as featured below:



When we got back to the bear, we watched Weeds then the movie King of California. It was about Michael Douglas who played a crazy that thought there was treasure buried in LA somewhere and his daughter, Evan Rachel Wood, put up with his zaniness. It kind of dragged so I didn't bother finishing it after steph passed out. I flipped over to Apocalypse Now and remarked to myself the striking similarities that it held with the recent HBO miniseries Generation Kill - Hajji don't surf!

Saturday I headed back to milo and worked on a paper. As my productivity wound down, I caught the red sox game on the teletron, then steph came over and made a kick-ass dinner. Sunday morning the ladies were in a 10-mile race in Louisville, so andy & I rode our bikes over to the park to greet them at the finish line. Then it was back to work on the paper before meeting up with the fam at 'meg's sports bar' to watch the CU/CSU game - a nice season opener victory (38-17) for the buffs!

Monday I finished up my paper while steph made a delicious crepe brunch. And then all the gloriousness that is labor came to an end when I had to go to class.