day 1

Luckily enough, heading south the sky cleared and the rain held all night at phish's triumphant return to red rocks. Got to the top north lot with plenty of time to kick back, relax, and have some dinner. Pretty casual scene up top, most of the shakedown activity is in the southern lots. Chatted up our neighbors who were old dead heads. Police presence was heavy but we didn't witness any altercations. Headed in around 6.30 and found some comfortable seating in row 60 or so.



The sound was perfect, and it was far less maniacal than sts9. I couldn't be bothered to tape since they release the SBDs right after the show pretty much, but there were some impressive mic trees down in the TS. Song highlights included the requisite for colorado, 'Wedge', new track 'Ocelot', a nice 'Stash', and pretty much the entire second set - killer jams in 'Ghost' and 'Wolfman's Brother'. And of course you can't go wrong with a 'Loving Cup' encore. Beat most of the traffic leaving then passed out on steph's couch watching Arrested Development.



Set One:
The Divided Sky
Ocelot
The Wedge
Poor Heart
The Moma Dance
Horn
Stash
The Horse > Silent in the Morning
Possum

Set Two:
Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove
Ghost
Wolfman's Brother
Limb By Limb
Billy Breathes
The Squirming Coil
David Bowie

Encore:
Loving Cup

puddles gather rain

Stop raining, at least for the next 4 days, please.



Scattered light rain showers with a couple of embedded thunderstorms are on tap for this afternoon as highs climb just into the upper 60s and low 70s. Showers are not expected to last into the overnight hours, like they did Wednesday evening. Plus, the threat for severe weather today will be much less, and to the south of the state.

sound tribe soggy nine

Once we arrived in Evergreen we hunted high and low for this sub shoppe so we could load up on some grub. It took a while, but after we found it we headed to Steph's mom's hut to wash off the camping. After a quick nap we met up with the rest of the gang at the T-Rex lot and headed into Red Rocks for STS9's Day Out of Time Fest. I covered myself in sunblock while we were waiting at the T-Rex, only to have it start raining moments after arriving in the lot. And rain. And rain.



We headed in early to catch Telepath, who were pretty cool, and The Album Leaf who were kind of drowsy much like the overcast weather.

A bit later on, I caught a good portion of the Flying Lotus set at the upper stage and it was very groovy - a lot more uptempo than I was expecting.



The rain persisted as it started getting darker when local Fort Collins lads Pretty Lights took the stage for a solid intro to Sound Tribe.



STS9 took the stage at 9.30 and rocked it per usual with a solid pair of nice long sets. Highlight for me was 'Jebez', even though at the time, I swore up and down that it was 'Circus'. Wound up leaving a bit early, right around the beginning of 'Atlas', in order to get a jump on the crowd and avoid getting pneumonia.





SET ONE: Tap-In, Beyond Right Now, Empires, The New Soma, F. Word, Dem Be, Arigato, Heavy

SET TWO: Twilight (sample), Hidden Hand Hidden Fist, Rent, What Is Love?, Be Nice, Jebez, The Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature, Atlas, From Now On

ENCORE: Roygbiv, EHM

osprey 09

Took care of last minute preparations Thursday night. Woke up ski-early to head to an obscure camping area just outside of Deckers for Gina's annual b-day/tubing extravaganza. We went last year, but only for the day and missed out on all the tubing so we made sure we were well-prepared this year. The site was along the south Plate, just outside of Oxyoke in the middle of nowhere. We showed up nice and early and staked claim to a huge chunk of the campsite by setting up a bunch of tents in anticipation of others arriving later on.



The sun was beating down so we decided to stage the first expedition around noon. After some swanky colored duct-tape reinforcement on our inner tubes we were ready to go. The water was brisk, good for keeping the bag of brews tied on to my tube nice and chilly. We encountered a few class 1 rapids on our mostly lazy river ride. An hour and a half later we floated back to camp. Dried out, made some lunch and before you know it, darkness fell and we made dinner. By now we had a group of about 30+ and the local ranger gave us a useless 'pep talk' about quiet hours. The next morning while Stepha was off training, I packed up our gear and we headed to Evergreen once she returned.

crash & burn

Friday after work we met a few folks for happy hour on the Bacaro rooftop, did some shopping then headed back to steph's and watched Spike Jonze videos.

Went mountain biking on Marshall Mesa saturday afternoon. It was a great ride with the exception of my sunburn and my nice bail right at the end of the ride. I was coming down the gravely trail and I got stuck in a rain run-off rut that was all sandy, I tried to get out of it, and sort of skidded and rolled off the bike onto my shoulder and hand. Luckily I just suffered minor scrapes.



Vegged out at milo the rest of the day with Steph, who had a time trial in denver the next morning. Chillaxed Sunday as well - finished up season 2 of The Riches which was kind of bittersweet since it ended as if there would be another season, however, the show has since been cancelled. I read somewhere they may conclude it with a movie, though, which would be swell. Grilled out some corn and cooked up some brats in peppers, onions & a brewski for diner.

all hail the tri

Friday night Steph came over and we made delicious green curry bowls. Well, she made it, I merely grilled the shrimp. Served with sparkling sake.



Right after the grilling was complete, we witnessed a random hail storm.



Saturday morning I drove into denver to pick up tix for a handful of shows directly from the box office to avoid all the bullshit service fees. Later on we gathered in a NoBo park for a prak party warm-up. We grilled and played a variety of yard games - pétanque, frisbee, nerf lacrosse, and nerf softball. The softball has a dent now. While we were frolicking in the park, a deer attended to business accross the street.



Had dinner at the O.G. so Stepha could carbo load. The next morning I headed to the rez to catch Steph's 2nd triathalon of the summer (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run - I'm exhausted just typing that). Meg & Paul met up with me a bit later, and after the race we all had a picnic lunch. Go Steph!

heady sandy

Last night I was inspired to make a heady sandwich after perusing the Scanwiches site earlier in the day. Here's what I came up with. First I grilled a nice piece of chicken in some zesty spices.



Then I grilled up a nice big jalepeno and some green onion.



Fried up a little bacon.



Added slices of provalone on focaccia bread.



Poured a frosty Whirlwind.



Chopped everything up and pressed the samdwhich in my panini grill. Embelished with a pickle.



Yum!

independence in evergreen

Met up with Greg at Steph's thursday after work, picked up some supplies and hightailed it to Evergreen along with the rest of Colorado who were all apparently heading west as well. We got a slow start out of town so were racing against the diminishing sunlight. We made it with light to spare, but someone had beat us to the site we used last year. There was another site further down, so it was not a problem, just a longer walk with all of our gear. Got our tents up, the fire going, and some brats cooking as darkness fell. The next morning Greg made some swanky omelettes for breakfast.



That afternoon, we headed over to the Three Sisters for a hike.



Grabbed some more ice and some tequila for sipping on the way back, and had delicious beef stew for dinner. The next morning we had breakfast and broke down camp just before we got hit with the first rain that had threatened us all weekend. Got back to Boulder and it was a ghost town, in so much as everywhere we tried to go eat was closed for the holiday. We finally found nourishment at Larkburger, which we tried for the first time - pretty awesome. It poured rain while we were eating then started to clear up.

Later on Stepha made a nice spread with all our leftover camping snacks, Jacq brought over her 7-layer dip she made for her cancelled party, and we had an impromptu get-together. Lauren & Renn joined us and we head 5 minutes up the street to watch the fireworks from NCAR instead of dealing with the crowds at Folsom Field. I was accosted by some rage-a-holic parked next to us for 'flapping my gums' while Jacq disappeared in the fields. After all the excitement we went back to Steph's and watched Grounhog's Day while Steph bisselled the backseat of her car.