gabf 09

Took it easy friday night - we doctored up a safeway ‘za and watched some movie on tv. We were going to watch deerhunter, but it was too long.

Steph missed her running group by a minute so she studied instead while I made breakfast. We also went to the gym for a while. Headed into denver in the early afternoon and checked into the Sheraton, a couple of blocks away from the Convention Center where we were heading later for the Great American Beer Fest. We had dinner at Tokyo Joe's along the 16th street mall which was hopping on a pleasantly sunny afternoon. Got to the convention center a bit too early - we stood in line for 45 minutes before the doors opened, but as soon as they did we were inside in no time. It was better than walking into the Willy Wonka Factory.



Having never been to the GABF before, I had no idea what to expect - it was rather overwhelming. Basically you get a small plastic cup (formerly glass) to sample any 1 oz pours of beer you want. We worked systematically through the aisles, hitting up some of our favorite breweries looking for new flavors, and trying out medal winners from many breweries that were completely new to us. List of winners. There was a fair amount of drunken buffoonery, including everyone hollering when someone dropped their cup and all of the ridiculous food necklaces.



Drinking shots of beer (most all of which was between 6-11%) for 4 hours caught up with me on the walk back to the hotey of which I have nary a recollection. I passed out almost immediately after returning to our swanky hotey room, while Steph & Greg went out searching for food.



Sunday we had breakfast at Pete's kitchen before heading out of town. Then Steph & I cruised by the bear for some final cleaning, ran a couple errands and sundayed the rest of the day.

built to monday

I was kind of wiped all day monday, but I had to rally for the Built to Spill show at the Fox. I met up with Steph at the Sink for dinner and then killed some time at the record shop on the hill. I was fully ready to buy a cd, but they did not have anything I was looking for, I guess this is one of the main limitations of the dying breed of brick & mortar shops. Oh well.

I was stoked to finally get over to the Fox and set up my gear. Some french band opened that was forgettable. I bumped into my friend Sean and his sister-in-law, and watched a solid set from the BTS boys - a couple of new songs, and a couple I had not heard in a while. We stuck around and kept drinking beers for Doug's post-show Dj set, which was basically him playing songs he likes. This was pretty festive for the handfull of us who were still there until I remembered it was only a monday and getting late...

You can grab my stellar recording over at Dime, (it will be up at the newly redesigned COTapers soon) - enjoy!

SETLIST:

Liar
In the Morning
Get a Life
Sidewalk
Hindsight
Wherever You Go
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
Kicked it in the Sun
You Were Right
Oh Yeah
Carry the Zero
-----
Time Trap
Car
Randy Described Eternity

autumn game

Friday night we chillaxed at milo with a pizza and a viewing of Scarface & the season premiere of Sunny in Philly - The Gang Takes Advantage of the Mortgage Crisis which was hilarious. Sweet D had the best line - 'crushing piña coladas'.

Saturday we got cheap tickets for the CU game against Wyoming, which we won with a nice 27-0 shut out.





After the game we had dinner at the Southern Sun. They had this hawaiian style buffalo burger on special that was pretty tasty. Lauren & Renn came over later to get some cds.

Sunday was lazy. I walked over to the Albertsons to get some milk only to find that they had pretty much stopped stocking anything fresh. I guess the news of its impending closure was no joke. So then I had to drive to get milk which was a bit of a nuisance. Vegged out the rest day pretty much.

it's in how you inflect

fall for real

Friday after work, I met up with Steph on the hill and we had some dinner at Illegal Pete's before heading to see The Girlfriend Experience at Muenzinger. Got home in time for the second half of Toledo's handling of CU.



Saturday was cold & dreary - a fine fall day which was spent on the couch watching college football. Steph had a nice long run in the a.m., but I pretty much vegged all day. We finally decided to get out of the house for a change of pace and to grab some dinner and wound up at Beef O'Brady's to watch the Rockies game - hahahaha.

Sunday I went to the rez to cheer on Greg who was running a 1/2 marathon. Afterwards I met up with Steph who was finishing up her work at the Buff Bike Classic. Caught the matinee showing of Extract which was decently funny. Later on we watched the redonk VMA's and Mad Men.

la la labor

Friday night we were supposed to have a surprise b-day party for Jen, but she was sick, so it just turned into a taco night over at Heidi's place. I grilled some massive steaks and we watched the Rockies game and had a dance party. Then Heidi had to go research an article about Tahona so we left and crahsed at the Bear.

Saturday steph had a run, and I had planned on checking out Sniagrab, but went to the Superior location which wasn't hosting one after all. Bummed around, watched some college football during the day. Later that night, we headed back into town and hit up the boulder Sniagrab and I scored a new Ride Prophet 158:



Next up was the Darkhorse to catch the Bronze show. Took it kind of easy since we had a big day coming up and we had to drive back to milo later on.

Headed over to jacq's sunday, stocked up on tailgate supplies, then drove to Red Rocks for the Ween / Meat Puppets show. Got there nice and early for grilling action.



We did get a little sprinkle, but it was really the wind which was kind of a pain in the ass. Saw GD Sunny D again and enjoyed similar non-results with my 'replacement' - hahahaha.



Not a sold-out show, prolly only ~6000 folks. Found a nice spot in row 37 center.



Meat Puppets rocked a nice opening set and Ween tore a hole in the night.



The entire show was tight as hell. Some extra rockin highlights for me were: 'Bare Hands', 'Transdermal', 'Beacon', 'Voodoo', 'Gabrielle', 'Tooter', 'Mollusk' and they absolutely slayed on the encore closer 'Roses' perhaps as a reclamation of the tune from Phish who opened with it on the last night of their Red Rocks run. It should also be noted, that it was Ryder's first show (outside of the womb). Grab the audio at Browntracker.



Chilled for a bit in the lot then headed back to jaq's place and watched the dvr of the CU/CSU game which CU lost 17-23.

Set:
Pork Roll Egg and Cheese
Bananas and Blow
Now I'm Freaking Out
Learning to Love
My Own Bare Hands
Did You See Me?
Transdermal Celebration
Take Me Away
Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)
Woman and Man
Zoloft
Your Party
Beacon Light
Stroker Ace
Voodoo Lady
Ice Castles
Final Alarm
Gabrielle
Touch My Tooter
Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony
Ocean Man
I'll Be Your Johnny On Th' Spot
Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)
Buckingham Green
Dr. Rock

Encore:
Fiesta
The Mollusk
Roses Are Free

Totally vegged out around the hut on labor day. We did get out in the afternoon finally to catch a matinee of Inglorious Basterds which was pretty awesome. It still kind of felt like a sunday since we caught up with Mad Men during dinner. A smunday.

mousey

Grabbed dinner with steph at Half-Fast then hit up the Modest Mouse show at the Fillmore last night. We lucked out with some $5 ticket promotional code a friend of mine gave me (service fees were $8.50 per - redonk, but still a bargain). Corked an Issaquah White Frog Ale in honor of Isaac, then headed over to Sancho's to kill some time before the show. We had to meet Lauren & Renn on the street because Lauren brought her bus pass instead of her driver's license and could not get into Sancho's. Luckily they let her in the Fillmore. A solid show of material culled mainly from their last two albums with a few classics thrown in for good measure. Some idiot threw a bottle at Issac during 'Dramamine', thank F it was likely their last song anyway because he was understandably irate.



Set:
Satellite Skin
Education
Black Cadillacs
Gravity Rides Everything
Bukowski
Missed the Boat
Doin’ the Cockroach
Float On
Shit Luck
Baby Blue Sedan
Satin in a Coffin
Ohio
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
Interstate 8
Parting of the Sensory

Encore:
Fire it Up
The View
Dramamine

birthday redux

Friday after work we all met up at Scotch Corner for my birthday dinner with the fam. After some fish & chips we split up, some of us going to Bart's and the ladies to Tahona. Then we headed over to Catacombs to check out Sickboy which was pretty fun-filled. At one point the mic was pointed in my direction during some 80's song / break core mashup and I miraculously knew the verse. I say miraculously because I cannot for the life of me recall what song it was.



Saturday we slept in at steph's empty house, awaking to some deer in the yard.



Later on we met up at jacq's, saddled up on bikes and rode over to the nearby Bike Party. We didn't know many people there but amused ourselves as grill masters for a while.



When the keg was kicked around 8-ish, we rode back to the nook for some pizzas and general zaniness.



Crashed at the nook then hit up the Buff again for brunch on sunday. Regrouped at milo before venturing off to the Weber family picnic in Evergreen. Due to the stormy weather it became an indoor gathering, but we chowed down nonetheless and made it back to Lafayette for Mad Men.