tube jam

Left work at 2p on Friday, drove to Steamboat - seemed to get there pretty quick and in time for dinner. Gina had rented a huge house for her annual b-day rafting trip. As a bonus, someone prepared a great asian shrimp type meal for our consumption - nom nom nom. Evening hijinx ensued.



After a lazy breakfast we gathered the troops, and somehow coordinated everyone to get to the head of the river with cars to pick us up, etc. Our duck taped inner tubes from last year didn't make the grade, so we hooked up some sweet Body Glove tubes with back rests and built in coolers earlier in the week. Seems like the popular tube this year as several other folks had the same ones. We had a nice long leisurely tube trip down the Yampa. Afterwards we picked up groceries & grilled out. Round 2 of evening hijinx including cookies and grilled cheese hot dog buns.





Kind of hung over for the entire l o n g drive home. To break the monotony of I-70 traffic, we stopped at the Tommyknocker brewery for lunch. Managed to get home with some time to spare for the Mad Men premier.

never quarantine the past

A lot of the downtown shops were closed sunday in the AM, so I had to explore a bit more to get the necessities. Today, most of the bands we wanted to check out were over on the side stage, so we set up shop right when we got there with a nice spot along the fence. Grabbed some lunch, then caught the end of local psych rockers, Cave, who I rather enjoyed.



I'm glad we got there when we did since it had really started to get crowded for Best Coast, who played a nice summery set.



Steph held court during Washed Out, while I ventured off to the main stage to check out Girls.



Made it back for Local Natives, who were awesome.



Journeyed back over to the mainstage to witness the intense chaos that is Lightning Bolt. The drummer sang through a telephone receiver sewed into his mask the entire time - and that mask must have been gnarly to wear in the stifling heat.



Caught the tail end of Surfer Blood, and the beginning of Here We Go Magic back at our spot, then broke camp to check out the other half of Flatstock and some of the remaining vendors while Major Lazer performed in the background. Steph even won a t-shirt with darth vader trimming his death star shaped hedges. After some dinner, we headed over to the corner in between the two main stages to check out Big Boi and chillax for a bit.



Night fell, and some idiot announcer took way too long to introduce Pavement, but once they finally started it was epic start to finish. Pavement in black & white - stay classy chicago!



Set:
Cut Your Hair
In The Mouth A Desert
Silence Kit
Kennel District
Shady Lane
Frontwards
Unfair
Grounded
Debris Slide
Spit on a Stranger
Range Life
Perfume-V
Trigger Cut
Stereo
Two States
Gold Soundz
Conduit For Sale!
Stop Breathin
Here
The Hexx

advantages, advantages!

After an awesome night's rest, I ventured out into the streets searching for munchkins & coffee and ran into this huge eyeball:



Got to the park and grabbed some lunch just in time for the saturday opener, Real Estate - a nice & casual way to start the day.



Stuck around to check out Delorean over on the main stage, who played a nice techno-y inspired set.



Here we are, enjoying the day:



Someone tethered this balloon video camera from the backstage area:



Checked out some more of the vendor booths and one side of the Flatstock poster art show. Steph scored a cool silkscreened bag from the toyota folks. The we headed over to the side stage for Dam-Funk which was so-so. Really the coolest thing about his set was the keytar.



Headed back to the Connector stage for a little Jon Spencer Blues Explosion action.



Next up Wolf Parade on the main stage. Boy was it hot, and those lemonades were starting to catch up with us a bit.



Set:
Cloud Shadow on the Mountain
Soldier's Grin
Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
Palm Road
What Did My Lover Say
Ghost Pressure
This Heart's On Fire
I'll Believe in Anything
Cave-o-Sapien
Kissing the Beehive

Luckily we had a break for dinner, enjoying some nice chicken satay & noodles - on the way I was able to catch the last couple of songs from Bear In Heaven on the side stage. Soon after dinner, the sun started to set and it cooled down a bit when LCD Soundsystem hit the stage. Super fun & dance action set!



Set:
Us V Them
Drunk Girls
Pow Pow
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
All My Friends
I Can Change
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah
Someone Great
Losing My Edge
New York, I Love You / Empire State Of Mind

Headed back to the hotey, watched some TV and crashed.

are you dead or are you sleeping?

We were a bit groggy heading to the airport early friday morning, since we had stayed up late watching Ferris Bueller the night before as a good omen for our trip. Flew into Midway, which is way more convenient, and checked into our hotey - the Club Quarters which turned out to be pretty swanky. After getting settled, we walked a few blocks to Al's Beef Fro some badass italian beef sandys (thanks for the tip adam richmond).



Got to Union Park just after 3p, scoped the grounds had a brew (Heineken was the sponsor this year, total let down from Goose Island) and sat back in the shade during Tallest Man on Earth and El-P. Turns out we sat right next to this girl who was passed the F out with her eyes kind of open, as a bystander pointed out, so we got the med guys to help her out. The fest had literally started an hour ago, and already claimed a casualty. Moved up closer for the Liars set - and they rocked it, including a sick cover of 'In the Flat Field' by Bauhaus.



Robyn was up next on the main stage so we bolted and checked out some of the vendors, then settled back at the Connector stage for Broken Social Scene. Man, do they have a lot of folks on stage at any given time - John McIntire from Tortoise was on drums at one point and all the horns were great.



Set:
World Sick
Stars and Sons
Texico Bitches
7/4 (Shoreline)
Fire Eye'd Boy
Forced to Love
Cause=Time
All to All
Ungrateful Little Father
Superconnected
Meet Me in the Basement

Modest Mouse was the friday headliner, and they started off strong with 'Tiny Cities' and 'Here it Comes', but it was a very similar set to the past few times we've seen them. So we split during the 'Gravity' to get a jump on the train crowds.



Set:
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
Here It Comes
The Devil's Workday
Education
Satellite Skin
Autumn Beds
Dashboard
Satin In A Coffin
Dramamine / Life Like Weeds
Parting Of The Sensory
The View
The Whale Song
Gravity Rides Everything
Black Cadillacs

We were wicked hungry when we got back to the hotey, so we ordered a bunch of food from the british pub downstairs, watched ATHF, then passed right out.

LauRenn's wedding

Got out of work early friday and headed up to the Red Lion for the rehearsal. They had a temporary bridge in place after the washout last month. After the rehearsal, I went to pick up Stepha and my suit, then we headed back to Boulder for the rehearsal dinner. We were a bit early so we stopped by Connor's for a brew then walked over to the Dushambe for a delicious meal.

Saturday morning I stopped by the post office to pay 34¢ postage due on a 7" I got off Disogs. My suit jacket was a bit large so I went to pick up a new one after the postal errand. Steph's sister, niece & nephew arrived at milo right before I got picked up by Paul and my uncle. En route, we also picked up the necromancer, who was running a bit late. Got to the Red Lion and headed up to the groomsmen room, which was more closet-size than roomy. We polished off some fine bourbon and taiwanese spirits and were ready for action. The ceremony was outside and the weather was perfect. Dinner was delicious and before long it was dancing time.









Congratulations!

freedom of '10

Stopped by the Avery Brewery on the way home and tried a Ballsmack Porter - delicious! When Stepha got home, we kicked off the weekend with taco night and a few eps of Burn Notice which we just started catching up on.

Saturday we met up with Jeff & Jen and rode bikes down to Pearl, grabbing some patio action at the Lazy Dog and checking out the cool vintage store whose name escapes me.

Sunday was a bit overcast, but we headed to Aspen Grove to grill poolside. Not a huge turnout, we were the only crew there most of the day. Well that's because it started to pour eventually, right as we fired up the grill. Luckily, the grilling pit was in a large covered area by the entrance, so we had shelter for eating as well. As soon as we were done, though, we high-tailed it home because it was coming down in sheets. Any thought of checking the fireworks at Folsom was washed out. So instead we had our own dance party for a while then watched a ton of Burn Notice.



Monday we had planned to do some mountain biking, but the trails were too muddy and we just had a lazy day.

melvins are the rock

Melvins played the Ogden on tuesday and pummeled their way through two sets of oldies & newies. This was the first time I'd seen them since the addition of the second drummer and the bassist from Big Business, who've been on board for the last three albums. Bumped into a bunch of folks at the show, including my old neighbor who told me the real reason why they were evicted.



Set 1
Sacrifice
Civilized Worm
Black Stooges
Pig House
Electric Flower
Anaconda
Black Bock
The Kicking Machine
Billy Fish
Skin Horse

Set 2
The Water Glass
Evil New War God
AMAZON
The Talking Horse
Hung Bunny
Roman Bird Dog
Let It All Be
My Generation
Revolve
Bacon Industry
Lovely Butterfly

Grab my tape over at Dime or COTapers!