After the gig in Vail, we drove up the road a piece and went to the place
Garton's had for housing performers. The place was pretty nice with a kitchen,
three bedrooms, three bathrooms and lots of beds, but the cool part was the
fireplace...
Debbie had prepped the fireplace after sound check and so it was all ready to
get lit when we got in... by coincidence, so were we...
As the fire got raging Scott put on some nice jazz and everyone cracked a
beer... there was a balcony we made use of despite the cold, because it was
too nice breathing the air (which our bodies were finally adjusting to) and
staring at the dark silhouettes of the mountains not too far off...
The morning consisted of the usual chaos but this time there were more than
enough in the showers to people ratio so that end of it was easy at least...
to the point of ALL THE HOT WATER BEING USED UP by the time yours truly got
one...
(sounds of hurried scrubbing, liberal hoots and shouting, MUCH teeth
chattering)
(Ahmer on the phone to his wife)
"That? No, nobody's getting skinned alive... Cameron's in the shower..."
We decided to split up for the day and meet at the club in Breckenridge, with
Scott, Ahmer, Corso, Nej, and myself hitting the touring vessel for lunch at a
nearby resort...
We ate out on a patio with people sailing by on skis right at the base of a
slope... and the weather was such that a sweater was almost too much in the
sunshine... an absolutely perfect day...
After lunch Scott arranged for us to use the pool and sauna areas, Nej taking
a steam and the rest of us making a b-line for the hot tub...
THIS I highly recommend, folks...
We went running out and hit the tub and it was about one of the most perfect
experiences around... we laughed, we soaked, we had cannonball contests in the
pool... it was AWESOME...
After a nice hot shower we all met back at the Touring Vessel feeling like
Jell-o... but happy Jell-o, no doubts... and we drove to what I will hereafter
refer to as BRECK... when asked about the contraction one red-eyed native told
me it's so "they don't have to waste time with all those syllables..."
...the term "Laid Back" somehow doesn't quite encapsulate these people to my
mind anymore, people... it goes waaaaay beyond that...
When we got there we went to visit some old friends of Scott who make
furniture... and yes, it's just the sort of furniture you'd expect from hippie
wood workers in the mountains... real Grizzly Adams stuff...
They go out and harvest the wood themselves... a particular type that only
grows in their elevation... and it's all stuff that has fallen... harvesting
the living equivalent is illegal, plus there's something to do with the way
the wood ages in nature... but whatever the reason it made the stuff even more
beautiful in my eyes. The chairs and beds that I saw in various states of
completion were so cool... the beds especially... with a sort of rough look
that betrays the smooth finish and unreal craftsmanship that goes into them...
and it's all stuff that's too nice for the squalid apartment I call "home"...
not to mention too big... the beds look like you could sleep the entire Walton
clan in 'em...
And these guys are crazy.
There wasn't ONE safety guard on ANY of the massive lathes, sanders, bandsaws,
etc. that I saw... add to this the amount of coffee Scott says they drink and
I'm amazed they have all their digits...
We rolled up to JohSha's around 5p and walked up the stairs... what is it with
the second floor (at least) clubs, people? LIKE YOU'RE NOT ELEVATED ENOUGH OUT
THERE???
It's sort of sports bar in nature, but my hippie sensibilities told me
slightly different... turns out Merle Saunders has played there, and if it's
cool with Merle...
The stage is a decent size with a sort of dance floor in front of it and plenty
of space out around the immediate stage area for tables... the thing that bugs
me is the number of TVs in the place... all blasting the Broncos game... turns
out the TVs got turned off early on so I had nothing to worry about... except
of course prying the band from the all new Simpsons episode for sound check...
but I digress...
This venue has a separate monitor board which makes me happier to start
with... it will be Howard the house tech's venerable task to please the
band... I can just work on the room...
Sound check went OK, the predominant question rolling (no pun intended) around
the club "Does this @$&! stage stay PUT, at least?"
A Further Bit Of Information You Could Care Less About:
There is a condition people who live on boats experience where they will be on
land after even even a relatively small prolonged stay on water and they will
perceive the building they're in as rocking... I have experienced this
phenomenon, once back in 1977 when my father thought it would be a good idea
to pack up the tribe and sail all the way around Lake Michigan in a small boat
for two weeks of my summer...
Side Note:
I love the man dearly and I DID have fun that summer but I remember some times
when I would look through the waves crashing into the boat from eight foot
seas with the wind howling and the sail yammering... and I could see Gregory
Peck as Ahab in "Moby Dick"... you know... like, lashed to the wheel, totally
out of his mind, and the crew doesn't know which is more frightening, him or
the weather?
He got us through safely every time and to this day I trust the man
implicitly, but he's crazy as a sh*thouse rat... gimme that two weeks in a hot
tub, that's about as turbulent as I ever care to see water again...
Enough of my therapy session, where was I?
Oh, yeah... sound check...
It went OK, but I was far from happy... we were all kinda out of it, and I got
a world-class stomach ache... I couldn't seem to find my way in the room but
that was nothing new...
Howard took a few of us over to the store he runs with his girlfriend Michelle
in town after check, which I was glad to do just for a change of scenery...
they have this great little hippie shop in town that sells everything from
stickers to fur handcuffs (again, I couldn't make this stuff up folks), and we
hung out there for awhile as they were preparing a display for the next
day... Howard gave our Dead-ness the thumbs up to Michelle which I thought was
great... I like it when the house staff dig-eth, right?
Turns out Howard has worked for Merle Saunders (band joke: does EVERYONE in
Colorado know Merle?) and he showed us a picture Merle had given him of the
marquis outside the Keystone from the shows those Garcia albums eventually
were made from... seeing something that "personal" in nature (kind of like
someone finding a pic of the Fox sign with "Dark Star Orchestra" twenty years
from now signed by Scott) was really cool... it was a shot I'd never seen from
that era and Side Note To Howard: You ought to scan that and put it on your
website or something... let the masses see it...
...or better yet, y'all go check out Howard's store, buy something over $10,
and maybe he'll show it to ya...
Anyway, after spending some cash I should have taken home we went back to the
club, running into Mike Hazdra who was probably out looking for a coffee
shop...
This was a Sunday night show, and we didn't sell the place thick but it was
kind of nice, and I know the people who had seen us every show of the tour
were happy... it was a good number of people though, and that really helped me
with the PA... I would imagine the room can be a pantload with no bodies to
soak up the sound... one generous soul posted that I had "really made the room
disappear", which in my book is one of the highest compliments I've ever been
paid...
... and thank you for saying so, Mom... even though you weren't there...
... no really, someone did say that and I thank you...
The show Scott picked at the last minute was (SURPRISE!) a Brent show...
3/26/83... kudos AGAIN to our crew for not lynching every last one of us for
the organ-lift... and it was a nice show to wrap up with... it took me a
minute to dial in Mike's voice, and all apologies to the girl who felt the
need to tell me he wasn't being heard... you seemed embarrassed but I was not
offended...
"Friend of the Devil" was nice, an always welcome "Althea" got heads swimmin',
and the "Esau" was stompin'... but the band seemed a bit on auto-pilot to
me... I don't know why...
The second set was better with an itchy "Scarlet>Fire" and a good "Eyes" where
John stretched out and seemed to be hitting his stride... Hazdra beefed up
during "The Other One" and John gave Colorado a sweet ringing "Stella Blue"
before Maraat took over for the remainder of the set with "Around" and a day-
late "Saturday Night"... the prescribed "Touch" encore was weak, basically due
to the fact that it was a 1983 rendition and therefor unpolished, but I
sometimes wonder how perceptive the audience is to what's trying to be
accomplished when versions like this happen... and then the elective:
"Standing on the Moon"...
It started off kind of mouse-like... John sort of plodding into the guitar
part with a very somber tinge... the guys looked sort of beat... and as John
sang the words the weary nature of his voice made each line drip with
sorrowful resolution, building to an explosion by the band as John sang "I'd
rather be with you..." over and over until his voice cracked...
It was one of those moments.
This was a truly appropriate last song... the last thing any of us wanted to
do at this point was to leave Colorado, tired and out of clean clothes as we
were... but we had a show at Martyrs' in about 40 hours, y'see...
Soooooooo the good crew loaded the trailer with now clockwork precision and we
took a few group pictures...
...you know, in case anyone got killed on the way home, say...
OK, OK... that was sick... but I'm trying to sneak in a few more gags here
because the ride home was totally uneventful... I mean as dull as it can
get...
But there was a new energy in the band, a different sort of cohesiveness had
gotten into the fabric of the Dark Star Orchestra... with me, with everyone...
this was very much a beneficial trip... and the band was about to come home
for four shows, unleashing this monstrous mountain energy on a bunch of
Flatlanders for four nights solid...
COMING SOON: Martyrs' - A Year In The Making, A Few Words...
Thank You Colorado!!! We'll see you not soon enough!!!