Red Rocks Night #2 is in the books!

Bethany and I had an amazing time up there.  We ended up missing the Tailgating festivities again, but mainly due to us wanting to get a better parking spot, and it paid off in the end.  We got out of there in about 10 minutes – so not bad at all!  We had a pretty short walk, so that was pretty nice as well.

The next biggest highlight was that we managed to sneak the digital camera into the amphitheatre!  No more messing with these disposable flash always-on camera!  It definitely paid off, we got some awesome pictures, some that I’ll post here, the rest are over on my new Shutterfly site.

So to offer a recap of a few things:

Highlights:

• Amazing setlist! They opened up with "Seek Up", just like they did on their 1995 Red Rocks disc!  It was awesome!
• They played "Blackbird" – the Beatles song!  It was so pretty!
• #34 – The first that I’ve ever heard it live
• They had a guy named Rashawn Ross guest on a few songs.  This guy was HUGE!  He looked like an Offensive Lineman, and it was kind a funny seeing the contrast in size between Rashawn and bassist Stefan Lessard. This guy came out and played trumpet and was AWESOME!  He played this sweet solo during Jimi Thing, where he hit this range of extremely high notes, and he hit them all!  It was amazing!
• John Butler Trio – These guys rocked!  I’m excited to go see them again!
• They played Two Step! That’s it, I’ve heard that song and can now go home!

Lowlights:

• The crowd – while they initially got into it more than Friday night’s crowd, I was pretty disappointed with the people around us.  First off, there were all these people that just kept leaving!  And what was crap was a lot of these people weren’t coming back with anything – no food, no beer – nothing!  Then there were some old people next to us burning their hippie-lettuce (like a lot of other people at the concert), then to the right of us was this drunk guy hitting on this mom who brought her daughter to the show – it was annoying and disturbing.  Then in the row above us there were these gals from the South that were so incredibly annoying.  I’m down with the southern accents, but when it comes to southern girls there are two kind of accents: cute, sweet southern belle; and then high-pitched, twangy annoying southern accent.  These girls behind us were the latter.  It was pretty lame
• The dumb fans at the concert.  Out of the different types of fans, there are two primary types in my mind: the musical-appreciation fans that respect the musical abilities of the band; and he dumb frat-boys that like to go so they can smoke pot.  It felt like we were sitting in the frat section.  When DMB started playing #34, I was excited to hear it, since they play it so rarely. But everyone just started talking loudly through the whole song – it was lame!  Then DMB starts playing "Blackbird", and while you think people would listen to it, everyone gets on their cell phones to call their friends to tell them DMB is playing Blackbird.  Way to go – you spent all this time calling your friends telling them about it, that you missed the actual song.  Argh!

So overall, this was a great show!  I wanted to share a few pictures!  To see the rest, go to my shutterfly site.

I love how this shot turned out, I didn’t do anything in Photoshop, the crowd naturally came out Black & White

Awwww…

This was taken at the end of the last song of the encore…

As promised, more on DMB Red Rocks Night #1.  After a night of sleep under my belt.  It seems pretty surreal that I got to see DMB at Red Rocks.  I remember the last time they came here, in 1998.  I was a junior in high school and I ditched class that morning to stand in line and try to get tickets.  I was there through the whole process, and when I was 9 people away from the front of the line before the both nights of the show sold out.  At that point, it was pretty clear that DMB couldn’t realistically do anymore shows at Red Rocks if they wanted to appease their fan base.  After going to shows at Mile High Stadium, Folsom Field, and two at the Pepsi Center, it was amazing to get the opportunity to see them at such a beautiful venue.

Getting there took a little longer than I thought it would, and we got a pretty late start.  First off I was waiting around for FedEx to deliver Monday Night’s tickets – which was pretty bogus because they’ve been in town since Thursday morning, but I guess the FedEx people wanted to take my package for a ride around town.  So after I finally got Monday’s tickets, I packed up my car with all of the tailgating stuff, and made my way down to Boulder to get my sister.  Traffic was horrendous on the way down, and even though we got a late start (4:00pm when I left Loveland), we didn’t get to Red Rocks until 6:30pm.  At that point the lots seemed pretty full, so my sister and I pulled off on one of the roads, oped up the back of the car, set up our lawn chairs and had our own personal tailgate.  We hung out with a few other fans down there, just chilling out, eating some Chipotle, listening to some music and having a good time.

When we made our way up to our seats, the opening act just about finished up.  DMB took the stage about 11:20, then played 2 & 1/2 hours of amazing music!  I attached the setlist of what they played.  I won’t bore you with going through every song, but I wanted to highlight a few things:

• They played Time of the Season – the oldie song by the Zombies that was written in 1968.  It was so out of nowhere and so awesome!
• Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd – ugh, I kinda hope they don’t play this one again at Red Rocks. The people next to us were getting trashed off of beer, and they kept asking my sister and I if we were going to go get any.  I finally told them "We are, but I’m waiting for a crappy song to come on." Of course I was joking because there are no crappy Dave Matthews songs, but then they started to play thing song and I thought "close enough", so I told my sister I’d be back and went and got us beer.
• It was funny that they played the American Baby Intro and not American Baby, but since I’ve heard that along with "Everybody Wake Up" I think I’ve heard every song on the Stand Up CD now.
• With the drunkies next to us – there was this girl that started talking to us half way through.  She was really nice, but then towards the end of the concert she was looking pretty distressed.  When I asked her what was wrong, she told me that she had the hiccups, to which I suggested she hold her breath.  I guess it worked, and she was so happy that she had to thank us like 5 times for it.  You’d think my sister and I saved her life or something.  Pretty funny.

I’m sad to report that I really don’t have any pictures to share (outside of the one of my sister and our make-shift tailgate).  We snuck a disposable camera in, but the flash went off every freakin’ time.  I was mad..  Security there was a joke though, so I’m going to try to smuggle in the digital tonight.  Wish me luck

Overall last night was an amazing night.  I always am so glad to go to Dave Matthews concerts (last night was my 8th) and the best part is that I get to experience this for 3 more nights!

Oh and one other note on my whole "ditching Pastoral Council for the concert".  Yesterday I sent the message out to the council talking about how I need to miss it for  "Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund Raising Event".  I thought I was being all cool and vague, but I GOT FOUND OUT!  This morning I went over to the Vice Chair’s house to run through the agenda with her and she says "So, you’re going to go to that concert at Red Rocks?"  Argggh….  I guess she saw it on the news.  But I’ve been had I guess that’s what I deserve…

Oh man…  This is surreal…  I’m not even sure what to think.

So I went back onto the Warehouse site to see when they were shipping out the Night 4 DMB tickets (which sold out to the general public in 2 minutes this morning).  And before they ship them they reveal the seat/row locations your tickets are in.  Well mine are posted up….

…AND I’M IN ROW 3!!!!!

I can’t believe it!!  I am so psyched out of my mind right now!!!  Red Rocks has 69 rows, the first night I was in Row 50, Night 2 – Row 19, Night 3 - Row 31…  But ROW 3?!?  Wow…

"Celebrate we will
Because life is short but
Sweet for certain
We’re climbing two by two
To be sure these days continue
The things we cannot
Celebrate, you and me, climbing two by two, to be sure
these days continue, things we cannot change "

So safe to say that I’m skipping out on Pastoral Council, probably the most irresponsible thing I’ve done in the last year.  I just emailed the Vice Chairperson today, telling her that I won’t be able to make the meeting because I’m expected to attend a Hurricane Katrina Relief fund-raiser…

It’s not really a lie, is it? The concert is a benefit concert for the Hurricane Relief efforts, and after shelling out $58.50 per ticket I’m damn well expecting myself to attend it, so.. yeah…  It’s the truth, isn’t it?  I think I need to go to confession… at another church.. after the concert…

This week is a week of countdowns…

2 days 3 hours until NFL Season kicks off, Raidah’s at the Patriots on Thursday, then it’s the first of 17 NFL Sundays   4 hours until my first Fantasy Draft  I am a football fiend, as well as an addict.  Today, as I was organizing my draft cheatsheet and all of my web links, I took a moment to count all of the football-related games/activities I am participating in:

• Fantasy Football League on Yahoo (one of my primary involvements)
• The Balderrama Family Football pool (another primary involvement)
• ESPN Fantasy Football (playing in my cousin’s league)
• 950 the Fan’s Football Pick’Em (radio station’s game)
• HBO’s Inside the NFL: Beat the Hosts
• Yahoo Survival Football

Geez!  You’d think with all of these games, I’d have a ton of free time on my hands!!  In all actuality the Pools & Pick’Em’s are all the same.  I make the same picks for 3 of the games.  The Fantasy games basically play themselves out, maybe you spend 10-15 minutes during the entire week on each team.  Then the Survival Football only requires me to pick one time that’s sure to win for that week, so that doesn’t take much time at all.

But I’m also counting down to the first home game of the season!  Broncos won’t be playing at home until next Sunday, but I am so looking forward to the energy of being at the games, screaming as loud as I can, enjoying a beer and just having a good time.  To the right is a picture at a game from last year with Kristi, a good friend of mine.

Also the other big countdown of this week approximately 72 hours until Dave Matthews Band Night 1!! I am so pumped to be heading down to Red Rocks, do some tailgating and seeing some great shows with my sister and Bethany for the next few days.  I’m really anxious to see what songs they’re going to play, how different the set lists will be from each night, and to be partying with all of the people who traveled across the country for these concerts.

Mission for the week: I need to find a disposable camera that does not have a flash, and will take good pictures in a night-time concert.  Any suggestions?