Good Riddance. Marquis Theatre. 01.25.18 May 5th, 1994. I am 17 years old and sitting in my ’84 Honda Accord in a dirt parking lot at the World Beat Center in San Diego. It’s 6pm and there are no other cars in the lot. I am early. Ridiculously early. A month has passed since leaving my hometown in Northern California.… Read more →
St. Vincent. Fillmore Auditorium. 01.15.18 Some nights are just strange in a way that cannot be explained. Maybe all nights are, and we just miss out on the extraordinary because we are so focused on the stimulus we receive from the ordinary. There is nothing wrong with meeting a group of friends to grab a few drinks, recap the day,… Read more →
Corey Feldman and the Angels. Buffalo Rose. 06.23.17 The Goonies and Stand by Me are two of my favorite films from childhood. The Lost Boys is right up there as well. Corey Feldman was the coolest kid I never knew in those formative years. But then Gleaming the Cube happened. Sure, it was an awful movie, but you couldn’t convince… Read more →
Mike Cooley. Larimer Lounge. 12.02.16 / 12.03.16 Last time Mike Cooley passed through town without the other Truckers, he was welcomed by a blizzard. After a long day of travel from Seattle, “delirious and drunk were staring each other down and neither could see shit,” but that didn’t stop him from performing almost every song he had released up until… Read more →
Sharon Jones was the living embodiment of dancing in the face of death. I was lucky enough to see her strut her shit across the stage multiple times, but I’m so glad I was able to introduce my dad to her talent when she played with Valerie June a couple years back, as well as witness her steal the show from… Read more →
Steven Wilson. Gothic Theatre. 11.12.16 Images of pigeons, pecking their lives away atop buildings, were transitioned into various street scenes around London, as Adam Holzman set the stage at the Gothic Theatre with “First Regret”. The rest of the band appeared one by one, while the ominous keyboard sounds silenced the sold-out crowd. We had all become voyeurs peeking into… Read more →
It was 1988 when my dad brought home the I’m Your Man CD. I was used to him listening to classic rock, contemporary country, and (don’t judge him) Michael Bolton, so my 11-year-old ears were not prepared for the sounds of L. Cohen. That booming voice, the angelic backup singers, the horns and the poetry. My friends and I would play… Read more →
Tool. Pepsi Center. 10.26.16 Sometimes it is nearly impossible to remove yourself from your surroundings when attending a concert in a giant corporate arena. While others times, suspension of disbelief is achieved effortlessly. When it comes to a Tool show, the venue itself literally ceases to exist. That was the case at the Pepsi Center last night. Hypnotized by Can Buyukberber’s… Read more →
Margo Price. Bluebird Theater. 10.24.16 We were in Nashville, Tennessee exactly one year ago today. A group of us decided to book a mini-vacation around Jason Isbell’s residency at the famous Ryman Auditorium. My wife and I were among the first to arrive in the city and our Airbnb in East Nashville wasn’t quite ready for check-in, so we decided… Read more →
Kanye West. Oracle Arena. 10.22.16 The sounds of hydraulic machinery filled Oracle Arena, as the stench of dirt weed mingled with the faux fog that had been pumping into the air over the past two hours. The opening samples of “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” were slowed down and turned elastic, thus leaving alien chemtrails of sound in the… Read more →
Miguel. Boulder Theater. 10.11.16 As the lights slowly dimmed around the venue, the Boulder Theater became Miguel’s bedroom. A panel of screens reflected all the stars in the cosmos, while a voice called for sacrifice to the void, because in the end, “we’re all gonna die young.” Laughing in the face of mortality, as only the young can do, the mostly… Read more →
