AATS 6000 Mile Tour Day 15, Denver CO

Thursday May 29, 2014

A quiet night, a late check out, a mere hundred mile drive. Nice.

En route to Denver I wrote in my journal and we were there before I knew it. Didn't even take any pics en route (not much to see, really, until you are just about there).

We had two options for a place to stay that night, Adrian's friend Carly or Armando's friends Miller and his wife (old friends from school). Good to have options, tho both friends had plenty of space.

So plan for the day before the gig was to hang with Carly for awhile then head to Miller's place as well.

Got hella lost en route to Carly's tho. Turns out there were two streets with the same name as hers, separated by a huge roundabout that just made for total confusion. The maps on our iPhone's gave us directions to BOTH addresses and after going to the first Adrian didn't recognize the neighborhood so we went on a 30+ minute wild goose chase to the other address, which only was 5 minutes away.

Fuck

We found it, and spent a good chunk of the afternoon hanging out with Carly and her dog Ava on the porch. Very nice lady, puts bands up often. Ex-military and on disability due to a worsening neurological condition which is baffling her doctors. Sucks when bad things happen to good people.

But she rolled out the red carpet, offered us beers and made us a pizza \m/,

Adrian and Ava in Carly's back yard. Photo by Armando. Go Spurs, yo!

Soon we had to bid her adieu, but she'd be at the show later that night.

Headed to Miller's place and found it without incident (no duplicate addresses). Him and his wife really good people, just became grandparents and were very happy about that. More pizza, more beers and good conversation. After awhile I excused myself to the basement to grab a bedroom for a nap. Adrian eventually did the same. Armando stayed up and caught up with his old friends.

Turns out I'd have two old friends coming out to the show at Three Kings.

One is Paul Vismara, a painter/beer connoisseur whom I've known for many years from the old StonerRock.com message boards and have hung out with many times over the years. He'd be getting there a little later in the eve, but would make our set.

The other is Ken Wealty, who used to drum for Shandon Sahm. He FB messaged me earlier in the day about the show. I wasn't quite sure who it was at first, as his FB profile pic was a far away pic of him on a kayak heh, and don't know if I ever knew his last name...

Got to the venue and after load in through the back alley was kneeling down stowing/arranging gear. A pair of feet walked up to me and said "Hey Dannny, how ya been?" Looked up and was him. Ha!

Haven't seen him since about 2007, probably because he moved to Denver at that time. *face palm*

Really dug Three Kings as a venue. Cool art and murals. Green room plastered in band press photos and band stickers with lots of familiar names. Nice big stage, good sound, downtown so there is more foot traffic rather than people only showing up because they meant to go there.

And speaking of foot traffic, Carly was in full force trying to recruit passers-by to the show. Some of them she scared off, others she convinced and they stayed all night and loved it. Awesome!

Our set went well and was well-received, to the best of my recollection almost 2 months later... (Yeah. I will be more proactive in my tour recaps, tho I say that all the time). The distance was too great for Adrian's cables to reach all the way to the bar, but she still jumped offstage and rocked out people up front.

And Ken is a pretty damn good photographer too:

Leading the crowd in my favorite new drinking game, "1, 2, 3, Drink!"

A friend of Adrian's took this, photo courtesy George L Blosser. Wow!

Fun show and good times. And yes. I did wear my new Kum & Go shirt which I had purchased the previous day.

Spent most of the rest of the evening catching up with Paul. Hadn't seen him since probably 2009, when he traveled with his friends Solace from New Jersey to Austin for SXSW that year, and him and half the band stayed at Gina and I's house at the time. Oh, there are stories. Very funny stories. But that is another blog post altogether.

He gave me a copy of the new book about beer that him and a friend wrote and published. Awesome! I gave him copies of my new album and the Ocean of Stars rough mixes. Great catching up and getting rather shithammered at the bar with him and Armando.

Paul seems shocked by how drunk we were, heh!

But eventually it was that time to pack up all our gear and leave, as eventually bars do close. And much sooner than you would like.

To split the difference in our two prospective places to stay, Adrian stayed with Carly and Armando and I stayed at Miller's.

We had nightcaps of chocolate malt beer and leftover pizza and more conversation with Miller and his wife.

Felt great to finally sleep in an actual bed instead of a couch or a hotel bed. It was glorious. As was my shower in the morning. Much needed, as evidence of the photos of us sweating our asses off onstage.