Archive Sunday #48

   Right after Bonnaroo, we went back to our home base in Seattle to prepare for a summer jam-packed with festivals and one-off shows. First up on the docket was an awesome opportunity to play one of the coolest venues ever, Red Rocks. I remember growing up listening to bands like Incubus that would release live recordings of their shows there, and seeing pictures of the stage that seemed like it was effortlessly carved between these giant sandstone slabs. So naturally we jumped at the chance to play at such an incredible place, and the fact it was in support of two great bands, Local Natives and Portugal. the Man, was an added bonus.

   So we got into Denver the night before, and after settling into the hotel began searching for some good grub. We settled on this local pizza that had some good reviews that mentioned their Colorado-style pizza. It definitely hit the spot after a long travel day and we learned firsthand that the Colorado mountain pie has this thick braided crust that is sweetened with honey. We ate way too much and crashed pretty early with a food coma. The next day, we loaded up and headed southwest to Morrison to check out the venue and load-in.

   We checked-in with the backline company backstage and started building the risers when Local Natives came out and started their soundcheck. It probably took us a bit longer to get everything set up as we often got distracted by the great views and tunes from the stage. After everything was ready to go, we explored the greenroom and chilled out a bit before our soundcheck. An hour or two later, we had our soundcheck where our soundguy John struggled for a bit to compensate for the super enclosed stage and unusual reverberation patterns. But after a couple songs, we got everything sounding good and headed downstairs to find the catering area.

   The buffet was excellent and the interspersed sandstone walls added a cozy cave-like feel to the basement hangout. Thankfully we had just enough time to digest before we made our way onstage to start out the evening. We were only allotted 30 minutes for our set, so the show wouldn't slog on till the early morning with three bands and changeovers. So we came out with a high-energy ,four song Teens of Denial set that would hopefully catch the attention of the thousands of people finding their seats. It went over well, and I think we definitely won over some people that had previously never heard of us. It's always hard seeing the occasional fan disappointed with a short set, but trust me as an opener we play as long as we possibly can. This time we chose to be support for two great bands, so we had to accept that role and give them the time to do their thing.

  It was such a treat to slowly back up our gear side-stage while Local Natives played their sunset set. We had just about everything in the van by the time Portugal. the Man started playing. They came out with an added string/horn section, and the sandstone looked even cooler with the concert lighting dancing off the boulders. We headed out a bit before the encore so we wouldn't get stuck in traffic on the narrow mountain road down the hill. Then we all crashed at La Quinta after the long day.

   The next weekend we played another festival back on the west coast. I honestly thought we were being pranked when I first heard about it, but the festival was called Id1ot Fest. So we got into Mountain View CA and quickly realized by the scattered brightly colored bikes laying around that the festival must be taking place right by the main Google campus. I remember geeking out a bit checking out the Weezer setup backstage with the classic Moog Taurus organ pedals. But yeah, it didn't take us too long to set up so we went off to explore the festival and hopefully catch Michael Ian Black or Demetri Martin at the comedy tent.

  Unfortunately that comedy stage hadn't gotten started yet, but we had fun just walking around and exploring the park in the downtime. We played our typical short afternoon festival set an hour or so later, and it seemed to go over pretty well. I do remember it was a bit weird with the VIP seating taking over most of the audience spots near the stage. It makes more sense with a venue show or something, but with an all-day festival most of the time that area just sits empty throughout the day until the headliners play later on. But thankfully some great fans came out and danced enthusiastically along the general admission barrier, so it didn't feel so awkward. Afterwards we hung around for a couple hours to catch some music by Weezer, plus take advantage of the free snacks backstage haha.

  A few days later we headed to Milwaukee to play this massive festival called Summerfest. I think it spans over a couple weeks and several stages, but yeah it's kinda crazy. We flew into Chicago for a connection and probably should have double checked the details better because we ended up taking a super short flight over the lake to Milwaukee. I think the total flight time ended up being around 40 minutes, but we were probably in the air for like half of that haha. Definitely should have driven that last bit, but you live and you learn.

  It was kinda stressful finding parking and getting to the stage in this massive complex, so most of us were in a frustrated mood once we arrived. But the great thing about playing music, is that once we get onstage and start playing we can channel that frustration into the music. So we ended up playing a great energetic set and everyone was back in great spirits afterwards.