Olga Kern

The Colorado Symphony Orchestra opened its season last night with pianist Olga Kern (platinum blonde now) playing Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. It was a perfect selection for an opening night: It showed off both the orchestra and the soloist, and the 18th variation is so popular and recognized that it can draw the crowds in. There were still several empty seats, but Boettcher Hall was fuller than I've seen it for midweek. The audience lured Kern out for 2 encores, including a somewhat mushy Flight of the Bumblebee. Kern's right hand seemed played crystal clear towards the end. The night started off with the orchestra playing Glinka's fast-paced overture to "Russlan and Ludmilla." The cello section was luxurious. The violins kept up with the frantic pace. The evening closed with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, with the audience giving long ovations recognizing sections of the orchestra. Hearing an orchestra live is an unmatched experience. The pizzicato sections sound plumper and richer in person, you can see everyone playing. I was sitting in the first row of mezzanine 3. After intermission you can move to a better seat if there is one available, but mine wasn't bad. Students with ID are half price _ a great deal.

RANDOM NOTES: Did you miss seeing The National when they were in Denver this week? They will be live on woxy.com on Monday, noon MDT.

Innerpartysystem is out with "The Download EP," which has the song Don't Stop on it.

Remember that Brazilian Girls song Don't Stop. Obviously not the same song, but it's like how TLC has a song "Creep" and so does Radiohead. How about all the people with songs called "Crazy." Anyway. Have a good weekend. Go Broncos.

Monolith Festival..::..::..(recap)

Good times, good times. The very first Monolith Festival at Red Rocks is all over, and my, what a great time! The brand new festival had two days of no rain, manageable crowds, fantastic acoustics and while there may have been a few glitches here and there, overall Year No. 1 went off well.

Friday afternoon got off to a mellow start, probably because lots of people were still at work. Temps were in the 60s and it was cloudy.

On Day One ....
The Dirty Novels checked out a tight set by The Broken West, out of LA (above).

Then Ghostland Observatory took the main stage, with a blue cape.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah got people dancing with "Summer Teeth" (below) I have to say, I like their new stuff better than their old stuff. The singer also had striped pants. New hipster trend?


Cat-A-Tac dealt with some hecklers on the woxy.com stage, inside the visitors center. After that Ra Ra Riot put on a high-energy show with an almost violently dancing lead singer, electric violin and cello, guitar, bass, drums. They said this was their first show in the Mountain Time zone (they're from Syracuse). Ra Ra Riot is out touring with ....

The Editors (below)

A terrific set on the stage at the top of the amphitheatre.

Caught snippets of Mobius Band, Born in the Flood, Vienna Teng and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (666). The Decemberists played a long set, including "16 Military Wives." Which by the way, there was a lot of anti-Bush rhetoric this whole weekend.

Then Cake closed out Day One, revvin' up the college kids and bong hitters

On Day Two...

The sun was out, it was above 80 degrees, and The Little Ones were dancing and having a good time (below)


Like Ra Ra Riot, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's showed that cello and violin do belong in rock bands.

Ian Ball of Gomez ("See the World") was solo with a guitar (below).

He charmed the crowd, playing a 15-second song he wrote as a theme for some show, and also a song about premature ejaculation called Don't Let a Little Failure Get You Down, before going into a quiet soulful version of "How We Operate."

Members of De Novo Dahl checked out Brian Jonestown Massacre (DND are the ones with the goofy pastel decorated band uniforms; they're in the row closest to the camera)



Brian Jonestown Massacre had to work hard to keep people from fleeing at the end of their set on the main stage as the booming bass of Lords of the Underground took over from the stage at the top of the amphitheatre. Lords of the Underground actually got the crowd to chant out the phrase "Denver, psycho psycho!" Yeah, good job guys.

Earlier on that stage, Meese played. I like Meese's recorded stuff, but they didn't sound as polished live, and on one song, the lead singer pranced around like he was Iggy Pop or Mick Jagger. Um, you're not there yet, bud.

White Rabbits packed the woxy.com stage in the evening, as did Hot IQs.

Art Brut strutted their stuff, chanting out verses over music. I don't know. They're big in England. Spoon got down to business and did a long-ish set, with not much banter.

On the acoustic stage, William Elliott Whitmore -- bluesy, rootsy. And Rocky Votolato had a lot of female fans ask to take photos with him.

Cloud Cult -- again with the cello and violin! -- played at the top of the amphitheatre, with two artists painting live to the music behind them. The paintings were up for bid at the end of their set. Cloud Cult straight up lied to get people to stay to the end of their late-night set, saying The Flaming Lips weren't set to play for another 20 minutes, when in fact, the Lips were taking the big green balls that were sitting on the main stage all day up to the top of the amphitheatre ....


to release them down on the crowd for the Lips set!


Wayne said the band was trying to get these lights from the former USSR to the show, but they were detained in Oklahoma City because these were lights that had mercury and may have been tainted by Chernobyl...anyway, the lights didn't make it to the show.

Still, Flaming Lips got the crowd on their feet, closing with "Do You Realize" before two encores.

And good night.

Things to do today:
_Okkervil River w/ Damien Jurado @ Marquis Theater
_Bright Eyes @ the Ogden, $30
_Air Force plays TCU, at Air Force, football

and starting tomorrow, 9/14...MONOLITH FESTIVAL! At Red Rocks, with Flaming Lips, Decemberists, Spoon, Cake, Kings of Leon, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cloud Cult, The Little Ones and many more including locals like Cat-a-Tac, Hot IQs

Sad to report that the October show of Voxtrot/The Little Ones is no longer taking place (Voxtrot will be coming off a tour w/ Arctic Monkeys, poo), but The Little Ones will still perform Oct. 1 at the Larimer Lounge!

Broncos - Bills

The Broncos season opener had a little of everything, from an option play to Jay Cutler throwing and running, and a last-second winning kick. Check it out. ***

Deep fried cookie dough

For our post-Labor Day roundup, let's take a look at a clip a fan posted of the Christie Front Drive reunion show in Denver:



Perhaps you had a burger or hot dog over Labor Day weekend. Maybe even a fried Twinkie or fried Snickers. How 'bout deep-fried cookie dough

For those who had too much to drink, some University of Colorado grads have come up with The Cure for your hangover

And in case you missed it, the Hipster Olympics: (for viewing when you have time to kill)

Taste of Colorado

Besides football stadium burgers and samples from Taste of Colorado downtown, Labor Day weekend gave us a chance to check out Potager for the first time. The neighborhood spot in Capitol Hill (11th and Ogden) consistently gets good reviews, and it does have a laid-back yet upscale feel, with its large front windows, high ceilings, sprawling bar and open kitchen. They focus on seasonal cooking, so all our selections Friday night were mainly of ingredients from the Boulder Farmer's Market. Potager's smaller plates / appetizers are on the small side, then the menu builds with entree size plates towards the bottom. The $9 watermelon salad was a small, artfully arranged summer dish served as a special. I got the chilled cucumber soup and eggplant w/ veggies and cheese. Good but I wanted more. Then FCT got the tuna nicoise dish, with amazingly fresh, juicy tomatoes, but she said the beans were slightly undercooked. CP's prawn dish looked and smelled yummy. Came in the shell and with heads. For dessert we tried the raspberry tartlet with chocolate raspberry gelato. Sounded like it might be light and good, but it wasn't that impressive. Overall, the place gets a B. You won't spend as much here as you would at Fruition, but I think Fruition satisfies more. Potager does have a nice atmosphere though and the staff is friendly. It's also fun to be able to watch the cooks from your table. The menu suggests wine pairings for each dish.

Saturday night, we wandered to Luca D'Italia for dessert. The staff was very accommodating and friendly with finding us seats at the bar on a busy, busy Saturday night. Now that pastry chef Angela Yeung has left for Dallas, the restaurant seems to be trying to keep up on desserts. The crostada for summer is a peach crostada, served with vanilla gelato, rather than the ginger gelato served with the apple crostada when Ms. Yeung was cooking. The pastry wasn't as light and flaky or as artfully presented but it still tasted all right. The tiramisu is semi fredo, more of an ice cream dish. The almond cake was tasty, although CP thought there was way too much syrup drowning the cake. Good for sugar fiends!

Taste of Colorado is still going on Labor Day, so you have one last chance to grab a turkey leg or a taste of fried alligator. We tried etouffee, gumbo, bruschetta, a strawberry banana smoothie, and CP got a Philly cheesesteak downtown by the state Capitol. I'm not a fan of the sandwich but this one was very good with fat mushrooms. Grab some sunscreen, try to bring in your own water (it's 3 tickets if you buy it inside), and go to the shade early and often! $5 buys you 8 tickets, and a turkey leg is 12 tickets. The smoothie was 6 tickets. Some booths have tastes of certain items for 1 or 2 tickets. The Ghirardelli people are handing out chocolate for free! Go to the Office Max display (the one with the giant rubber band ball) for a coupon for $10 free at Denver stores. The KBCO booth by the Broadway and 13th entrance to the festival was handing out free CD samplers and post-it pads Sunday, and Starbucks was passing out free samples of pumpkin spice lattes. Perhaps not the best drink in 90-degree weather but it still tastes good. There's a lot to try...crab cakes, Phillippine-Asian grill, funnel cake, etc, etc

Weekend planner

Labor Day weekend...a time for BBQ and one last party @ the pool. Here's a bit of what's going on:

Dfest3, w/ a Christie Front Drive reunion show!

Taste of Colorado, for free, by the state Capitol, in Civic Center Park

And to get you in the mood for CU vs CSU at Mile High on Saturday (9/1, 10 a.m.), here's a little joke we heard from Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley on situational awareness, tweaked to fit our beloved Buffs and Rams: Two college rivals -- say CU and CSU -- were driving on a road in opposite directions and came along a narrow bridge at the same time, colliding in bad weather. The Buffalo got out, looked at the damage to both cars and was thankful to be alive and unhurt. His rival got out, saw the damage and also was thankful to be alive and unhurt. He went to his trunk and found an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels. "Hey, this is a sign. We should toast and forget about old differences," the Ram said. He handed the bottle to the Buff, who said cheers and drank about half before handing the rest back to his rival. "Your turn," the Buff said. "No," the Ram said. "I think I'll wait til after State Patrol gets here."

Sniagrab at the sports castle, 10th and Broadway, for ski deals, 9/1. People are already in line

Red Rocks has the B.B. King Blues Festival on Saturday, 9/1, and the Yonder Mountain String Band on Sunday, 9/2, for all the hippies.

The Colorado Rockies are out of town for the weekend but host San Francisco on Labor Day.

Don't forget The National play Denver on Sept. 18. Here's an interview from The Onion's A.V. Club

Blast from the Past

Crowded House played the Fillmore last night, with Fountains of Wayne opening. It was FoW's very first Denver show. I'm short but it looked like FoW had 5 on stage. They played Stacy's Mom (I kinda hate that song) and Radiation Vibe, but also selections from the new album in a short set before turning things over to Crowded House. FoW said back in the day they went to a Crowded House show and threw demos at them, so they were so eXcItEd to share the stage w/ them.

Crowded House performed "Private Universe," (which would've been really cool to hear at Red Rocks), "Don't Dream It's Over," "Something So Strong," "Italian Plastic," "Four Seasons in One Day," Take the Weather With you, with some sweet audience singalongs. Also "Locked Out," "Pineapple Head," "Distant Sun" a cover of "Happy Together." Neil Finn's son Liam played in the band. Crowded House will be at Austin City Limits in Sept. Only bad thing about the show was it was hot inside the Fillmore and it smelled like stinky feet

More here here and probably eventually here

Christie Front Drive reunion

Christie Front Drive, the emo band that captured Denver hearts and minds back in the 90s, gets back together to play at DenverFest, Sept. 1 at the Marquis Theatre. Planes Mistaken for Stars playing too. $10 gets you into the show, or get a $30 pass for all the venues and shows for DenverFest (Aug. 31-Sept. 2).


The Cubbies are cleaning up the Rockies. Two more games, one tonight, one tomorrow afternoon. Lots of tickets left

Tidbits

_ Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper made it inside the pages of Esquire, in a feature on what mayors of America are wearing. He wasn't just mentioned. He got a full page.

_ Page France at the Hi-Dive, 8/7 (Tuesday)

_ The National @ the Ogden, Sept. 18. Yippeeee

_ Voxtrot! and the Little Ones! Together! @ the Bluebird Oct. 1

_ Buy a Cuban sandwich from the guy at the stand across from the Denver main library. So what if it's made of lard. It's Eric Bachmann

Ryan Adams @ Red Rocks

Ryan Adams played Red Rocks last night w/ Lucinda Williams, Devotchka, Old 97's (love them!) and others as openers. A looong evening of music.

Old 97's had to start off w/o lead singer Rhett Miller because of flight delay issues, but he came running on stage in the middle of one of the songs and the crowd was so happy. He sang for "Timebomb" and "Murder or a Heart Attack." Yippeee!

Ryan Adams played w/ the Cardinals. He was well-behaved, even when he refused a request from a guy in the crowd for "New York."
"No," he said. Then added, "Because if I play that song then you'll all go home. And you'll go home and you won't take me. And if you do take me home, you won't like me. So. No."
There was a lengthy, lengthy encore ... I think 5 songs? At least? He tried out his 5-groan Red Rocks standup: ("If the wind picks up anymore, I'm really gonna storm off the stage! Then you'll be stuck between a rock and a hard place! It's all downhill from here! That's OK, this place rocks!")
He played despite having a major wedgie. ("It's been going on for quite a while," he said about midway thru)