Our 31 Hours in Denver

A few weeks ago, Lynn's sister Lenlee told us that she would be at
Red Rocks for the Ray LaMontagne concert and invited us to join her.
Her friend Paul is the Guitar Technician for the band and there would
be complementary tickets available. Of course we jumped at the
chance. It would be good to see Lenlee AND a concert at Red Rocks!
Earlier in the evening, we stopped by Lenlee's hotel in Golden and
stepped across the street for a bite to eat. While we were dining,
who would walk past but our friend from the Ice, Brody! It was
a pleasant surprise to see him and even though we hadn't seen him
in a couple of years, we chatted for almost an hour and had a really
good time.


I had my first visit to Red Rocks last summer, but Lynn has been here
countless times. Neither of us had ever been on the stage and this was
a lot of fun! It was odd to be BEHIND the security guys. We pretty much
had our run of the stage and I snapped lots of photos. Although I don't
mind being in front of people making presentations, I don't know if I
could perform in front of a crowd of this size.


Lenlee and Paul are a lot of fun to be around. Before the concert, Paul
showed us around the backstage area, one of the tour busses and the
areas that were generally off limits to the average ticket holder.


We had great seats. 12 rows up from the stage and right next to the
sound mixing booth. Red Rocks has great acoustics to begin with and
these seats had to have some of the best sounds in the house.


Secret Sisters led off the show with a small set of country-themed tunes.


Brandi Carlile was next up and she brought with her lots of fans who
were hooting and hollering. She's really talented and it was fun listening
to her. About 2/3 through her set, a surprise guest joined her on the stage.
It was Shawn Colvin! I've been listening to Shawn since the mid nineties and
it was fun to see her on stage. Later, both came into the audience to sit and
watch Ray perform and they sat in the row right in front of us!


I really hadn't heard much of Ray LaMontagne's music until this evening,
but he's very talented and the crowd really enjoyed his show.




We had special passes that let us go all over the place.


An interesting display backstage is a listing of all of the events that have
been held at Red Rocks, since it opened in 1941. Lynn, Lenlee and I
had fun looking at the concerts the three of us had attended over the
years.


Just a few minutes after the concert ended, the place was empty! It was
amazing how quickly the crowd leaves after a show.

This morning, we met up with our friend Martin, from the Ice.
We hadn't seen Martin since our first season in Antarctica in 2001-02.
Like our meeting with Brody, it was like we had just seen each other
yesterday and we chatted for a good hour. Great to see old friends again!

On the way home, we stopped at the Strawberry Festival in Glenwood
Springs. There were lots of folks selling crafts. I didn't see a lot of
Strawberries (except for a pie eating contest), but it looked like most
folks were having a good time.