The kids were staying over at a friends so Liz and I decided to go to this show.  After eating some good BBQ with TF and watching the Nuggets win we headed to Denver with Carleigh.  We got into the show about the time the opening band Cannon started.  They ended up being really good.  They were pretty heavy indie rock at times, somewhat metal at other times.  Next up was Lion Sized which was the only band I had seen before.  I liked them a lot the first time I saw them, but this time they kinda let me down.  The music is a lot like Hot Snakes, but it just didn’t do it for any of us this time.

The headlining band was called Tauntaun.  We had never heard of them. We figured if they sucked or were even just mediocre we’d leave so we could get to sleep early.   They started the show by cranking the fog machine up so much that Liz left the front room.  Ha.  Within the first song it was pretty clear that they were awesome.  Really awesome.  I don’t like much metal, but this was incredible.  It reminded me of classic metal.  Sabbath, Maiden, Priest and Motorhead with a bit of grunge thrown in to make it completely incredible.  It was so good that Liz liked it, and she hates most metal.  It was also so good that I bought a Tauntaun t-shirt and record.  Check them out, they rule.

The Mighty LZA and I have been married 11 years now.  What better way to celebrate our anniversary then to go out for dinner in Denver then go see the Thermals?  Seriously, the Thermals!  One of our favorite bands and one of the funnest bands to see live.  

I accidently called Kathy ‘Karen’ and felt like a total idiot.  Luckily she’s super nice and didn’t beat me up.  There’s a great story behind this photo, but I can’t tell it yet.

Chad and Chris’s art school buddies Earl and Kit were there.  Kit got kicked out for smoking at the start of the Thermals set.  Ha ha don’t you know smoking sucks!  Luckily he pulled off being a roadie for the middle band and got back in.

Greg Harbour’s twin was there.  I’m talking Greg from a few years ago before he started dieing his hair.

You don’t see shades on the back of a head in hipster bingo.

The first band was Point Juncture, WA.  They were pretty good.  A bit too mellow at times for me, but the rockin’ stuff was really good.  

The next band was Shaky Hands.  They were from Portland too.  They were boring and unoriginal.

The Thermals finally played to a very enthusiastic crowd.  People were going nuts and everyone was smiling and having a blast.  It was seriously some of the most hyped on a band I’ve seen a crowd in a long time.  The setlist was a mixture of new and old, heavy on the new.  I wanted to hear the new stuff so this was perfect.

They opened with ‘Returning To The Fold’ then went into ‘I Let It Go’.  After that I’m not so sure, but here’s a list of what I think I remember which is NOT in order.

Returning To The Fold
I Let It Go
It’s Trivia
No Culture Icons
A Passing Feeling
 Back To Grey
How We Know
Sappy (Nirvana cover)
Here’s Your Future
Pillar Of Salt
Test Pattern
St Rosa & The Swallows
We Were Sick
Now We Can See
I Called Out Your Name
When I Was Afraid
How We Fade
You Dissolve 

Encore was:
I Hold The Sound
Everything Thermals 

I might be missing one or two or messed it up.  Either way that’s close enough.  All of the new stuff sounded super good.  The crowd completely freaked out to Here’s Your Future.   The ground up front at the Marquis shakes when people get jumping and at times it felt like I was on a trampoline.  Awesome.  I completely loved every song, but my stand out favorites were “How We Fade”, “When I Was Afraid”, “I Called Out Your Name”, “Test Pattern” (never heard it played before), “St Rosa & The Swallows”, “Here’s Your Future”, “Pillar of Salt” (yes pretty much the whole set) and of course “Sappy” was an awesome surprise.  I think they played “I Let It Go” too early in the set because it’s probably my favorite song on the new album and the sound wasn’t dialed in yet.  Oh well though, excellent excellent show.  I like that they don’t have the extra guitarist anymore and I think Hutch gave his best delivery I’ve seen.  Kathy was on point once again driving the bass the way she does.  They are so fun live!  Everything Thermals!

Aaron Betcher’s band O’er The Ramparts played the first Null premiere back in July of 2004.  Man that seems like forever ago.  Anyways, he’s in another band called Magic Mice and Brian, Jason and I went to check out a show of theirs in Boulder.

Should have known Rick would be there, but I didn’t expect those shoes!  

The first band was a couple ladies singing with a glass of wine and an acoustic guitar.  It wasn’t bad, not my cup of tea though.  Brian was the only one texting more than me.  

Magic Mice came on shortly and played a pretty rockin’ set.  Brian told me the Westword mentioned Dinosaur Jr as one of their influences or something.  That can never be a bad thing and there was definitely some sick guitar solos and distortion.  For the most part though they reminded me of good garage rock and I really enjoyed it.  Check out their myspace page HERE.

An old man laughing at at old man!  Ha.  The guy in the background was having a ball and dancing it up.  You can’t really see from the photo, but he was getting jiggy.  Rick approved.  The best part was when he stood next to a pregnant lady and stuck out his belly.  Golden material there.

If I ever get serious about concert reviews maybe I’ll actually start getting within 20 feet of the band when taking photos.

Up next was a horrible band named Ego Vs Id.  Some Boulder band I guess.  How embarrasing.  They could play their instruments well enough, but it was cocky jam lets get chicks crap.  We left.