Day 14 – Denver – Stones, Bones and Microphones

Waking up in Denver is strange.  I still think I hear Ed’s ’57 firing up from 2 cities away, but maybe it’s in my head.  Or maybe I’ve just grown so used to it I sort of miss it.  Wait.  Nevermind.  That shit is a RELIEF!  But back to Denver; don’t get me wrong, we’re all excited to be home.  Some of us have wives or girlfriends and kids and dogs (the 4 legged kind, not the gangsta lean friend kind) that we’ve all missed for 2 weeks and that feeling of seeing them can’t be replaced.  For me, looking at a stack of mail is something I wish could be replaced.  It sucks.  Also, it reminds me that this crazy journey has an expiration date and eventually there’s a real life waiting for us back home.  But that stack of mail and real life is going to have to wait.  Today is our day.  We’ve been talking up Denver the whole tour and the Guttermouth guys are all ready for a big show.

First stop though, we promised Justin from Guttermouth some bowling. I like throwing stones myself so I’m looking forward to it.  Mike sets me up in the system as Sugar.  Giving each other nicknames has become another pastime.  So far, Meatsy (Drew) has really stuck.  Manny has become Mandelbaum (in tribute to a Seinfeld episode) and today I’m Sugar.  No worries because I have some sweet, sweet bowling skills.  It’s good to see some of our buddies meet us up like Matt from No Bueno! And Ross from Noisegate.  We throw a few, have some beers and head off for load in.  The Giggling Grizzly isn’t open yet so we walk next door to LoDo’s.  Their theme is “Chads”.  In Denver, Chad’s are dudes that still live their frat boy lifestyle, complete with lots of cologne, bad pick up lines, designer jeans and polo shirts.  Tight polo shirts.  That’s not to say that every dude in LoDo’s is like that.  It just seems like a lot of them like this bar.  Also, I think a lot of them go by the name Chad. 

The plan was to load in, sound check and get back to the Giggling Grizzly for a spaghetti dinner that Jeff had set up.  Sound check runs a little late and it’s 20 minutes till doors.  We get word that there are only about 200 tickets left and there’s a line forming outside.  Fuck yes.  I have to forfeit my spaghetti dinner for watching the merch booth.  Fuck no.  It’s ok though, I love the pizza at the Marquis.  Doors open and people are headed in. Then more people are headed in.  Holy shit the show is sold out!  Denver delivered on their end, time to repay the favor. 

I can’t speak for everyone in the band, but I can tell you that it was one of the most amazing shows I’ve ever played.  The crowd was crazy, Mike was crazy.  The mosh pit went in circles like a crazy Susan dishing up sides of crazy to everyone around.  It was beautiful and chaos, everything you could ever want in a punk show.  Mike ended up upside down tap dancing on the ceiling.   

I need to keep the post show pretty filtered…We party a lot on the road, but when we have home field advantage it’s lights out.  Tonight was a victory.  It was a damn near shut out.  Thank you Denver.  You’ll always have our hearts.

Side note – We want to thank all of our friends and family for showing up to support us in Denver.  We talk about friends and fans all the time on the road because you guys are always there with us.  It was so great to have Gary Ray up on stage singing along with us, seeing Miriam still in the front, Matt and Dan cracking jokes somewhere off to the side.  There are countless others so if you were there, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.