My old friend and Del Rio escapee Rob begun seeing concerts together last year when Tool came to San Antonio. After that, we had a fairly successful (though muddy) run in Austin for ACL 2009. We made preliminary plans at the time to check out Mile High Music Festival in Denver, as he was moving to Colorado Springs in a few months, and when the lineup was released in late March, we took a shot in the dark and purchased tickets, hoping that my perpetual state of training would allow we to take some time off to attend.
Though I still have a couple of months before I'm finally out of training, I was able to talk a few days of vacation on either side of the weekend-spanning event in order to comfortably make the 9-hour drive to Colorado Springs. I suppose that I may have been able to make the trip even if I didn't get the Friday and Monday off, but I don't know whether that would have involved an inordinate amount of driving or having to fly out there.
After leaving Colorado Springs for the first time in May of 2008, I thought I would have spent more time away than I have - I've returned every year since, first in April of last year and now again 14 months later. I must have been distracted failing out of Pueblo at the time, because I think this was the first time I've appreciated the wonderful views we had in the city - San Antonio was only a little bit hilly, and Wichita is as flat as the day is long. The city is basically built on top of the shallower parts of the mountains, which becomes obvious when trying to push my car up and over the many steep hills that are consistently featured as part of the Springs' typical roadways. It became a factor for my car, which encountered trouble as soon as I arrived in the city.
I had begun experiencing some light stuttering issues with my car in Wichita, but it was only a rare occurrence when the engine was being heavily tasked in idle (like, for example, running the air conditioning at a stop light). My amateur research online pointed to a possible problem with the fuel system or a spark plug issue. The former being the easiest problem to correct, I purchased a bottle of that fuel injector cleaner stuff you put in your gas tank. It seemed to make the problem better, so I continued to keep an eye on it. Fast forward to me completing the 500 mile trip to Colorado Springs, in which the sputtering was seriously noticeable when idling or driving in first gear. I was lucky I made it to Rob's place, but the next stop was an auto shop.
I was going to take it to a dealer and be content that I was getting consistent service in addition to being ripped off, but I decided to see if I could find a reliable auto shop in town and press my luck. Luckily, it worked out, and not only was I able to get my car fixed, but I did my homework while I waited, and learned how the induction coil increases the voltage from the battery and passes it to the spark plug which sets off the combustion in my engine. I'm interested in learning more about how my car works, but it's difficult without being able to take the thing apart and tinker with it. At least I'm getting some lessons through my mistakes. Now that my car crisis had been averted and I could make it back to Wichita, the focus was back on the vacation.
Living in the northern part of the Springs for four years, we spent most of our time hitting up the multitude of chain restaurants that surrounded Academy Blvd., though also by that time I hadn't become interest in food as I am now, so it didn't bother me. This time, though, I wanted to see more of what C-Springs had to offer - less than an hour from Denver, I knew there had to be at least a few places for fine dining that trickled south from the Mile High City, similarly to how Milwaukee's food benefited from having the (much) larger city of Chicago so close, and San Antonio had Austin (not larger than SA by any means, but certainly a lot more creative).
Despite my intentions, my visit to Colorado Springs was bookended by indulgences in nostalgia, beginning first with a trip to Leon Gessi's, a parlor of pizza in which we began many nights eating pies and drinking pitchers of beer. My trip's last stop was Egg and I, a breakfast (now chain, as there was even one in San Antonio, though I never visited) restaurant started in Fort Collins and which I spent many Sundays sitting eating the same Hiker's Benedict and drinking a pitcher of coffee in an effort to reclaim some of my sanity after spending day after day living in a 10x12' room with another dude.
The remainder of my time was peppered with new places, some better than others, but all nice in their own right. Rob having to split time between me and his girlfriend who was leaving for Nebraska the Monday after the festival, combined with me being a relatively early riser, meant that I had the opportunity to splurge and get my fix for fine dining as well as a try a few classic breakfast places. It worked out well, giving me a healthy amount of time to explore the city on my own and not having to worry about the smothering that can happen when a visitor is staying with you for several days.
I enjoy going to these things with Rob because he's content to sit at the back of the crowd and chill out for the day. I never liked being one of those people that crowd the stage, for several reasons:
- I didn't pay for these things to look at the artists - it's a music festival, so as long as I can hear, I'm happy.
- I like my personal space.
- I don't dance, so I would rather not stand there uncomfortably for hours.
ALO was a band I heard good things about when I was really into jambands, but I never got around to checking out. They're pretty mellow, but not Jack Johnson mellow. That's just too damn mellow, if you ask me - that man needs to wear some shoes every once in a while.
Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was one of the best albums last year, and they were sure to put most of the focus on that album, despite it being their fourth since 2000 (first in the US, though). Many bands don't really add too much to their songs when played live, and this was one of those cases. If I wanted to hear the tracks played note for note for the album versions with crappier acoustics, I would play the CD while wearing hearing protection or something.
I've seen Drive-By Truckers several times by this point, but they're a good live band, which we heard as we were waiting to gain entry into the venue - I accidentally got us there an hour later, as their set was ending. It sounded good from what we heard, though.
For as many people that came and saw Weezer, they could have easily been the headliner for the first night. I'm a pretty casual fan of Weezer, but I know their better albums are behind them. I think they know it, too, as the set was pretty focused on the older material. Hell, they should just tour featuring songs solely from their first two albums.
I have quite a history with Dave Matthews Band, and while they maintain an important part of my musical history, I am well aware that they are not infallible. I think I have a four-year streak going on seeing them live, so this worked as fulfilling this year's quota. I don't really like going to a pure DMB concert anymore because the fanbase is pretty douchy and I have to stand the whole time. On the other hand, the band plays it safe with their setlists for festivals, so I can expect to hear the same old crowd pleasers rather than the more interesting stuff they've been doing this tour. We left about an hour into the set - Rob wasn't that big of a fan and worked the next day, and I realized that the set wasn't going anywhere good, and didn't want to get caught in the deluge of traffic at the end of the night. I also remembered that there was a live webcast of the show, which I was able to watch on my phone as we drove back to the Springs. We were walking in the door literally as the last note was being played.
With 11 hours of driving (including the time zone changes) ahead of me, I grabbed that breakfast at Egg and I and drove away. This was certainly one of the more laid-back festivals I've been to, and I was lucky that I was able to score some time off of work to attend. As I thought when moving to Wichita, the plus to living in the dead center of the United States is that I am a day's drive from a lot of cool places, and this proved the point. I hope the lineup for 2011 looks good, because I would love to do it again.
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