Volume 3, Issue 23
November 8 - November 21, 2001
After skiing a long, hard, exhilarating day in Vail, locals and tourists alike can keep the party rolling at 8150, the ski country's premiere nightclub. Owners Pat Devlin and Steve Kovacik are getting ready for an entertainment line-up that rivals Vail's prestige for the slopes and adds to our region's reputation for knowing how to get our groove on.
The club's "guest list" of bands that have graced its stage reads like a Who's Who in the music industry. Acts like Dave Matthews, moe., 311, Cake, Quiet Riot, and Sheryl Crow have filled the intimate venue in the past. On deck for this season are performances by Maceo Parker, Two Live Crew, Jimmy Cliff, and many more are already scheduled. Devlin also brings in famous DJs from around the world including Pascal Dolle, Dave Ralph, and a once-a-month appearance by DJ John Bishop.
No style of music is left out, and not all the bands are national recording acts. 8150 tries to get local names on the bill whenever possible. Judge Roughneck plays fre-quently each ski season, and String Cheese Incident, Brethren Fast, Tinker's Punishment, and Jive have graced the stage as well.
With three bars offering the coldest selection of brews and liquors inside the club's great atmosphere, 8150 feels like an oasis (if one could be located in snow rather than sand!). Anyone who has been in the place leaves with a great story to tell after the bands get roaring, everyone starts dancing, and the famous floor starts bouncing along.
Check out this season's schedule at www.8150.com or call (970) 479-0607 for more details.
~Judy b
The autumn months are quiet times in the high country, both economically and musically. In Breckenridge, restaurants and bars run on limited schedules. Even on a Saturday night in late October, the crowds, like the snow, were sparse. Frisco resident Chris Wechslert sipped on a pint at a near-empty Shamus O'Toole's. "Everything is about to change," he said. "Come back in a month; there will be bands everywhere and snow, too."
His prophecy doesn't ride on a hunch. The lure of Colorado's mountain towns is well documented. With the throngs of seasonal workers and vacationing snow junkies comes an inevitable deluge of live music. Historic venues like the Idle Spur in Crested Butte and the Tugboat in Steamboat Springs may not ring any bells for casual music fans, but the clubs fill a special place in the hearts of musicians nationwide. And as snow shrouds Colorado's peaks, the Rocky Mountains blossom into an unlikely proving ground for local and national acts.
The trend is a peculiar one. Every winter dozens of musicians from practically every genre strap on snow tires and blaze trail, zigzagging their tours from one remote mountain town to another. Last March California-based trance artists Sound Tribe Sector Nine stretched 13 dates through two blizzards to play in Colorado. Why? The reasons vary from establishing a fan base to making fresh powder turns.
The drawing card that tops most everybody's list, however, is the transient nature of ski-town audiences. For Nina Storey, a Denver based singer and songwriter, that reason alone has been enough to bring her back every year since 1993, despite numerous weather nightmares. "You really get more of a national cross section in audiences up in the mountains," she said. "So, you're instantly getting more exposure." The tactic seems to have paid off for Storey. The nationally acclaimed artist found one of her first big breaks in a group of people who saw her perform at Aspen's Wheeler Opera House.
The healthy fan demographic bodes well for practically all of Colorado's touring bands who capitalize on the proximity to nationally esteemed clubs.
"We can go up to the mountains and play for a weekend with little expense," Chris Newton, bassist for the Boulder-based, acid-jazz group MFA, said. "Then when that crowd disperses and goes home to their colleges they'll recognize our name when we come through their town."
Mountain tours, however, are not always easy tours. Mountain tours are sometimes, in fact, not successful tours.
"There's a myth around the country that there is a lot of money to be made up here," Dan Fallon, owner of Barkley's West in Frisco, said. "There is some truth to that, but there are a lot of challenges." Challenge number one, he said, is getting fans to turnout. With few advance ticket sales and stiff competition, a six-inch snowfall could spell disaster for an aspiring act.
Still, the intangible perks tend to over-shadow the risks. With free lodging and fresh snow, the draw is powerful. Bret Anderson, guitarist for Mind Go Flip played about 20 mountain dates last year. "The vibe is great up there," Anderson said. "The crowds are always amped to party and so are we." ~Eric Olson
Having spent most of the past decade as a Buddhist monk studying under Sasaki Roshi high atop Mt. Baldy in Southern California, Leonard Cohen certainly hasn't mellowed with age. The 67 year-old poet/novelist/cynic/crooner/cultural icon has come down from the mountain in true Moses form, clutching Ten New Songs of love, loss, longing and cultural observations.
Considering recent events, his raspy yet soothing voice is a welcome guest in anyone's home. The album's opening cut, "In My Secret Life," takes a cue from current events with a dose of optimism:
"Looked through the paper
Makes you want to cry
Nobody cares if the people live or die
And the dealer wants you thinking
that it's either black or white
Thank God it's not that simple
in my secret life."
Throughout the ten tracks Cohen proves that he's back and still in fighting form, as noted in "A Thousand Kisses Deep":
"I'm turning tricks, I'm getting fixed
I'm back on Boogie Street
The ponies run, the girls are young
The odds are there to beat."
Though it's obvious that Leonard has lost a bit of his range, his at-times hoarse whisper serves to emphasize the gut-wrenching emotion in each and every song. Additionally, he also hasn't lost his penchant for irony as proven with the opening lyrics of "That Don't Make It Junk": "I fought against the bottle/ but I had to do it drunk."
Leonard Cohen's past works have inspired everyone from R. E. M. to Nick Cave and now he's proving that he still has a lot left to say, even if it took nine years to say it.
--Sin
All Rights Reserved © 2001 Go Go Media, LLC, Denver, Colorado