June Concerts
Boogie Time: Festival Season Gets Rocking
By Jenny Shank, 5-27-05
The Colorado summer festival concert season kicks off Memorial Day weekend with—what else?—a jam band gathering in Strasburg at a new camping/concert space, the Spanish Lady Ranch. Named after a line in the Grateful Dead song, “The Other One,� the ranch will host The May Daze Pre-Summer Jam & Pig Roast , which features Buddy Cage (with his group Stir Fried) and David Nelson, a couple of musicians who rubbed elbows with the late Mr. Garcia in one of his side projects, New Riders Of The Purple Sage. Also on the bill are several Boulder-area bands including Shanti Groove, Phix (a Phish tribute band), and Single Malt Band. Apparently the members of these groups are skipping out on running the Bolder Boulder this year.
Apart from this new addition, the music-festival slate in Colorado has actually shrunk slightly this summer.KBCO’s World Class Rockfest, which normally brings an excellent lineup of AAA artists to Winter Park, is taking a break this year. The Blues & Bones Festival that for several years attracted a mess of barbecue enthusiasts and top blues musicians such as Shemekia Copeland and Dr. John to Mile High Stadium (all right, Invesco Field, if you must) is no more.
The LoDo Music Festival looked like it was a goner last year—the streets of LoDo were virtually empty during Saturday evening’s performances, and though Joan Jett rocked harder and looked better than she had any right to as a woman of a certain age, only a handful of fans were on hand to appreciate her energetic rendition of “I Love Rock & Roll.� According to Mark Brown of the Rocky Mountain News, in an effort to revitalize the Festival, the organizers are combining it with the Global Groove festival (a two-day show that featured several world musicians affiliated with the Putumayo label). The event, normally held in July, will instead take over the area around 21st and Larimer Streets from June 17th through 18th.
Tickets are still available to what should be the concert of the summer, the June 5 Red Rocks Pixies show (with Violent Femmes and The BellRays). No true fan should turn down a chance to see the legendary indie rockers in such an epic setting. Two compelling young bands, Rilo Kiley and Spoon, will play the Gothic Theatre on June 13 and June 14 respectively. Intelligent hip-hop stalwarts Digable Planets swing through Boulder’s Fox Theatre on June 13, and catchy-as-hell Canadians Hot Hot Heat play the Ogden Theatre on June 20.
Coloradoans up for a road trip and New Mexicans looking for a good time could do worse than heading to the seventh annual Taos Solar Music Festival, held on a mesa in Kit Carson Park from June 24-25. Amy Ray has rejoined The Indigo Girls fold after touring behind her strong solo Americana album Prom this spring, and the folk duo headlines the Solar Fest. Also of note is the passionate, genre-hopping singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked and the master acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke.
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