Over the weekend I had the pleasure of seeing two O.A.R. shows. The first was on Friday night at the magnificent Red Rocks Amphitheater. This was the bands second appearance at Red Rocks. You can read about my experience the first time they played here. And just like that first time, we took a limo to the show. But unlike the last time, Kim and I were the only ones in the limo.

We arrived just as doors were opening and eventually made our way into the show. Once we entered, a quick rain shower sent us hiding to the visitors center and hall of fame area. The show was delayed for 15 minutes, which gave me time to get down to our seats in the roped off soundboard area and get my recording equipment setup. We met up with a good friend of mine from OARfans.com, Aaron Pitcock, just as Brett Dennen was taking the stage for his opening set.

As Dennen took the stage, the skies cleared and the weather was perfect for an evening show on the rocks. Aaron is a big fan of Brett Dennen and was the one who introduced me to his music a couple of years ago. Needless to say, he was in heaven the entire night. I believe he played for about 45 minutes and provided a great opening set while everyone filed into their seats.

After a short set change, O.A.R. took the stage launching into what would become one of my favorite sets I’ve seen from them in years. Just take a look at the full setlist! Highlights for me included a rocking “Right On Time” and the always great “So Moved On.” But honestly, I really can’t say one bad thing about that setlist. It was a great night and I’m sure the sold out crowd would agree with me.

Listen to my tape below and see what you think. Plus stay tuned for more on the second show of the weekend.

Today is a big day for the Dave Matthews Band with the release of their latest album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this their best release in over 10 years, since 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets, and there are tons of others who would quickly agree. That’s not to say that there haven’t been some good songs on the last three releases, but overall the entire albums were far below the quality of the original three albums put out by the band: the previously mentioned along with Crash and Under the Table and Dreaming. I’m curious to see how this album holds up to the test of time, but I’m thinking that it could easily rise to be one of the highest regarded releases of their career.

Earlier, I mentioned really like the radio friendly single “Funny the Way It Is.” But beyond that track I’m finding it hard to say that any of the songs are bad. I especially enjoy the big energy track “Shake Me Like a Monkey” along with “Why I Am” which has already grown into a fan favorite live song. Some other standouts from the overall superb list are “Time Bomb” and “Squirm” to name just a few. Another positive is that this could be some of the best material from standout drummer Carter Beauford and bassist Stefan Lessard.

Last night the band played a near three hour show which was broadcast on the Fuse TV channel along with online with Hulu. If you missed it, fortunately the entire performance has been archived online at Hulu. Not only was one of my college roommates actually at the show, he met Dave himself prior to the show starting. As he said via a text message, his life is now complete. I know I’m not alone when I say this; I am super jealous of you, Ryan Fightmaster.

Due to a magically disappearing device, I had to buy a replacement mp3 player. I’ve still never taken the iPod plunge, and keeping the trend alive, decided to go with the Sansa Clip. I enjoyed the missing Sansa Express for a couple of years and since it was no longer available for sale, I decided to go with the next smallest model available. I need to keep it simple so that I can easily run with it. I bought my mom the Clip a year or two ago and I never heard anything bad about it.

Now that I’ve had my hands on it for a couple of days, I can say that it is really similar to the Express I was used to. Though the display isn’t the best, it gets the job done. There aren’t too many fancy features, but that’s not what I wanted. I just want to easily be able to select an album to listen to, hit play, and start running. My one complaint so far is that the Clip doesn’t have an expandable memory slot like the Express had. I did upgrade from 1GB before to 4GB, but you never know when I’ll want even more available. Oh well, it was hard to beat for the $60 price tag.

Oh yeah, one amazing thing was the preloaded music that it came with. I was shocked to find O.A.R.’s “Whose Chariot?” from the November 27, 2004 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Not only was I actually at this show, but I also taped it. However, I think the included track actually comes from the other recording of the night direct from the soundboard. Still pretty dang cool!

Yesterday O.A.R. launched a brand new website where fans can buy and download live concert recordings. Obviously they are not the first band to do so, as other bands such as Dave Matthews Band and Phish have had very successful websites doing the same thing. Regardless I was happy to see this site go live with 40+ high quality recordings, especially for shows that weren’t recorded by any fans. Over time, additional shows from the back-catalog will be added, and you can be sure that new shows will be added as they happen.

For a limited time, everyone who goes to LiveOAR.com and registers for the website will receive a free download of the bands first ever performance at Red Rocks back in 2007. I tried recording this show myself, but the powerful wind that night completely ruined my tape, not to mention blowing my stand over and knocking everything to the ground. I’m surprised at how clean this new tape came out, and I’ve already listed to it a few times through. It’s well worth the few minutes it takes to sign up.

Friday night, Kim and I ventured up to the five points neighborhood of Denver to check out Ryan Montbleau and co. at Quixote’s True Blue. I’ve been a longtime fan of Montbleau’s music, but had never actually seen him perform live. He started off the evening playing a few acoustic numbers by himself. I could tell right away that this was going to be a good show, as did the rather large gathering of fans near the stage. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what kind of crowd would be in attendance, but was pleasantly surprised to find a large group who were obviously more familiar with his material than I.

After the acoustic opening, the other four members of the band took the stage and played a great set. I was curious how the big studio sounds of some of their studio tracks would sound, but was wowed to find that the viola player accomplishes all sorts of sounds with the use of various effect pedals. And their organist adds another dimension to the live sound, so they can definitely pull it off. Throw in the bass and drums and you have a very tight sounding band. They decided to split their performance into two long sets, and though we could only stick around for the first set, I was very impressed.

The lineup for the Austin City Limits Festival was released today. Included are Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Beastie Boys, and many more. Those headliners I listed are reason enough for me to really want to go to this festival, October 2-4. I haven’t compared the list to that of the Mile High Music Festival, which I’m sure I’ll be attending, but it doesn’t seem like there are too many repeats. So this is definitely a possible late summer stop for me, especially since Austin is fairly easy for me to get to and I had such a good time there earlier this month. And the obvious bonus is that I could see DMB, which as of right now I have no plans to see this year.

As a briefly mentioned earlier in the week, Kim and I attended the Spring Back to Vail celebration over the weekend headlined by O.A.R. The show started at 5PM with an opening performance by the Crash Kings. I didn’t watch any of their performance, but I could hear it loud and clear from our hotel room. They were a littler edgier than what I typically listen to, so I wasn’t in a hurry to get out and see them. Though from what I could tell, they play a pretty sweet cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

On to O.A.R.’s headlining performance. They came on around 6:30 in the evening and played for about an hour and a half, going just past sunset. The crowd was large, as to be expected with a free show, but I could tell there were definitely a handful of big fans in the crowd. And those that may not have been as big of fans certainly became more familiar with the band as they played nearly every single popular song of theirs. True, I would have preferred to hear a bunch of rarer songs played, but I was content hearing “War Song” and their fun cover of “With A Little Help From My Friends,” both for the first time live. It was a fun show, and I’m glad that I finally got to see the band perform again. Here is my recording from the night, which turned out much better than I was anticipating.

This past Thursday night we ventured out to see my favorite Denver area band, SoundRabbit, play at the Hi-Dive, which is right up the street from our house. We don’t often venture out for late night entertainment during the week, but this was an obvious exception as it would be their last local show for awhile. The band leaves tomorrow for a tour sweeping across this vast nation (dates are below). The show gave me the chance to hear many of the songs from their recent release, Tree Trunk Airplanes, for the first time live. The all sounded very polished and ready for tour. I could really tell that the band had been busy preparing for all of the shows they will be playing over the next couple of weeks. Here is my recording from the show, which turned out okay, despite the sound guy being completely unfamiliar with the bands material.

And here are the upcoming tour dates:

• Wed, Apr 22 – Des Moines, IA – Java Joe’s
• Thurs, Apr 23 – Madison, WI – Alchemy Cafe (still being confirmed)
• Thurs, Apr 23 – Columbus, OH – Scarlett & Grey Cafe
• Fri, Apr 24 – Edinboro, PA – Edinboro University
• Sat, Apr 25 – Canton, NY – St. Lawrence University
• Mon, Apr 27 – Burlington, VT – Nectar’s
• Tues, Apr 28 – Waltham, MA – The Skellig
• Wed, Apr 29 – Charlottesville, VA – Bel Rio
• Thurs, Apr 30 – Memphis, TN – Private Event
• Fri, May 1 – Yellow Springs, OH – Peach’s
• Sat, May 2 – Lake Lotawana, MO – Canoe Club

Please pass the news onto anyone you may know in any of these areas. And tell them that I sent you.

My favorite band of all time has a new CD coming out in the near future (June 2nd) titled Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. Starting today you can download the first single from the upcoming Dave Matthews Band release, “Funny The Way It Is,” on this website. I’m told that there have been some issues using the site to get the free track, but I didn’t have any problems earlier today. I’ve already listened to it a handful of times and I am really liking it. Additional details are slowly being released for the upcoming album, including the cover art which was drawn by Dave himself.

In addition here is a video that features other clips of some new tracks as well as the band members talking about their upcoming release.

The initial lineup for this year’s Mile High Music Festival has been announced! As I expected, I don’t feel it’s as strong of a lineup as last year. I’ve seen Widespread Panic before and I don’t really care to see them again, let alone two nights in a row. But as far as the mid-level talent goes, I’m in love. They’ve got Ben Harper, John Butler, Robert Randolph, Guster, Paolo Nutini, Gomez, and many others that I wouldn’t mind seeing. So I will definitely be in attendance, I was just hoping for a little more.

Saturday, July 18th

• Widespread Panic
• Tool
• Incubus
• Ben Harper
• G. Love & Special Sauce
• Ani DiFranco
• The Black Keys
• Paolo Nutini
• Gomez
• Greyboy Allstars
• Railroad Earth
• India.Arie
• Lyrics Born
• Rocco DeLuca & The Burden
• Erin McCarley
• The Band Of Heathens
• Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam
• Set Forth

Sunday, July 19th

• Widespread Panic
• The Fray
• Gov’t Mule
• 3OH!3
• Buddy Guy
• John Butler
• Gogol Bordello
• Galactic
• Guster
• The Wailers
• Matisyahu
• Robert Randolph & The Family Band
• Mat Kearney
• Dead Confederate
• Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons
• Paper Bird
• honeyhoney
• Joe Pug
• Electric Touch

There will be more artists announced as the event draws closer. As and added bonus, I’m glad to see that they’ve added some additional transportation options, though I’m hoping someone puts together a party bus again.