After our long hikes on Saturday we headed into Boulder to catch the Marc Broussard Soul Review show later that night at the Fox Theatre. This is a special tour to coincide with the release of his latest album S.O.S.: Save Our Soul, which is mostly a collection of covers of old soul tunes. Therefore the performance included many more cover songs that one would normally expect from a Broussard performance. And while I’m not the biggest fan of this latest release, I felt that the concert showcased the songs better than I had originally thought.

The show started with a couple of songs from Broussard himself, followed up with a duet with Toby Lightman. Once their performance of “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You” (Marvin Gaye), Broussard left the stage for Lightman to perform her own songs, along with a couple of covers of her own, with Broussard’s band. After her short set, Broussard came back on for another duet, this time they sang “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” (Stevie Wonder), which I felt was the highlight of the show. From there Broussard continued his full set with many various covers and a few originals of his own. If you would like to hear this unique performance in it’s entirety, I have uploaded it to archive.org, where you can stream the whole thing online. Enjoy!

Toward the end of last year, I mentioned that Deer Creek Music Center (Verizon Wireless Music Center) went up for sale and could soon be turned into something else. Well it hasn’t happened yet, and I have finally ironed out my plans to head back to the famed amphitheater for two nights of the Dave Matthews Band. I haven’t been to Deer Creek since 2004, and I couldn’t be more excited to return there. As always we’ll be camping at Sleepy Bear for the weekend and probably sweating like there’s no tomorrow. Gotta love camping in the Midwest in the middle of the summer.

My recording of MER’s performance at Pig-Fest is now online. I’m pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out since I had a few adult beverages prior to setting everything up. I was even fearful that all we would hear at the beginning would be cornhole bags hitting the boards. That distinct sound is still there, but very faint, and disappears after the first couple of songs. One thing that didn’t turn out as well as I would have hoped was the sing along version of Friends In Low Places. Everyone should have turned around and sang to the mics. :)

Anyway, check out the recording, it’s very listenable and enjoyable. Click here to open a popup window to stream the show online. If you want to download the show, use the link at the top of the page. Also be sure to support MER and buy some of his music, especially once the new CD comes out on August 31st. I know I will be ordering my own copy.

Well if you weren’t there let me tell you that you missed yet another awesome Pig-Fest! Fortunately I think a large number of my visitors were there. We had some of the best weather ever, with a high right around 80 degrees and the low temperature somewhere in the 50s. You know the weather was good because of the record number of tents around the yard. Typically people cram inside the house for the night to escape the heat, but this year the majority of folks who stayed over camped out back. It even got too cold for some who ended up moving inside to escape the cold.

My buddy MER came back again this year for some night entertainment and definitely rocked the party! Hopefully he will come back for years to come. I recorded his performance and will work on getting it online today. We should definitely be able to relive the party by tomorrow.

Pictures are starting to appear online. My mom has posted her’s on her flickr page. We’ll also get some pictures up on the official Pig-Fest website. For now links to everyone’s pictures can be found on the front page. Thanks to everyone who made the trip in for the party. I hope that everyone had a great time and hopefully we’ll see you next year.

The O.A.R. show at Red Rocks was just as great as I always imagined it would be, if not better. Our weekend started off with having all my friends who were in town over to our house for some cornhole, pizza, drinks, and good times. From there we headed back downtown and ended up at Sing Sing for a wild time to round out the night. I’ve been wanting to go to this dueling piano bar, and what better time to actually do it than with a dozen of your friends. Our camera didn’t make it out at all that night, so I’ll have to wait for other peoples pictures from those events.

After a brief recovery period on Saturday in the hotel pool and hot tub, we were quickly back at it and headed to a nearby dive bar in downtown called Shelby’s. After a few hours on the patio there it was time to catch our limo to the show. With such a monumental event we had to arrive at the show in style. I was really excited since I think this is the first time I’ve ever been in a limo, as strange as that may seem. I would highly recommend doing this for trips to Red Rocks. Limos get great reserved parking at the top parking lots where very few other people end up, which means much smaller lines to get into the show. Because of this we ended up with a huge spot reserved for our group within the first twenty rows.

The show itself was nothing short of amazing. The setlist may not be the best ever, but it was full of high energy tunes from the start and included enough rare songs to make it special. Obviously hearing Patiently at the show was a highlight for our group as it was the first time most of us have gotten together since our friend Jordan passed away. One of the reviews on oarsa.org (link above) mentions that even Marc may have had some tears during the song. It was definitely an incredible and highly emotional performance and I will never forget it. Overall it was great to finally see a band I’ve watch grow throughout the years achieve yet another milestone in their career. It was such a great event to be a part of.

The day that I’ve been waiting years for is finally so close. Tomorrow O.A.R. will be playing their first show at Red Rocks. Obviously I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Through my high school and college years I always dreamed of seeing a show at Red Rocks, and that finally happened a few months ago. Now one of my favorite bands of all time will be headlining a show at the famed amphitheater. A dozen or so of my friends from OARfans.com will be joining Kim and I for the show and the weekend. Good times will be had. Pictures and stories to follow next week. Have a nice weekend, I know we will…

I finally got back into the concert scene over the weekend. On Friday night we headed down to Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom to see Tea Leaf Green. Prior to this show, I had only seen them at Wakarusa just over a year ago. The band definitely falls into the jam band genre, but from my experience they actually sing a little more than the typical jam band. They definitely still have their solos (some of which were a little long for my tastes on Friday) but their vocal harmonies and melodies are what draws me into this band. Their show on Friday was just an opening spot but we still got to see them play nearly 20 songs during their set. The show was well worth the $15 it cost to get in.

The show on the following day at Red Rocks was one of my favorites in a long time. This show was put on by the etown group and featured a headline performance from Michael Franti & Spearhead, an hour and fifteen minute set from the John Butler Trio, and an opening set from Mavis Staples. I knew very little about Ms. Stamples going into this show, but she actually delivered a nice performance full of classic songs from around the 60s. She also brought Michael Franti out for a nice version of The Band’s song “The Weight.”

The John Butler Trio played next and put on an excellent show as they always seem to do. Their performance further proved to me that this Australian trio are all amazing musicians. I saw them at a small stripped down show in March and it was nice to see them back with the full setup, although it wasn’t much different than before. If you ever get the chance to see them play live in concert, you should definitely go with no hesitation. If you go and don’t like the show, I will personally reimburse your ticket.

And finally, the show closers, Michael Franti & Spearhead. Out of all of the bands, they are the one that I have listened to the longest. I haven’t seen them too many times over the past three and half years, but each time that I do I always ask myself why I don’t go more often. The amount of energy they leave on the stage is pretty hard to beat, and I’m not sure how Franti does it. He jumps around the entire show, dances around the entire stage, and at the end of the show he still has enough energy to do a headstand and then drop down into various gravity defying yoga poses. His energy is infectious, as the crowd was very much into the performance on Saturday night. In one of the coolest moments in the concert, the entire band ends up on top of the soundboard covering and plays a mini acoustic set, playing in the middle of the crowd. This is another band that you just have to see to appreciate. It was another amazing performance.

A guy that I’ve emailed with quite a few times started The Live Music Podcast a couple of weeks ago and I’m loving it! So far there are four different podcasts which each highlight a live recording of various bands and artists. So far the podcasts have showcased music from Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Jack Johnson, and the John Butler Trio. So needless to say, the content is right up my alley. The website also features a list of featured streams and now includes even more suggested downloads. I’m really digging this site and format and hopefully you will too.

I was supposed to go to a concert last night at the Soiled Dove featuring Jon McLaughlin. Everything was going fine before the show started. Kim and I headed toward the show early and had dinner at the restaurant upstairs. There was a pretty good line to get in when we arrived shortly before seven, but that quickly disappeared when the doors opened at seven. The music was scheduled to start at eight, so after we finished our meals we headed downstairs just in time to catch the opener. I give the bouncer my ID and ask how much it costs to get in since there was a sign saying the tickets were cash only. He replied that the show was sold out! Apparently I didn’t learn my lesson from the John Butler Trio show a few months back, otherwise I would have sucked it up and bought tickets ahead of time. In my mind there was no way that a venue with a capacity of a few hundred would fill up for this show, but I totally underestimated the music scene around here. From now on I am no longer going to wait on tickets for the shows that I really want to see.

On a happier note, how about another song of the moment? This one is from, you guessed it, Jon McLaughlin. This song may sound familiar to those of you who already have NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music 2006, as a version of the song “Industry” is on the compilation. However the one from before is from an older release of his, and you can now download  it from his latest CD titled Indiana, which is one of my favorite CDs of this year.

O.A.R.‘s latest release is out in stores today. It is titled Live From Madison Square Garden and was recorded at the famous arena in January of this year. It is their third live release and probably the best sounding yet. As I wrote on oarsa.org, “the set captures the growth of the band and recreates the O.A.R. concert experience like never before.” I would highly recommend picking this up if you haven’t already.

In addition to the double CD set there is also a double DVD that I am even more excited about. I haven’t seen it yet, but tonight I am going to a theatrical premiere for Behind The Backline at a theater here in Denver. They are also showing the film in various other cities across the country. Definitely check this out if you are in one of the featured cities. If not, this feature film is part of the double DVD package along with the full concert, so be sure to get a copy of this as well.