Another thing we did this weekend while Amy was in town was finally check out a Villebillies concert. As the name implies, the band is from Louisville, Kentucy, and being that Amy is from the same place it’s obvious that she introduced me to this group of nine guys. In many ways they remind me of the old Ordinary Peoples, which were an seven member live hip-hop band. Take what O.P. was add a few more vocalists along with an acoustic guitar player, an occasional banjo and/or harmonica, and an even wider range of influences, and you get the Villebillies. In the studio the Villebillies sound very clean and polished, but live they are a raw group of vocalists with a live backing band. It was nice to see a large band of guys having a blast on stage!

I promised a review of The Killers concert at Red Rocks last week, but that is going to be pretty hard for me to do. The reason? The show was canceled after only two songs! The announcement at the show was that the lead singer, Brandon Flowers, had a vocal injury. But later it was reported in the news that he was recovering from bronchitis and tried to do the show anyway. A couple of other shows have been canceled over the past few days as well, but there is a show in Vancouver tonight that appears to be going on as scheduled.

Prior to The Killers “performance” the band Hot Hot Heat performed, along with another opening band, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time. Our friends Phil, Doni, Chris, and Kelly made the trip with us while taking a nice vacation from Kansas City. We had a jammed packed weekend with all of them in town, and for a full recap of the events check out Phil’s blog. I could write my own recap, but I think we would have a lot of repeat content and his is probably more entertaining anyway.

Tonight I will see my first show at Red Rocks, and I’m so excited to finally be doing it! I’ve been inside the famed Amphitheater before but have never seen a show. That is all about to change as we take in the music of The Killers and Hot Hot Heat. My buddy Fighty says that the Killers put on a great show and I’m hoping he is right. To celebrate this huge event, I will be taking tomorrow off of work, so don’t expect anything from me tomorrow. I may try to write up a review of the show, but I’m not guaranteeing it. I will definitely review it, but it may not come tomorrow.

The title for today comes from Kim’s cousin Jenny who was telling us a story of how she thought we were going to watch a hockey game tonight. The game was between The Killers and The Red Rocks! Funny stuff…

My favorite album of the year has to be Grand National by the John Butler Trio. I swear that it even gets better with each listen and I would highly recommend the album to anyone. I cannot wait to see them again next month at Red Rocks with Michael Franti & Spearhead. It is going to be a concert to remember, that’s for sure. Anyway, to suck you all in to JBT here is another song of the moment titled “Good Excuse.”

Kim and I spent Saturday in Boulder, mostly at the Boulder Reservoir for the Kinetics competition. Kinetics is an annual competition that involves teams who have built their own craft to traverse both a water and land obstacle course. In addition to the race, it is also a huge party and concert. The concert is what caused me to buy tickets at first as Robert Randolph and the Family Band were playing this year, along with Los Lonely Boys.

However, the concert took a backseat, at least for me, as the race was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was very entertaining to watch these teams struggle through the course, and it appeared to be much harder than I was initially expecting. And to make it even better, beer and food could be purchased for enjoyment along the course. I took lots of pictures from various points on the course, and put many of them online in this album, although I’m not sure the photos will do the competition justice.

I’m not sure how many people have heard Rodrigo Y Gabriella before, but their song “Tamacun” gets tons of play from a local radio station. Truthfully it’s the only song of theirs that I’ve heard, but dang is it catchy! Their guitar playing is incredible on the song but I never realized how quickly their fingers were moving until I saw this video today. I was speechless after seeing this…

Do you know what is going to be awesome this summer? O.A.R. at Red Rocks, that’s what! The bands summer tour dates were announced a couple of days ago, and Red Rocks is on the calendar for July 14. Talk about great timing on my part. I move to Denver in January and the bands first ever show at Red Rocks is the following July. This is something that I’ve been waiting to happen for a long time. And to make it even better, many of my friends from OARfans.com will be making the trek out for the show. I’m already predicting that this will be one to remember!

We had one of our last days on the slopes this weekend, if not the last. This time we headed back to Beaver Creek for the second time. If you remember from the first time, the conditions were great. This time the conditions were not so great, but we still had a blast. Much of the snow was already gone, especially at the bottom of the mountain. What snow there was on the ground was actually a slushy mix. Definitely not the best conditions, but there were very few people there. As we later realized, I think everyone was at Copper for Sunsation. We stopped off there on our way home to see a free performance from Michael Franti & Spearhead. There were tons of people not only on the slopes but in the general area of the concert. It was an overall fun loving crowd. I think everyone was just out enjoying the beautiful weather.

This was the last weekend of the season for Beaver Creek, as well as our favorite Keystone. Breckenridge and Vail are both open through this weekend, but we won’t make it out before then. Arapahoe Basin does stay open late into the season, but it’s so small that we may only go once or twice, if at all. Despite taking a month off to heal my damaged ankle, the pass was well worth it. Kim was trying to calculate the number of days we used it, and at last count we were easily up over 10. I’ll see if I can put together an official total.

In addition to seeing and hearing Mike Perkins open for O.A.R., we also got the chance to catch his own show on Friday night at the Mad Frog. Things have changed a little at the Mad Frog especially since smoking is not allowed inside anymore. I think I saw the ceiling of the front room for the first time ever. They have also cleaned up the appearance in various places, with newer flooring and lighting. Other things haven’t changed. Many of the staff is still the same, the crappy bathroom is still the same, and the beer is still cheap!

Perkins played with his trio of musicians, himself on guitar and vocals, along with a keyboard and bass player. I think his music really shines with this setup, as it doesn’t drown his incredible vocals and looping guitar playing. I decided not to record the show as it can sometimes be a pain doing so at the Mad Frog. I am regretting the decision now. We got to hear excellent versions of just about all of my favorite songs of his. We even heard the song “Outside” even though it was not showing any signs of spring and was actually snowing outside. Anyway, I’ve added a new song of the moment from Mike Perkins. “No Way No How” is definitely one of my favorite songs of his.

Two nights ago, I headed up to Oxford, Ohio with my old friend Liam. The reason for the hour long drive? O.A.R. was playing BandFusion at the University of Miami. Another friend of mine was the executive director of the show and got us free tickets along with yet another friend of ours, Joe “Vedder” Scalfaro. Also in attendance for the show: Kim, Amy, a couple of Kim’s brothers, one of her cousins, and ton of college students (one of which was dressed up as a beer bottle).

It was my first O.A.R. show since seeing them at the Gorge with DMB at the end of last summer. It was also the first show of their spring tour, although you wouldn’t have noticed it. They sounded just as solid as ever, playing some new songs, a couple of rarer old songs, and just about all of the crowd favorites. One of the new songs played, titled What Is Mine, is my favorite of their new unreleased tracks. Check it out for yourself here. This mp3 clip comes from my recording of the concert, which can be downloaded in it’s entirety here. Enjoy!