Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison Colorado. 5.6.16

So…way back in the 80s when I saw parts of U2s “Live at Red Rocks” video tape I remember thinking “wow, that looks SOOO cool! I would love to go there one day!”. Fast forward to 2012 and my sister and I spent a week in the Denver area for vacation. One of the places we went was Red Rocks. It’s not just a concert venue but a park with trails, visitor center, music themed museum etc so we didn’t have to be going JUST for a show. When we got there and eventually made our way to the actual Amphitheatre, I again was reminded how cool it looked but THIS time I could see it for myself! 😯 I put “seeing a show at Red Rocks” on my Bucket List! 😀 However, with so many tours to do of my top 3 fav bands, I never got around to having the extra time and money to go there…until now since fav band was PLAYING there! 😉 I had the added bonus that Tammy, a good, long time friend of mine, had moved down to Denver with her parents a couple years ago and not only did she say yes when I asked if she wanted to go to the show with me but she also invited me to stay with her so, yay, hanging out time AND a gig! 😀

So the flight in was a bit bumpy and the line for a rental car was ridiculously slow and long (though as soon as I walked through the door of the rental center I immediately remembered it was like this for my sis and I and a lady in front of me confirmed “It’s like this no matter WHAT company you rent from! It’s just Denver”. Greeeeaaaat….! 🙁 ) It was also National Donut Day (yes, us Americans can make up funny holidays very easily LOL 😆 ) and I’m a HUGE donut fan so I had a place to stop at on the way to Tammy’s but by the time I battled highway road work and rush hour traffic, it was much later than I had expected when I arrived. Ah well…we had no set plans and as it turned out, we went to dinner with her parents. I’m their “second daughter” and they I can say are like second parents so it was SO nice to see them! 😀 😀

Saturday saw more fun hanging of breakfast with Tammy and a friend of hers, then she and I hit the zoo, then dinner at her parents with her nephew (they taught me how to play pinnacle and Tammy and I won the third game! 😀 ) so before I knew it, it was Sunday. To say I was excited for the show would be an understatement! The website was a bit confusing as to when we could actually arrive and park and also if the trails and such would be open but I had managed to get to a live person on the phone Saturday and found out the trails stay open the whole time, just the visitor center, museum and amphitheatre close. So, after a little visit with Tammy’s brother and girlfriend (who both told us not only a neat place to go check out in the museum where we could sit in nice, plush reclined seats and listen to the music but also that we should be prepared for major marijuana smoking….YUCK! 😕 ) we headed off. Traffic wasn’t too bad and we arrived about 3:45 (doors at 5:30). There was a trail that went around part of the park with some of the major rock formations so we headed off on there but not before we saw the start of major tailgating. I had been told a couple months ago when I was in Prague and met a couple from Denver that “Red Rocks has some AWESOME tailgating.” Tammy and I aren’t wild party animals LOL and we also are pretty simple so our “tailgating” was going to consist of a cooler with sandwiches and waters LOL. 😉

Since I’d been to the park before, I told Tammy we could go as far as she wanted to go so we went about 1/3 way down the trail and then turned back (it was uphill going back so harder when you are tired). By the time we arrived back to the parking lot, I saw a number of people lining up so I asked and found out that apparently certain further back rows are “general admission” tickets and are in a “first come/first served” basis but are “about half the price!” so…more on that later. We had assigned seats but I purposely tried to not get us too close. Though I would normally want to be up close, in THIS case, I wanted to see RED ROCKS…I wanted to EXPERIENCE it! 😉 So that meant being back a bit so we could see some of the rock formations better and also the city come to life in the distance. Because of this, we didn’t have to line up and could just go in whenever once the doors opened so we sat and had our little picnic dinner before we headed in.

Well, the uphill return on the trail wasn’t the only hill we had to climb, we had to go up a very steep paved hill to get to where the amphitheatre area even started. I heard a guy jokingly say “I’m going to die before I even get UP there” 😆 . I found it lovely and had to keep turning around to take pictures LOL. 😉 Beauty like this place never gets old! 😀 Once up, we had to go through the usual security and ticket checks and then we were pointed to the area which would be closest to our row 22. It wasn’t too bad really and though I had thought we were going to be more on Mr. C.s side, it turned out we were right in the middle! 😯 Couldn’t ask for more than THAT! 😀 But we got more than that…a gorgeous night weather wise too! OMG, it was just perfect! Light breeze, not too hot by this time and not humid and though we worried it’d get cold at night and we’d need jackets, that didn’t happen either! Seriously, it was just awesome! 😀 😀

So Howard Jones was slotted to come on first at 6:30pm and though he only got about 35 minutes, he did really well. When Tammy and I were returning on the trail, we caught the very tail end of OMD sound checking Enola Gay and then as we sat and rested in the shade, we heard HoJo sound checking Like to Get to Know You Well (funny, in the line of people for the GA seats, a woman had a shirt that said that so I asked if she was there to see HIM vs. BNL and she and her friend said yes and that they weren’t sure if they’d stick around for the full show. The couple that came mid OMD also were there for OMD and not so much BNL so…I found it a very strange combo for a tour and I think it probably DID pull some people, like me, who really could care less about BNL and were coming for openers!) and it turned out he opened with it. Tammy and I were up immediately as were a few people to our left but it wasn’t until maybe song 3 or 4 that more people joined us. Luckily, no one in the 2 rows directly behind us had arrived yet (though that wouldn’t have stopped us from standing, I would have just had to turn and apologize LOL 😉 ).

Anyways, HoJo proceeded to play basically all hits (as expected with him being an opener). Tammy only recognized one…Things Can Only Get Better (a song she and I kept singing the 24 hours prior to the gig between her singing OMD’s If You Leave LOL 😉 )….but liked them all. For anyone who hasn’t seen HoJo lately, he has, er, danced up some of his songs. They turn a bit more techno at times and it’s fun! He also got the crowd going a lot. By the time he was nearing the finish, I’d say easy 2/3 of the crowd was up and dancing. He even had us howling like wolves (asked if there were any in the area) for Life in One Day 😆 . His color scheme was a lot of white too which didn’t just include his clothing but a good portion of the instruments LOL. I had fun watching the one guy play what looked like boxed lights. Not sure what it was but it was really interesting! 🙂

Once he was done, I told Tammy we needed to make a beeline to the bathrooms so we’d not miss OMD so we rushed on down and got in the ALWAYS long line for womans toilets. I was antsy as it wasn’t moving at first but we made it back to our seats with a few minutes to spare! There had been no intro for HoJo and it was the same for OMD. Mr. C. and Stuart just walked out so I jumped up and started cheering and clapping, as did Tammy (I taught her the moves for HoM and SMS and she considered bouncing but she ended up dancing instead and they only did HoM, not SMS). Shortly after, out walked Mr. M. and Mr. H. I had seen pics and vids from RAH and noticed Mr. M. wasn’t wearing his usual black pants and white shirt but figured that was just for RAH…nope, all 4 guys were in all black (well actually Mr. C.s shirt looked grey but close enough LOL). I had figured they’d open with either Enola Gay or Messages as that often seems to be the case when it’s a festival/opener/Mr. M. and Mr. H. gig and as it turned out…EG…but not before Mr. M. said “with just 45 minutes we’re going to be playing all hits if that’s OK with you”. Cheers from the crowd so…I’m assuming that was an affirmative. 😉 Once done, he continued with “so there’s a theme to the first part of this show. Don’t be afraid of men in their 50s playing synthesizers. We are going to kick your butts!” and then launched into Tesla Girls, with me bouncing excitedly but I also saw another woman maybe 8 rows ahead doing the same. 😀

When it was over, Mr. M. announced that it had been 30 years since they had played there and “don’t act like you were here back then! Don’t even…” but he said he believed they played this next one and Mr. H. sang Secret. I laughed as I had told Tammy and her nephew the night before how at pretty much EVERY gig on the first 2011 NA tour, people kept shouting for that song and they weren’t able to do it as it wasn’t programmed. I always felt so bad for them as it’d get yelled out over and over but it also surprised me as I didn’t think it was THAT big here…but that tour showed me I was wrong LOL. It was nice to hear Mr. H. singing so early in the show and though I was further back, it looked like he was having a fun time of it. 😀 Mr. M. did his usual yawn followed by get up motions to some of the crowd and slowly more and more people were getting up. But once he put the bass down and announced it was time for his “bad dancing” (which Tammy thought was very good dancing as so many of us do), a lot of people got up and I wasn’t the only one bouncing to HoM (which ended up being the only NON 80s song they did…but I was so glad to hear it! 🙂 ). When it was done, Mr. M. said we looked great (we got that a few times actually 😉 ).

Since Tammy had been so stuck on IYL all weekend, when Mr. M. announced that they had one Hollywood moment and he was sure we’d all know it, I turned to her and asked her if she wanted me to record this for her. She said yes so though I’m sure it’s the song that will have the most YT uploads over the next 7 weeks LOL, I got it on film. And I actually heard some singing along…as I’d expect (though you don’t hear singing along as well in a big, open, outdoor venue like this vs. a small, indoor one so it’s a good sign when you DO.) Mr. C. did well (as usual) on the sax and LOL, later, the woman by Tammy made a comment about ‘just sitting there’ and pointed to Mr. C. so I said “he has a bad back” but then I realized she was talking about his sax. I was like “he just played it!” and she was like “OMG, I missed it 🙁 ) Mr. H. got to sing another song of Forever Live and Die shortly after as Mr. M. warned he would be having to play the keyboards and asked Mr. H. for good luck. He looked so smiley even from row 22 LOL, as that’s just his way! 😀

I knew they were going to do MoO due to seeing a friends post about it and Mr. M. introduced it by asking who knew how to dance in 3-4 time and some fans shouted back they did LOL. His dancing was slightly toned down but still brilliant and afterwards he joked about how we were “lucky you’re a high altitude because Liverpool is at sea level. You would have seen me dancing even worse. I know it’s hard to believe but trust me!” Awww. 🙂 He then asked if we enjoyed our little rest and when some shouted back yes, he was like “well, it’s over. We have 4 more songs and we’re still going to kick your butts.” Well OK then, let’s just get So In Love going then shall we? 😆 😉 As we all know, Mr. M. is big on getting in touch with the fans so during this song, he ducked under the bar that kind of blocked/kept him on the stage and went out to the front row. The camera person immediately latched onto him and we could see him going to a little girl in a wheelchair and her family and shaking all their hands. Then he continued down the row and finished in front of a girl he had been able to reach way out to earlier to shake hands. This time she was dancing all over the place, at times trying to be a bit sexy sexy and Mr. M. sang the “you would do just anything….” lines to her before shaking her hand and blowing her a kiss. Eventually he ended up back on stage but I’m sure the front row was quite happy and the camera guy got some good shots LOL. 😉 (oh, and we also tapped the lady by Tammy to point out Mr. C. playing the sax as I had told her he’d do it in that song but then she was I think talking to her husband when he started so we didn’t want her to miss it. She was like “Ooo, there he goes, yes!” and started pointing it out to her husband LOL. Yay Mr. C.! 😀 )

Since they’d been on for probably 30 minutes now, Mr. M. looked at Stuart and said “are you sweating Stuart? You’re not supposed to sweat, you’re too cool to sweat”. I’m sure he wasn’t alone LOL. 😉 Then we got told that the next song (which ended up being Locomotion) was “the first hit we had in America” and it was great to see many people singing along! Of course it’s also always the “goofing around” song and this time Mr. M. went in front of Mr. H., bent over, and started wiggling his butt. Mr. H. starting waving his hand back and forth in front of his face and…yeah… I’ll let you figure out what I’m trying to describe! 😉

When they were about to wrap things up, Mr. M. told us that “we promised the BNLs that we’d not tire you out too much but we also said we’d make you tired enough to have to go buy a beer after. Earn your beer!” and they finished with Electricity (which, funny enough, Tammy was tired and sat down for the second half of it. I was like “no beer for you then!”…but she still bought one. Ah well, the OMD guys weren’t patrolling that promise so… 😆 ). When they were done, the crowd was really quite receptive (no surprise but still… you always have to wonder and worry a bit when it’s an opener slot) and Mr. H. thanked us saying we were wonderful and they hoped to get back next year so hopefully see some of us again. Waves and such as they all walked off stage (it’s a big stage!) and then I thought “OK, I’m done” 😆 😆

BUT, since we not only paid quite a bit for the tickets but also had never seen a show there, Tammy and I both agreed we should at least stay late enough to see all the lights come on and the rocks get glowy. I had told her once that happened, when she was ready to leave, we could go up a ways to watch from a far (to see the beautiful view) and then just go. Well, after about 3 songs she said we could leave anytime but it wasn’t 100% dark yet so I wanted to stay a bit and she ended up liking more and more of the songs. I am not a fan at all so was totally expecting to be all “ugh! 🙁 ” but tbh, though I’d not RECOMMEND them to anyone, they weren’t horrible as I had thought they’d be LOL. They DID do a cute and funny little rap in the beginning about how HoJo and OMD had played earlier and the singer was funny at times, bringing up how they had tried the trails after “waking up to the crack of 10:30am” but how it starts down hill and they think “This is GREAT, look how beautiful it is here!” until you turn the big corner and see it’s now all UPhill and then it’s “what was I THINKING? I have a show to do tonight!”. 😆 And he also joked about how people were working out and their ‘work out’ was them jumping from one step to another…all the way up from the bottom! He thought that was crazy. I even liked 3 songs I’d never heard before so…at times they were enjoyable, just not really my thing. 😉

I was having fun turning around and looking at the rocks though as, once it got dark, the stage lighting would dance off of them. 😯 😀 There are a lot of colored lights that are used (in addition to BNL having their own video screen that would have various colorful images) and we could see Denver off in the distance to our right with more and more lights popping up as the night continued. It was great! 🙂 BUT, though we were very lucky to not have to deal with this during OMD and HoJo, by the time BNL were about to come on, out came the massive pot smokers and it started getting bad 🙁 I was about to suggest we go up but then HoJo came back out on stage! 😯 He ended up doing “No One Is To Blame” so then of course myself and the guy next to me were like “bring OMD back out!” I didn’t want to go back if they DID come out ( which I was pretty sure they wouldn’t) so stayed a few more songs but then it was a case of “OK, enough, gotta get out of here! Let’s go see the other area” so off we went. We stopped at row 35 because BNL started doing the song Tammy really wanted to hear (one I had told her of and she realized she knew), then went up to maybe row 50ish and stopped. By this point, we could see some of the rocks and such that were behind and above the stage but after part of a song, I suggested we go up to the top (well we stopped about 4 rows short as we saw a nice big open area we could take) and THAT was when I could see the best of the beauty! 😯 😀 😀 SO bummed I’d not known enough to go back immediately after OMD vs. staying where we were and waiting for it to get dark. 🙁 Mind you, our seats were kind of in BETWEEN the two big rocks vs. at the tail end of them when we got way up and THAT was kind of cool. But overall, it would have been better to see from the higher point. Ah well…I know for next time as I totally plan on coming back sometime! And I won’t even bother getting a seat in the first 2 priced areas, just get a GA and find the best spot for the BEAUTY vs. the BAND LOL! 😉 By the time we got to the top, BNL was leaving so, unlike our plan to leave at encore to beat traffic, we ended up staying so we could enjoy the view! And….as it turned out, traffic out wasn’t too bad as many HAD started the trek down at or even a bit before encore so…yay! 🙂

So…highlight of the night. Well, sorry OMD but it’s not related to anything about the show…it’s the venue and just the experience of being there. It TRULY is a remarkable place to see a show! AND, it was a bucket list item that I can cross off the list. AND, we couldn’t have asked for a better night weather wise. AND, it is just so lovely that it’s as enjoyable as watching pretty much ANY band (hence me buying a GA ticket next time as I know none of my top 3 fav bands will play there so no one else would be important enough to see closer up….mother nature and beauty win out LOL 😉 I wish I could have got a good pic of what I was seeing once we got far up but it was too dark for my camera to pick it all up. 🙁 But trust me, it was amazing!). It was just really a magical and special night! 😀 😀 Driving back Tammy was like “that was the BEST gig we’ve ever seen together!” I laughed and said “I think we’ve only seen one other one way back in the day.” so then she said “well it was the best show I’ve EVER seen!” She enjoyed them all but also, like me, thought the place itself was wonderful. So….the evening will stick my mind for a LONG time and seeing those rocks by us dance with the stage lights…just lovely! 😀 😀 😀