Keller Williams - 4/8/06 Fillmore Auditorium

This is the review I wrote over on my blog. I was going to edit the ending, but I will just let it be.

Last Saturday Da-Pickl and I went to the Keller Williams show at the Fillmore. Actually, while Keller is cool, the real reason for going was to see Grateful Grass (Jeff Austin from Yonder Mountain String Band, Keith Moseley from String Cheese Incident, and Keller Williams) play bluegrass versions of Dead songs. Here is the setlist:
One More Saturday Night
Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodeloo
Eyes Of The World >
Resume Man (SCI)
Candyman
Loose Lucy
Black Peter
St. Stephen
Casey Jones
Brown Eyed Women
New Horizons (YMSB)
Bird Song
Crater In The Backyard (KW)
Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain
The set was on fire. These guys should tour.

A bonus I wasn't expecting was Jerry Joseph & Dave Schools. They opened the show. Here is that setlist:
Suppers Ready, Jacobs Ladder, White Dirt, Henry* > Lick The Tears*, North*

* w/ Keller Williams (percussion)
With just the guitar and bass, you could really hear Schools' riffs. And Jerry Joseph sounded great. His voice reminds me of Jake Schroeder's from Opie Gone Bad.

I only saw a few songs from Keller's set. Da_Pickl had gone outside to puke his guts out, and I stuck it out for about three or four songs. And really, when you hear Mr. one-man-band play a few songs, you have heard them all.

I don't know who is in charge of the Fillmore now (OK, I do know - it's Clear Channel - I meant the manager making all the decisions) but he or she or whoever is ruining the place. For my thousand of readers who have never been to the Fillmore in Denver, I will describe the place.

The Denver Fillmore is an old roller skating rink from the early 1900's. Clear Channel bought the place in the 90's and converted it into a nice concert hall based on the Fillmore in San Francisco (including the purple chandelliers and the apples by the door.) The Denver Fillmore is a much bigger venue, though. The large wood floor down the steps from the entrance. On the right side, as you face the stage, is a large area where all the pictures of bands that have played the Fillmore are displayed. This is also the main area where you could sit down. They had chairs and tables about three deep all along the right side. On the narrower left side there bar stool like chairs along the railing. To get a seat, you had to get to the venue early.

This has now changed since Roger was last there a couple of months ago. Now there are now tables or chairs. The only seating available is now in the newly built VIP section or in the balcony in the far back of the room. I asked one of the staff dudes standing by the entrance to the VIP section why there were no tables and chairs. He said that they sold them all. "They want to make it more like the Fillmore in San Diego." Yes, he said San Diego.

Of course this pisses me off. That was one of the beauties of the place - it was much bigger than the one in San Francisco. That was why they could put the tables and chairs on the side for us old folks who have bad backs. Now the only recourse is to sit WAY in the back on the steps of the balcony, or suck some cock and get VIP seats. Bastards!

(There are other changes I don't like, but I won't go into them here. For an idea what it used to be like, check here.

We also got to see our buddy Jerry and his wife Jen. Da_Pickl had gone out for a smoke, and it suddenly occurred to me that they might be at the show. I gave Jerry a call, and after trying to tell him where I was, he mentioned to me he was in VIP. I turned my head, looked up, and there he was, right above me. They wandered down and shot the shit with us during setbreak. I got a nice hug from Jen (she is such a cutie - how the hell did JERRY get her?)

(If you are a reader who retains information, you may be wondering why I mentioned Jerry and Jen sitting in VIP when I had just mentioned the seats in relation to sucking cock. I am in no way implying that Jerry or Jen had to suck cock to sit up there. Jerry is in the ticket biz, and he knows a lot of people. The guy who invited him to sit there is probably the one who sucked the cock.)

Comments

Daddy said…
"And really, when you hear Mr. one-man-band play a few songs, you have heard them all."

Bah.

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