It was the Friday before school started at the University of Colorado, and downtown Boulder was alive with activity.  For months the town had enjoyed the relative tranquility of student-free summer – parking spaces were abundant, tables were available, the Hill wasn’t littered with Key Lite cans and the omni-present red plastic cups that represent frat life at universities nationwide.  Boulder is a different place in the summer, and when school begins again in the fall our little town starts to feel a bit more big city.  But there was still one more weekend before classes sta

Friday August 14th was a night of firsts. I'd never been to Mishawaka, I'd never seen these bands all at the same show, and I'd never really talked to any of them.

I saw my first Phish show at the Hampton Coliseum in 1995 when I was 16 years old.  I had such a great time that I lied to my parents in order to go see them again at Hershey Park a few days later.  At the time, I knew nothing about Phish;  I didn’t know any of its songs, any of its members names, or that the drummer wore a dress and played a vacuum.  I just knew that when I saw that first show at the Spaceship in ‘95 it was filled with so much positive energy, I wanted to continue being a part of it.

The demographics of a show that contains any member of The Grateful Dead is not as easily predicted as you may think. Wednesday night’s show at Innsbrook Pavilion, near Richmond was peppered with the usual suspects, to be sure.

On Friday, July 3rd, The Dead Guise, one of the Bay Area’s best Grateful Dead cover bands played a wonderful two-set concert at The Starry Plough that drew quite the crowd.