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Posted and updated by: Chuck Miller August 13, 2017

I had tickets to see moe and Twiddle at the Boulder Theatre and Red Rocks for this weekend, but Rob Derhak, bassist and singer for moe, had surgery last week, and they had to cancel the shows. I'm so glad New West Fest was this weekend because it gave me the opportunity to record Cracker instead. The last show I recorded and wrote about here was in February, so I was getting anxious to record something.

I arrived at the Library Park Stage, which was between Oak Street and Olive Street along Peterson Street, early enough to put down a blanket next to the soundboard. I watched most of TIERRO with Bridget Law's set. They were very good and so were the short performances by The Two Tracks and Esme Patterson and her band. The sound was loud and clear for all the bands.

Cracker's 70-minute-long set was the last performance on the Library Park Stage for the night. It was among the best sets I've seen that band play. I wish the set had been longer. The songs they played included "One Fine Day," "Eurotrash Girl," "This Is Cracker Soul," "Get Off This," "I See the Light," and of course "Low." The good-sized, enthusiastic audience loved it. As a bonus, Jeremy Lawton from Big Head Todd and the Monsters sat in on keyboards and vocals for the whole set. This incarnation of Cracker has a spark I haven't heard from Cracker in a few years.

After the show when we got back to our AirBnB room, I noticed there were paintings and vases with poppies all over our room. The lyric "A million poppies gonna make me sleep..." from Cracker's hit song "Low" came to mind.

I recorded the Cracker set and took pictures of all the bands that played on the Library Park Stage on Friday. The recording and photos can be accessed by following the links below. Give the Cracker recording a listen. The front of the house sound engineer, Ryan, provided me with a very good stereo matrix mix, which I combined with a pair of AKG C-483 condenser microphones in the audience to capture the audience perspective. It's a good recording of Cracker playing on all cylinders.

  Cracker ~ 2017-08-11 Library Park Stage at New West Fest, Fort Collins CO

  Cracker - 2017-08-11

  Esme Patterson - 2017-08-11

  The Two Tracks - 2017-08-11

  TIERRO with Bridget Law - 2017-08-11

Posted and updated by: Chuck Miller May 21, 2017

Colorado Springs native singer/songwriter Audrey Bussanich released her debut CD Southern Side, at Stargazer's Theatre in Colorado Springs on Friday  May 19. It was a free show presented as the first of the venue's Summer Fun Free Concert Series of 2017. As a bonus, the Wendy Woo Band closed the show. 

Bussanich and her band started playing a little after 7 PM and played a very enjoyable hour and ten minute long set which included a good mix of originals and cover songs. She's a talented singer and multi-instrumentalist. The large home town audience was very enthusiastic about her performance.

The Wendy Woo Band took the stage around 8:40 PM and delivered an energetic hour and forty-five minute long set that leaning heavily on songs from the band's latest CD, Tipping Point. I've seen The Wendy Woo Band play many times and I always enjoy their shows. This was a good, lively Wendy Woo Band performance. Woo can accurately read the crowd and play what they want to hear. They were called back for an encore at the end of the set and played "Hey Bartender" from Tipping Point and a satisfying cover of Bill Wither's "Use Me."

I felt quite happy as I packed up and left the venue around 10:35 PM. I'm happy to say, the Colorado Springs music scene is getting better all the time.

I have photos of both sets available by following the links below.

  Wendy Woo Band - 2017-05-19

  Audrey Bussanich (with her band) - 2017-05-19

Posted and updated by: Chuck Miller March 18, 2017

The last time Elton John played at the World Arena which is only about three miles from my house I assumed the tickets prices were too high and I didn't even look for a ticket. Well, this time around I looked into it and I bought the cheapest ticket available for about $50 on the day they went on sale. I'm so happy I did. It ended up being a bargain.

Sir Elton John took the stage with his band a little after 8 PM and they finished the last encore song, "Crocodile Rock" a little after 10:30 PM. The sold out audience of Elton John fans got two and a half hours of his greatest hits delivered in one long satisfying set. After entering the 8,099 seat venue I was very happy to find my dead center seat behind the stage. I could see everything on stage and also had a great view of the enthusiastic sea of people in front of the stage. It sounded great there too. John and the band consistently acknowledged us cheap seat fans when they turned around to play to us and they bowed and waved to us between many of the songs. So, for me the whole experience was great!

I don't get out to see multi-Grammy Award winning, worldwide music superstars very often. I'm generally happy seeing regional and national jam bands at theaters and some better known groups at places like Red Rocks lately. So, it had been a while since I attended a concert of this magnitude. The experience at this show woke me up. After seeing something like this so close to my home I can't image better value for my money.

The set list was insane. They played all the hits, "Funeral For a Friend"/ "Love Lies Bleeding" and "Bennie and the Jets" from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road were the first three songs. "Daniel", "Someone Saved My Life Tonight", "Rocket Man", "Tiny Dancer", "Levon", "Your Song", "The Bitch Is Back", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" to name a few followed. All played to perfection by John and one of the best backing bands in the music business. It was so good. A few of my co-workers and friends also attended and they all had the same reaction. We were all blown away. "What an awesome entertainer Elton John is!" e-mailed one of my friends after the show. I agree and I'll be back to see him and his band next time if Colorado Springs is lucky enough to host Captain Fantastic again.

The security crew allowed me in with my camera and I took some photos which can be viewed by following the link below.

  Elton John & His Band - 2017-03-16

Posted and updated by: Chuck Miller February 11, 2017

Wendy's husband, Charles Snyder invited me up to Palmer Lake to record Wendy Woo playing a solo show at the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts on Friday February 10. I hadn't seen Wendy play a solo show, so I was excited to have the opportunity.

The way the audience was seated made it impossible for me to put a microphone stand in the audience, so I set up a pair of mics on stage and recorded the soundboard feed.  

After a lengthy introduction, Wendy started her first set at 7:10 PM with "Angels Laughing" from her 2004 Walking the Skyline album. The venue was close to capacity, the sound was loud and clear and Wendy played a great focused set of songs that spanned her entire career as a songwriter. The set also included some great covers, including The Beatles "Blackbird" Bill Withers "Use Me" and a cover of Sublime's "What I Got" for the last song of the night.

It was a bit of a challenge to give the recording the ambience I usually get with the microphones in the audience, but I recorded both sets and took some photos which can be found by following the links below.

  Wendy Woo (solo) ~ 2017-02-10 The Tri-Lakes Center For the Arts, Palmer Lake, CO

  Wendy Woo (solo) - 2017-02-10

Posted and updated by: Chuck Miller January 24, 2017

It was great to see two of Colorado's bests rock bands play at The Oriental Theater on Saturday, January 21. This was the first show I recorded in 2017 and it was a good one.

The Wendy Woo Band took the stage at a little after 9 PM. They opened the hour long set with the title song from their most recent album, Tipping Point. The sound was crisp and clean. The band played like it it was their last gig on earth. It was by far, the best Wendy Woo Band show I've seen and I've seen a lot of them. They had the packed and festive crowd engaged for every song.

"Gonna Wear Red (Before It Gets Better)" was great. "Down and Dirty" followed by "Honey Bee" sung by Jimmy Lange were also highlights.

The Samples started their set a little after 10:20 PM. The opening notes of the first song "Nature" were blissful. Sean Kelley's voice was strong and made me think of the first time I saw the Samples at Manhattan's in Colorado Springs in 1997.

I love Sean Kelly and The Samples and have seen them many times, but I still miss the original line-up and the new members don't play the same parts I'm accustom to hearing. But, It was still a great show! The song selections covered most of the band's best old and new repertoire and the audience stayed up close on the dance floor and cheered after every song. Sean played a couple of songs solo on acoustic guitar late in the set which got people chatting. People in the audience near me were loud enough that I found it hard to hear those acoustic songs. But, overall it was a great night of music at the Oriental Theater on a typically cool January night in Denver. "Fukushima" and "Weight Of the World" were highlights for me. They came back for a nice encore of "When It's Raining" which was great to hear.

I'd like to thank venue co-owner and The Samples bass player Andy Bercaw plus Oriental Theater's production manager Garrett Carlin and both bands for granting me the access to record the show. You can easily hear how great it sounded there when listen to the recording.

I'm quite pleased with the way the recordings came out. The recordings and photos are available by following the links below.

  The Samples ~ 2017-01-21 Oriental Theater, Morrison, CO

  Wendy Woo Band ~ 2017-01-21 Oriental Theater, Morrison, CO

  The Samples - 2017-01-21

  Wendy Woo Band - 2017-01-21

Posted and updated by: Chuck Miller January 2, 2017

I spent New Year's Eve 2016 at home watching a live web cast of Joe Russo's Almost Dead performing at the Capital Theatre in Port Chester, NY. Joe Russo who was the drummer for the Grateful Dead spin-off Furthur has put together a great band that covers Grateful Dead inspired music.

The last couple of years I got out to record the Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven shows at the Soiled Dove in Denver, but this year I decided to stay home. The web cast on Saturday night was very enjoyable, though didn't match the excitement of being at a live concert.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I am hoping to see, hear and record more live music in 2017. I have tickets to see The Samples and Wendy Woo Band at the Oriental Theatre in Denver this month. That should be a great show. As usual, I'll blog about that show and any others I'm lucky enough to see this year. Stay tuned.