Ive learned a couple important things this summer. A festival shouldnt necessarily be judged by its headliners and that anyone can throw a festival anywhere but theres no other place like Red Rocks (The Gorge is close, and wonderful but different)
Monolith Festival takes place at Red Rocks which is just west of Denver. For those that havent been there, its one of the best places to see a show in this country. We werent able to make the inaugural event last year because of scheduling conflicts but the timing was perfect this year, falling the week after Music Fest NorthWest in Portland. Knife and I drove Newt down and were excited because we had never given away ice cream at Red Rocks and both our birthdays (lucky 9/11) coincided with a stop at the Cerebral Palsy School of Colorado for some serious pre-funkin
The trip from Corvallis to Denver was one of the better treks this summer. It was quite long, 1300 miles, but we rewarded ourselves with spending most of our time on smaller roads I hadnt yet traveled. If you ever get a chance to drive from Salt Lake City to Denver on US-40, I highly recommend it. Just be careful going over Berthoud Pass because it tops out at 11,307 feet and inclement weather can occur during any month of the year. Upon arrival in Denver I found out the closest place for us to get cream for Monolith and the ice cream social at the school was Colorado Springs which was 150 mile round trip. So, on the morning of my birthday I woke up at six-something and made the trek to Frosty Treats in Colorado Springs.
Upon our return we picked up Knife, washed the truck and got some more coffee before heading all the way across town for the Tree Planting event put on by Monolith and Esurance. We got there just after the youngest kids had headed into the gym to watch Cloud Cult. The next round of kids, fifth graders I believe, were the next to attend the show and they all stopped off at the truck for Bomb Pops before heading into the show. Knife popped in to check it out then came back and told me I had to as well. It was the best birthday present, seeing all the kids jumping, dancing, and screaming along to the music while enjoying their popsicles. The lead singer got all the kids to jump up and down and sing along to a song and, of course, I had to join along for the fun.
Ok. The festival.. yeah thats what the review is about. Obviously nobody would show up if there werent great bands but Red Rocks was the main draw for us. I had questioned the strength of having Devotchka and Justice as headliners, but there were so many other good bands on the bill (Avett Brothers, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses to a name a few) I figured a lot of folks from the greater Denver area would come to hang out at Red Rocks for the day.
We set up shop near the main load-in area for the main stage next to the press area. Due to the limited amount of parking spaces around the amphitheater, it was a good place to be. The only issue was that here were a bunch of restrooms close by which led to a bit of a stench occasionally. Thanks to Blue Bunny donating 2500 pieces, we had a ton of ice cream on board. Disco Dan, my college roommate and Knifes brother Ted were helping with the cream slinging and since traffic wasnt too heavy around the truck the crew would alternate loading up cream and making runs to the top where there were three stages and a hospitality area where we could sling.
There were a lot of bands I wanted to catch on Saturday but ended up missing out on most of them. Some of the highlights from the bands I did see, or hear, were. Foals tearing up the main stage early in the day, White Denim doing the same on the packed Woxy.com Stage inside the museum area, and some groovy tunes by Rob Drabkin on the tiny MadeLoud.com stage. I was bummed to miss Blitzen Trapper, Port O Brien, The Hood Internet, and The Muslims but Im happy I got to see what I did. The biggest surprise for me was Saturdays headliner, Devotchka. Ive listened to them for a few years and have been wanting to see them prolly that long but Im kinda glad Red Rocks was my first time. I wasnt sure if their sound would be able to fill out the expansive area but it didnt take them long at all to debunk that myth. We brought a few PBRs with us and danced our asses off. Dameon from Jakprints was with us and we partied down running up, down, and around the bleachers with the other few thousand people getting their mamushka on
We were staying in Boulder and on the way from there to Morrison, where Red Rocks is, we passed an alpine slide at Heritage Square near Golden, Colorado (yeswhere the Coors Brewery is). The park didnt open until noon so we decided wed be a li’l bit late on Sunday. Itd been quite a while since I last rode an alpine slide. Disco and I rocked them at Purgatory near Durango, CO a ways back and I remember riding at least one on the Appalachian Trail. Knife had never been on one before and I told him the best part was that you couldnt just go full speed the whole way or youd crash or flip. This is normally the case but when we asked the guy running the slides at the top about braking he said, as long as you were careful and didnt over correct on the turns, you could go full throttle the whole way down. This was a blessing and a curse. I gave the guy in front of me at least 30 seconds before I took off then put the pedal to the medal. It took a couple turns to pick up speed but soon enough I was flying down the slide with no plans on braking. The ski lift was just above us and as I approached the sharp turns Id start screaming with excitement. It was a blast until, near the very end, I caught up to the guy in front of me who was piddling along.
The lineup for Sunday was even better than Saturday. We had a system where the crew would swap out watching the truck so everyone could see the bands they wanted but we hit a snag because everyone wanted to see TV on the Radio that night. We made up a sign that said well be closed for TV on the Radio so we could all see their set. The lineup was stacked that day. I got to see a few of the bands I wanted to; Tilly and the Wall, Avett Brothers, and Akron Family, but missed out on as many; Hockey, The Whigs, and Does it Offend You, Yeah? (the room for the was overpacked before they even started). Red Rocks is a perfect venue for bands like The Avett Brothers, Sharon Jones, and Band of Horses and they all seemed to enjoy playing such a legendary stage.
The talk of the day was TV on the Radio though. Most people were excited to see them but all of the chattering had to do with if they were even going to make it to the show or not. Apparently their tour bus had broken down in Salt Lake City and they werent able to get moving ’til around 11 that morning. There were unconfirmed reports coming in every hour or so as they started making their way east. I think the bus might have broke down again or they realized they couldnt make it in time in the bus so they rented a bunch of cars, threw what gear they could fit in them, then headed straight to Red Rocks. The best part was that, for some reason, a lot of people thought that we had the low-down on the whole situation so we were an impromptu information booth on the status of whether TV on the Radio would actually be playing or not.
They were set to go on at 8:45 and ended up arriving just after 8:30. The crew had setup as much backline as possible so theyd just have to plug in but TVotR is a pretty gear-heavy band and by the time they hit the stage, maybe ten minutes late, they had to trim their set down because of time and the lack of some equipment. That didnt stop them from rocking the house. I wish I could remember what songs they played off the new album. Dear Science is a great album but I cant stand the first single, Dancing Choose and I know they played that. Wolf Like Me and Staring at the Sun were definitely the two biggest cloud pleasers. I think if they woulda been able to make it earlier, with all their gear, their set would have been even better.
Justice was set to headline which I thought was strange for a mostly rock festival but there were a lot of people who were highly anticipating their set. We were gathering our stuff back stage when they started to play and I mentioned it sounded like the sound just went out. Sure enough, there was some glitch and they lost power for a few minutes sucky. We headed towards the stands to check things out and everything was back up and running for the time being. I cant say I really get Justice. I know theyre often compared to Daft Punk but Daft Punk brings a non-stop, guaranteed dance party whenever they play. Justice seems to like to funk with things a bit too much and every time theyd get into the groove, theyd try to mix it up, just to be arty.. or something. Their smash single, “DANCE”, was a convoluted experiment on how to deconstruct a solid song into fragments of vocals, tweaks, and bits of funk. With maybe a half hour left in their set the power went out again and that was it. I was bummed for all the people that had really wanted to see/dance to them. Im still not sure what the deal was but Justice was bummed and they hung around on stage for a bit before realizing there was nothing they could do.
So.. the final outcome of Monolith is. Please do it again. I think if a couple bigger named headliners can be secured, kinda like Flaming Lips the year prior, youll be able to fill up most of the seats and solidify the fest as a staple on the circuit. Like its larger sister festival, Sasquatch at the Gorge, Youve got something no other festival has, a legendary and unique venue with exceptional sound.
Thanks to Blue Bunny for donating all the ice cream. Josh Baker for getting us dialed in; Dameon and Jakprints for helping us make ends meet; Hemp I Scream for some of the samples of their yummy sandwiches; Madison House; The Rockwells; Sung and Knife for shooting; Disco; and Lafarge for keeping Heritage Square and the Alpine Slide open. Lastly, sorry to Chris Anton who ended up with Ice Cream Man stickers all over his gear and van.
