Day 14: Denver, CO

Nau mai

Yesterday we began our co-headline tour with Chicago band Beach Bunny.

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Denver lured us in with beautiful weather in the morning. I couldn’t see the Rockies silhouetted against the cornflower blue sky but the downtown skyscrapers silhouetted against the cornflower blue sky were an excellent stand in.

I took my breakfast at a restaurant called Superfruit Republic, ordering the steel cut oats with strawberries, blueberries, banana, macadamias, and honey. They came in a delicious edible bowl which left me very full by the end of the meal.

At 10am I could hear the deep rumble of a diesel engine from out front of the hotel and looked out to see that the bus had arrived to collect us. Liz immediately coined the colour for this vehicle as jewel-tone fuchsia. I can’t remember the bus’s name right now but perhaps if you left a guess in the comments it might jog my memory.

We boarded and explored the new bus. It is a federal transport law that no two buses registered in the lower 48 states can have the same internal layout. This this particular fitout features two toilets and a shower but has only a small kitchen bench and very little food storage. As you can imagine the fuchsia theme continues throughout the interior creating a lively atmosphere in the main cabin.

After a short drive across town we pulled up outside the Denver Botanical Gardens, which was to be our venue for the day. We disembarked and were shocked to discover that there was another bus parked in front of ours that was perhaps an even hotter shade of pink. This must be Beach Bunny’s coach, we thought. Well played Beach Bunny. Liz immediately coined the colour fluro magenta.

We were led by our venue liaison into an old building on the corner of the grounds, a late 1920s mansion detailed in brick and stucco, half overgrown with ivy and surrounded by lush gardens. We passed through the great room with its magnificent wooden beams and hanging tapestries and were shown to our green room which I believe was the mansion’s dining room. Leaded glass windows and wood paneled walls surrounded us and the great dining table was covered with a protective padded nylon cover presumably so we wouldn’t diminish its value with a food or drink spill. In the corner of our room was a harpsichord which Jon set about tuning so we could entertain ourselves.

A truck carrying all our freighted equipment arrived a while later and we were reunited with our amps and drums. The stage was in the centre of the Garden’s amphitheatre, a beautiful grass bowl next to the big glass structure that houses the Tropical Conservatory. Later on we would be completely surrounded by our audience and would be rudely ignoring at least three quarters of the crowd at any one time.

We had just begun soundchecking when the rain arrived. It was a full thunderstorm and even though we had been given a warning by our weather apps the severity of this downpour still came as a surprise. We dragged everything we could into the centre of the stage and the stagehands began deploying tarpaulins and rubbish bags to cover the most crucial pieces of equipment.

Half an hour later and it was easing off. At least the raindrops were no longer finding their way right to the middle of the stage. The big puddles of water were swept away and a pile of towels was produced to dry off the things which hadn’t been rescued in time. Once it was deemed safe the electricity was restored and we were able to have a quick soundcheck before handing over the stage to Beach Bunny. Luckily everything was still functioning and the worst casualties were our tshirts, all of which were soaked.

Liz enjoys the Tropical Conservatory standing in the shade of a magnificent Travelers Palm.

The perk of playing a show at the botanical gardens is of course the opportunity to explore the grounds in the hours of downtime before the show starts. The sun was out again pretending that nothing had happened and there were squirrels and rabbits wandering the paths, occasionally stopping to enjoy a taste of the greenery. Everything smelled amazing after the rain. The mingling scents of plant litter and wood, camphorous and herbal; the aftershave of the earth was carried deliciously on the air.

Beach Bunny played the opening set for this first show of our co-headline tour. Every piece of ground in the amphitheatre was filled with chairs and blankets. This was the most best way to watch live music, reclining on a grass bank, surrounded by beautiful greenery, enjoying the contents of your picnic hamper as the sun slowly sets in the High Plains sky.

It finally got dark as we began to play. The surroundings were no less magical, though. We did our best to play to all four points of the compass and I hope that every part of the bowl got to enjoy a unique perspective, perhaps the side of Jon’s amp or the extremely sought after view of Tristan’s bass drum foot.

When we play a venue that doesn’t have a shower we usually book a hotel room so we can all clean ourselves before bed. Jon was last through the shower and created this artwork on the bathroom floor, a piece that I was extremely charmed by that he calls Towel Mountain.

I’m going to have to award Jon a point for excellence in art. Well done Jon. Here are the rest of the BOTHEW points from today.

Not a dramatic reenactment.