Napping in Public 3
Concert nap
If you asked me to describe last week in Denver, I’d quote myself, quoting Worm from Rounders: “Wow. A lot of action.” So much action, in fact, that it’s taken the better part of a week for me to cover it all, not unlike and his excellent series on his recent trip to Israel. Well, nothing lasts forever, and we both know hearts can change, so I’m going to wrap my series today and will look forward to introducing a new segment (and re-introducing a member of the extended TND fam) tomorrow. Until then, here we go…!
After Grizz, Clown, and I made plans for a Colorado trip to see KGLW, Trey Anastasio, Phish guitarist and another of our favorite musicians, announced three shows at the Mission Ballroom, in Denver, in a trio format with Jon “Henrietta” Fishman,1 Phish’s drummer, and Dezron Douglas, Trey Anastasio Band (TAB) bassist.2 We decided to extend the fun to see them.3
The show was great!4 Unfortunately, the room was extremely hot, and I hit a wall after days of dancing and sweating at altitude.5 Before the end of the first set, I needed a break and did what I had to: I left the floor and found a stool where I could sit and cool down a bit.67 Before I knew it, I found myself nodding off…
This was the closest I’ve ever been to a Dalí, and I found that in a lot of ways, it was almost like meditation: I found myself cycling through indeterminately long periods of “getting distracted” (i.e., nodding off), followed by NITBTTB (i.e., waking up). I think I’m going to have to unpack this in a future post, but suffice to say, it was just what I needed and kept me going until we left the show towards the end,8 when the few days of intensity also caught up with the fellas.
That’s all I have to say about that. All in all, this was an amazing few days for friendship, music, altitude, good times, and napping. Next year in Denver!
Our own Henrietta’s namesake, by way of Grizz!
Best as I can tell, Trey hasn’t toured in a trio (outside of Oysterhead, a side project with bassist Les Claypool and drummer Stewart Copeland, formerly of the Police) since he first formed TAB in the early Aughts. While Trey and Fish have unbelievable chemistry after ~40 years of playing together, they haven’t toured in a trio before, to my knowledge. And Dezron Douglas is amazing, full stop. Tony Markelis, Vermont bass legend and a founding member of TAB, passed away in 2021 and left big shoes to fill: if you ask me, Dezron Douglas has done so admirably.
Yet another reminder that I have a super cool wife. With that, I didn’t think it would be reasonable to even ask to extend for an additional two days so I could go to all three shows…love you, boo.
I don’t have enough words to say any more about the show — fortunately, Ryan Storm wrote a fantastic review for Jambase.
We also spent the earlier part of the day in Clown’s hot tub drinking excellent scotch — that didn’t help either, even after squeezing in a 45.
No joke, I considered asking venue security to take me to the ADA section, as I legitimately thought I might pass out.
I suppose I could have attempted to fall asleep standing, but unlike a horse, I’m not sure that’s something I could swing. With that, Clown, like a horse, has done so before, and I’m hopeful he’ll grace us with 250 words on the topic some time soon…