Day 8: Denver
Welcome
Yesterday was show day in Denver. We hung out at Underground Music Festival and performed in the evening.
The day started earlier than we would have preferred but we ignored our fatigue and focused our efforts on milking the free hotel breakfast for all it was worth. I assembled myself a plate of sliced melon and pineapple, topped with sweet yoghurt and garnished with a slice of tinned peach.
It was the usual two Ubers to get us to the festival with all our gear and they dropped us off on North Broadway in Central Denver right in front of our open-air stage. The heat of the day had already arrived with a vengeance by the time soundcheck began at 10.30 am. Guitars were going out of tune and gear was overheating from the direct sunlight hitting the stage.
Active cooling for the bass amp.
Our second appointment of the day was an acoustic performance at Goodwill, a huge thrift store located right in the middle of the main festival street. It was a fun and new experience. Tristan was provided with a snare and toy bass drum, and Jon and Liz strummed acoustic guitars which were just audible over the ambient noise from the hundred or so shoppers who continued to browse the racks.
We were at a loose end for the later part of the afternoon but luckily there was plenty to see and do at UMF. In the artist lounge I was offered a short session of PEMF therapy (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field). I lay on a mat so low electromagnetic energy could be sent into my body, passing straight through my skin and into my bones, muscles, tendons, and even organs. The energy also realigned and recharged the electricity in my cells through an open ion channel. The sensation was a light tingling, almost imperceptible. Like when your laptop is charging and isn’t earthed so you can feel a light current when you touch it. But about a 10th of that feeling. I did feel fully healed by the end of my twenty minutes and also very sleepy.
Underground Music Festival features two large street stages but also a string of smaller venues who are putting on music almost constantly. The mood is festive with thousands walking the footpaths and gathering outside the bars and cafes to enjoy thrum of a band or the taste of a beer. UMF runs for three days and hosts hundreds of local bands as well as artists from all corners of the country, and internationals. It was hard to know what to check out but we wandered up and down the strip managing to catch a diverse range of performances, the highlights of which I will share with you now.
The sun was just setting as we walked out for our performance. The street was full of lively punters who somehow were still full of energy even after their afternoon out in the scalding sun. After delivering an hour of medium-fast rock songs we waved goodbye and packed down our equipment, thanking the excellent festival crew who had gone out of their way to make this an easy and fun day for us.
Not one to skimp on the special effects budget, UMS had two bubble blowers at our stage.
Back at the hotel we took a nightcap and watched the Hungarian Grand Prix, a gentle way to wind down after a long day.
