phrog blog

OK, I know it’s been a Looooooooooong time. I suck at updating my blog when I have a lot to complain about, I start to sound like I’m bitching. So I’m here to give up the condensed rant of the month..

• I had a birthday, Wanted to play outside.. but I got snow.
• A dumbass client pissed me off good.
• Knock got arrested driving for no good reason (muddy tail lights). Car was impounded. City police blow donkey balls.
• I spent some time with etree.org. etree had a brief meltdown, one of it’s major contributers lost his marbles.
• Burnt purchased a used truck without my looking it over. Then the wheel feel off and I rescued him. The rear end had to be replaced.

I could go on but I’d rather take the time to list a few positive things..

• I got Seymours truck running again, and he gave it to me!
• Mothers Day was very nice and I made (my mothers) BBQ ribs!
• steamboathills.com opened and I have played a few rounds.
• Graham & Dora made a new baby! Welcome Owen - sucks to be a newbie.. grow fast! ;P
• Sold some old tin from the yard and got $500 - w00t!
• Got invited to a really nice private music tracker, going flac on all my music

If you want more details… comment.

If you happen to have read the post I made after the Wailers concert you will remember the “NO BEER” issue with somebody putting the incorrect date on an application or something. Well it turns out Nancy Kramer went to the Steamboat Springs city council asking for a donation and, THEY GAVE HER 10 GRAND! The article in the pilot quoted Nancy.

“We have taken action,” Kramer said. “We won’t be making that mistake again.”

Alright, Well that’s good to know. I mean someone fucked up on the beer. Somebody must pay. So who gives away money? hmm, taxpayers! The paper mentions Loui at least said something.

“After all, it really wasn’t our fault,” Councilman Loui Antonucci said.

Why did this happen? If the Free “Summer Concert Series” officials “won’t be making that mistake again” is that not saying they are the ones that screwed up? So I ask, “Who screwed up on the beer? Who gets the money?” I hope it is not one in the same.

It’s frustrating to me that we were deprived beer and then had to pay for it anyway. Hell even the non-drinkers that pay taxes flipped cash over on this one.

The free concert series is here! Last night it got kicked off to a great start with The Wailers jamming all your favorite old school Bob Marley and the Wailers music. The stage was set up nice and the sound system was super tight. I love it when It’s loudy and last night it was. From an audio nerd standpoint the show was fucking awesome. I taped it about twenty feet from the stage in a sea of lambsbread, sandy bare feet and an occasional body surfer. Honestly there was body surfing.. crazy. The fiah was everywhere and the crowd was mostly cool but lacked um.. something. Oh Yeah! I remember now (short term loss) someone fucked up and forgot to file some something so there was NO BEER! I know.. you just can’t believe it, however it is true.

“The permit was approved,” said Dan Hartman, acting director of the Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division. “It was just that the applicant put the wrong date on the application.”

I hope somebody got shit canned for that one. WHO SCREWED UP ON THE BEER? We deserve to know. I know one thing for sure.. If you are throwing the party make sure you have beer. If there is no beer and the Wailers are playing for free in Colorado be prepared for the medical cutchie to get passed around a bit. Thats what happened.

Super phat props to everyone who hung out with me that day. Lock for the electricity, Ken for the PBR’s, Rhys for sneaking the PBR’s in, Gene and Becca ( <- donno spelling sorry) for the jedi services, and Tery for everything.

Some bumboclots to be mentioned.. The guy who threw the bottle from the first row and it went real fast right at me, the VERY ANNOYING radio announcer that came out halfway through the show and started screaming “DO YOU WANT MORE” like we were stupid enough to believe it was going to end then, Oh and one more.. Whoever that guy was with the video camera running around like he owned the place shoving everyone else around and generally not being mindful. Oh and the guy who fucked up on the beer.

If you would like a copy of the show, you can download it via bittorrent thanks to cotapers.org

If you need some Wailers right now, listen below.

 

 Wailers War Steamboat Free Concert [5:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (226)

 

 Next Time We Will Have Beer [0:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (57)

The tech commission is ready to spend some money. They have lots of it burning holes in pockets, Wait an idea! Let’s buy some really expensive software that will need constant spending to keep updated. Then we can spend all that tax money and everyone will feel great!

This could really happen.
Read this article from the pilot

Well Thanks to Bud Fucking Light we once again have a “Rocks the Boat” concert series. The Pilot newspaper announced “Ski area announces concert lineup” heres an excerpt:

Steamboat Springs — The Bud Light Rocks the Boat Concert Series begins Feb. 17 with a lineup of five nationally known bands.

“This is absolutely the best lineup of bands to take part in the Bud Light free concert series, period,” said Andy Wirth, vice president of sales & marketing for the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation. “This is the seventh season of the Bud Light Rocks the Boat Series and, as evidenced by the talented array of artists, has reached an entirely new level.”

The bands will appear in this order: Joseph Israel and the Jerusalem Band, North Mississippi Allstars, The Freddy Jones Band, Sister Hazel and Big Head Todd and the Monsters. All of the bands will appear on stage in Gondola Square, which each concert beginning at 3 p.m.

While I am looking forward to some live music in Steamboat Springs I can’t help but remember the past “Rocks The Boat” performances and what a disaster some of them were. In the past the stage has been set up facing the Bear River deck from the gondola entrance with the audience entirely blocking the walkway to gondola square from the skiers and riders that are exiting the mountain. A steady flow of cross the audience, skis in your face, stumbling in ski boots traffic during the performance is an incredible annoyance for the concert goers, who are forced to stand in the melting spring slush.

Andy Wirth claims in the article “This is absolutely the best lineup of bands to take part in the Bud Light free concert series, period,” and that the event “has reached an entirely new level”. I would like to know how he has
arrived at such a conclusion. My opinions differ. please share yours by commenting.

When I last blogged SkiJam I mentioned I would “be back to comment on the rest of the evening when time allows me.” Well the car got smashed so I took a few days to deal with insurance and stuff but now I’m back.

I sat down this morning and gave my Zilla tape a listen and cut tracks. Then it hit me, this band is BORING. “JAMATHON” ends the run with a trance band with a drummer and a mac book. The sound was very reminiscent of another drum based trance band that played around Steamboat Springs around 2002 called Earthtone. While everyone in Steamboat seemed to enjoy Earthtone we all knew it was due to the few cute girls they would prance on stage and all the mushrooms the band would hand out before the show. While I was wavering during the Zilla performance I looked around the room at all the underage drinkers, one gave me a shot of his Jager. This was the highlight of the set for me.

As I listened to the recording attempting to cut songs into tracks I noticed a pattern. All the songs sound the same! So I just cut it into chunks like an idiot. No clue of what the songs title was, or when it ended, or the next song started. I was just glad to get through it without needing some uppers.

So here it is, for those of you who were too wasted to remember the performance you enjoyed so much at SkiJam, grab it via torrent thanks to our friends at cotapers.org

If you need instant trance satisfaction check out the podcast.

 

 zilla skijam 2007 [8:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (165)

Three days ago, while the little blue car was parked innocently on the side of the road, some dumb bitch lost control of her car and slid into it.
The car was hauled off to Denver yesterday to get repaired. The dumb-dumb’s insurance company is Progressive and no body shop in Steamboat Springs would even repair it because they don’t like to work with them.

Live music has been a large part of the Steamboat Springs experience for many that come visit. A few years ago you could ski all day, see some live music for FREE at Slopeside Bar and Grill, sit in your hot tub for a bit, head out for dinner somewhere where a musician was in the corner picking on a guitar and then off to Level’z for some serious entertainment till 2:00am.

Unfortunately I believe those days are gone. Since the Strings In The Mountain Tent was moved off the mountain and put into the parking lot it seems that the support for live acts at Slopeside is gone as well. There has not been a performance at Slopeside for at least a year, a tremendous loss for the local music lovers. And Level’z has been dead since the building was damaged during a performance when the floor gave out under the patrons feet and was evacuated before anybody was injured.

Well here in Steamboat Springs we have been fortunate enough to have a concert here for the last few years called “SkiJam“. In the last four years it has created a reason for concertgoers to come to Steamboat Springs and ski. Over the years Skijam has had some great artists perform, including Gov’t Mule, Michael Franti & Spearhead, and Steamboat’s favorite transient Keller Williams.

This year SkiJam has The String Cheese Incident.. almost.
The big ticket for the event consisted of:

Zilla with drummer and founder Michael Travis
Kyle Hollingsworth and his band
Honkytonk Homeslice featuring Bill Nershi

Okay so now we have three bands and they are all cheesy. Printed on the ticket it says “JAMATHON” like this is some kind of marathon of jamband festivals. As I walk in I hand over this ticket and they don’t rip it they just take it, no souvenir ticket stub. The ticket stated doors at 3:30pm and I got there about 4:20 and by that time the band featuring Bill Nershi was on stage playing when I walked in. The place was EMPTY! Seems many of the SkiJammer’s were here to do some SKIING! They chose to miss this opening act so they could get out of the ski pants, boots & helmets they wear while skiing, go figure. I was kinda bored so I went to the bar. I’m a beer drinker and in previous years at SkiJam I have enjoyed overpaying for the favorite beer of Colorado concert goers “Fat Tire Amber Ale“. This year I was denied. The ONLY beer they offered at all was Bud Light. What kind of jam band event has only one beer? Then its only Bud Fucking Light! I just grumbled.

Okay so I’ll try to stop bitching.

By the time Honkytonk Homeslice was wrapping it up quite a few SkiJammers piled in for Kyle Hollingsworth. I set up my taping gear and got a garbage can to block in front of the microphones and two very good wingmen Lock & Keith. The sound check seemed on the fly, it took a while to get them out and jamming but they figured it all out and we were off and rolling. Kyle got the tent jamming and everyone seemed to have a great time during his performance. My recording from this is available via torrent thanks to cotapers.org check out a sample on the podcast below.
I will be back to comment on the rest of the evening when time allows me.

more here.

 

 Kyle Hollingsworth skijam 2007 [10:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (178)