Samana Lounge

Vail, CO July 22, 2008

After our show in Denver, we kicked it a couple days in Boulder before driving up to our show on Tuesday in Vail. In case you missed my last blog, the drive down I-70 is a totally different experience in the summer. There's a stretch of road before you get to a tunnel which is pretty treacherous in the winter. We were on our way to Aspen when our trailer started fishtailing on a patch of ice... at 50 mph. After seeing our lives flash before our eyes, I don't think we cracked 20 mph the rest of the way.

Needless to say, the voyage was much smoother this time around. We met up with the promoter for the Samana Lounge, Peter Blick, who is also a great DJ. The venue itself is right in the main pedestrian area of Vail, and features a wall which looks as if one million candles have burned on it. Different colored waxes merging with stone in weird ways.

Before our show, Boombox was playing a free show at the Ampitheatre in town, so we went up after our soundcheck to scope out the tunes. They are a duo with Russ Randolph DJing and Zion Rock Godchaux on vocals and guitar. There were a bunch of people up at the show, and they were definitely into it... so much so in fact that they stormed the stage. Zion, normally quite cool in his demeanor, quite abruptly ended the show and they went off stage. The crowd quickly became hostile, demanding that they come back, but it became clear they wouldn't. The security force started running around the stage trying to corral people... this is some intense action for Vail!

We went down to Samana Lounge and played our show, and the crowd was pretty hype considering it was a Tuesday night. After things were over, Dylan spotted Zion from Boombox, who had been checking out our show. Excerpt of the conversation follows:

Dylan: "Sucks how they shut you down at the end of your set."
Zion: "It's Rock'n'Roll, bro."

By: Tripp Bains