Tuesday, March 24, 2009

HOW'S YOUR ASS BEEN IN ASPEN?

Spent all day Saturday skiing Aspen Highlands. The mountains in Colorado have not received much snow lately and the warm weather made for generally poor skiing: the freeze thaw causing the snow to crust or turn into a hardpan that improves with grooming. By late afternoon it would warm up enough to turn slopes into soft carvable snow. The mild temps and sunshine made for perfect spring skiing. It was a blast in the most scenic ski area in all of Colorado.

There was a Friends of the Fallen celebration and competition held at the lodge near the top of the mountain. A remembrance to several young skiers who had died, but included anyone who departed early and had a love for skiing. All contestants had to dress up and come down the slope together, hitting bums and jumps. An opportunity to sit back in a lounge chair, enjoy the sun and watch the show.

Changeless in our eyes
Bold peaks rise into the sky
Washed away by time

Room filled with their loud sounds
Stares out the plate glass windows
The sunset lit clouds

Shops sell us fashion
Money spent on an image
Just can't buy the cool

Overhear them speak
Their distant conversations
Hear their life stories

Week after week
Pushed to the limit each night
Exhaustion sets in

Fifty plus years old
Another birthday approaches
The blackest of thoughts

Had dinner in Aspen, went to the theater to see the movie Watchmen, and then drove out to the end of the road towards Independence Pass. Although somewhat tired, I did my concert thing and then enjoyed an undisturbed sleep. Woke up late on Sunday, had a leisurely breakfast and got to Snowmass Mountain by mid morning. Why rush when snow conditions would be at its worst before it warmed up? Beautiful day, blue skies and great bomber runs down the groomed slopes. Back to Denver by early evening.

The show below Independence Pass was put on by The Killers on June 23, 2007 at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK. Great recording, great performance by the band.
Here's the review for the show by Rosie Swash of the Guardian newspaper written the following day:

If ever there was a time to keep an open mind about the Killers, it is when Brandon Flowers sashays on stage to headline Saturday night in a head-to-toe sparkling gold lamé suit, to a background of dazzling pyrotechnics. It is an immediate reminder that the Killers are a band whose powerful, emphatic stadium rock is beaten only by their total lack of irony. And yet for all their overindulgence, these four boys from Las Vegas draw the biggest crowd of the festival so far and they are here to give the people what they want.

Reports suggest that sound is intermittently lost during the beginning of the show, to the point where people at the front can hear people at the back shouting "Turn it up!", but it is a problem that the band seemed blissfully unaware of. The most enjoyable songs are those from the band's 2005 debut Hot Fuss, Mr Brightside and Jenny Was A Friend of Mine particularly. They remind us of the once humble band who endeared thousands when they warmed up for the White Stripes on this very stage two years ago. In contrast, the material from current album Sam's Town rapidly blends into one long, fraught, reverberating din, and the montage of iconic, trite American images that play behind them serves only as a reminder that the band themselves are a series of clichés.

But it cannot be denied that the Killers are utter crowd pleasers and they have been anticipating this moment for a long while. The effect of the poor sound on the audience is a shame, but hardly the band's fault. The fireworks and the excessive keyboard jewellery may be a long way from the waistcoated frontman and his modest band of two years ago, but it shows that the Killers care a great deal about how they are received tonight. And that is rather endearing.

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