playing dives & finding campsites

so this past saturday, the 29th, was jebus' first ever out of town gig. we traveled 92 miles south and east to play the downunder bar & grill in winter park, colorado.

what a dive. a basement bar, here's its list of ailments:

*the carpets were probably the same ones from its original construction in the seventies.

*there were 3 dripping pipes above where we played. whenever i'd back off of the mic, i'd get dripped on.

*noise complaints after our first song from the condos behind the bar.

*dingy kitchen windows that looked out on the courtyard; probably hadn't been cleaned in 5 years or more.

*no people! jazzfest was that weekend, and we were up against some pretty big names playing surprise sets at other bars that night. as a result, we really didn't have anyone other than our friends watching us until the last hour of our second set.

but they made a damn good burger, they paid us immediately after we finished, and they were incredibly generous when it came to our complimentary $100 band bar tab. they said we spent $99 on drinks for the band. there's no way - we were ordering beers and shots and mixed drinks right and left! god bless 'em.

the bright spot for the weekend was finding a fantastic free group camping spot on national forest land, right next to a beautiful babbling creek. a good crew of friends and a big group camp - my favorite part by far. jenn and i had a cozy night in our sweet new car-camping tent that we got for a steal at the sports authority. with a very thin moon in the sky, we fell asleep in complete darkness, looking up through the pine tree canopy at a gigantic slice of the milky way.

utterly breathtaking.