As I write this I am in the middle of what might be my finest week as a live music fan. Monday I attended Red Rocks outside Denver for the first time and was treated to a spine-tingling performance from the band DeVotchKa. They played a set as the “opener” for the movie they recorded the soundtrack for, Little Miss Sunshine.
As for Red Rocks itself, believe the hype. It is a lot of physical work to get into the venue, but once you summit the mountain, the views and vibes are second to none.
DeVotchKa are so musical. So unique. How four people can generate such beautiful sounds is beyond me. I got teary-eyed absorbing this magic. And watching Little Miss Sunshine with 10,000 people was really fun too. It was an incredible way to experience the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater for the first time.
On Wednesday I rallied to see AC/DC at Ohio Stadium. I pretended I was sort of casual about the whole thing since I thought I had said my final goodbye to the band last August in Cleveland.
But two hours before showtime I bought a solo ticket and caught a bus to the “venue”. I was giddy with excitement. AC f-ing DC was playing my hometown stadium. The place where OSU has never lost to Michigan, where I used to sell programs on game day and as a little kid I shook Woody Hayes’ hand.
How was AC/DC? Totally killer. I cried tears of hard-rock joy. If you are keeping score at home, I literally cried Monday and Wednesday because I loved the sounds of these bands so much. And they couldn’t be more different.
Meanwhile, as Angus Young was melting my face Ricki C. was texting me, mocking me from his air-conditioned, hipster Alejandro Escovedo show at the excellent Natalie’s Music Hall. I like Alejandro but I was with my people at the Shoe. Sweating like Brian Johnson, hammering over-priced cans of shitty beer, while screaming “High Voltage Rock n Roll” with my midwestern brethren. (For Ricki’s two cents on the Alejandro show, see below following the Watershed video.)
And one cannot leave an AC/DC show early. Quite simply, “For Those About To Rock” is the greatest show closer in rock n roll history. When those opening notes hit, the sense of community between the band and its fans is rivaled only by Bruce playing “Born To Run.”
Except in this case with AC/DC, the message isn’t romantic or a vague hopeful tale of following your dreams. The message is: You guys just hammered 20 beers at this show, now go hammer 20 more. And if you get arrested, we still salute you. It’s like the template for Guided By Voices’ entire career. I bet those fancy lads in The Strokes wouldn’t understand anything I’m talking about right now. Especially the cheap beer part.
In related news: Biggie reminded me that Watershed once played a show with The Strokes at Brownies in NYC. I have no memory of that band. And not in an AC/DC we-salute-you-blackout-thing. I was sober. I just don’t remember their set or meeting them or anything. Just another band “showcasing,” trying to make it big. I have a pretty good memory so they must have been pretty unmemorable that night.
Back to this week!
Dig this. In Central Ohio on Saturday, July 18, we have three incredible bands playing the same night.
Wilco is at the Palace Theater in Columbus.
Marty Stuart & His The Fabulous Superlatives are in Marion, Ohio.
And my boys Blackberry Smoke are at the shitty Kemba Music whatever also in Cbus.
I just saw Marty Stuart at the fabulous Rose Music Center outside Dayton. Both the band and venue were top notch. B Smoke were originally scheduled at The Newport but unfortunately for me the show was moved to Kemba LIVE!, the data center of live music venues.
Oh yes, the former LC. I’ve played it many times but watching a show there blows. Sitting on burnt grass, staring at the back of a warehouse, no video, no bottom end…..the Kemba has been rendered obsolete by nearly every single amphitheater in every city in America. And I would assume the world.*
And speaking of smoke, the air quality in Columbus is currently two times as bad as it has ever been in this city’s history thanks to wildfires and the fact that 36 percent of Americans don’t trust scientists, but inexplicably trust Don Trumper.
If this weather event had happened just 36 hours ago, AC/DC surely would have been cancelled which might have caused a January 6th type insurrection organized by hell-raisers and beer-drinkers. Marching on DC to protest the party in control of all three (4) branches of government who will fight to stop your right to party. And to have health care.
I suspect the toxic smoke would have only made Angus stronger but it might have been curtains for Brian and the rest of the boys. Anyway, get out and catch some live music when you can. And I am not just saying that because my band Watershed is hitting the road in two weeks. Or maybe I am. Whatever. For those about to rock, I salute you.
Colin Gawel wrote this at Colin’s Coffee. His band Watershed has a new book and a double-record set out right now.
Turns out the Blackberry Smoke was inside at Kemba Live! so disregard my old-man “get off my lawn” rant about the outside amphitheater.
Ricki C. here…..I texted Colin at his AC/DC show at Ohio Stadium (capacity 102,000) because I knew he was baking in 100-degree heat to catch Angus & the guys while I sat at Alejandro Escovedo’s solo Natalie’s Music Hall (seated capacity MAYBE 200), shivering in the over-cranked air-conditioning in my Mott The Hoople t-shirt. (Said t-shirt might have sparked Escovedo’s encore of Ian Hunter’s heartbreaking “I Wish I Was Your Mother” when Alejandro spotted me in the crowd while finishing his set from the middle of the Natalie’s crowd. See picture three below.) Escovedo’s show was way more acoustic than electric, maybe more memoir/spoken word than music, CERTAINLY not as bone-crushing as AC/DC, but was - nonetheless - the best singer/songwriter show I’ve witnessed in maybe ten years. I might do a full review of Escovedo’s show sometime down the line on Pencil Storm, but let’s just say for right now that Columbus was the best place in Ohio - if not for the ENTIRE United States - for rock & roll shows on a scorching hot, wildfire-ridden July 15th, 2026.
photos by Jim Robinson, who I worked with at Ross Labs 1980-1984, and has excellent taste in music, and whose pictures came out way better than mine.
Ricki C. is 74 years old and fell in love with Alejandro Escovedo’s music when he first heard “Five Hearts Breaking” on the Gravity CD back in 1992.