Jim & I headed up to Summit County to grab some runs, meet a friend in Vail, and hit the King Princess show at Belly Up. I drove up Thu after the tough Wed snowfall but the roads had been mostly cleared ~ we went through Frisco so stopped at ORB for a pop and then enjoyed good pho in Silverthorne that night. We did some tunes training on the NestT to ready us for the concert.
We were fortunate to again get nice snowfall Thu night. Vail, our host target for Friday, received 6"-8" of new fluff and while this made for a tougher drive on Fri morning, it was worth it. So was meeting up with an old friend from FNet, Jeff Gibson. Don't ever imply that North Carolinians can't shred ~ in addition to plenty of accomplishments in tech, Jeff is an endurance athlete and damn nice skier. It was great catching up with him and enjoying some good conditions from all over Vail's terrain.
Jim & I headed back to Summit and mostly laid low at the Nest that night. I did alert him to The Expanse and what a UHD + HDR TV setup can do. Saturday came and I took a "painful thighs day" on the couch and watched some TV... it was a weekend after all and lacrosse season has arrived. Once the legs could move we did briefly go out to introduce Yoho to the newest brewery in Summit Co, Syndicate, close by in Silverthorne. Sunday was a big day... we headed out to Beaver Ck to ski before moving on to the Roaring Fk Valley for a concert at a fav club there named Belly Up. We skied all over BC from Arrowhead to Bachelor Gulch to Grouse Mtn to Larkspur to the new McCoy Park (fun but green glade area). Fun day but we stopped a smidge early so as to not exhaust before the show. Snowfall began again as we got to the car but the drive west was fine. We stopped at our hotel in Basalt to check in and prep for dinner and the show. Jim found a great place within walking distance: Heather's, it was excellent.
After dinner we napped a skosh then headed to Aspen. The drive was a little wet & snowy. Arriving in Aspen we scored position A parking right next to Belly Up, and free. We were the 2nd team in line for the GA show, right behind four KP superfans traveling together from Canada. It was a cold night and staff didn't start the heater till they came to let us in for doors @ 8pm. Fi Sullivan opened. She is an experimental electronica dance music artist from Denver and while she actually sang well, I couldn't get around the sameness in the thumps.
The King Princess show was excellent... Belly Up sound was good as usual though I did think the mix should've boosted her lead vocals a bit. Nonetheless, awesome. For the unfamiliar, and there are many as she doesn't chart often, King Princess,
Mikaela Mullaney Straus, is Brooklyn multi-instrumental pop artist with a great voice, some songwriting skills, and strong showmanship. Her biggest hit is "1950" off of the original EP, Make My Bed. She recently dropped her 2nd album, Hold On Baby, with Mark Ronson. She's got a strong catalog already (and a boatload of official music vids and a breakthrough 1st album, Cheap Queen) and delivered a very good show. Belly Up was only 50% full though this night ~ the price of the "reserved" seats was $300 (our GA tix were $100) and while that section was empty, the mosh pit was full of teen lesbian fans and others in adoration. KP even called out the superfans from the front of the queue, mentioned earlier ~ traveling for as many KP shows as they can get. We were close to all the action to see the self-avowed "saltiest gay pop star." I think she really enjoyed the smaller crowd and club atmosphere as she's mostly opening stadiums for bigger bands right now.
Good rock from a cool person... she played keys, bass, lead and acoustic through the show... and passionately belted her songs, often engaging the front row fans face to face. Her costume change was mainly to drop her "Apres" cover to her waist and play some songs then douse it altogether for the rest of the set. The accompanying band included drums, keys, bass, and lead guitar... Ronson wasn't there, on stage at least.
If you have not had the chance to catch her stuff ~ do so; she's big already and will only get bigger. I recorded only one song fully from the show ~ it's a brand new one, unreleased on recorded media as yet. Cool - I think the song title is "We Can Be Together" but it might be "Fuck In The Kitchen..."
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