Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Sunday October 13, 2024 - Denver, CO

Road Blog
October 13, 2024
Denver, Colorado

I was on the road at 7:40am MT on Sunday morning, facing down an eight-hour drive east to Denver. Just east of the city a long ascent into the mountains yielded stunning views of the sunrise over the peaks and valleys and I really felt honored to be able to take it in. It reminded me of an early SlugBug tour where we drove all night from Cleveland to Worcester, Mass for a matinee show that didn’t happen, but we did get to take in the sunrise over the Adirondacks that morning, and it was worth it. Later that afternoon at a party in a ritzy estate north of Boston we were invited to by a friend, I’d drink a PBR with cigarette butts in it. Good times, but a story for another day, I guess.

The drive was fairly painless, cranking the new Billy Strings (my first foray into his stuff), Continental Drifters, and a Jason isbell playlist among other things while doing 87mph through the sagebrush plains and intermittent stretches of mountains. There were herds of pronghorn antelope through Wyoming and the roadkill count was 2 red foxes, 2 coyotes, 2 skunks, and the biggest porcupine I’ve ever seen. Poor fella. I turned south at Laramie (see ya tomorrow) and took surface streets through Fort Collins (hey Jon!) and got on the 25 south towards Denver just as the Lions game was starting on SiriusXM. A couple miles south of FOCO Karen Jacobsen - The GPS Girl added an hour to the drive as I hit a massive traffic jam that went south as far as the eye could see. Karen offered up a 40-minute time saver, so I took that, and zig-zagged south on county roads though farm country and past a pond with some pelicans swimming (I love pelicans!) and back on the 25 without too bad a setback. Way to go Karen! You still got it lady!

While America’s Team – the Detroit Lions – were issuing a proper beatdown on the Dallas Cowboys, and I felt increasingly confident that I’d be covering the spread on the wager I laid down before I left town, I drove into Denver and parked in front of the Lion's Lair Lounge. I was a couple hours early for my show so I bopped inside to check it out, met the bartender (who could pass for my pal Greg Hess, with his giant greying beard and Broncos’ jersey on) snapped a pic of the bathroom (#rockandrollrestrooms on Instagram/fb) and walked across the street to Illegal Pete’s.

Illegal Pete's is one of those IYKYK burrito joints around Denver that I learned about 10 years ago, almost to the day, when The Tucos first played Denver with Those Crosstown Rivals and King Rat. Illegal Pete’s has a program they call “Starving Artist” where touring bands can request, a few days before their show, a free meal. I mean, who does that? It’s a beautiful thing. And the burritos are AMAZING – made to order, great ingredients, and gigantic. A good selection of local micro-brews to wash it down and take the edge off of the drive, a call home to TrooperGirl22, and I was good to go. Thanks Pete’s – you guys absolutely RULE!

From Pete’s I walked a few blocks down to Twist & Shout Records – a great store we hit every time in town. I thumbed through the bins, grabbed a nice copy of the first Piper album (pre-solo Billy Squier) and had a lengthy chat with this tall dude (John?) who was checking out a copy of The Jam – Setting Sons in the New Arrivals bin. We talked Jam/Weller, Bangles, Paisley Underground, Westerberg, Mould, REM and more. Hope he reaches out and we can keep in touch!

I dropped my records off in my vehicle and loaded into the Lion’s Lair. They’d turned off the Broncos’ game, which was well out if hand in favor of the Chargers, and I got to watch the end of the Lions/Cowboys game. I was awesome to get that win, but our star defensive lineman, whose family are nearby neighbors of ours in Plymouth, broke his tibia and will be out for at least a while.

I knew my internet pal and staunch supporter Steven would likely be making the trek up from Monument for the show and he sent me a short list of requests, each song was one I’ve never played live before. The dude knows his deep cuts! So I took advantage of the empty bar and got my guitar out and strummed through “Wet Cement” off my new record so I could try it for him. 80% of the song is gravy, but the middle section is super weird and I couldn’t remember it exactly so I just came up with something relatively close.

The Lion’s Lair is a square room dive bar with a stage in the corner and a 3-sided bar just off center. This was my first proper “stage” of this run. The gig was a podcast taping of “Laxin’ at the Lair” – a music performance set then a couch chat with the musician(s) and hosts. Tony was leading the setup and after some technical issues with the PA we were in business. Steve and his wife Jackie arrived, and my good friends Angie and Andrew showed up a few minutes before I started. There were a faithful few bellied up to the bar and paying attention, and it was a loose but fun set. “Wet Cement” went ok for its stage debut, and I messed up “Huckleberry” so I started it over so they can edit the good version into the podcast.

After the set they pulled a couch on stage and I sat between Tony and the other host Emma, and we had an in-depth talk about my music and history. Tony has some extensive touring under his belt, so he is no stranger to some of these stories, and Emma clearly did her homework about me and my record and dug deep on a couple topics. After a few minutes the discussion turned to the rat problem in Denver, and we talked about the Rat Czar in NYC and the rat-hole in the sidewalk in Rogers Park, Chicago. I liked the part where there’s a giant black rat that Emma meets every time she takes out her trash and the fella doesn’t like her much, a potential threat to his lunch, I guess, but she kinda puts up with him in weirdly beautiful almost symbiotic way. It was a super fun chat and should be available on I Heart Radio and all the other podcast streaming places soon, so I’ll be sure to post links when that happens.

I said goodbyes with photos and hugs to Steve, Jackie, Angie, and Andrew and had a nightcap with Tony and the owner, Thorne. Thorne is a great guy who knows my pals Two Cow Garage well and for the second time last night the discussion veered to The Jam and Paul Weller, who he’d just seen in San Fransico. Demi was tending the bar, and I made sure to thank her for booking me for the show, after my long-confirmed show in Palisade was cancelled a couple weeks ago in a truly shit move that left me without a stage, a meal, and any income at the last possible moment. Demi, Thorne, and the podcast crew bailed me out and, in the end, it was a show that was almost certainly more fun, albeit less lucrative financially, than the Palisade show would have been. Oh well, I sold some merch and did fine, and meeting these people and seeing my Denver friends easily trumps a few extra bucks, so I left with a full and grateful heart.

I drove out to my motel in the suburbs with the gas gauge on fumes and checked in, had a nightcap, did some accounting, watched some Sports Center, and crashed out around 1am. BIG Thanks again to everyone who was a part of last night in Denver – my third show in this great city, first solo-acoustic show, and it was loads of fun!

Like Palisade, my Boulder show scheduled for tonight and confirmed in friggin’ June, was cancelled the same week, because “sorry we don’t do Monday shows, I thought it was a Tuesday. Good luck.” Thanks pal, but I’m again screwed out of a show/meal/income with no time to recoup. What is the matter with these people? Zero respect for the work and struggle of touring musicians. Zero. So I plan to bop around Boulder a bit, hopefully connect with my niece, and maybe crash an open mic night somewhere on the east slope tonight. Stay tuned. Xx