The Starbucks-sponsored Carved in Stone concert at Red Rocks last summer was supposed to triumph. The bill of Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Old 97’s, DeVotchKa and Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter was dynamic and tight, everything coming together on a sunny day in Morrison.
But instead, the concert was a glorious disaster, leaving fans scratching their heads and wondering what happened. Headliner Adams played a long, boring and rambling set, proof that his time playing with Bob Weir had left him a changed musician. Williams looked confused and sounded off-kilter as she awkwardly read her lyrics from a songbook, Brian Wilson-style.
DeVotchKa’s set was lovely, but the Old 97’s were forced to play the first half of their set sans frontman Rhett Miller — who had just landed at DIA.
Miller left his guitars and baggage at the airport and raced to Morrison, and brought cheers when he came running on stage mid-set — followed by a tech lassoing a guitar around his torso — to play a couple of songs with his band before being booted off the stage.
“It was so harrowing — the whole thing,” said Miller, who will bring the Old 97’s back to Colorado for a show at the Gothic Theatre on Tuesday. “It made for a good story, but I would have rather had a normal show at Red Rocks.”
It turns out that day was awkward for the musicians, too.
“If I was a fan, I would have expected a fun scene backstage, everybody sitting around talking and playing and drinking whiskey,” Miller said. “But nobody was talking backstage. Security was laid out weird. And everyone was in their dressing rooms.
“That whole night was effused with drama. One of the guys from the first band (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) was in Whiskeytown with Ryan, and they had history. And we had a history with Ryan. Lucinda and Ryan had some big issue that day, and Lucinda went on longer than her allotted set time because she was mad at him.”
There’s something to be said about headlining your own show and calling the shots — an act Miller enjoys tremendously, as both a solo artist and a frontman. The Post caught up with Miller recently to talk about his solo work, his band work and his home work.
Question: The Old 97’s have a new record out. But you’re still going forward with your solo career, right?Answer: I love the solo stuff. It’s kept me sane, and it’s made it possible for me to stay in the Old 97’s. It’s a lot easier to be in a democracy if you know that you have another outlet. My bandmates are very opinionated dudes, and that’s great for being in a band. It’s made us who we are. But I think I’ll also keep making the solo records, although I think the next one will be a quiet, acoustic-sounding solo record this time around.
Q: Quiet and acoustic? That’s a pretty big change from your previous solo outings.A: The solo songs that I’m writing now seem like they don’t need much more than a guitar and vocal. That might have something to do with the fact that I’ve done so many acoustic shows over the last few years with just guitar and vocals.
Q: You write a song, and does it immediately become obvious to you that, “This is a solo song, and this other one is a 97’s song?”
A: Yeah, the 97’s is such a specific machine. You put a song in front of it and this crazy, rock ‘n’ roll surf guitar comes out the other end. With the solo work, I wanted to be able to do different things like big pop arrangements — try things that are really beautiful. I write a song and the first thing I do is try and imagine the 97’s playing it. And if I can’t, I think about it as a solo song.
Q: Some people say the new Old 97’s record, “Blame it on Gravity,” is a throwback to the band’s “Too Far To Care” days. What do you think about that?
A: I think it’s a good thing. “Too Far To Care” was an important record for us. We felt like we had arrived on the national scene when we released that record. And it makes sense, because this time around, there was such a feeling of renewal and rebirth, not to sound too overdramatic about it. But the band had survived so much, and with us being where we are as friends and musicians, there were things about this record that felt like the first time.
Q: That must have been nice, because you guys have been at it for a while. Do you still like the life of the touring musician?
A:Ah, you’re asking me on a day when I miss my kids and my wife so bad. It’s tough. It was a lot easier to go out and tour for the whole summer when I wasn’t held by domestic happiness at home. But it feels good to be out and have so many people at the shows.
Q: Do you see yourself still doing this 10 years from now?
A: Absolutely. I don’t know if I’ll do it for months at a time. But I’ll always do this. I was meant to stand in front of people and shake my (behind) and give them a reason to get wasted. People need a reason to come together, especially in this world, and so I may not be curing cancer or practicing rocket science, but it’s a noble profession in its own regard.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
Old 97’s”
Alt-country. Gothic Theatre, Englewood. Tuesday with Hayes Carll and I Love Math. 9 p.m. $21.50. , .
