God bless the greenskeepers.
The souls that fill that thankless job will have their work cut out for them today as the last of the plastic bottles and cigarette butts are removed from the brown, matted soccer fields surrounding Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
The two-day Mile High Music Festival, which wrapped up Sunday night, brought more than 40,000 people per day to the plains of Commerce City. And the more successful the festival was, the more it destroyed the coifed environs.
By festival standards, the first event was extremely successful. Despite scattered first-day hiccups, everything went smoothly. Five hundred portable toilets and countless food and alcohol vendors ably serviced the space across the 24 soccer fields surrounding the park, despite occasionally irksome lines.
Local and national acts peppered themselves over the five massive stages. Denver hip-hop group Flobots energized a midday crowd with songs from its latest disc, “Fight with Tools,” including the title track. Just before the song, MCs Jonny 5 and Brer Rabbit rallied around their activist message of peace and mental fortitude — and against the war in Iraq.
The band, which is currently experiencing a national run of popularity thanks to its single “Handlebars,” enjoyed perhaps the biggest live audience of its career.
Wading through the sunburned flesh, camping chairs and shirtless frat dudes brought you to the main stage, where John Mayer worked his wah-wah pedal and beat-up blue Stratocaster on songs like, “Say What You Need to Say” and “Vultures.” Clad in a sleeveless brown shirt that displayed his many upper-arm tattoos, the charming blues-pop singer looked every bit the festival leader, particularly as swooping crane shots revealed the undulating crowd on giant video screens.
Hip-hop/rock act The Roots captivated a sweaty tent crowd with extended-jam covers of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” and instrumental nods toward Led Zeppelin and “The Wizard of Oz.”
The booming sound and shoulder-to-shoulder audience conspired to create a scene out of Woodstock, although it’s doubtful Woodstock ever heard such sonorous Sousaphone solos.
Indie rock mainstays Pinback drew a smaller crowd to their tent gathering, speeding through a set that included noodly, textured compositions like “Fortress.” Black Crowes’ triumphant “Remedy” set a large but loosely packed open-air audience on fire just as the sun dipped behind the Front Range.
Lead singer Chris Robinson’s mountain-main beard looked oddly appropriate as the Rolling Stones-esque backup singers dug into his melodies, his brown locks mashing against the side of his face.
Headliners Dave Matthews Band took the stage in silhouette, video screens and speakers bringing them to the fans more than a quarter-mile away in the fields. Drawing a noticeably larger crowd than Saturday’s Tom Petty set, the band jammed on familiar hits like “Satellite” and “Don’t Drink the Water,” and — at press time — were still going strong.
Matthews took time to beam at the audience, his acoustic guitar high and tight against his chest. He mimicked the amiability of a Colorado crowd that seemed ready to welcome another Mile High Music Festival back — provided it’s done as well as this one.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it listed an incorrect song title for the Dave Matthews Band performance (“Crash”). The song was actually “Stay.”
Mile High Music Fest: More of our blogs and photo essays
Denver Post pop music critic Ricardo Baca’s thoughts on Day 1
Denver Post theater critic (and former music reporter) John Moore’s fear-and-loathing look at the fest as a whole. . In addition, he’s posted separate slide shows from both days at the fest, plus short video samples from Andrew Bird and Colbie Caillat.
And in the coming days, check out
often for many more blogs and photo essays from the festival to come, by a variety of Denver Post contributors. Bookmark it: That’s where you’ll find our thoughts on as many as 15 live shows per week in the area.
