Denver Post Features/Entertainment intern Kelsey Fowler is experiencing her first UMS. These are her stories.
The punches on screen line up in sync with each beat of the drums. One, two, punch; one, two, beat. Onetwopunch, onetwobeat.
There’s a boxing match on TV at the Irish Rover, but even early on Thursday night, Aan is drawing a decent crowd. The sound engineer stands up on the booth cushion to see over the crowd. There are rust-orange colored volunteer shirts speckled up and down the block.
Outside of Delite, the bearded bouncer quickly turns away a blonde fluffy-haired teen wanting to see Stag. “A lot of good acts are 21 plus,” he says, back outside, bouncing on his toes. “I wasn’t even gonna listen to the music, I just wanna get wasted.”
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He plops down on the open windowsill of the large garage door at the front of the venue, and turns to the stage manager, easily ID’d by his shirt.
“Does he look like my dad?” the kid asks, pointing out a nearby friend.
“Nope. An older cousin maybe. Or an uncle.” The response elicits sighs. He concedes he’s probably in the best spot anyway.
“I’ll just look at Mac’s ass all night,” he says.
The theme of the night appears to be standing on booths in order to see. There are women in their 40s pointing iPhones at the ceilings, craning for a better view; young couples crowding tables, swaying as the cushion buckles and absorbs beneath them.
Up on the corner near Sputnik and Hi-Dive, a man dressed as a cow promotes the Il Cattivo show Friday at 3 Kings. He “moos” occasionally at passersby, letting friends he spots tug the rubber udders – one teat studded with a gauge.
“I dressed up nice today,” he jokes, when questioned about the cow ensemble. Soon Jed, a member of Il Cattivo, heads into the 11 p.m. Hi-Dive show, where what resembles a black KKK costume and straw scarecrow mask grace the performers faces (Munly and the Lupercalians). Itap getting crowded now.
Sitting on a curb, a 20-something named Bread tells his friends Bad Weather California was too much for him, in the too-full 3 Kings venue.
Walking past Delite again, there’s an IPA bottle tucked just behind blonde fluffy hair, who is still sitting on the ledge, bopping his head to the sounds that can be heard basically a block away.
A couple slow dances near the corner of Archer and Broadway, steps away from where a BBQ food truck is snagging sweaty throngs who are leaving “the” act to see of the night, Cloud Nothings. They turn to no discernable beat as the crowd spreads out into the early morning.
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Kelsey Fowler is the 2012 Features Intern at The Denver Post, currently studying nothing music-related at Ithaca College. Help keep her in the loop on .
