Friday night

Hi! I'm back! And I'm going to tell you about my friday night because it was... curious. So-

It's Friday night. I've had a early work day that ended up really long and really, really busy but I have fun plans for the evening. Some friends and I are planning to see one of my favorite local bands- The Hollyfelds. (I kind of have a little crush on one of the band members too, so I'm hoping to get to chat with him.) So I make it home from work in record time and take a LONG hot shower. It's still not too late so I do the works- makeup, straightened my hair, just get cuted-up for a night out. I then head over to Amy's and we walk up to Pasquini's, a fantastic sort of pizza place in town. We are just sitting down at our table when across the patio this couple stands up and the guy yells "Mary Ann and George!" (or some names like that). Next thing we know a group from a table all the way across the patio is up on their feet practically running to this couple. People are hugging and crying like they haven't seen each other in 30 years! And the whole restaurant is witnessing this. Amy looks at me and swears that we are on Candid Camera as she looks around the restaurant and shakes her head.

Just as the two groups are getting settled at one table, another table in the middle of the patio starts singing. Yes, I said singing. The guys at the table start singing a cappela like a barbershop quartet. Out of the blue! We look over at a table of girls next to us and the girls give us this baffled look. "We're starting to get scared. This is so strange!", they say. By this time I have decided to settle in and enjoy the show and I look around to see what's going to happen next. "Maybe the kids next to us will start a dance line?", I say to Amy. She shakes her head again and looks at the wine list.

We order and enjoy some fantastic pizza with only one more outburst from the singing table- at least two songs just before they left. Oddly they were just singing for themselves, entertaining the people at their table and themselves. They were actually quite good. It was rather lovely dinner music.

After dinner we walk back to Amy's to freshen up before the concert. Oh and on the way we got to be the idiots that ran across the street at the crosswalk because we were paying more attention to the crosswalk button than the fact that the white man was saying walk. Beautiful. I'm sure we just looked beautiful running across Colfax in our flipflops.

The walk over to Bender's Tavern was relatively uneventful- we did run across a woman having a conversation with herself while she crossed the street. Amy was walking in front of me at this point and she noticeable doubled her walking pace to avoid having to cross paths with this intriguing woman. I giggled a bit as I tried to keep up with her. Oh and just fyi for all my Denver readers, there is a Gelato shop on 13th near Pennsylvania. Looked good!

We walk into Bender's Tavern, buy our tickets for the show and the doorguy tells us it starts at 10pm. It is currently 8:45pm. Thank you to whoever does the emails for The Hollyfelds we were an hour+ early. But who should be walking by the front door as we walk in- the guy I "know" in the band! We say hello and he comments on the fact that it's warm and he shouldn't have worn a t-shirt. I glance at him oddly because he's wearing a fancy cowboy long sleeved shirt. Then I see the t-shirt peeking out below. "But there'll be less chafing, " he says. And I thought I was random.

He heads in check-in with the band and Amy and I have a seat. Nicole shows up shortly there after and we are sitting chatting when a young man walks up to our table. "Can I borrow this chair for a second?" he says. Nicole tells him sure and he sits down with us. Hmm. He then explains that he is new in town, doesn't really know anyone and is waiting for a friend. We, being the friendly people that we are, engage him in conversation. He's newly in town from "Greeley, Colorado" and is in a band, or has been for the last 3 weeks. He comments on how he's never lived in a mid-sized city like Denver before and all the things he's learning about city life. Oddly later in the conversation someone asks him where he lived before Greeley and he says Denver. Wait, what? Anyways, he was a nice kid and his band sounds interesting- blues style.

Then about three other friends show up and for a while we have a table of 8! All before the show even starts! Then three of them leave. The two band guys leave to go to a different show. Two more join us. And three more leave. By the time the show actually starts we are down to... did you do your math? Two, again. Some guy announces the show is about to start and the opener is... Limbs.

Limbs is a one man band. He plays the guitar, pounds on the drums with foot pedals, and hits the cymbals with the neck of the guitar while he sings. Well, sort of screams. And the room was mostly empty. The screaming is really loud! When he wasn't screaming his voice wasn't bad and the music wasn't bad but not what we are really there for or in the mood for. So after a few songs, I suggest to Amy that we head back to the bar area for a while. We stand up to leave and Mr Limbs yells out "Don't let those girls go! Stop them! There's a bar and restroom in here, you don't need to get anything. And I'd hate for you to miss something " he adds a little fake friendlier. So I head back to my seat, rather resignedly, while Amy goes to use the restroom he so kindly had referred to. The mistake we had made was that we were sitting dead center, so the guy was looking right at us when he looked into the "crowd". So we stayed, for his whole show, but I don't think we looked like we enjoyed it much. Oops.

The next up was the Hollyfelds and I think this was the first time I would see the beginning of one of their shows. We sat through the sound check and distinctly avoided eye contact with Limbs, who was selling his wares about 10 feet from us.

The Hollyfelds show was great! And pleasantly uneventful. After they finished we did a quick bathroom break in the functioning bathroom that smelled like a public swimming pool restroom. Then we debated. I was a little scared of what the final band would be like after the Limbs experience. And the crowd was getting a bit interesting. Turns out the band was more country than the Hollyfelds but by that time we were done with Bender's Tavern and we left part way into the first song.

We scooted out the front door and started our walk back to Amy's. And I prompty doubled over in laughter. We both giggled for over a block about the craziness that had been following us all night! So we decided to head over to the Irish Snug for a a little nightcap, our specialty drink together- a carbomb. On the walk over, who should we run into but Limbs' two groupies! We carefully avoided them, although they were so drunk I don't think they really knew anyone else in the world existed.

So the evening ended with a carbomb at the Snug. As the waiter brought the drinks to our table, he spilled a bit of the baileys shot which landed on my toes. He apologized and I joked that I had always wanted baileys on my toes. His reply, "it'll loosen them up." Par for the night. It was quiet at the Snug and a nice ending to a very curious evening.

The Hollyfelds website