(Jared here: The more astute of you may have noticed a sudden gap in the “Day” count. That’s because It felt like we’ve been on the road longer than thirty days, so I finally took the time to count them. We’re caught up now with Day 32 being Sunday, July 28th and Day 33 being Monday the 29th. Thanks for bearing with us.)
After sleeping in the truck for a couple days AND doing a show in the thousand degree heat, we were overjoyed and so grateful when our friend, Bonnie The Great (her Mongolian war title) offered to get us a hotel room for the night. Typically, I will only reach out for help when Jared and I feel like there is nowhere safe to sleep. I don’t concern myself with creature comforts while on the road, because if we’re going to spend money, it’s usually on other stuff that feels more necessary. So when I sat in this darling, Art Deco lobby, with the air conditioner blowing down on me, I almost cried with relief. We honestly didn’t even realize how badly we needed that!
The show in and of itself was enough to make a person (and by that I mean, “me”. I’m said “person”) rethink all my life choices that led me to this point. How could I have thought this wasn’t a NECESSITY for tour??? The healing waters washed away the road, the gig, the actual dirt!!! I mean it, how was the shower floor so dirty? I can’t believe that was on me! Jared was even worse off than me. By 8:30 he was in bed, and as I blogged, he was ASLEEP by 8:43!!! I’m not sure I’ve seen him do that more than twice in our twenty years together. Thank you again, Bonnie The Great for seemingly knowing what we needed even more than we did. Wow! So grateful.
The morning brought us to this little coffee shop, where Jared tried an iced “Beet Latte”, and I got an iced “Turmeric Latte”. Both sounded more interesting than they tasted, (think flavored almond milk), but they were enough to get us moving on. We were headed to Fort Collins to play an open mic I read about in May when trying to fill holes in our tour bookings. It looked cool enough online, so we aimed for that place. Plus, a HUGE added bonus was the fact that I have family in Fort Collins that offered to house us for a couple days. I will chat a bit more about them in a different blog, but after fifteen years or so of not getting to see them, we were excited and grateful for the opportunity!!
The open mic began at 7:00, with sign ups at 6:30, so naturally, we got there at 6:00, to check it all out and make sure we didn’t end up twelfth on the list like what happened in Denver! Oh. My. Gosh… I have never seen anything like this place. The Lyric is a multi-screen movie theater, bar, restaurant, music venue, art gallery, OUTDOOR lawn movie theater, and curated “junk yard” for mass consumption and pleasure. Like an adult Disneyland, The Lyric has something for everyone’s needs and stuff you didn’t even know you needed. I mean, there WERE crochet penises available for purchase… (No, Jared! You may NOT take one home. We already have too many!)
THIS was the stage that the open mic was going to be held on. “Sparky”, the open mic host, kindly told us he would open sign-ups at 6:30 and to just hang out and enjoy til then. Well, if you INSIST!!!
Let’s go INSIDE, shall we?
Ok, now let’s step back outside and have a look about.
We had such a fun time at this open mic. It was full of talent. Some of our favorites were a new band called Solar Park, a ukulele playing rapper/spoken word guy who called himself, Smiley Gatmouth, and a singer/songwriter named Matt McCluskey who had my favorite song of the night “Whoever That Is”. All the artists were respectful and cheered each other on. Even my family came out and supported everyone with us, saying they liked the place so much, they may come back on some Monday nights just to watch the new talent. There was a video posted by a friend named Cam, and I grabbed a screenshot of it, just to prove we were indeed on the stage at one point. It’s not a great capture visually, but we were having an absolute ball. We played “Dressed Up” and “Don’t Wait”. We were wildly well received and the crowd even asked for an encore, which we declined because so many people were signed up to play and it would have been selfish, but it sure felt nice.
After the open mic, My Aunt and Uncle took us to a really cool restaurant called The Social. It was like a speakeasy joint in that there was very little signage to find the place, and it was down a flight of stairs, behind a very unremarkable door. We had to ask this woman where to even find the stairs. I always wondered who the people were that painted these street pianos. Well we got to see one “in the wild” and snapped a picture. You can even follow her art.
This restaurant was so wonderful, AND our server, Savannah, was from the same exact area I grew up in near Thousand Oaks, CA. So we had a lot to chat about. My favorite moment was when she presented our bottle of water as though it was wine. “I’ve brought you a nice, crisp 2024 for you to try.” Jared asked to “smell the cork” and the two were off and running in an improvisational role-play of “wine snob and sommelier”. We were all dying laughing as Jared aerated the water in his mouth, with a slurping gurgle noise, wafting the aromas up to his nose while Savannah asked about the different “notes” he was tasting. When satisfied with his selection, Jared approved of Savannah’s choice and asked her to pour for the table! She was an absolute gem of a server. You know we HAD to have a hug before we left! Also, my uncle and I may or may not have gotten a second whiskey…but I’ll never tell.
When we got home, we HAD to recreate an image from one of our favorite moments in The Office to show Rudy when we pick him up… IYKYK!!! It was an amazing day and night all around and we were so grateful to be wrapped in the love of family and playing music with pure joy and feeling like ourselves again.
