A Concert at Red Rocks

Over a year ago, I picked up a young guy who had lived in Colorado.  He had worked at Red Rocks, one of the premier concert venues in the world.  He had been to 500 concerts there and the more he talked he became emotional about missing it and said, "If you ever get the chance to see a concert at Red Rocks, you have to do it."  This blog is for him, because he was absolutely right.

Red Rocks is an outside amphitheatre built out of and surrounded by beautiful, large rocks.  It is owned and run by the City of Denver and was officially opened in 1941. It holds 9,525 people and the altitude is 6,450 feet. It is ten miles from the city of Denver and below is how it looked from our seats. during the day,

It is fair to say I am not a concert-goer.  I believe the only concerts I have been to in my almost 64 years have been, Barry Manilow, The Beach Boys, Kenny Rogers, and The Captain & Tennille.  Those are some pretty big names, but for a lifetime it is not very impressive.  This past Monday I went with my wife and two daughters to see the group, "The Head and the Heart."  I had listened to a couple of their songs online and they are a pretty mellow, folksy type group from Washington State.

The scenery at Red Rocks is spectacular and is something that you have to see.  This picture below was taken by my oldest daughter looking out from Red Rocks and it looks like a painting, but it is real.

When you take a bathroom break at Red Rocks, you're going on a full-scale exercise workout.  During my long journey down the endless amount of steps, I could still hear the concert clearly and I got a close-up view of the stage and saw it on a couple of television screens.  Suddenly, I opened the bathroom stall and heard Elton John singing his first big hit, "Your Song." For a split second, I thought-finally, they are playing a song I know and it's a very good impersonation of Elton John. I quickly realized that it didn't just sound like Elton John, it was Elton John and the song was being piped into the urinal stalls.

The size of this piece of rock is just ridiculous.  The evening shot below shows the same rock and I felt it could have been on a movie set-it did not look real.  Also, in this picture below you can see the silhouette of my youngest daughter with the big head on the left.  Sometimes, parents put their child on a pedestal and I put her in a rock!

Finally, the band put on a very good show for close to two hours.  My wife and I did not know the songs and had a very difficult time understanding the words.  They were speaking our language, but we did not understand much of the songs.  They have great voices, played some beautiful music, and the crowd loved the show.  And one final thing, IF YOU EVER HAVE A CHANCE TO SEE A CONCERT AT RED ROCKS, YOU HAVE TO GO! It is a once in a lifetime experience and wear comfortable shoes, because you're going to get some great exercise.