I had been waiting many years to see King Crimson in concert. Ever since 1981, I had expected to see them in concert, but they never toured where I was living. When they toured with Roxy Music I was so hoping they would play in Denver, CO. Eleven years later they finally played in Denver on Father's Day 1995.
The thing is by then I was living in Knoxville, TN, and I had just bought a new E350 Powerstroke van, so I decided to drive out to Denver to see the show and visit with good friends. Th...
I had been waiting many years to see King Crimson in concert. Ever since 1981, I had expected to see them in concert, but they never toured where I was living. When they toured with Roxy Music I was so hoping they would play in Denver, CO. Eleven years later they finally played in Denver on Father's Day 1995.
The thing is by then I was living in Knoxville, TN, and I had just bought a new E350 Powerstroke van, so I decided to drive out to Denver to see the show and visit with good friends. The show was originally booked and sold to be held at the Ogden Theater on Colfax, a general admission show with no seats except for in the balcony.
For all the years I lived in Denver, I was known as the guy that was always there first when it came to the general admission shows. So I got there with my chair, snacks, and music at about 9 AM, fortunately, I was the first one there. The roadies with the equipment showed up a little bit later and as soon as I saw the size of their vehicles, I knew this was going to be a very tight stage. The Odgen's stage is not that big, nor is the venue itself.
It only took a few minutes after the roadies got inside the venue and started to load up the stage that the main roadie came up to me and told me that it would be impossible to have the concert there and it has to be moved to a larger venue and would I know what venue would be close by and available that day.
I told them the only possible place could maybe be the Paramount, just a few blocks away and a much bigger and nicer venue. I gave the dude a number to call and a few minutes later he came back excited, saying that they were able to secure that venue and they are moving the gear up there now. Still, I was the only one in line, so at the moment I was the only person with a ticket that knew this!
The Paramount Theater is never general admission except for this show! As they were making some signs to tell everyone to go to the Paramount, I packed up my gear and was able to park directly beside the front entrance. It was Sunday, so there was free parking and I had the perfect spot. Then I started calling my friends to let them know about the change of venue and that I was at the door to be the first in. There was going to be eight or more friends showing up.
A few hours later a couple of my friends were the next to show up. We now were assured of getting the prime seats in the front row.
The performance that night was simply amazing, one of the very best of the 21 times I have seen KC now. Bruford was kicking ass that night, as were all the rest, but Bill in his yellow suit and tie was scary good.
Once the concert was done and as the band was about to leave the stage, Bill came out to the edge of the stage to me and handed me his drumsticks, and told me, "thank you". That certainly made my night!
I have included two links, one is an image of the drumsticks, and the second is the setlist for the show.
https://mittmount.com/Bill-Brufords-Sticks.jpg
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/king-crimson/1995/paramount-theatre-denver-co-7bd88650.html
