DENVER — Minutes after the sun rose over Denver on St. Patrick’s Day, hundreds of people filed in to LoDo’s Downtown.
Many of them had camped out the night before to ensure they would be let in.
The music flowed just about as freely as the green beer and Irish whiskey at Channel 93.3’s 11th annual “Keggs and Eggs” party. AMZY, a band from Denver, opened the show for a crowd of bleary-eyed and sleep-deprived party-goers. The four well-dressed gents were a fitting first act of the day. The crunchy sounding and occasionally blues-inspired guitar mixed with heavy vocal melodies sounded like a healthy mix between Arctic Monkeys and a Dan Auerbach side project.
Los Angeles-based band Saint Motel came up next with their unique indie progressive pop sound. There was no lack of energy in the crowd or on stage, despite it being just past 8 a.m. The group didn’t keep the crowd waiting for long, launching into one of their more popular songs, “Cold Cold Man” in the front half of their set list.
Synthesizer, guitars, drums, and brass melded together in a way that only the men of Saint Motel can do. By the end of their short set, the whole crowd was jumping up and down to their hit “Just My Type.”
After a bit of pomp and circumstance on stage and around LoDo’s, including a full seven-piece Irish musical troupe, it was time for another Denver resident gone “big time,” Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.
Sporting his signature beard and bowler’s hat, Rateliff brought the show home with his unique dance moves, tambourine, gravelly voice and Blues Brothers-like stage presence. The spacious LoDo’s was packed wall-to-wall with people all craning to see Rateliff and his “Night Sweats.”
The show ended with their biggest hit, “S.O.B.,” but not before Rateliff politely requested one thing from the crowd.
“I know the lyrics say to ‘give me a drink,’ but please don’t throw any drinks up here on stage.”
Photos and review by FOX31 photojournalist Bryant Vander Weerd