★★★ Pleading for a return to Red Rocks Amphitheater ★★★

[Bosco]

If anyone of importance reads this, please consider a return to Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado.

Summer 2024, will be the 25th Anniversary of The Chemical Brothers first and only appearance at Red Rocks. I'm sure you've teased the idea of a return in the past, but demand/interest probably wasn't where it needed to be. With a new album on the way, and maybe a resurgence of interest from a North American crowd, I'm feeling NOW (well, next year) is the time!

Invite some old time constituents/friends: The Prodigy, Underworld, Leftfield, Orbital, Fatboy Slim, Soulwax/2ManyDjs, Erol Alkan, The Avalanches, etc... and make a weekend blowout! There is a bunch of deprived fans of all these artists that if you put them all in one spot, people will travel to YOU. For example, this year's Coachella (2023) was highly tantalizing, but majority of people were priced out by Coachella's lofty expense and logistics. Now take away the über expensive festival, and trade it for a carefully curated weekend to the Mecca of outdoor concerts... Baby, you got a stew going!

and just because, I'm going to squeeze in another reference...

If you build it, they will come.

Thank you, and Don't Stop The (Red) Rock(s)

From 1999:

[shakermaker]

signed

[whirlygirl]

This would be incredible.

[Enjoyed]

Bosco pitched this idea to me after we all travelled to Denver to see you last year.

I was ready to give HIM the money for the idea. And would be equally ready to hand over the money to YOU for a ticket.

I don't have many life goals. But to see The Chemical Brothers at Red Rocks has been one since I watched that footage back in 1999.

Would 100% attend, and would encourage everyone I know to join me.

[Bosco]

Thanks for making the title stick out a bit more, Csar!

I'm pretty confident this would be a pretty big hit. I hope the Chemical Brothers team think so too!

[rynostar]

Doing some early legwork into the idea.

The original took place on Saturday July 17, 1999. July 17th is the Wednesday next year so an exact 25 years date is not possible. Maybe the Friday or Saturday after (19/20th).

Here is the booking link for Red Rocks. Nothing on the 2024 Calendar as of yet. Suspect booking would be taking place right now for next year. This year looks like every night is booked through the whole Summer.

Believe United Talent Agency is still the booking agent for Tom and Ed in North America. UTA also represents 2manydjs in NA & SA. One comparable is that deadmau5 is playing Red Rocks in November and is also represented by UTA.

If I recall from our group conversations at 2019 California shows with Errol, overall costs for one show is well over $1M (logistics, staffing, insurance, setup, catering, security). 

It sounds monumental in planning, but it could work. My friend from Grad School who lives in Denver just visited me last weekend. She said I could come any time. Any West Coast show is almost a "Shut Up And Take My Money!" situation for me when shows are announced. 

[Bosco]

The original took place on Saturday July 17, 1999. July 17th is the Wednesday next year so an exact 25 years date is not possible. Maybe the Friday or Saturday after (19/20th).

A "true" 25 year anniversary with exact matching date is not necessary. Any date at red rocks next year would be a 25th anniversary nod in my mind.

Weekend dates would only be a priority if they make it into a small fest with musical support or it's specified as a "unique" performance. Otherwise, a weekday would be fine, with the exception it would be inconvenient for non-Coloradans. Thus, less attendance.

The million+ figure seems like a lot per show. Easy math suggests they are way below that with past show ticket sales alone...

[rynostar]

The million+ figure seems like a lot per show. Easy math suggests they are way below that with past show ticket sales alone...

That might be the figure a "US mini tour" would cost if you add in all the shows. It was a passing conversation with Errol so I am probably entirely wrong on the figure due to my hazy memory and state of euphoria at the time. 

It's definitely not cheap to put on the show though after paying everyone involved. 

[shakermaker]

July 17th is the Wednesday next year so an exact 25 years date is not possible.

not possible? they host week night shows. (in fact most shows I have ever wanted to go to there were on week nights...)

It's definitely not cheap to put on the show though after paying everyone involved

time to revive that zune sponsorship.

[rynostar]

not possible? they host week night shows. (in fact most shows I have ever wanted to go to there were on week nights...)

It's more fun on a weekend. You don't get the typical Tuesday night crowd (see Seattle thread).

Okay...I'm being too sarcastic here...I'll see myself out..

time to revive that zune sponsorship.

We could also see if the folks at N-gage are still need promoting as well...

Okay...this time I'm really out the door...

[Bosco]

lol

jokes aside, a sponsorship would be huge. Call up  Apple Music or Apple+, and let them stream the show like they did for the 2015 Roundhouse.

Also,  there could be some experimental projections done on the rocks.

[Bosco]

resurrecting a few things from 1999 with the help of internet archive:

KTCL (Denver radio station & local show promoter) review
https://web.archive.org/web/20000124030147/http://ktcl.com/1.html

Click for Review

KTCL's "Rave On The Rocks" at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The massive outdoor gathering brought 8,000 people from around the globe to see the first time performance of FatBoy Slim and the Chemical Brothers performing live in what is considered one of the best outdoor venues in the world. Stories below Provided by Ink Blot Magazine "Are you guys here to see Harry Connick Jr.?" The girls in reception at the Lakewood, CO Sheraton are cute, but I don't get the feeling they're on our wavelength."Um, no," Pete responds, managing to hold back any condescending laughter. "We're here to see Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers." He looks in vain for a sign of recognition in her face, then goes back to filling out the security deposit form. A few seconds later, the same girl looks up from her keyboard, all quizzical-like. "Who are The Fratboys?" Welcome to Middle America, where electronic music goes to die. Suburban Denver is a surreal place to be, especially after a 22-hour drive across the desert and over the Rockies. But The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim chose this beautiful (if largely funk-free) setting to play their first-ever show together in America, and my compatriots and I were left with no other choice. There was only one place to be on July 17, 1999, and the Lakewood Sheraton was as close as we were going to get. Hotel clerks notwithstanding, this show is a sure sign that Fatboy and the Chemicals have made inroads into the American musical consciousness that would have been unfathomable just five years ago. For all the talk of 1997's failed "electronica revolution," these two titans of dance music are about to play to a crowd of crowd of 8,000 lily-white suburban kids, 8,000 miles from Brighton, in a five-bucks-a-beer venue usually reserved for the Allman Brothers and Phish. Things have changed, and tonight, courtesy of MTVOnline, the revolution will even be televised. Road Rule No. 1: Bring some comedy CDs/tapes. Driving music is essential, but not as essential as a human that can keep your driver awake after the rest of the car has gone asleep. Books on tape are good, but laughter is the best stimulant. We're loaded down with comedy CDs, and right now Denis Leary's "Lock 'n' Load" is getting Pete through a long stretch of desert driving. "...I'm gonna open my own bar. It's gonna be the most retro bar in the history of New York. We're gonna serve coffee, donuts, beer, cigarettes, and whiskey, and that's it. We're gonna play the Rolling Stones 24 hours a day. All Stones all the time. No house, no techno, no rave...no Chemical Brothers, no Chemical Sisters, no hipskiptrip fuckin' hop. Stones. 24 hours a day..." --Denis Leary Unfortunately, Denis Leary is not very funny. He tries hard to be this tough, anti-PC smoker icon, but his bile sounds phoney - a third rate Bill Hicks without the vision. But apparently Denis knows who the Chemical Brothers are, and he clearly believes his audience does too. And if reactionary America has taken the Chemical Brothers as lingua franca for techno, perhaps this won't be the last time they fill one of Middle America's amphitheaters with their glorious noise. Of course there is the matter of new album Surrender. It's filled with hard, psychedelic techno that will likely throw the American industry and press - who had the Chemicals pegged as a dance music starter kit for rock fans - for an unpleasant loop. But that's not to say their popularity is going to suffer at all. You see, the Brothers know a secret: Journalists don't buy records. Kids do, and the kids apparently want hard, psychedelic techno in the water supply as soon as possible. Road Rule No. 2: No normalcy allowed. Eliminate expectations. Avoid sleep at all costs, overdose on caffeine and become one with your inevitably odd surroundings. As the great Bill Hicks once said: "Squeegee your third eye." On our first night in Denver we decide to capitalize on our total, delirious exhaustion by venturing out to a grotty after-hours club called, auspiciously enough, Amsterdam. An hour here, surrounded by Denver's most dedicated party people, and the case for Surrender is virtually closed. There's not a breakbeat or house track in earshot - 130 bpm techno is on the evening's menu - and virtually everyone in attendance has tickets for Red Rocks. Here we go. Entering the venue the next night, things have picked up where we left off on Friday. Pre-gig ravers are out in full force, already dancing maniacally to - you guessed it - hard, psychedelic techno. And Fatboy Slim, perhaps the most dedicated crowd pleaser on two turntables, is not about to let them down. While his set is still peppered with pleasing novelty - including big beat dubplates of "When Doves Cry" and "Taxman" - Norman's got his acid house hat on for this show, much to the delight of the glow-stick-waving crowd. Sensing an approaching epiphany as his two-hour set nears its close, he throws down Underworld's "Born Slippy," and things take a turn for the mental. Following it up with his own "Right Here Right Now" and "Praise You" singles (the latter inciting perhaps the first-ever rave singalong), he then scribbles something on a piece of paper and holds it up for the cameras. it says, just in case anyone had forgotten the important stuff. Then he starts waving a giant smiley-face flag, the last Acid House Rebel, Bono on three Es. People go berserk. He holds another scribbled note up to the camera. This time it says: Third eye sufficiently squeegeed, we are now ready for the Chemicals' mind-bending assault, and without delay it is upon us. They kick things off with "Hey Boy Hey Girl" - not their finest hour, but a purposeful pointer into Surrender's techno hinterlands. The decibel count is upped by "Block Rockin' Beats," and the sensory assault rounded out by strobe explosions on an incredible, stop-and-start rendition of "Song to the Siren." The Chemicals have become a more adventurous live band, too, and almost every song here is twisted into unfamiliar shapes, as Tom and Ed scramble around, excitedly slamming down new loops, blasting out synth riffs and punching the air with glee. Only a curmudgeon would claim that this isn't a "live" show, regardless of how many of the sounds are prerecorded. It's more creative, energetic, and dynamic than 90 percent of the rock shows you'll see this year, that's for sure. Road Rule No. 3: Ignore the down side, and indulge. That funny noise your car's engine is making will probably go away. You can cut down on your spending next weekend. Sleep is overrated, and junk food never killed anyone in one weekend. Order as many drinks as the hotel bar will serve you, make coffee in the bathroom and never make the bed. Make it worth the trip. The psyched-up Chemicals do tend to wander a bit, though, and more than one of us decided that sitting and watching the pretty lights was an appropriate response to "The Sunshine Underground" and a mashed-up "Setting Sun." And while reviving the minimalist techno of "It Doesn't Matter" - arguably Dig Your Own Hole's forgotten track - makes sense in the context of this show, it doesn't make us miss "Leave Home" any less. No matter, because we all know they're going to close with "The Private Psychedelic Reel." They do, it's great, and everyone goes home happy, confused and a little deafer than before.

Calendar empty.

MTV 'Rave on the Rocks' webpage:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010106125900/http://www.mtv.com/sendme.tin?page=/news/gallery/c/chemfatpromo.html

MTV 'Rave on the Rocks' interview (a little more fleshed-out than video interview):

Click for Interview

Before the Chemical Brothers hit the stage at Red Rocks for their KTCL "Rave On the Rocks" set, MTV Online sat 'em down and asked about their approach to performing live. Join us as Tom Rowlands (with spectacles) and Ed Simons (without) reveal what it takes for a pair of DJs to put on a successful stage show.
MTV Online: How do you feel about playing Red Rocks, Colorado, with its whole connection with U2's "Under a Blood Red Sky?"
Ed Simons: It's cool. It's a brilliant place.
Tom Rowlands: We like playing in the outdoors. Nice people dancing under the stars. It's a beautiful thing. As long as it doesn't rain, of course.
MTV: How's your whole tour going?
ES: It's going well. It's been kind of interesting to see the reaction to this kind of music. The music we're playing is different. We got some new songs. It leaves people in a different place than previously. It's kind of less bombastic, but it still kind of bombastic.
TR: We're doing all sorts of shows... like last week, we were doing this whole cyberfest thing, which was sort of like a rave, and today we are playing here, which is like "[the] home of rocking" in Red Rocks. And next week we're playing Woodstock, so it's, like, all different things together, which is nice.
MTV: Any interesting stuff that has happened so far?
ES: No, nothing interesting ever happens to us. No, we played this rave in San Francisco, which is like one of the biggest raves, and it was good for us to play. There was people of all ages there and stuff.
There's a difference here in America. There's a difference of age structures, and it felt like we were playing and getting across to people in a cool way.
TR: It was like when we first came to America in 1994, and we used to go to Orlando and play the raves there, which was exciting.... It's still good to know that our music means something in those kinds of circles.
ES: The whole kind of "electronica" thing kind of made a barrier between the people making dance music and the kids that go out and enjoy it. In a rave situation, it creates a different feeling of what the music is for, or how it can be enjoyed, so it's good to just go to a rave and play it and enjoy it, which is what we've always done.
MTV: Can you tell us a little about the visuals in your show?
ES: They are done by people called Vegetable Vision. They're good friends of ours, Adam and Earl, and they put together these film loops, and they started using video now. When we play live, it's quite right to hear the music and to sort-of drift off into different aspects of it, and the visuals help to give it that psychedelic effect, with the light shows and everything. What we wanted to do is make this incredible environment when you hear our music.
MTV: Can you explain what happens during your live set?
TR: We're basically doing remixing of our own records, but live, like on one channel, you'll have a snare drum. One, you have a kick drum. One, you have the bassline. One, you have a snip of the vocals. We've got no desire to sort-of replicate the recorded version. When we play live, it gives us the chance to really play around with it and often create new things. A lot of jamming goes on, we find. The machines that we work with, since we've worked with them for a long time, it's very intuitive, and we can sort-of make new songs as we go. And that's what keeps us excited about doing it.
On the last two [tours], when we came to America, we were jamming, and a lot of that stuff came onto this record, and ideas and how stuff was working, so it was cool. "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" totally just came out of playing live. We used to play as an encore, and it was only kind of half-written, and we used to just make up the rest as we went.
MTV: Do you have anything to say to kids who want to go into this line of work?
TR: Good luck. Well, if you've got an idea, don't be afraid of doing it. You don't have to know. There's no exam or qualifications for music. You just have to have ideas. You could do it in your bedroom, on a sh**ty little hi-fi, on cheap gear. Some of the stuff we did wasn't on big expensive gear in studios, so it's just the idea if you get it.
ES: The best way to get your music out there [is] don't trouble record companies. If you make one album and give it to the right DJ, you are in the right direction.

* * *

The Chemical Brothers' new album, Surrender, is in stores now.

[Bosco]

A photographer helping the cause this morning by sharing some promo photos from the event back in 1999 and currently part of Tom and Ed's timeline on instagram:

View this post on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

And yes, I realize with me hyping a past event and having really no solid ground for a future performance, I'm setting myself up for unwarranted disappointment...

[rynostar]

Ha! The first shot in the second story is the other angle from ~9:35 in the video way at the top of the page. Nice.

[Stefan]

That would be an amazing thing to happen!

Also, those pics are great, haven't seen them before

[shakermaker]

could it be a coincidence that Bosco starts this thread AND that photographer posts his photos AND that it's exactly 347 days away from the 25th anniversary AND that I ran out of coffee this morning??? 

[Bosco]

could it be a coincidence that Bosco starts this thread AND that photographer posts his photos AND that it's exactly 347 days away from the 25th anniversary AND that I ran out of coffee this morning???

One could say I'm formally part of the Red Rock's chapter of Illuminati. I did see Daft Punk in 2007 at Red Rocks, and their pyramid stage setup is very reminiscent of the Eye of Providence. 

[shakermaker]

oh man I regret missing that daft punk show.

also good news I found I had another bag of coffee already. it was just not in the usual place.

[sneakerbeater]

Honestly if this happened I would have to do some serious consideration about going to red rocks! 

[;]

I just went on vacation to Colorado, and though the drive was rather miserable, I'm so desperate for an East Coast show I would go in an instant. And wow, this would be incredible timing, as I've just been getting into Fatboy Slim, and I watch 2manydj's Under The Covers stuff on loop. If this were to happen, it would be several dreams all checked off in one weekend. Incredible idea, too! (Or, they could just come to New York... maybe both? Nah, that's asking too much   )