Spring break, getting cheeky and Bob’s belated B-day bash

by Chris Aaland

My college spring breaks were never the rowdy, drunken, sexually driven affairs of many of my classmates. Rather, I preferred to pack a tent, sleeping bag and fly-fishing gear and head off to places like the Green River or the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Sure, I fished the San Juan and the Animas throughout the winter as a college student and young adult. But I longed for strange waters and big rainbows bending my six-weight.

Other years, spring break meant spring training. With friends and relatives in Tucson (my ex-step grandparents who were my next-door neighbors in Wheat Ridge owned a mini-mansion there), it became a staging point for Cleveland Indians games and, in later years, the Colorado Rockies.

Sunshine, cheap tickets and margarita snow cones were the order of the day.

Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band plays the Abbey 3/1.

Now, the week is almost always devoted to Fort Lewis basketball. The Skyhawks are regular attendees at the RMAC Shootout at the cow palace known as the Colorado State Fair Events Center — an old-school arena more suited to rodeos than championship hoops. I’m hoping this year is no different, assuming the Skyhawk men and/or women won their first round games on Tuesday (my deadline preceded game time by about seven hours). While I have to work the Pueblo games as an FLC athletic administrator, Otto gets to play in a bouncy castle for three or four hours, supervised by student-athletes from across the conference.

But I know some of you seek sun, powder and booze-filled nights for spring break. If so, that 18 inches of fresh snow that fell Monday night at Purgatory should offer welcome relief from the crusty stuff you’ve been cutting turns on. And there are enough entertainment options to offer up ample nightlife.

Kick off spring break in style with Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band at 9 p.m. tonight (Thurs., March 1) at the Abbey Theatre. This six-piece began as a party, grew into a band, evolved into a sound and emerged as an institution. Their PR kit hypes that the band is “ready to shake the world, one cheek at a time.” (I award bonus points to any band with such a claim.) They released their first album, “Now You Know,” in 2007. Since their arrival on the scene in 2002, they have secured slots at such festivals as Wakarusa, Jam Cruise, Jazz Aspen, Floyd Fest and more. Their second studio album, “Doin’ it Hard,” reflects their approach to music, touring, performing, recording and life in general. The funky sextet consists of: Lee Allen (drums), Mary Frances (keyboards, vocals); Greg Hollowell (tenor sax, baritone sax, flute); Al Al Ingram (bass, vocals); Derrick Johnson (trombone); and J.P. Miller (guitar, vocals).

Rock & roll’s poet laureate, Bob Dylan, turned 70 last May. A bunch of local musicians from Pagosa Springs and Durango will pay tribute by covering his Royal Bobness with a Bob Dylan Tribute at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Henry Strater Theatre. Eli Carpenter, whose Celtic band, Big’ns, is a regular at the Irish Embassy Pub, came up with the idea and enlisted a bunch of his buddies to throw the belated birthday bash. Among those participating in the soirée are Erik Nordstrom (Lawn Chair Kings, Farmington Hill); Robin Davis (Waiting on Trial); Pat Dressen (Jack Ten High, formerly of the Badly Bent); and David Richter, a Pagosa Springs guitar whiz. Individually, these guys play in bands that have appeared on the stages of countless local festivals, including Telluride Bluegrass, RockyGrass, the Durango Bluegrass Meltdown, Four Corners Folk Festival and more.

The Summit’s week features the Bob Floyd Band tonight. Hailing from Austin, Texas, this outfit was weaned on classic rock greats like Jimi Hendrix to modern, electro-pop acts like MGMT and everything in between. Expect to hear influences ranging from the Beatles and Pink Floyd to the Dave Mathews Band and Radiohead, with a little country, reggae and funk thrown in for good measure.

Also on tap at the Summit is the monthly First Friday pairing of music and live visual arts. This Friday’s bill includes Prime Element, Mane Rok, Deejay Tense and One Eyed Kings.

Ska’s regular Thursday Chili Night (the Ska-B-Q is a summer affair, so let’s get our semantics right) features the Celtic sounds of Patrick’s Crossing from 5-7 p.m. tonight and complimentary chili and tortillas, plus beer specials.

This week’s Moe’s lineup includes a disco party with DJ Soltron at 9 p.m. Friday, dancing with DJ Treazon at 9 p.m. Saturday and Musica del Mundo at 9 p.m. Sunday.

Elsewhere: Pete Giuliani plays an acoustic happy hour at El Rancho from 5-8 p.m. Friday; Tumblin’ Dice rock Desperados in the Centennial Plaza at 7 p.m. Friday; and DJ Blanco spins at the Summit on Saturday.

This week’s Top Shelf list recounts two of my favorite spring break memories:

- Black Canyon of the Gunnison, 1985. My basketball team had been eliminated from regional qualifying for the Colorado 4A playoffs a week earlier, and my stepdad thought a trek to the Gunnison would get my mind off it. He was fishing about a half-mile up from me when he heard my four-letter scream echo up the canyon. I’d lost the biggest trout of my life — probably an 8-pound rainbow — at the net. It would be more than a decade before I’d hook a trout that big again.

- Green River, 1989. Bill Deter, Steve Miller and I picked up Bill’s brother, Kyle, at Mesa State and headed north over Douglas Pass toward big trout. We tried to four-wheel a little-used oil road down to the Red Creek Rapids of the Green to avoid the crowds a few miles above and below us and got my Jeep stuck. We decided to hike the last two or three miles, ignoring my ride. We made it to the river and caught a few nice trout — then, miraculously, ran into a serious trout bum from Steamboat Springs who fished with my old man for decades. We hiked down the river, got a ride back to the Jeep, drank his homebrew around the campfire and ate some of his black-pepper crusted elk steaks. Slurping illegal moonshine (his best was a cherry-flavored dogbolter) in the land of Brigham Young is a special pleasure I highly recommend.

Now the memories are swirlin’ in the eddies of our minds? E-mail me at chrisa@gobrainstorm.net.