The humble walls of the Bluebird Theater bore witness to a unique expose of talent on Thursday night. Astronautlis invigorated the crowd for an hour before passing the baton of the stage on to Buck 65.
The show began promptly at 9 p.m., with Astronautalis literally running onto the stage. After a song, he begged the crowd’s forgiveness for his shortness of breath, as he always forgets about the air here. This, of course, was hard to tell as he belted out “Thomas Jefferson” and “Skeleton (Everybody’s Favourite).” From there, Astronautalis (or Andy Bothwell) began taunting the audience, teasing them for their taste in heavier beers and how to him they taste like a church pew.
“I’m from Florida, man,” he said. “I’m a Southern idiot. I like Bud Light and shitty whiskey.” He also mentions to the crowd that he spent some time living in Creed, Colorado, although now he bases himself out of Minneapolis.
Sporting a “Free Lil’ Boosie shirt,” he goes on poking fun at Colorado’s recent legalization laws and speaks to the throng of fans about how strange it is to see people smoking vaporizer pens and imitating a “vape face.”
He goes in to a new song he recorded with his good friend POS, to “Dimitri Mendeleev” and then it is time for the free styling section he does with all of his shows. He calls out to the crowd for topics to rap about, receiving requests of, Kilimanjaro, euthanasia, Mr. Rogers, Pete Rose, Charlemagne, and penguins. As always, this was the highlight of the show. He goes on for a roughly seven minutes worth of free styling about theses topics, both mesmerizing the crowd and making them laugh. For the rest of his upbeat performance, he jumps in and out of the assembly, leaving no patron able to keep from jumping along with him.
During a quick intermission, the venue filled up a bit more and the house played an array of Tupac. Buck 65 came on stage to tinker with the turntable, and I girl from the stage right yelled, “Let’s go Bucky!”
When Buck 65 greets the mic to being his set, he enlightens the gathering of fans with his mood by stating, “I haven’t eaten or slept in days, this could be a weird one.”
He danced around the stage with limited robotic movement in his red shoes and hat as he performed his quirky alternative rap tracks. He devoted a good amount of time to entertaining the gathering with discussion about various parts of his life, including a past wife, her lost cat, and a cancer scare.
He plays the favorite, “Bandits” and then “Laundromat Boogie” while several members of the audience sang along in unison, including a particularly well-dressed gentleman who also knew fairly intimate details in each of the performers stories. That, and the t-shirt he adorned with “Colfax” splashed across the front; prove that Buck 65 has history in Denver.
He then discussed more about his past relationships, using it as a gateway into playing what he called the “saddest song I’ve ever been associated with,” a song called “She Said Yes.”
The rest of the night was filled with his eccentric songs, dark but humorous remarks on life and love, and more interaction with clearly long-time fans. The tour, who spent their first night in Denver, will continue on through the next week and a half, ending in Seattle.