Cervantes is a dirty, cavernous and drafty room in the sketchy Five Points neighborhood of downtown Denver. No matter what people try to tell me, I do not see Five Points turning around any time soon. No impending Starbucks invasion, or the human assembly-line imagery of Agrestic's little boxes to worry about here. Every city needs a rough area though, why should Denver be sanitized?

The brief uninspired set by Los Angeles MC, Subtitle, provided distraction, er...entertainment while Islands got their gear in place. Looking like he just woke from an extended nap, he rapped over iPod tracks and singled out people who weren't dancing. I hate feigned outrage as much as I hate feigned enthusiasm.

Finally....Islands were ready to rawk out the sparse crowd dwarfed in the giant room. The audience needs to be commended, however. Most managed to resist the temptation of slumber to stick it out and see live music on a school night. The glass is always half empty side of me begs to mention that there weren't that many people to begin with. Couple a small crowd in a large venue and the results look sad. Sadder than passed out kiddies on the diseased, pleather couches that ring the Cervantes floor. Reminded me of post-collegiate, European travel. Imagine the dirtiest hostel you have ever been to - polar opposite to the German kind with delicious breakfast and spartan facilities and more the sleep-with-one-eye-open establishments. Previous tenant: the gallows. Now renovated into a factory farm of bunk beds for broke backpackers. Every one of you who were napping reminded me of this. I blame the heavy Grateful Dead decor for enabling such a fiasco.

Ah yes, the show. The sound was awful. Nick Diamond's vocals were barely audible. When the crowd jeered for higher ampage they got ear-piercing feedback instead. The bassist took what seemed like a bathroom break and Diamond summoned Subtitle back to the stage for impromptu freestyle filler over a lets-look-busy jam. Subtitle fallaciously thought his cue for "...Whalebone" had arrived when he hit the proverbial freestyle wall, pun intended, and sulk-rapped, "I thought we were doing Whalebone" a few times before walking off-stage. "Tsuxiit" instrumental followed. Pre-planned setlist item, or sly dodge around sound problems? Next up was "Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone" providing quick redemption for bleary-eyed Subtitle. He nailed the hip-hop interjection as well as Busdriver did on the record.

That my friends was how my Tuesday night ended. Twas an extremely long day that for me began in Los Angeles, and ended with if nothing else, another memorable chapter in the early days of Islands, Denver and the Merry Swankster.

-- -- --
Islands - Abominable Snow

I kill me.

Previously:
Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby
I am a rock, They are the Islands...
Islands – Live @ the Knitting Factory, New York City. 12.6.2005

//Islands - site
//Islands - Myspace
//Islands - Return to the Sea - buy