Live music is happening in Colorado. No, it’s not like it was. There are no rooms packed elbow to elbow, there are no festivals, and this is no Red Rocks or any of the other exceptional outdoor live music venues we typically enjoy every summer. But there is live music.
Over the past two weekends I’ve driven over a thousand miles in-state, during which I saw or heard live music taking place in the Poudre Canyon, Grand Lake, Snowmass, Basalt and Buena Vista.
This past Saturday my girlfriend Claire and I hosted a driveway concert at her house in suburbia Brighton with Float Like A Buffalo. At nearly 100 degrees the driveway was hot, and obviously (since we were social distancing) not too many people could be seen, though a few brave souls did hang with us.
The band works hard to fit locally into the spaces carved by the pure funky-soul of the Motet, the jazz infused funk of Euforquestra, and the big horn ska of 12 Cents for Marvin among Colorado’s top tier of horn driven bands.
They do drive some ska inspired music. They do some soul driven music and they do have moments where they exert themselves in the jazz vein. But you’d really have to go back to the late 60s/early 70s bands like Pacific Gas & Electric, Ides of March and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to authenticate Float Like A Buffalo as a horn driven rock band.
One of the songs in their set is being recorded as a single, which I hope is a September release. As I sat and drifted into the music, the groove and essence of the performance took me back to the 1969 CTA debut, and that band’s stellar cover of the Steve Winwood classic I’m A Man… a song Float Like a Buffalo would do an admirable job covering themselves.
They’ve already played a COVID restricted summer of yard and driveway shows and will be a part of Levitt In Your Living Room on AUG 12. Next, they hope that 2021 affords them an opportunity to play to audiences in other states, and around ours (much more likely). Whoever gets to see them is in for a treat.
Chris K's Colorado Playlist 