Most people who’ve spent a significant amount of time in either place know about the rivalry between Vail and Aspen. Sure, they’re both fancy ski towns full of expensive condos and stellar mountains, but somehow (like Catholicism and Protestantism), there exists a rift between them. Aspen (being clearly the less mature of the two) has even gone the length of manufacturing “Vail Sucks” T-shirts. We don’t, of course, think Vail sucks, but we have to admit, Aspen has something that Vail is sorely lacking: a nice concert venue for rock shows.
It's great to have the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek, but it is best-suited for musicians who play to seated audiences, comedians, ballets and plays.
Up until last spring, we HAD a rock venue. Although it held a special place in our hearts and was full of character in all of its bouncing floor glory, in many ways club 8150 was kind of a dive. And now it is just a hole in the ground waiting to be occupied by the forthcoming Solaris project.
Even during times of year when nothing can be heard but crickets and jackhammers in both Vail and Aspen, Aspen, with its one charming little rock venue, manages to bring in hundreds of concert-goers. On April 30, amid the noise of jackhammers and tumbleweed (or tarps or whatever) blowing down the streets, beloved sister duo Tegan & Sara played the Belly Up. The audience probably represented quadruple the number of the town’s population at that point in the year. The show was T & S’s only tour stop in Colorado and people flocked from far and wide. Many in the audience had flown in from Denver ... a few had followed the band from New Mexico.
When the lights hit the audience during the set of opening act An Horse, the band’s Kate Cooper observed, “Wow … this is intimate. You people are very lucky.”
Lucky indeed. Tegan & Sara, who played their second Coachella Festival just days before the Aspen show and have appeared on David Letterman and The Tonight Show, probably haven’t played a venue as small as the Belly Up since about 2002.
The venue, located smack in the middle of town adjacent from Aspen’s gondola building, features a subterranean lounge, stage, dance floor, two bars, food service and fantastic acoustics. Opened in 2005 by Michael Goldberg, the Belly Up holds a capacity of a mere 450 bodies ... but that doesn’t stop A-list musicians from playing here.
Some of our other favorite musicians the Belly Up has booked over the next couple of months include Ani DiFranco (June 18), Boy George (July 10) and Andrew Bird (July 18). We can’t wait.
Tegan & Sara's Sara Quin also commented on the intimacy of the Belly Up, after which Tegan began an amusing impersonation of someone coming to the show after riding the ski lift, to which Sara knowledgeably pointed out that the lifts had closed a couple weeks previous. It was almost like having your own conversation with them. It was, suffice it to say, awesome.
If you haven’t checked out the Belly Up, you really should. Aspen … we’re jealous.
by Shauna Farnell
