Ahh, Colorado in San Francisco.  Couldn’t feel any more comfortable at The Independent last night as famed Boulder, Colorado native band Leftover Salmon took the stage to bring everyone into the realm of Rock and Roll.  The Colorado connection running deep and the true pride of the Rockies flowing strong, along with the varied Colorado t-shirts hitting the streets hard to welcome their friends left me wondering where o’ where are my PBR and powder days.  Around 9:30 the room had suddenly filled up and the tension was growing just as fast as the line to the whiskey barrel to wet the dance chops and prepare for a night of Cajun Slam Grass.

The fist set busted into ‘Zombie Jamboree’ and they didn’t let go till the end of the show.  The room couldn’t have been more pleased to embrace everything.  Touching on ‘Carnival Time’ a few songs later kept up the strong energy and flowing rhythmic variations between the diversity of the solos.  Especially great was the transfer between the mellow driven riffs of the deep watery organ into the guitar skills of acclaimed shredder Drew Emmitt.  The improvisational ability and sure technique left the audience fixated as the guitar, banjo, and keys really fueled the track on the high speed chase into Jam Band City.  Vince’s powerful ability to freak the show was hands down great and presented you with the gift of Rock and Roll.  Getting into ‘I ain’t gonna work tomorrow’ really kicked off the jams that took them to the next step. The keys solo stole my mind for a few minutes as I rolled along the side streets of Boulder taking a day hike along the Flat Irons.  Followed by ‘Bend in the River’ the music gave way to a great mellow bridge that led way into some funky organ complemented by the smooth soulful vocals of the keyboardist.  The show gaze at this point took over with the help of a light bulb sliding its way along the banjo neck for some good ole’, down to earth grass time. Into ‘Step on over to the other side’ to help finish off the first set left everyone waiting to see which one of the members was gonna lead the way into the second half of the night.

Second set took off and continued the feelings from Zombie Jamboree to keep the spirits high.  The San Francisco energy was flowing strong and left me reassured that San Francisco was the spot to be, and to ‘Rise up, and wake and bake.’  The banjo led the way by the 3rd song second set keeping the Cajun Jam high.  Major highlights included the sounds of ‘Woody Guthrie’.  The end of the second set was great.  The energy was perfect as the guys went into The Rolling Stone’s ‘Coke and Sympathy’ to really bring down the Rock and Roll vibes.  The vocals were extremely strong with in depth harmonies to bring down the house.  The encore finished the night strong with ‘Mac & Cheese’, ‘Pasta on the Mountain’ and a ‘We want the Funk’ teaser that made me smile a while.  Over all, the second set really was the bang for my buck well worth my Friday night in the city any day.  As the night began to wind down I was reminiscent of my days well and the strive to keep music on the top of the priorities list.  Reminding you to stay up and stay phriendly to all, and to keep music flowing strong, just keep walking to the end