Well here it is.  It is now, at the age of 26, that I have come to realize these important life lessons when it comes to attending concerts at Red Rocks.

A) Always tailgate with Chipotle.  We recently made the mistake of tailgating with Qdoba and DUDE, NO.  Oh and do not forget the growler of homebrew.  Or the glasses to drink said homebrew from.

B) Reserved seating is where it’s at.  Okay, so I actually went to a concert earlier this summer where I did not have reserved seating and had to sit three rows from the very top with the high school girls and their moms, but that’s kind of exactly my point.

C) Practice post-show patience.  Unless you’re doing that thing where you ditch out early, traffic is going to be a nearly unavoidable nightmare.  The only way to avoid it, is to embrace it.  Crank some music, bring some snacks and enjoy tailgate 2.0.

We saw Sam Smith at Red Rocks last night and WOW.  I have seen some good shows at Red Rocks — John Mayer, The Beach Boys, Foster the People — and Sam Smith wasn’t the most exciting performance I’ve ever seen but THAT VOICE.  My ears were feeling very lucky last night.  He even did a mash-up cover of “Tears Dry on Their Own” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” be still my heart!  I can vouch that he sounds even better live than he does on his album.  Also, how incredibly beautiful and refreshing to see someone put their whole bleeding heart out in front of the world.  What an absolute gem.

P.S. We are doing Round 2 of weeknight concerts tonight so if you see me tweeting weird stuffs tomorrow, know that it’s because I’m running on limited sleep…