The item below is a setlist. From the Corrupters 1982 tour of parts of the western United States. NO, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, etc. were not included destinations. However — Breckenridge, Estes Park, Alamosa, Laramie, Casper, Someplace-in-Nebraska that beings with an L (maybe named after a president) and has lot of of corn-fed college students around, and oh, yeah Denver and Boulder were among the debark-setup(ok we didn’t set up, our roadies Sam and Scotty did)-teardown-and-back-on-the-road destinations.
In addition to Laramie and Casper, we visited several other burgs further-up north where — how do they say it? “Where men are men and sheep are nervous!” But I digress. The image below refers specifically to three tour stops: Estes Park Colorado, Rifle Colorado, and Vernal Utah. Please note that the motel logo on the setlist is from where we STAYED, not where we PLAYED. The thing was basically set up for a year on the road, both one-nighters and week-long gigs. Estes Park and Vernal were each a week long, and Rifle was a one-night-stand. Estes Park was a week in Heaven – Vernal, a week someplace else… (sorry Utahans). Oh yeah, I think I already mentioned it, but in comparison Rifle was your typical middle-of-the-road one-night stand. Not Coyote ugly but not “let’s hop on a plane to Vegas and get married” either.
Vernal was the third leg of that particular trip. First stop was Estes Park – setup July 12, 1982 hit the road July 18. But there was a glitch.
I should tell you that for a while we’d been planning a new setlist that put a couple of our most tunes at the stroke of midnight. Living Disaster by Gary Myrick and the Figures, and Sympathy for the Devil by Messrs Jagger and Richard. Living Disaster and Sympathy back to back – what could be wrong with that? So, Wednesday night July 14, at the stroke of midnight we hit it. Got to the end of Disaster and nothing terrible had happened. Killed the night and went about musician stuff – getting into the rack about 4:00 – finally asleep about 5. Six AM. POUND, POUND, POUND on the door “Get out the dam broke! You have about ten minutes to get out of town.” — I’ll leave the details for another story…
We hung around Estes for an extra few days (only because we couldn’t get out of town) and helped with the cleanup. We were able to leave just in time to make it to a recording session at Caribou Ranch (woot! Yet another story.) Then the one-nighter in Rifle. Yes, Rifle Colorado. What better place for the Disaster/Sympathy set list? The next day we were delayed in getting out of town because heavy rains had caused a mudslide on the highway. That’s TWO!
As we pulled into the venue in Vernal, a nice little Utah bar, and no that’s not an oxymoron. Across the road was a dam. A huge one. HUGE. It was getting dark so we couldn’t really see it, but from the sounds of the water it was a very big lake, BIG. While Sam and Scotty were setting up the gear we took a look at the setlists – outside on the porchy-thing where could hear the pounding waves. One of us, don’t remember who, picked up the Disaster/Sympathy setlist, wadded it up, and tossed it in the trash. The list below is what replaced it. No Disasters or Devils anywhere. When we finished playing about 2:00 AM, we got a non-refusable invitation for some skinny dipping in the lake across the highway.
No dam, just a lake. But I swear there are times when I can see the tall mass of concrete in my dreams — cracking.
musica potest, occidere potest vos
Hoarseman
HoarseMan of... 