Ana DeJesus, the owner of Morrison's Red Rocks Grill, near where the action started, is especially critical of articles about the episode in the Rocky Mountain News. That publication claimed officers were attacked by so-called Phish-heads trying to "heal" an injured woman through holistic means. In response to this statement, DeJesus snorts, "I'm sure. I don't know where they got that from. I was right there, and that never happened. It never happened." DeJesus's words are echoed by other Grill staffers, including Pat Gerace, a onetime art director for Westword who's found more honest work as a waiter. "Based on what I saw," he says, "everything in the papers was fiction."
According to DeJesus and Gerace, two unruly Phish-heads amid a sea of otherwise mellow devotees are to blame for the entire situation. After 8 p.m. on the evening in question, Gerace expelled an out-of-control Phanatic from the eatery. A friend of his, Kari Prassack, who hails from Pennsylvania, followed him out of the Grill and walked into the side of a moving pickup truck. The News initially reported that the vehicle's driver, who was not ticketed for the accident, fled the scene, but this was untrue; he stopped and immediately rushed to Prassack's aid. So, too, did DeJesus, an emergency medical technician who's training to become a paramedic. "A guy was with her when I got there," she recalls, "and I told him, 'Move over. I'm an EMT.' And he said, 'Excuse me, but I'm a doctor.' And he was--and not some 'holistic' doctor or anything like that. He was a real medical doctor."
DeJesus and the physician immediately determined that the injury sustained by Prassack was minor--a fractured wrist. Nevertheless, concerned Phish-heads began to gather around. When the two caregivers asked them to move back and give Prassack some space, nearly all of them complied. However, two men--the ruffian kicked out by Gerace and one of his friends--responded by beating on the nearby truck. "I told them to chill," Gerace reports. "Whereupon both of them took forceful swings at me.
"Then the two guys jumped into the back of the truck and started stomping up and down. The police pulled them down and arrested them, at which point somebody from the crowd hit the arresting cop with a beer bottle. It was an isolated incident." He continues, "That's when the police shut down the street and started marching everyone toward Bandimere Speedway. A few minutes later we heard the crowd starting to chant, 'Hell no, we won't go.' And from that point on, it was more fun to watch on TV."
Although witnesses at the VFW scrap fingered police for abusive behavior, DeJesus insists that this time around, the law handled things appropriately. "We had a town meeting the day after everything happened," she says, "and I stood up and told everyone at Channels 2, 4, 7 and 9 that they owed the police an apology."
Gerace and DeJesus differ on who is to blame for the matter. In Gerace's view, the town of Morrison was not ready for the onslaught of Phish-heads. "They say they've been planning things since February, but the only preparation I saw was about five trash bags," he says. By contrast, DeJesus feels that Morrison shouldn't have been made to bear the burden and expense of dealing with such a mass migration. "Barry Fey [whose Fey Concerts promoted the Phish dates] is making all this money from these shows," she says. "Why can't he provide for these kids? They could have opened up Red Rocks early, like they used to do for the Grateful Dead, and we would have been fine down here. I think Mr. Barry Fey should come down here and spend a little of the money he's making off us."
Fey's response? The promoter points out that Red Rocks Park was open during last year's Phish concerts--"and there was confrontation after confrontation, there was Mace, there was one guy who was stabbed." In an attempt to prevent a recurrence of these difficulties, representatives from Fey Concerts, Phish and the City of Denver came up with a plan to keep people out of the park. Fey says, "We were instructed to put up more lights and fencing to keep the crowd in control, which cost many thousands of dollars. And it worked--there were no problems at Red Rocks at all." He adds, "I sympathize with the people in Morrison--I wouldn't want to be living there with all of this going on. But there's only so much we can do. I can't control the way these kids act."
As for future visits by Phish, Fey feels the band has grown too large for Red Rocks and may have to play larger Denver-area venues (such as Mile High Stadium) from now on. If that comes to pass, Gerace will be among the few Morrison residents who'll be sad to see the Phish-heads go. "Everybody says all of them are broke," he says, "but that's not entirely true; there are a lot of kids spending daddy's money. When they were here, I made some of the best tips I've ever gotten."
KWMX-FM/107.5, one of the more uninspired spots on the dial of late, switched formats August 2, but its new alter ego, dubbed K-Hits, doesn't yet seem like a big improvement. The music, which is meant to appeal to the demographic currently in thrall to KALC-FM/106 (Alice), covers a lot of territory, but not in a good way; thus far, programmers seem to be going out of their way to play the worst current hits alongside the lamest offerings from the Eighties (e.g., Naked Eyes' "Always Something There to Remind Me"). Just as tepid are Rick Stacy and Leah Brandon, a new morning team imported from Los Angeles station KYSR. To their credit, they aren't trying to compete with Alice's Jamie White in the number of times they say "penis" over the air. Unfortunately, though, their Andy Rooney-meets-Jerry Seinfeld bits are undeniably weak. On one recent show, they cackled wildly while making bland observations about doughnut shops and lawn sprinklers, apparently under the mistaken impression that people tuning in would hear the laughter and assume something funny was going on. Wrong. Turn down that nitrous-oxide feed to the studio, folks.
By the way, am I the only person who's noted that the new nickname of Alice's AM sister station--Ralph--is a slang term for vomiting? Or am I just the only one impolite enough to mention it?
Count D, a co-founder of Lord of Word and the Disciples of Bass who parted from the group under tense circumstances, has resurfaced with a new act: J. Jones & the Soul Pursuit. "It's a blend of old influences and new," Count says. "There's a lot of Curtis Mayfield, as well as Jodeci, R. Kelly and people like that." Lead singer Jamie Jones is also a Lord of Word veteran, as is guitarist Maurice Avatar and numerous others. The sound, though, is closer to R&B than hip-hop. Your first chance to hear it is Saturday, August 17, at the Ogden Theatre, where the band opens for Judge Roughneck.
Opening elsewhere. On Friday, August 16, the Carpetbaggers carry their luggage to the Skyline Cafe; Lionel Young plays at City Spirit; Strung Out goes trainspotting at the Mercury Cafe, with Diesel Boy; and the Idiots wise up at Seven South, with Old Bull's Needle. On Saturday, August 17, Artopia, featuring turns by Kandombe and others, returns to the Eulipions Center; the Czars are rushin' to the Lion's Lair; Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise startles Leftover Salmon at the Fox; and Freak Hungre and Liquid Chicken squawk at Cafe Euphrates. On Monday, August 19, the Reejers come back to the Fox. And on Tuesday, August 20, Bears of the Sun go to the Little Bear. Where two bears are better than one.
--Michael Roberts
Backbeat's e-mail address is: Michael_Roberts@ westword.comMichael_Roberts@