“I can’t say for sure if it was the heat or my nerves. This was back in 2000, and we called our band Agent Provocative. We’d practiced for months, spent days upon days in a cramped basement learning songs we loved. I remember thinking, ‘Dang, it takes a lot of energy to be a drummer.’ We spent the afternoon preparing the garage room where the show would be held. It was Halloween.
“I remember this feeling of excitement and nervousness and a sense of wow. There were so many people. I knew most of them, and it made me feel cool — if that was ever a thing — to know that they came here specifically to see us play. Finally, I did the count-off — ‘Three, two, one’ — and we were terrible! It was as if we all had forgotten everything we had practiced all month. Maybe it was because each of us was just as nervous as the other, or maybe it was the fact that we were not really all that good — but somehow people kept listening. Most of all, I felt alive and had a sense of real possibility.”
Prav Grant will play Bowman’s Vinyl & Lounge, 1312 South Broadway, on Saturday, August 11.
Editor's Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz's website to see more of his work.