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The Denver Bootleg: Skull Full of Blues

Preschoolers couldn't get enough of Skull Full of Blues.
Karl Christian Krumpholz

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Jon Grinder of Skull Full of Blues: “The preschool was in a bungalow-style house that had been converted to learning space. There was nowhere inside to set up, so we played in the corner of the yard, standing on tarps and old blankets laid out on the wet grass. Being a fundraising event, the wine was flowing freely. Most of the parents were too busy schmoozing and sipping vino to pay a lot of attention to the punk/blues band in the corner. But the kids, mostly three- to five-year-olds, were very aware of us.

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Karl Christian Krumpholz
“A few of them were doing the spastic squirming that toddlers think of as dancing. But most of them stood a few yards away and stared, unmoving and unblinking, the way only  small kids can. It became our mission to get all of them to dance, so we started playing faster and louder. Suddenly, it happened! Even the littlest, shyest kids couldn’t stand still for the song that finally caused the organizers to ask us to turn the volume down. Who would have thought that preschoolers would love the Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ so much?”

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Karl Christian Krumpholz
Skull Full of Blues plays the Englewood Tavern on Tuesday, December 31.

Editor's Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the stories of local bands by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz's website to see more of his work.

Correction: Due to an editor's error, an earlier version of this story misidentified the band's name in the text.