To get to Denver I set my alarm for 4am leaving my apartment at 4:30am for my 6:45am flight from O'Hare. My sister-in-law showed up to my apartment at 4:30 and off we went. I said goodbye to Astro and took him out quick. (Shout out to my brother and sister-in-law for taking care of Astro while I'm away in Colorado for the week, and also shout out to my sister-in-law for taking me to the airport at 4:30am.) There was a McDonalds right next to my gate so I got a breakfast sandwich and iced vanilla latte. It was time to board soon afterwards. My seat was next to the window, and the middle seat remained empty. I slept for about an hour of the 2.5 hour flight. The airplane actually made it to the Denver airport quicker than expected. I think we ended up being 15 minutes or so above schedule. The airplane was able to go to it's gate right away, by the time I made it to the baggage claim I only had to wait like 5 minutes until my bag appeared on the conveyor belt. I then made my way to the car rental shuttle, and again only waited like 5 minutes until the shuttle came. It was the fastest I've gone through an airport. My car rental reservation wasn't until 10am, and I got to the car rental place at around 9am. I used the car rental bathroom to change out of my comfy clothes and put on makeup to kill some time. Afterwards I decided to wait in line to see if I could rent my car early. They allowed me to take the car early, but also threw on car protection insurance, and a toll pass which sadly took the total of my car rental from $56 to $115 for just renting a car for 24 hours. (Still a little mad about it.) I was afraid though if I got out of the car protection insurance then I'd for sure get into a crash so I didn't risk it. I was given a silver 2025 Nissan Versa which could be turned on with a button. A car that also shuts itself off, after a few minutes of idling as I found out. When I got the car I sat in it for around 10 or so minutes to decide what to do next as my hotel check in wasn't until 3pm. What I didn't know was that after a couple minutes of being parked with the car on it shut itself off. The screen was still off, and the vents were still blowing out air so I figured it was still on. Even while off you're able to put the car into the different gears. I put the car in drive, and it began rolling backwards so I quickly hit the brake and tried again. I didn't want to hit the car parked behind me so I hit the power button to turn the car off and it turned on instead. (Without an actual key and just a key fob I was so nervous I would lose the key or lock it in the car, thankfully though I was able to keep track of it.)
I decided to drive to the 16th street mall, and found cheap parking through Spothero. (The 16th mall is basically central downtown Denver that has a ton of different stores and restaurants. There's a free shuttle that runs along 16th Street to take you to specific sections of downtown quicker. It's a big area.) I typed in the address to the parking reservation I had made, and ended up in a private apartment parking garage. Since it didn't seem right I had Google Maps start the route over assuming I had driven past the actual parking garage I was supposed to be at. It lead me to the same parking garage. Thankfully it was easy to back out of, and there were a few parking spaces in the entrance before you went in where I was able to figure out what was happening. I went to the reservation listing instead and clicked the navigate button which took me to the correct parking garage. I accidentally ended up in a bus lane, and was unable to get out right away which made the bus behind me angry. :P The parking garage was right next to Union Station so it was an easily remembered marker. In front of Union Station there was an art installment over a splash pad of colorful streamers blowing in the breeze. Apparently it had just been opened to the public the day before, so it's very new. The installment is called, "Sun Splash." (Picture taken by the Denver Post below with the art done by Patrick Shearn.)
I took the shuttle to Larimer Square, which is a neat little section of the 16th Street Mall that has stringed lights that weave back and forth over the street, with Colorado flags hanging down from the lights. Since it's also pride month, there were pride flags hanging as well. When I went to Larimer Square in 2021 it had a few vintage shops that were no longer there, but they did have one. There was also a window display in an alley that contained pig statues with disco balls. May have been another artistic display. After this I wandered around the 16th St. Mall Road, and bought some bottles of water. I was getting hungry at this point, and looked up restaurant options nearby. I found a burger bar that also had milkshakes, and decided on that. (They also had icecream drinks with alcohol, and other cocktails/beer available.) It turned out to be 6 blocks away, but I made the walk, and the restaurant was actually right next to Union Station. This was a pretty perfect location with it being so close to my car. At that point there was a craft fair happening in front of Union Station next to the streamer art display. I looked at a few booths before arriving at the burger bar. At the burger bar I got a classic burger with cheese, mayo, lettuce, and onion along with an Oreo milkshake. In the bar there was a sign pointing to the bathrooms that said "Whiz Palace." The burger bar was called "Hopdoddy Burger Bar." On my way to the restaurant I saw another window art display of giant straws. I called the hotel to see if I could check-in early, but they didn't have a room for 1 person available, and said they would call me when one became available. I hung out at the table a little longer to pass more time before heading to the hotel which was a half hour drive. (At around 1pm Phantom Planet started posting pictures of them being at Red Rock on Instagram. A few fans from Patreon happened to be there at the time, and were able to see them from a distance as they checked out the stage and took pictures). (A few days before the show I direct messaged the Phantom Planet account to see if they would have anytime to say "hi" before the show thinking probably not with it being such a huge show. Unfortunately they were not able to, and of course are free to say no under any circumstances.
I arrived at the hotel at around 2:45, and decided I would see if a room was available yet at the front desk. As I was walking in the employee at the front desk was in the middle of trying to call me to tell me a room was available. I was able to check in a whole 15 minutes early. The hotel was technically a Motel 6. There wasn't much to each room, but it was good enough to have as a place to sleep at quick before leaving the next day. I laid down and tried to rest, since I had basically been up since 4am but was unable to nap. I got ready for the concert before arriving at Red Rock around 5:00 with doors opening at 5:30, and Phantom Planet going on stage at 6:30 as the opener for Gavin Degraw and O.A.R . I was surprised that the park already had stop and go traffic at 5pm. Most people were there to see O.A.R which wouldn't go on until 8:30, but if they had general admission maybe they wanted to be as close as possible. The upper lot was completely full so I was placed in one of the lower lots. Not the lowest one though thankfully. The hike from the parking lot to the ampitheatre was pretty steep and strenuous. You went up one set of stairs only to go up another set of stairs from the upper lot to the theatre. On my way up to the upper lot a snake was slithering on the left side of the stairs. It looked like a typical garden snake, but it was still wild. No one else seemed to notice, or maybe that's just a common sighting in Colorado. It was around 85 degrees at that point so not great for such a steep walk, especially with other fans following behind me. The increase in altitude is no joke and my lungs really felt it. Once getting up there instead of heading right to the general admission section I went to go fill my water bottle at a water filling station. I figured general admission was still pretty far back so I'd be okay sitting further back if it meant I didn't die of dehydration. That particular water bottle is filled with Phantom Planet themed stickers and other fun stickers. The Phantom Planet themed stickers being created by Jody from Patreon. (Shout out to her, the fun stickers encourage me to drink more water.) The line for the water filling station was actually longer than the bathroom line, until we found out there was two, and not just one filling station. I had gotten up to the ampitheatre probably close to 5:45 and then went to go find a place to sit around 6pm.
The reserved ticket section was not blocked off, and none of the employees were double-checking to make sure you had reserved seats. Due to this if you didn't know any better you would probably assume that it was all general admission seats. There was only a single yellow rope that didn't go all the way across that marked where general admission would be. I talked to one of the employees to double-check and she said that the ledges on the sides of the theatre and Row 44 and back was general admission. I sat on one of the ledges, before deciding to find a ledge closer to the stage. I made sure it was okay with the lady already sitting there that I could sit there as well for the opening act, to which she agreed. (the ledges could fit multiple people and were pretty wide.) Around 5 minutes before Phantom Planet's set a loud sound occurred that sounded like a missile was about to hit. It turned out to be a fighter jet, which just appeared out of nowhere to fly over the ampitheatre which was really jarring. When I posted about it on the Patreon Darren said that the noise had scared them a lot too, and that it was the loudest noise he had ever heard. I would have been pissed if I had died right before Phantom Planet's set.
There was quite a bit of empty space in the reserved ticket seating area so it was tempting to go over into the area to get a more clear view of the stage. The temptation did end up winning especially with them being the opening band. The general admission section was pretty packed by then, but much more empty near the front. Probably 99% of the reserved seating people were sitting down as well which was a bummer. Especially for such a special moment for Phantom Planet to be able to play there for the 1st time with their band being over 30 years old. I walked over from the ledge into the 13th row. Since I was technically breaking a rule I didn't want to be way up front. (If someone happened to come and claim the spot I was standing in, I would have left right away, but that didn't happen.) I found out that people like to tailgate in the parking lot before the main act. I stood and danced to the songs while singing along, and was even put on the big screen during their last song. Some O.A.R fans also got up and danced during the last song which is also their most famous song, "California" (The OC theme song). Their set was only 7 songs long, but really impacted the crowd, and a ton of the crowd stood up at the end for a standing ovation. It made me so incredibly proud of the band. Alex talked about how amazing it was to play at the most beautiful venue they've ever played with such a massive crowd. Towards the end of the set Darren must have accidentally hit Alex with his guitar in the side. After they finished a song Alex talked about how we couldn't hear him, but he had just shouted "Owww" at Darren. He said he thought he had broken his rib due to Colorado and it's altitude? (Allegedly it happened on their day off the previous week when Alex traveled to DC for the UFC fight at the White House. I thought he had just been there to watch the fight not participate. Just kidding.) After their last song I walked out of the reserved seating area, and missed them taking a selfie with the crowd in the background due to that. (I think I might have still made it in though). I went and got lemonade and brought it back to the ledge, and watched a little of Gavin Degraw's set when he came on, but didn't really get into his music. It sounded like a mix of country and pop. His singing voice reminded me of Adam Levine from Maroon 5. I do appreciate Maroon 5's stuff, but I'm not a big fan of pop songs in general. I much prefer meaningful lyrics over catchy songs with shallow lyrics. I headed to the top of the theatre to take pictures from above the ampitheatre, and explored the visitor's center. The visitor center had been redone since I last went inside in 2018. They had an updated wall of famous acts up until 2020 now with a huge 3D map of the Red Rock grounds. The 3D map took up a whole wall. It was cool seeing a 3D map of where I had come from the lower lot up to the theatre. I bought a Red Rocks shirt and cool keychain while in the visitors center as well. I stayed for a little bit of O.A.R's set as well. It was really cool seeing the ampitheatre light up after the sun went down. You could also see the Denver city lights way in the distance. I didn't stay for all of O.A.Rs set due to not wanting to deal with the after concert chaos of getting out of the park which supposedly can take up to 2 hours. The lower lots have get out of the park faster which is an advantage, but I decided to leave especially since I would have to get up early the following day to return the rental car and get back to the airport for a shuttle to Estes Park. The stairs down to the lower lot were lit up and looked really cool at night.
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