Aspen Colorado Activities – Live Musical Entertainment Downtown

Aspen Bud Light Spring Jam concert - Billy Morrison from Billy Idol band (Photo credit: richpalpine)

Aspenites and visitors were treated to some great live entertainment a couple of weekends ago. We heard some great hard rocking music in the downtown core – one of the best Aspen Colorado activities one can experience!

As it was nearing the end of this ski season, and having been for the most part cooped up for the winter, my girlfriend and I were eager to take in some late-season musical entertainment and decided to check out the Bud Light Spring Jam concert in downtown Aspen.

We wandered down to mall and found out that the originally-scheduled band, Group Love, had to cancel at the last minute, but that they had come up with a replacement band. In the meantime, a DJ playing some techno-ish club tunes was attempting to warm up the crowd.

Bored, frankly, by the warm-up DJ um… music (sorry, just don’t like that genre), we were about to leave, but decided to stay long enough to see what the replacement band was like. Boy am I glad we did!

Somehow, they (I’ve heard rumor it was Deric Gunshor, the Aspen Skiing Company and Michael Goldberg – Belly Up Aspen) managed to put together a fantastic show by “The Magnificent 7”.

I didn’t recognize the band name, but when the members were being introduced, the name Billy Idol was being floated around. One never really knows what’s real sometimes at these kind of events (especially at the last minute), but one name, Steve Stevens, caught my attention.

It turns out that The Magnificent 7 was comprised largely of members of the current Billy Idol band, featuring Billy Morrison on guitar and vocals and celebrated guitarist, Steve Stevens (THE Steve Stevens!), on lead guitar!

Now, I really have never been a true Billy Idol fan, but as a product of the early MTV era, I did really like a few of his hits like “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell”. In a previous life, I even used to play guitar on White Wedding in a local Aspen band.

We stayed quite awhile and got our fill not only of classic Billy Idol tunes, but also of some other great covers, such as “Surrender” by Cheap Trick and “Suffragette City” by David Bowie as well.

Here are a few photos from the event:

Celebrated Billy Idol Guitarist Steve Stevens Plays Some Riffs

Billy Idol Band Vocalist/Guitarist Billy Morrison Gets Serious

The Magnificent 7 Starts Their Show

Spotlight on Billy Morrison at Bud Light Spring Jam

 

The Magnificent 7 Jamming at the Bud Light Spring Jam

Unfortunately, we didn’t stick around long enough to see them play “Crazy Train”, from Ozzy Osbourne’s solo debut album, but from a distance we did hear Stevens' awesome rendition of that song’s legendary solo! It serenaded us as we walked back to our car on a pleasant spring evening, and we dreamed whimsically about all of the summer Aspen Colorado activities that lay ahead.

Related articles

• Aspen Colorado Activities - Apres Ski at Aspen Hotels and More