The POW, the PIX, the PEOPLE.
Go BIG, or Go Home.
January 27, 2013 1 2 3 -Go the Super Band played Belly Up in Aspen for X Games. Lead Guitar Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), Lead Vocals Brett Scallions (Fuel) and Bass Stefan Lessard (Dave Mathews Band) played a set of the greatest songs in Rock & Roll. Also Robbie Gennet on Keys and Ken Schalk on the drum kit. (Thanks readers). Here's a taste. Appologies for the sound quality.
Video: AspenSpin.com
January 25, 2013 
LaValle scores BIG. Photo: Eric Bakke / ESPN ImagesIf you visit Aspen for Winter X Games you better prepare yourself to go BIG. Actually HUGE. Whether you're an athlete competing on the mountain...a spectator... a life-style brand manager activating a product or just here for the party...there is no room for weakness.
Day one was ...as usual...siiiiiiiiiiiiick. Levi LeValle won the Snowmobile Freestyle with a 120 foot Superman back flip. It was the versatile sled head's 6th X Games gold medal and 9th medal overall. Throwing a back flip on a 450 pound super-charged snowmobile is never easy...but LaValle and the sled-heads displayed their stuff to more than 430 million homes in 184 countries across the World.
Aspen Spin spent the entirety of Day 1 at Buttermilk. We walked the X Fest to survey the swag. Buttermilk was over-flowing with action. Our favorite new sponsor is REPREVE, the offical recycling partner of X Games. Repreve is a company who makes threads and fabrics from re-cycled plastic water bottles. We've taken the pledge to GO GREEN...you should too. We watched the athletes practice on the Super Pipe (22 foot walls), the Slopestyle course (craziest ride ever) the Urban Street course and the Snowmobile Venue. Later in the day A-Spin crashed the Athletes tent (shhhhh)...for the full first-class VIP treatment. Then after an all too brief disco nap...we partied...hard....like it was 1989. FREESKIER, RED BULL and MARLEY'S MELLOW MOOD all threw simultaneous HUGE parties. In our role as AspenSpin we were required hit 'em all.
Click 4 SICK Pix:
MARLEY's MELLOW MOOD (Press Event)
RED BULL (The Sky Hotel Buyout Party)
FREESKIER (The Blowout from Boulder)
LaValle went HUGE to win Gold in Snowmobile Freestyle. Photo: Allen Kee / ESPN Images.
Local Favorite Torin Yater-Wallace stoked to qualifu #2 in Ski Super Pipe (with a 90)Photo: AspenSpin. Click 4 more pix from Day 1 at Buttermilk.
Jossi Wells and Colby James West performed at Belly Up at the Freeskier blow out. Click 4 Pix.
Red Bull bought out the entire Sky Hotel for X Games. No Curfew, Bro. Click 4 pix.
Marley's Mellow Mood cruised into X Games 2013 with a press event. Things may never be the same in Aspen. Click 4 pix.
November 6, 2012 The Green is a kick a$$ band. They are 6 boyz from Hawaii who together create a distinctive musical sound that combines reggae, pop and soul. THE GREEN is playing at Belly Up in Aspen this Thursday, Nov 8. Tix are only $18. Join me for a show that could blow your mind.
The band's breakout single LOVE I blew up on Hawaiian radio in 2010 and helped make their debut album, The Green, the #1 reggae album on i-tunes in 2010 and also a top 10 album on Billboards' reggae chart. Their sophmore disc WAYS & MEANS dropped on October 25, 2011 (my birthday).
This Thursday night at Belly Up, THE GREEN will be playing their brand of Hawaiian reggae and throwing their shakas out to everyone. Look for siiiiiiick pix from AspenSpin soon after the show.
The Green, aspen, belly up aspen February 26, 2011 
Morcheeba Trip Hops in AspenMaybe it was the 30,000 POW verts we schralped in the foot of fresh today. Maybe it was the medicine. Maybe it was the fat-daddy steak we devoured at Pinons before the show. Maybe it was the good news that came our way today. Naaaaaah, It was the sultry, sexy, smoky, mysterious music produced by MORCHEEBA at Belly Up in Aspen, Colorado that got us going. Click 4 pix Morcheeba.
Trip Hop is an apt description for the British trio who cruised through a kick a$$ set in Aspen. Morcheeba whoose name loosely translates to "the way of Cannibis" is a phenomenal live act. Honestly, AspenSpin was not familiar with Morcheeba prior to the day of the show. We knew it sold out weeks ago. On Friday, as the POW POW fluttered on Ajax, everyone we encountered on the mountain was talking about Morcheeba. The sophisticated hippsters from NYC, the trustafarian hippies from Cali, the Argentine lifties, the dirt bag ski bums (with all due respect) ....everybody was going to the show....except AspenSpin.
Geeky as it may seem we sent out a facebook status seeking Morcheeba tix. Booya, within a half hour we had Morcheeba's band manager 's name and phone number. "You didn't get it from me" concluded the private message we received from parts unknown. A quick call and some super-fast talking...and BOOM! AspenSpin was ON the LIST!!! The deal got done. Sh*t like that makes the whole #sm thang worthwhile.
Click 4 pixWe got to Belly Up in time to catch Mr Anonymous, the opener. The DJ /Drum outfit had the crowd jam dancing with vigor. A-Spin had no pre-conceived notion about Morcheeba. We didn't google 'em or wiki 'em or i tune 'em. With zero expectations and very tired legs we scored a sweet stool at stage left. If its a hot show in Aspen and especially if its sold out...AspenSpin needs to be there. The anticipation on the main floor was building.
Morcheeba is tough to describe, but Vocalist Skye Edwards bedazzled the eclectic crowd with her soulful voice and her amazing gown. The Godfrey Brothers showed off their multi-instrumental prowess which produce a streaming conciousness of tonal sweetness. The captivating first song, By The Sea opened up all our senses and we slowly gave way to the melodic stylings and began to float and sway with the music. ....and the audience. Morcheeba is huge in Europe and we know why. Its difficult to put in words...so click the MORCHEEBA pix. Morcheeba has a beautiful, distinctive musical style that transformed the Belly Up into well behaved "be-in". Everyone at the show seemed to love it. Now you know...Morcheeba is a "must see", they deliver the goods.
Morcheeba, belly up aspen February 21, 2011 ;)
Public Enemy in Aspen.Aiiiiight. Aiiiiight. Aiiiight. Yeeeeahhh. Aiiiiight, Yeeeeeahhhh Boyeeee.
Public Enemy and their hip hop crew played a SRO show in Aspen last night. Flavor Flav, Chuck D. and their entourage which includes Professor Griff and S1W are perhaps the most influential rap act of all time. Coming out of Long Island in the early 80's Public Enemy connected with disenfranchised African American youth through their politically charged lyrics and unruly stage presence. The white kids from the suburbs caught on later and made PE one of the top selling Hip Hop groups of all time. Their album FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET is preserved in the Library of Congress.
Hype Man, Flavor Flav is the self proclaimed #1 reality TV star of the decade. He also hyped his restaurant in Clinton, Iowa...Flav's Fried Chicken...or FFC. Its located across the street from KFC. They played all their hits, Welcome to the Terrodome, 911 is a Joke, Don't Believe the hype and of course Fight the Power. The crowd...mostly white males...loved Public Enemy. Even after a siiiiiiiiiiiiiick POW day in Aspen, the hip hop energy in the crowd was palatable as Flav and Chuck D. battled the altitude and the decades to produce a killer show.
belly up aspen, public enemy