i have been wanting to see a show at red rocks amphitheater in morrison, colorado, for years, but for a number of reasons had not yet made it happen. and then, last december, i saw amos lee announce that he would be touring with the indigo girls. i immediately texted dillard who agreed we had to go, and out of curiosity i clicked on the link to find out where they would be playing.

all their shows together are in the western part of the states, and as luck would have it, they were performing at red rocks in september and tickets were going on sale the following day. i happened to be free that morning and was able to snag two tickets for us, we put the weekend on our calendars, dillard got us a great rate at the art hotel in downtown denver, and we both set flight alerts.

as the show got closer, we slowly started discussing what else we wanted to do with our weekend, and you can read all about our adventures here, but this post is all about the show itself.

and what a show it was.

luckily for me dillard had been to a few shows at red rocks before, so she knew the lay of the land in terms of parking, walking expectations, etc., so all i had to do was go along for the ride and enjoy the views. we joined the queue for the parking about 45 minutes before the show was set to start and were able to get a spot in the lower lot before beginning our climb up. and up. and up.

we [mostly me] huffed and puffed our way to the top so that we could take in the view of the entire stage and it was well worth the screaming quads and being out of breath to be able to see the full setup.

we got down to our seats about 5 minutes before indigo girls started their set — they began with “get out the map” and from there we were locked in. they played for about an hour, we had maybe a 20 minute break, and then amos lee came on.

i have seen him twice before — in 2004 when he opened for norah jones and in 2019 when he came to memphis — and i swear each time is better than the one before. he’s an incredible storyteller and musician, and he is clearly having so much fun that it pulls you along as well. he played a nice mix of old stuff and songs from his newest album, and i loved the energy he and his band all brought to the show.

it was an incredible show, from the setting to the music to the atmosphere, and i am so glad we were able to make it happen.

some good things to know before you go:

• red rocks is outside morrison, colorado, which is about a 30-minute drive from downtown denver, depending on the day of the week and time of day
• you can arrive early to get rockstar parking and tailgate in the parking lot if you want, but i recommend going somewhere in the town of morrison for a snack and a drink before heading up. we went to the happy goat and really enjoyed it
• once you’re in the park there are lots of people to guide you to the parking, but keep note of where in the lot you are because it definitely took us a few minutes to locate our rental car
• you can also take an uber or lyft to and from the show, but those will get expensive
• there are shuttles you can take from denver, but since we rented a car we didn’t look into them
• be prepared to walk! and climb a lot of stairs! i knew this in theory, and even with a decent parking spot in the lower lot it was still a good bit of walking, and at altitude no less. some of it is walking on the road, some of it is stairs, and all of it is steep. the top lot is entirely handicap spaces, and there is a shuttle that will take you up as well, but if you’re able to do it it’s a nice walk
• you can take in empty refillable water bottles or sealed plastic water bottles, and there are refill stations inside the amphitheater
• for each show a certain number of rows are reserved seating and the rest are general admission. for our show it was $10 more for assigned seats and we were in row 25 which was great, but for other shows the difference is larger

10/10 recommend seeing a show at red rocks if you’re able, and i’m hoping to get back myself one of these days.

xx