There’s an awful lot of celebrating going on this month. It seems like a slew of folks have some sort of milestone or anniversary happening, and gratefully, we’re one of them.
Nine years ago this month, the first issue of The Marquee began hitting the streets of the Front Range.
In that first issue, with permission mind you, we heavily borrowed many parts of an oath that had originally appeared in the great Mountain Gazette.
In part, that oath promised several things, and with great pride, after nine years, it’s amazing to say that we’ve stuck to those ideals.
“We promise to not take ourselves too seriously, to never walk down the path of self-righteousness, to not let too many facts get in the way of a decent yarn, to never sell out the musicians just so we can get a good story, and to keep enough in the way of editorial arm’s length from our advertisers that you will trust us when we do talk about them in our stories,” we wrote to our readers.
To our advertisers we said, “We understand that you pay the bills, but we also understand we don’t do either one of us any good when we whore ourselves out.”
I think it’s because we’ve stuck to those ideals that we’re still here and that we’ve had the pleasure and honor to talk exclusively to so many great musicians over the years.
With a dedication to providing original content, and most likely because of it, we’ve been fortunate enough to exclusively interview every surviving member of the Grateful Dead. We’ve had Trey Anastasio of Phish, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, GWAR, R.E.M., The Police, Mastodon, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, Ryan Adams, Iggy Pop, Wilco, Widespread Panic and, of course, our hometown heroes and the first group to be featured on our cover, Leftover Salmon.
It’s not shocking that Leftover will help another Colorado institution celebrate their anniversary this month. The famed hallowed halls of the Fox Theatre (who have hosted nearly everyone on our cover list at one time or another) turns 20 years old this month, and Leftover Salmon will play two shows to help start that month-long celebration, which will also include performances by The Funky Meters, Drive-By Truckers and Donavon Frankenreiter, The White Buffalo and GWAR.
The Marquee was born out of the Fox Theatre, with then GM Rob Thomas helping to nudge us along into our own endeavor, and the gratitude that we feel for that initial push is indescribable. Thank you Rob, for starting us on this path. It’s been a fun ride (mostly) and we hope it continues for years to come.
One other anniversary of note is KRFC, who is also celebrating their ninth birthday this month. The radio station, which, like The Marquee, is dependent on community involvement for survival, will celebrate their milestone with a Birthday Bash at Lincoln Center in Fort Collins on March 10.
So whether you’re celebrating KRFC, the Fox, our anniversary, or any other milestone in our scene, if you’re part of the music community in Colorado we appreciate you immensely and hope to share many more years together.
See you at the shows.
