While I’m on the topic of music, is there anything better than listening to live tunes at the Dillon Amphitheater? Yes, there is: listening to live music at the amphitheater for free. You gotta love those Monday shows. There’s nothing better than sitting there as the stars start peeking out, Dillon Reservoir and Buffalo Mountain darkening with the day, and a few thousand of your Summit County neighbors and friends in attendance. The town of Dillon may have its work cut out for it budgetarily and with civic planning, but one thing they’ve done right and are doing right is the amphitheater. 

Where else can you go and find such a diverse group of folks all in one setting, grooving to the same sounds at the same time? Babies, toddlers, pre-teens, teens and kids of all ages in between are in attendance, scampering about with their friends, many captivated by the sights and sounds that surround them. And then there’s also the adults, from newly minted to near lygeriatric, sitting in camp chairs or on blankets on the lawn or shuffling on the concrete dance floor in front of the stage. Despite this panoply of demography, there’s nary a scuffle during shows, at least none that I’ve ever seen. Seems like joy of music, companionship with others and the peace engendered by the location coalesces into a chill miasma that floats through the air and intoxicates everyone with that vibe. Or maybe the relaxed ambience has something to do with the odor of banned yet strangely ever-present cannabis smoke drifting through the night air? 

While the allowable height of chair sizes at shows has gone down, it seems the cost of a beer has gone up. I’d complain about the $13 beers were it not that a night’s worth of adult beverages for my wife and me is still less than what it’d cost for a single ticket to a paid show at the amphitheater or elsewhere. And it seems like the door checkers are mellowing when it comes to enforcing rules that seem somewhat draconian for a venue like the amphitheater. I’m grateful for that. I must admit being a little nervous entering the recent Drive-By Truckers show, worried that I might get called out for my chair that sits a couple inches higher off the ground than the allowable height. But fortunately we were waved through, something I’m thankful for as my days of sitting comfortably on the ground are long past. 

Shoutout to that funky little houseboat that I’ve often seen tying up right about showtime at the dock behind the bandshell. It’s a cool contraption that looks like a good, stiff wind might capsize it, but all the folks I’ve seen debarking from it look like they’ve just had the time of their life. We live too close to the Amp to take a water taxi there (if that’s what that is) but were I to decide to do so, I think that’s the one I’d pick. 

We had a great night for the Drive-By Truckers show, including for the opening act, Deer Tick. They’re both Neil Young-sounding bands with some raw Southern drawl thrown in for good measure. (Well, Deer Tick is from the Northeast, so that Southern grit in their songwriting may be an affectation but, hey, I won’t hold it against them, it worked!) Thankfully, the rain that kept threatening held off, and we were able to see both bands uninterrupted, unlike the last paid show that we attended. At that one, we endured rain, wind, lightning, hail and graupel, huddled under umbrellas and blankets, our feet mired in mud and running water, while we waited for hours for Train to take the stage. All to no avail — the show was eventually cancelled due to the adverse weather. Kind of explains why a person might be so stoked for a warm(ish) and mostly dry night when attending a concert at the Amp — it’s truly a score.

However the redesign of Dillon’s downtown core works out, I hope it doesn’t in any way diminish the Dillon Amphitheater experience. Few and far between are the places where one can mingle with friendly folks from 2-82 in an incredible Alpine environment and people-watch while listening to top national and local musicians — all without having to pay ticket, service, handling or who-knows-what-that-is-for fees. The price is right, the grooves are great and Mountain Music Mondays at the Amp are a treat all of us in Summit County can be grateful for.