Well, folks, it’s almost time for another lovely evening of music and free meatballs at Blue Lucy Takeout, Colorado Spring’s hippest and furthest underground DIY {but D Wh Y, exactly?} music venue, cleverly disguised as the Law Offices of Cross and Associates on Colorado Avenue, right across the street from Downtown Spirits.

This is the Sixth Third Friday, although the first two were accidentally placed on the First Friday, even though that is horribly uncool. But don’t worry. Those were the Third Fridays from the next to the last Fridays of those months. See what we did there? Anyway, the Sixth Third Friday is brought to you triads of the first inversion.

This month’s bill includes the inimitable and reclusive Harriett Landrum, whom I have frequently described as “the only musician with a loop pedal who doesn’t drive me morbid.” Don’t bother googling Harriett. The loop pedal and the violin are the only pieces of technology she has mastered so far.

Stay tuned for an extended commentary on this lovely installation at the abandoned Denny’s:

This thing has changed names, and will probably do so a couple more times. But it’s a great space and you really should check it out, friends. It’s across the street from Downtown Spirits, in an building that declares itself to be the law offices of Cross & Associates. I guess it’s still that, except that not of Cross’s associates seem to be lawyers. They’re all seedy musician types, like me.

This:

was fun.

In fact, I would say that the Black Rose Acoustic Society is the world’s listeningest room. It is, after all, a subscription-based group dedicated exclusively to the curation and presentation of the best possible music based on traditional acoustic string instruments. Electric bass is sometimes allowed, but no electric guitars and no drums. You can have an electric lap steel. Now that I think about it, I guess it’s really styles-associated-with-acoustic-string-instruments that set the bar. But that’s fine with me. I’m no purist.

It’s a wonderful experience to have a great an like that. It’s easier to play well when you know the ears you’re falling on aren’t deaf. In fact, there is a distinct sensation that way in which the crowd is listening constitutes its force that contributes to the execution of the music. One might even call it a vibe. Active listening — that’s what it is.

Here are some photos by official BRAS photographer Todd Ryan:

Every once in a while, you meet a lawyer who a owns a weird-looking building in Downtown Colorado Springs. This lawyer still runs his practice out of the building, but that only takes one room. The rest of the building is filled with paintings and antique vending machines; one room is set up as a listening room, complete with a small stage and chairs that don’t match one another, probably from a thrift store. The lawyer wants to turn his space into Downtown’s hippest music venue and gallery, hosting only the best in regional art. So you agree to play a show there, knowing only that there’s also a guy on the bill who plays “rock cello” and there might be free food. The show is BYOB, and the weird building is right across the street from Downtown Spirits.

C’est la vie.