Mark Knopfler outdoors, in the natural amphitheatre of Red Rocks, it couldn’t get any better…or could it. With the shade of the setting sun behind us, 1 ½ hours before William Topley opened the show, it was quite comfortable despite the warm temperature. My wife and I, and our 3 children settled in our seats in the 39th row, anxiously awaiting an outstanding musical performance. I spotted Danny, Glen, and Guy on stage well before William started. I went down to the front row and snapped a few pictures of them, then upon returning to our seats, I told my two sons to keep an eye out for Guy as he possibly will be at the back of the amphitheatre taking his own pictures for the tour diary. Just a short time later, my oldest son said, “THERE’S GUY!” Sure enough, there he was at the very top, so we sprinted up 30 rows to the top to meet Guy. We found him milling about among the crowd (nobody else recognized him) taking pictures. Out of breath from running up the stairs (and the Denver altitude), I introduced myself and Guy politely got in front of my camera for a picture with my sons and he chatted with us for a bit. What a thrill! William played a fine set to get the crowd ready. Then things really got going when Mark & Company took the stage. They played the usual set with the encores featuring Brothers in Arms, Money for Nothing, and So Far Away. Outstanding versions of Speedway, Sultans, and Donegan were great highlights. Since we were in the mountains, I was hoping for Mist Covered Mountains (or Local Hero theme) to also be included in the encore but no such luck. The only musical flaw that I noticed was very brief feedback noise during the beginning of Sultans. The music could not have been any better, but the crowd could have been MUCH better. At least once during nearly every song, we had people walking back and forth in front of us getting more alcohol. It was especially bad during Mark’s “sit down” portion of the show and the beginning of Speedway. We had people around us so drunk that several times they nearly fell down on us. It was such a shame that these “fans” were not as in tune to Mark and the band as they were in getting drunk. The constant flow of fans in front of us, plus their state of drunkenness, was a huge distraction and tarnished an outstanding evening. Thank you, Mark, Guy, Danny, Matt, Glenn, and Richard. You did a great job playing such wonderful music and entertaining us. I will forever remember the excellent musicianship all of you displayed. And thank you Guy for our brief chat and photo with my boys. I’m sure my children will long remember there first concert and will appreciate the fact that they were at a Mark Knopfler concert even more as the years go by. Nothing can take away the beautiful atmosphere, venue, and music that we experienced.

Red Rocks is one of the premier concert venues in the world...natural uplift and stratification we've all seen in geography class...William Topley opened the show...a Denver region favorite..great backing band. While the daytime temp was 100, by the time the concert started at 9pm it was a Colorado summer night - mid 70's with a full moon adding to the shadows on the rocks. The sound system was crystal clear. The set started with Why Aye Man and many of the new tunes (lost track) ... Sonny Liston,(great guitar lick) so much fun ....'cause as a kid in high school I heard the Liston/Ali fight on the radio...and yes the bear did go down... Also a real treat was the unexpected inclusion of favorites like Walk of Life, Telegraph Road, Romeo and Juliet, and Sultans of Swing. It never ceases to amaze me that I've heard these songs on cd and live multiple times but each time (like this evening) they're not quite like the version you heard the last time. At one point my seatmate said "That's a lot of sound for 6 guys". It was great to see Glen, Matt, Guy, Richard and Danny...what a drummer so precise so clean...awesome. The multiple keyboards, accordion all add greatly to the arrangements. This was a very special night. As someone who still has the ticket stubs from the gig cancelled because of the accident, it was well worth the wait...my thanks to Mark and the band for a most memorable evening...and I suppose that's the best part...sitting back in 6 months with a brew and "man that version of sonny...wasn't that..."