Catch F.O.E. on the way up -- today Monolith, tomorrow Tokyo Dome!

Today, in regards to powerhouse local artist F.O.E., I had one of those premonitions you have re a musical artist: that you'll be telling someone down the road how you exchanged Twitter postings or spit or something with them. Took baths together as children. Whatnot.

My claims to fame in this regard:

01 I won tix from Independent Records to see Coldplay at The Odgen -- or The Fillmore? (So long ago!)

And I had to BEG my girlfriend Claudia Hibbert to go with me.

That's sort of a claim to fame, isn't it? "Dude: I saw Coldplay when they couldn't give away tickets!"

02 The Beastie Boys. They were in town to play The Gothic when I was about 21, and they ate before the show at the first Taki's on Colfax. (The one that was right next to Denver Drug and Liquor, which is at still at 400 E. Colfax Ave. but under different owners.)

Their debut album, Licensed to Ill, had actually come out about four or five years before, in 1986, so I don't know why they were playing at The Gothic. And I'm not at all dissing The Gothic. Just saying that Licensed to Ill was the first rap LP to top the Billboard 200 chart.

To date, Licensed to Ill still holds the record for the fastest-selling debut on Columbia Records. Those boys sold more than five million copies. (Clearly you will see how me just listening to an artist with a modicum of interest can help catapult a great solo act or band to well deserved fame!)

See, I first heard Licensed to Ill when I was 17. It was during spring break of my senior year. I was in New Orleans visiting my girlfriend, Michele de Lorimier. She was looping Licensed to Ill. Nonstop.

And so, anyway, fast-forward to me being this cute 21-year-old going up to the boys at Taki's.

I see them and go up to them and say: "Hi. Hi. I just wanted to say HI."

They were like: Hi.

I'm sorry but that is a HUGE claim to fame.

I also saw the B-52s at Red Rocks well before they were cool. But anyway. Onward.

I have had this feeling recently during exchanges via Twitter or when emailing F.O.E. via Jewell Tyme Music: the feeling that I will be blabbing on about him in the near future. When he is doing venues like the Tokyo Dome, I'll be saying I saw him at the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks. He'll be there performing this year with The Pirate Signal.

Trust me when I say you're going to want to catch F.O.E. on the way up. Not only did “King of the Mountain” garner high praises, it led to F.O.E. being named one of the “Movers and Shakers of 2008” by Westword. Colorado Music Buzz called him one of the publication's picks for “Artists on the Verge of Greatness." If you are familiar with Westword and Colorado Music Buzz, you know I'm right about this.

Tic Toc!