Super showdown: From music to favorite brews, we pit Seattle vs. Denver, winner take all | Fond du Lac Reporter | fdlreporter.com

Super showdown: From music to favorite brews, we pit Seattle vs. Denver, winner take all | Fond du Lac Reporter | fdlreporter.com

This Just In From Seattle Music History!!!                                                                      Article by Shane Nyman:

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Great American Beer Festival: The annual gathering of craft brewers draws close to 50,000 beer lovers. / Getty Images

Written by

Shane Nyman

Gannett Wisconsin Media

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• Entertainment

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Jimi Hendrix: He's just the start of what makes Seattle's music history legendary. / AP

The playlist

Need to build a playlist for your Super Bowl party? Here’s a 10-pack of songs to fit the location and the teams doing battle.
1. “New York State of Mind,” Billy Joel
2. “Theme from ‘New York, New York,’” Frank Sinatra
3. “Empire State of Mind,” Jay Z featuring Alicia Keys
4. “Rocky Mountain High,” John Denver
5. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana
6. “Fire,” the Jimi Hendrix Experience
7. “Can’t Hold Us,” Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton
8. “Headed for a Heartbreak,” Winger
9. “Wilson,” Phish
10. “Love Train,” the O’Jays

More

We all know what we’re getting with the football teams from Denver and Seattle.

On one side, one of history’s great quarterbacks and the high-octane offense he leads. The other side offers a spry young QB and a beastly rushing attack, paired with a defense that’s stout — and knows it, and will tell you.

But the time for football will come.

To get ready for Super Bowl week and its overstuffed slate of manufactured storylines, overly complicated prop bets, sneak peeks of commercials and inevitable controversy — blackout conspiracies! wardrobe malfunctions! OMAHA! OMAHA! — we’re pitting the two contending cities against each other in a contest of subjective cultural comparison.

We’ll know soon enough who wins the game. We want to know now who wins at everything else.

First quarter: Local brews

Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks, helping to explain the energy levels of the 12th Man. The company that’s been keeping the world caffeinated for decades even calls its standard coffee Pike Place Roast, named for its oldest location at the Pike Place Market.

On the flip side, Denver is home to Molson Coors Brewing Co. and an expansive roster of craft breweries. It’s also home to the Great American Beer Festival, the king of all beer festivals.

As for which is more vital, maybe it’s best we don’t test either fan base by taking away their treasured nectar. This one’s a stalemate. Seahawks 0, Broncos 0.

Second quarter: Music

The number of impactful bands and musicians that can be traced back to Denver are few and far between: Phillip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire, Kip Winger, the Lumineers, OneRepublic and a jam band or two. We’ll even toss in John Denver, who spent much of his adult life in Colorado and sang of his love for “Rocky Mountain High.” It’s still not much of a contest.

The music history of Seattle is on a different plane. Just being the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix pretty much ends the discussion, not to mention producing contemporary acts like Macklemore, Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes. And maybe we should mention the groundbreaking movement fronted by Nirvana and Pearl Jam in the ’90s, when “the Seattle sound” was much more than a stadium full of raucous Seahawks fans.

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Shane Nyman may be reached at (920) 993-1000, ext. 240 orsnyman@postcrescent.com.

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