Catching up with The Runaway Grooms, performing late-night at Bonfire Block Party

New this year to the Bonfire Block Party, when the music stops in the streets at 10 p.m., the party moves to Bonfire Brewing’s Taproom for the Happy Ending late-night shows Friday and Saturday, May 31 and June 1, featuring local bands The Runaway Grooms and Hardscrabble. Admission to the late-night shows is included in the Block Party ticket price.

“All too often we’re left wanting just one more song as the Block Party main stage wraps up,” said Andy Jessen, of Bonfire Brewing, in a news release. “In an effort to remedy that, we’re adding two Happy Ending shows on the new patio of the Bonfire Taproom to ensure we all head home full of tunes.”

Here’s a look at The Runaway Grooms, performing the Happy Ending late-night show Friday from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The Runaway Grooms

Believe it or not, local band The Runaway Grooms do perform at weddings, despite the terrifying image a bride might conjure up of her groom running away on their wedding day.

And the three members of The Runaway Grooms have also never been grooms themselves. However, the trio made up of Zac Cialek, Justin Bissett and Adam Tobin have run from some relationships and hometowns.

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“I would say we definitely ran toward something, though,” Tobin said. “Colorado is a great spot.”

Now living together in Leadville, the members of The Runaway Grooms quit their day jobs to pursue their music full-time this year, working toward an album release later this summer and performing across the valley.

Cialek was an electrician, Tobin was a teacher and Bissett was a carpenter.

“It was one of those days when you’re sitting around with friends just rattling off funny band names,” Tobin said of The Runaway Grooms. “That was one that I thought of a while back, and then I met these guys and they were crazy enough to go with it.”

Under one roof, the trio writes songs, practices, fixes up their instruments and are fully committed to their craft.

“The only thing we do between that is go skiing,” Tobin said.

Describing their sound can be challenging, but whatever it is makes the feet move. There’s some bluegrass, folk and some psychedelic rock.

“Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd is definitely a part of how we play,” Cialek said.

On their new album, titled “Tied to the Sun,” The Runaway Grooms are perfecting their sound.

“A lot of the songs we wrote quite a long time ago but now have come into a new element with the band,” Tobin said. “They used to be more acoustic folk songs, and now they’ve been redesigned to fir The Runaway Grooms to a point where they’re a little more powerful.”

The band is looking for a local artist or designer to create the album’s cover.

While The Runaway Grooms have performed at the Bonfire Block Party before, they are looking forward to performing at the Bonfire Taproom late-night show on Friday.

“We’re getting a set together that is going to hopefully keep the crowd moving and keep it interesting,” Tobin said. “It would have been fun to play on the big stage, but it’s definitely more our style to have a wide open space to be able to jam.”

For more information about The Runaway Grooms, follow them on Instagram and visit http://www.therunawaygrooms.com.

Happy Ending late-night schedule

Friday, May 31

• Where: Bonfire Taproom
• The Runaway Grooms
• When: 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Saturday, June 1

• Where: Bonfire Taproom
• Hardscrabble
• When: 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.