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Rawlins, Wyo. — Can't make it to your next gig?

Why not pop into a local bar and offer to play a couple songs?

That's what Kevin Wilson, lead guitarist and backup vocalist for the group Uncle Kracker, thought Friday night. The band is touring with the group Train until November, and they were on their way to a show in Denver on Friday when Interstate 80 closures changed their plans.

"The way I was thinking of it, there would be five businessmen at the bar and us idiots in the band deciding to get up and play a couple songs," Wilson said.

But that's not how it turned out.

By about 7:30 p.m. Friday, Hoot & Howl at the Quality Inn in Rawlins - their chosen venue - was packed.

By about 8:30 p.m., Maxine Crawford, a Hoot & Howl server, had turned away between 75 and 100 people because the bar was too full to hold them all, she said.

"I'm just flabbergasted," Crawford said. "It's such a small town.

"I'm so proud of my community for coming out in support of all this," she said.

Crawford almost had to shout to be heard over a cacophony of wailing guitars and the noise of the crowd that milled inside.

Thomas O'Keefe, Train's tour manager, stressed that plans for band members' performances were tentative Friday night. The band's singer was ill, and the drummer already had made his way to Denver.

As of about 10:15 p.m. Friday, members from neither Train nor Uncle Kracker had stepped up to the mike. In the meantime, members of Code Blue, a Rawlins band, were performing for a packed crowd.

Word of the bands' arrival Friday spread through text messages, calls from relatives and word of mouth, attendees said.

"So just something for us to do, we figured we'd all get up and play some acoustic by ourselves for fun later," Wilson said. "And it turned into this."

He waved a hand at the throng that stood around the stage.

"It went from being bored and stuck to 'Hey, this might be the (most fun) detour we've ever taken,'" he said.