The Beatdown

"It has nothing to do with the radio," Corrigan says of the band's success. "It has nothing to do with any sort of media. Even the guys in the news, like G. Brown or any of the guys who are local -- they only know about us because our ticket sales are strong enough that they have to take us seriously; they have to review us."

But then, Corrigan was never really part of the local scene, a status he readily admits and embraces. "I enjoy the fact that I'm not part of the Denver scene in the traditional sense -- or any music scene, really," he explains. "I kind of enjoy being an outsider to it."

Corrigan, who's now using Denver as home base, has launched a new band, Braddigan, that includes players from out of state. And after a show at the Gothic last November drew fewer people than expected, he's reconsidering his stance on the scene. "It's hard for me, given that I have to fly in my bandmates," he concedes. "I lost significant money on that show. And it was so stressful that I was like, ŒGosh, man, I've got to figure out -- if I'm going to play locally, you know, I should have some local cats that I really enjoy playing with.'"

While he's having a great -- if non-lucrative -- time with Braddigan, Corrigan is eager to channel his passion for music into something positive. He recently took a mission trip to South America after raising enough money to buy instruments he could deliver to indigenous kids there. Corrigan may have played one of the summer's biggest shows, but for him there's clearly more to life than playing in a band -- a point he drives home at the end of our conversation.

"Listen, if you've got a concluding question, that would be great," he says. "If not, I've got to run, 'cause my sister and I are having lunch together."