For the Record

Join the party at the Lowenstein complex this weekend, when Twist & Shout marks its twentieth birthday. "And we started almost as a lark," muses Paul Epstein, who, like his wife, Jill, was a teacher when they started the store. "We had no idea how to run a cash register, a credit-card machine, a burglar alarm, and did not even know what a fax was," Jill reminisces in an essay posted at www.twistandshout.com. But they figured it out fast enough.

And Twist & Shout started a whole new chapter in 2006, when it moved into its current space in the Lowenstein at 2508 East Colfax Avenue. While recent developments in the music business have hit record stores hard, the move gave Twist & Shout a new lease on life — literally. "There's a synergy," Paul says of the store's proximity not just to the next generation of consumers who pop over from East High School, but also to the Tattered Cover and Neighborhood Flix. In fact, Twist & Shout will be filling a Flix theater at 2 p.m. today, with a live — and free — performance by Jackie Greene in honor of national Record Store Day. And the celebration continues tomorrow, with KUVO music director Arturo Gomez, Ed Post of Radio 1190 and KGNU's John Schaefer spinning music from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Twenty years in the independent music-store business: That's one for the record books. Call 303-722-1943.
April 19-20, 2008