Calendar of Events in Denver

Saturday, May 18
• 
  Kaiser Permanente Colfax Marathon
  City Park

  Elephants are slow, lumbering animals, right? Actually, they’ve been clocked at 25 mph — nearly as fast as the fastest human. During the eighth annual Kaiser Permanente Colfax Marathon, however, the elephants will be mere spectators as thousands of runners stream through the Denver Zoo. The marathon begins today with the Colfax 5K run, a warm-up for the main events tomorrow, which... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Five Points Jazz Festival
  Five Points

  Since starting a decade ago, the Five Points Jazz Festival has been celebrating the music, culture and history of Denver's historic Five Points neighborhood by highlighting local jazz acts. Acts on the main stage of this year's festival include the Hazel Miller Band, Conjunto Colores, Park Hill Brass, Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra and Southern Journey, while some acts on other stages... Read more about this event >>

• 
  PANDA: Performance Art Night Denver
  RedLine

  RedLine resident artist Justin Beard laments the lack of performance art in Denver. “Back in 2000, when I first moved here, it seemed like there was a lot going on, with things like Mr. Pacman and Little Fyodor. I was blown away by it, but then it sort of faded a little,” Beard says. “I think it’s something Denver needs, to help keep the art scene unique and... Read more about this event >>

• 
  DJ Sneak
  Beta

  DJ Sneak was born in Puerto Rico, but he moved to Chicago in the early 1980s -- just in time to become part of the massive house movement that got its start in the Windy City and had spilled across the planet by the late '90s. He didn't speak English when his family first immigrated, so graffiti and instrumental music were where Sneak first sunk his roots in American culture. His early... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Nicole Moudaber
  NORAD

  Nicole Moudaber has been at the forefront of blending mechanical, precise techno with brassy, soulful house music for several years. In addition to maintaining a residency at Carl Cox's weekly bashes at the renowned Space club in Ibiza since 2009, she's consistently heated up dance floors all over the planet. Her insistent, pulsing rhythms and uplifting jazzy melodies make for an ideal... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Hot Tuna (acoustic)
  Boulder Theater

  Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady go back. Way back. Before the two joined San Franciscan psychedelic outfit Jefferson Airplane they played together in a group called The Triumphs. After (while Airplane morphed into the subsequently cheesier and cheesier Starship), the two formed Hot Tuna, and expanded on the soulful blues and folk roots of Jefferson Airplane with a couple of... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Miranda Lambert & Dierks Bently
  Fiddler's Green Amphitheater

  Miranda Lambert has struck a delicate balance: Together with kindred artists like Jamey Johnson, she's made country music palatable once again to the sanctimonious scads of big-city, Tea Party-loathing dissenters, infusing the genre with a newfound sense of authenticity missing since the days of her legendary outlaw forefathers. At the same time, she's managed to write earnest, heartfelt,... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Tech N9NE
  Summit Music Hall

  Tech is an incredibly gifted rapper technically and a good lyricist, but the most impressive thing about his rise from obscurity to being a household name has been that he's done it by himself, without the help of a major label. He's always traveling, which you've probably noticed, as Denver is one of his favorite places to come, and by all accounts, he puts on an incredible live show -- so... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Alien Life
  City Hall

  Six years ago, Ana Sia was hustling around a kitchen preparing delicious recipes for a living; cooking up grimy bass music was merely a hobby. After being flown out for her first gig, though, she decided it was time to focus her full energy and attention on her music. Playing festivals around the world in recent years, Sia has cultivated a career that has placed her in the deepest pockets of... Read more about this event >>

• 
  The Band of Heathens
  Cervantes' Other Side

  Band of Heathens is technically from Austin, but the band comes off like it might have spent a great deal of time in New Orleans learning the rich mixture of sounds that mark that city's eclectic scene. In moments, this outfit is reminiscent of the Band circa the early '70s. The Heathens' take on rootsy American music is not an attempt to create a warped country music; rather, they tastefully... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Kate Nash
  Bluebird Theater

  Back in 2007, Nash found fans outside of her native London with "Foundations," a track whose punchy keys and attitude-drenched vocals invoked Amy Winehouse and preceded Florence & the Machines. With a second album that channels both Diana Ross and Kathleen Hannah, the singer has slowly but surely help create a niche that takes hints from both pop and punk, and gives the audience much to both... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Known Pleasures: A Joy Division Tribute for the Benefit of Mike Marchant
  Hi-dive

  On May 18, 1980, Joy Division's enigmatic lead singer, Ian Curtis, committed suicide by hanging. Before his death, he had reportedly been listening to Iggy Pop's quasi-nihilistic, dark-glam masterpiece The Idiot and had just watched Werner Herzog's surrealistic sub-cinema verité comedy Strosczyk. This show is not a reminder of Curtis's death, but rather a reminder of the fragility and... Read more about this event >>

• 
  The Presets and Dragonette
  Ogden Theatre

  Dragonette has been hot on the underground pop scene for years, but it wasn't until 2011 that the band came charging onto the radio with global party-starter "Hello," a collaboration with Martin Solveig. Almost overnight, the outfit -- lead singer Martina Sorbara; her husband, multi-instrumentalist Dan Kurtz; and drummer Joel Stouffer -- went from being pop's best-kept secret to playing sets... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Mike Servito
  Fusion Factory

  Now based in New York but originally from Michigan, DJ Mike Servito was equally influenced by the eclecticism of 1980s Detroit FM radio (think the Electrifying Mojo) and the evolving sound of the second wave of that city’s techno scene during the 1990s (think Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills and Carl Craig). Servito, who recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of noted Detroit techno night... Read more about this event >>

• 
  The Singing Room
  Brooks Center Arts

  Community theater puts on hokey "interactive show" about "being in a karaoke bar." That's exactly what Sean Mahoney and Michael Emmitt of the new Horse & Cart production company did not have in mind for The Singing Room, an original script they'll reveal to the public tonight in the basement theater of Brooks Center Arts. Instead, this is the kind of looser work they hoped to share with... Read more about this event >>

• More Saturday Events >>

Sunday, May 19
• 
  Spun: Adventures in Textiles
  Denver Art Museum

  Textile arts comprise some of the most grassroots forms of expression. Born of necessity and woven through with elements of creative design since the dawn of mankind, in modern times they’ve morphed into a whole genre of multimedia work that slides right off the functional grid and directly into the realm of fine art. The Denver Art Museum has much to offer in its own newly revamped and... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Growing Our Roots
  The Populist

  Denver Urban Gardens outgrew its office a long time ago; much like a root ball squeezing its way out of a clay pot, DUG was confined and finding it more and more difficult to get things done in a packed space where desk-sharing is the norm. But that will change in June, when DUG moves into new digs at the Horse Barn, a newly renovated nonprofit co-working community at 33rd and Arapahoe... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Holly Williams
  The Soiled Dove Underground

  Holly Williams, the 31-year-old granddaughter of the iconic Hank Williams, has grown into a formidable artist all her own. Unlike her off-his-rocker dad and her crazy-ass half-brother, Hank Williams III, Holly hasn't really dabbled in the stone-cold honky-tonk sounds that her family has been making for decades. Read more about this event >>

• 
  God of Carnage
  Curious Theatre Company

  Curious Theatre artistic director Chip Walton first saw the Tony Award-sweeping hit God of Carnage -- starring Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, James Gandolfini and Hope Davis -- on Broadway a few years ago, and was immediately inspired by its sharp satire. Think of it as a contemporary Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, only with kids thrown in and a quartet of 21st-century parents all soaking... Read more about this event >>

• More Sunday Events >>

Monday, May 20
• 
  Denver On Fire
  Avenue Theater

  Denver’s made the national news a lot over the past year, whether for last summer’s wildfires, the Aurora theater shootings or the legalization of marijuana. Inspired by these events and looking for a way to process them through art, the Damsels Dance Company created Denver on Fire: A Social Commentary Through Dance. Combining real news footage with original dance, the three-part... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Vampire Weekend
  Red Rocks Amphitheatre

  It's been more than three years since Vampire Weekend last released a record and almost that long since the act was last at Red Rocks. That's a long time between releases for any band, but it's a couple lifetimes in the blogosphere. A parade of subsequent buzz bands (groups like Haim, one of the acts opening this show) has warmed themselves since then in the limelight once occupied by Ezra... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Kiss of the Damned
  Landmark Chez Artiste

  A trashy vampire flick in art-film drag, Kiss of the Damned satisfies on neither level. Drawing on a host of Euro-horror influences, including but far from limited to a synth score reminiscent of Dario Argento’s Goblin-performed soundtracks, Xan Cassavetes’s pastiche follows lonely bloodsucker Djuna (Josephine de la Baume) as she whiles away her existence in an upstate New York... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
  Gothic Theatre

  Now 15 years and seven albums into its career, BRMC has proved more durable than the Brian Jonestown Massacre (where one BMRC founder originated), if only because they don't have anyone as self-destructive as Anton in their ranks; it's also probably why they don't change personnel as much. And as far as catchy drone rock, BRMC still beats BJM at their own game. Read more about this event >>

• 
  Turbonegro
  Ogden Theatre

  In 1989, when this Norwegian band got together, it was clearly fueled by a love of Alice Cooper and his '80s glam-rock equivalents, especially Hanoi Rocks and the Stooges. You can hear the influence in songs like "Sell Your Body (To the Night)," which features an obvious guitar-riff nod to the latter's "Penetration." The band also took visual cues from acts like Cooper, Kiss and King Diamond,... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Telekinesis
  Hi-dive

  On record, Telekinesis is essentially the one man show of Michael Lerner, who writes, plays and sings every part. For live shows, however, the Merge recording artist brings a small cadre of musical souls with him to recreate the simple beauty of his straightforward love songs, while he plays the leading man from behind the drum kit. Read more about this event >>

• 
  Opeth
  Fox Theatre

  Although Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt was originally recruited as a bassist for the band in 1990, he soon switched to lead vocals and guitar. Starting out with a technical death-metal sound, Opeth has evolved since its inception into the kind of progressive metal band that is more concerned with atmosphere and mood than with using multiple time signatures in a song just for the sake... Read more about this event >>

• More Monday Events >>

Tuesday, May 21
• 
  Yo La Tengo
  Boulder Theater

  In thirty years, rock historians will look at the three decades prior to this moment and -- if they don't laugh at the idea of an encompassing term like "indie rock" -- identify Yo La Tengo not only as one of the genre's foundational acts, but also one that consistently challenged itself to make eclectic and interesting songs from the start of its career onward, with stunning live shows to... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Denver Stories: Chuck Morris
  Curious Theatre Company

  For the past eight years, Curious Theatre has been honoring local icons who’ve been key players in shaping Denver’s cultural landscape with short plays about their lives. This year, it’s focusing on music-business luminary and AEG Live Rocky Mountains president/CEO Chuck Morris, the man responsible for bringing such national acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Martin, Carole King... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Kylesa
  Marquis Theater

  Savannah, Georgia's Kylesa began in 2001 when Philip Cope, Brian Duke and Christian Depken, formerly of Damad, teamed up with art student/guitarist Laura Pleasants to form the kind of band that always seemed open to experimentation around a core of heavy music. A perfect amalgam of sludgy, sometimes bluesy, metal, hardcore and psychedelia with occasional shoegaze flourishes, this band's music... Read more about this event >>

• 
  50 x 50: The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection
  Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center

  The story of ordinary art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel -- the working-class New York City couple who amassed thousands of notable artworks over the years -- comes off like a fairy tale. But the inspiring message in their story -- that anyone can, indeed, become an art collector -- is an important one. And in the wake of the celebratory documentary Herb and Dorothy, it's a message that... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Opeth
  Fox Theatre

  Although Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt was originally recruited as a bassist for the band in 1990, he soon switched to lead vocals and guitar. Starting out with a technical death-metal sound, Opeth has evolved since its inception into the kind of progressive metal band that is more concerned with atmosphere and mood than with using multiple time signatures in a song just for the sake... Read more about this event >>

• More Tuesday Events >>

Wednesday, May 22
• 
  Larimer Square Summer Style Fashion Show
  Westin Hotel-Tabor Center

  The lazy days of summer are almost here, and to usher in the season, Larimer Square boutiques are joining forces to show hot looks to update your wardrobe. Young professionals from groups like the Central City Opera, the Denver Center Theatre Marquee Club and the Reel Social Club will model warm-weather fashions from Apricot Lane, Blush, Cry Baby Ranch and more at a poolside fashion show.... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Lamb of God
  Boulder Theater

  Lamb of God started in 1990 as an instrumental metal band called Burn the Priest. But it wasn't until 1995, after recording a few demos and playing countless house parties, that the band recruited singer Randy Blythe and started developing into the band you would recognize today as Lamb of God. With the release of 2000's New American Gospel, the band's first album with that moniker, the group... Read more about this event >>

• 
  This Is Not A Test: The Atomic Art of Doug Waterfield
  Rocky Flats Cold War Museum

  "The Cold War is very often believed to be kind of a good war because it was never fought," explains Rocky Flats Cold War Museum executive director Conny Bogaard. "But the price that we paid for that time of building nuclear weapons on a mass scale is all the anxieties and the fear that is very much still in the back of people's minds." Nebraska artist Doug Waterfield examines that state of... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Sense & Sensibility: The Musical
  Denver Center for Performing Arts

  Fans of both Jane Austen and musicals should be thrilled that the Denver Center Theatre Company is launching the world premiere of Sense and Sensibility: The Musical tonight. The novel, which follows the Dashwood sisters — Elinor and Marianne — as they fall in love and out of love and in love again, was the first Austen published and remains one of her most popular works to this... Read more about this event >>

• More Wednesday Events >>

Thursday, May 23
• 
  The Art Bucket
  Plus Gallery

  Artist Colin Livingston's conceptual diptychs -- which are steeped in our sterile commercial culture to the point that it's hard to say if he's embracing or lamenting the fall of civilization -- might not always be easy to understand. But most people who see them know they're supposed to laugh, at least a little, before they're appalled. Livingston's new show at Plus Gallery, The Art Bucket,... Read more about this event >>

• 
  2013 Ms. Hooters Colorado Pageant
  ViewHouse Eatery Bar & Rooftop

  It takes more than good looks to be a contestant in tonight’s Ms. Hooters Colorado Pageant, which will feature dozens of Hooters girls from across the state. They’ll be judged on overall beauty, runway presence and an ability to work the crowd, all for the chance to stay abreast of the competition and move on to the International Hooters Pageant in Las Vegas later this year. While... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Logic
  Fox Theatre

  Logic is a part of the new generation of rappers quickly gaining traction thanks to masses of young fans across the country finding common ground on the internet. Unlike many other internet sensations, Logic is a legitimate, serious lyricist with more raw rhyming talent than personality, not that he has a lack of that, either. Logic was recently picked by XXL as one of 2013's Freshman class... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical
  Littleton Town Hall Arts Center

  If the ’60s were “the dawning of the age of Aquarius,” what does that make the 2010s? While we’re still figuring that out, the Town Hall Arts Center is bringing Hair, the classic hippie musical that’s a trans-generational story of love, dope and anti-war protests, to Denver. “If you really look at what Hair was protesting in the ’60s, it still applies... Read more about this event >>

• More Thursday Events >>

Friday, May 24
• 
  Memorial Day Weekend Arts Festivals/Downtown Denver
  Denver Metro Area

  Two major holiday-weekend arts fests open today in downtown Denver, and while there could be some competition for crowds (and their wallets), organizers of both events insist that they’ll complement each other — and give viewers a bigger, bolder taste of (mostly) contemporary Colorado art. The Downtown Denver Arts Festival kickoff will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. at its original... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Friday Flash
  Denver Metro Area

  Downtown Denver, already an arts-and-culture hot spot this weekend, will welcome another new event tonight: Denver Digerati’s Friday Flash, with public motion-based art and animation screenings on the city’s jumbo LED screen at 14th and Champa streets. An outgrowth of some Create Denver projects that Plus Gallery’s Ivar Zeile (and associate Ryan Pattie) masterminded in... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Watching Hour: Welcome to the Dollhouse
  Sie FilmCenter

  Adolescence has rarely looked more awkward, unpleasant or emotionally painful than it does in Welcome to the Dollhouse, Todd Solondz’s 1995 black comedy about the horrors of being the least cool kid in junior high. The film’s unapologetic and unromanticized take on the casual abuse that kids heap on each other and the psychic trauma of living with it day to day have propelled the... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Moon Boots
  NORAD

  Moon Boots maintains a mysterious persona appropriate for a being who's allegedly imbued with sentience in a top-secret NASA experiment, but here's what we know about him: He's based out of Chicago, he's signed on the French Express label, and he has a grasp on the sort of funky, dirty, soulful sound that many house DJs would give their sense of rhythm for. He's been blowing up the... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Weaponizer
  Seventh Circle Music Collective

  Weapönizer sounds like its members incorporated grindcore percussion into the context of noisy thrash, the kind that comes from the pit of hell where Slayer and Venom are looped. With a self-titled 2012 album that draws influence from Napalm Death's 1987 classic, Scum, the band is led by a bassist known as Barbarian, who sings with a voice that suggests he learned how from Cronos... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Michal Menert
  Casselman's Bar & Venue

  Michal Menert has parlayed his snowboarding mentality into a music career. It's all about doing what you love because you love doing it, and Menert embodies that in every way, from the dedicated tours to the free distribution of glitchy, bass-driven music. Read more about this event >>

• 
  Ryan Bingham
  Chautauqua Auditorium

  Ryan Bingham's voice sounds like the guy has spent decades blowing through cartons of cheap cigarettes and gallons of cheaper whiskey somewhere along the lonely, broken mid-American highways. A former bull rider who spent a good chunk of his teens and early 20s on the rodeo circuit, Bingham bounced around the country without a home base before he finally found roots in music. The New... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Twilight Market - A Night Time Art Bazaar/Bazaar-B-Q
  Fusion Factory

  Need a new fascinator for Burning Man? How about some handmade clothes for Apogaea or accessories for that big electronica party coming up next weekend? If you want to stock up on alternative items, there’s only one place to be this weekend: the Fusion Factory’s Bazaar-B-Q. “The bazaar highlights art as well as merchandise,” notes organizer Meghan Woodhouse, so... Read more about this event >>

• 
  A Night at Fawlty Towers
  Bug Theatre

  Fans of cheeky British comedy don’t have to cross the pond to get a dose of Anglophile humor: The Equinox Theatre Company is importing it to the Denver stage with A Night at Fawlty Towers, which opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Bug Theatre. For this production, Equinox has adopted four episodes of the John Cleese-written, late-’70s television show Fawlty Towers and combined them... Read more about this event >>

• More Friday Events >>