Ten things I learned at the Westword Music Showcase

Editor: We're sitting here among the folded banners and deflated massive cartoon rum bottles after another Westword Music Showcase. You can relive it with a fairly comprehensive set of photos, and we'll have some more thoughts from the writers of Backbeat in the coming days. For now, here are some...

By Isa Jones

June 22, 2014

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Editor: We're sitting here among the folded banners and deflated massive cartoon rum bottles after another Westword Music Showcase. You can relive it with a fairly comprehensive set of photos, and we'll have some more thoughts from the writers of Backbeat in the coming days. For now, here are some immediate thoughts, both general and specific, from first-time attendee Isa Jones.

I've been on the Front Range for five years, but this was somehow my first Westword Music Showcase, and I hate my music-festival-loving-self for waiting so long to be a part it. There's so much to say -- about how hard it is to play tambourine for twenty minutes straight and how amazing it was to see people so excited about their city's music. For now, here are ten things I learned at my first Westword Music Showcase.

10. If you don't have some sort of plan (or make sure you trail someone with a plan) you will end up wandering around trying to find venues and miss all the good stuff. 9. That said, that good stuff is everywhere you look. If you walk into a venue and don't like the band playing, there's probably an amazing one playing next door or even just downstairs. 8. It is a wonderful thing to talk to strangers about how great Denver music is.

7. Kissing Party might be my new favorite band, if only because they handed out tambourines and let the audience play along with them.

The lessons continue on the next page. 6. If you're in a band, and you're working on stage banter, give up. King Khan is the master of that. He is also the master of perfectly mixing the absurd and the serious while seducing you to dance endlessly.

5. Just because a band looks like a bunch of fifteen-year-olds doesn't mean they aren't amazing musicians. Expect and accept surprises.

4. Your phone will die. There are too many people in the same area all trying to text, and it'll kill your battery, fast. Accept it, and try living off the grid for a few hours while enjoying the music. 3. City Hall is a maze, where, at the Showcase, every turn leads you to new bands. Also, it's a gorgeous venue. 2. EDM will never be my scene, and Diplo is ridiculous. But after a long day, sometimes it's just best to dance your face off. 1. Nothing beats spending the summer solstice listening to live music while hanging with old friends and meeting new ones. Denver is the best.

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