Best Artistic Field Trip 2011 | Bored of Directors | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Artistic Field Trip

Bored of Directors

The underground creative collective of Tuyet Nguyen, Matt Scobey and Tony Farfalla excels at kicking ideas around. One of them, to tear down gallery walls, both real and subjective, and hang art in the streets, took shape when they traveled down to Miami Beach with an artist entourage to do that very thing, during the annual citywide arts fair Art Basel Miami Beach. They hauled in a batch of submitted Denver artworks, hit the dollar store for buckets and wheat paste, found a wall and went to work, pasting up the art in an alley in the dark of night and documenting it all on video. Talk about an art attack!

Best Band That's Still in High School

SAUNA

Molly Bartlett, Samantha Davis, Ethan Hill and CJ Macleod have to be the coolest kids at their high school. By day, they're regular teenagers; by night, they turn into SAUNA, an intelligent pop band that crams jumpy beats and reverb-heavy guitars into a perfect throwback package. When the band isn't performing, you can find its members at the foot of stages for Liz Phair, Black Angels and Best Coast shows — doing more music-history homework, the result of which is clearly displayed in their own explosive live sets. If you're lucky enough to catch SAUNA live, the band just might do an excellent cover of the Who's "Boris the Spider." How cool is that?

Best Band to Play an Hour-Plus Set

Skully Mammoth

Medical marijuana cardholders, meet your new favorite band: Skully Mammoth. Taking some obvious cues from Sleep and Sabbath, these barely-out-of-high-school dudes make droney, psychotropic rock that just goes on and on and on. And on. If the jammy metal four-piece was never told to stop playing, chances are it probably never would. If you're into sludge and have an hour or three to kill, Skully Mammoth — formerly known as Black Magicians From the Mountaintops of Mars — has some ten-minute-plus songs that should fill the bill.

Best Band to See Live Anytime, Anywhere

Hot White

In 2010, Hot White opened for No Age at the Bluebird and the Warlock Pinchers at the Gothic, but the band is equally content playing basement shows and house parties. Whether climbing tables at the Meadowlark or scraping the cement at Rhinoceropolis, the trio of young punks easily fills any size room with plenty of attitude and noise. The bitter sawing of Tiana Bernard's bass and vocal wails combined with Kevin Wesley's back-to-the-floor guitar playing and the smiling terror of Darren Kulback's drumming make Hot White one of the best live bands to see in Denver any night of the week — on a stage or in your living room.

Best Band to See on a Date

Lust-Cats of the Gutters

What better band to see on a date than one that sings about awesome dates? With Lust-Cats of the Gutters, the dual vocals of Robin Edwards and Alex Edgeworth are like a personal cheerleading section, singing about really wanting to get to know you, hanging out with your grandma and, eventually, sticking their tongues in your mouth. Or close enough. The duo's Bratmobile-meets-the-Sonics style works like an intelligent sidekick, a musical wingman that feeds you lines during those awkward moments when you're just getting to know that special new someone. And if that budding relationship doesn't work out, you can always console yourself with Lust-Cats' anti-date anthem, "Nothing Cool Happens on Dates."

Best Blues Club

Lincoln's Road House

Evan Semón

Lincoln's Road House might be known primarily for its meatloaf cheeseburger, pot roast burrito and Cajun food, but the bar also brings in a meaty lineup of the area's finest blues acts, including the Informants, Delta Sonics, David Booker and Stanley Milton, on the weekends. Lincoln's also books such nationally known bluesmen as Muddy Waters's son Big Bill Morganfield and Albuquerque's Todd Tijerina to play the tiny stage next to the door. There isn't a whole lot of room to dance at Lincoln's, but the colorful crew of bikers and other regulars make the most of the space and always look like they're having one hell of a good time.

Best Blues Jam

Ziggie's

While Ziggie's has long been hailed as Denver's oldest blues bar, in recent years it's expanded into other genres, such as rock, R&B and funk. In addition to an acoustic open-mike night on Mondays, an open jam on Tuesdays and a chance to sit in with featured musicians on Wednesdays, Ziggie's also boasts one of the longest-running blues jams in town on Sundays. And that's where the real action is. The Doc Brown Blues Band and the Blues Allstars alternate hosting the blues jams, which bring in a variety of solid musicians playing covers and originals. Keyboard players need not worry about bringing down a keyboard; the bar has one available for the jams, which kick off at 7 p.m.

Best Cassette-centric Label

Laser Palace

From their Capitol Hill apartment, the husband-and-wife duo of Ryan McRyhew and Kristi Schaefer put out music — mostly on cassette tape — on their own Laser Palace label. Each release is a one-of-a-kind work of art in itself: Schaefer crochets some cassette cases, and others are hand-painted by Schaefer's sister, Gretchen, as well as other artists. Nine-to-fivers by day and punks by night, McRyhew and Schaefer use Laser Palace to share music by their own band, Hideous Men, as well as original work by Mystic Bummer, Iuengliss, Pictureplane and more.

Best Cinematic Tie to DIA

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Of all the conspiracy theories swirling around DIA, this may be the most awesome. Take the numbers sent by the aliens for their Earthly rendezvous in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind — 104, 44, 30, 40, 36, 10 — and plug them into Google Earth as W104° 44' 30" N40° 36' 10". What do you get? Denver International Fucking Airport! If the coordinate numbers had led Google Earth to, say, the intersection of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco, we could have dismissed this as a hilarious coincidence or intentional joke by the scriptwriters. But to have the geographical dart land on DIA, a facility that is approaching Area 51 status within Internet conspiracy culture, is almost too astoundingly synergistic to brush off. As a blogger at rabbithole2.com notes, "Back when Close Encounters of the Third Kind was made the Denver Airport was nothing more than a farmer's field. That airport would not be built at that location FOR 16 YEARS!" When we start making a replica of the terminal tent out of mashed potatoes, though, lock us up — or send as to Ault, which also tends to show up when you plug in those coordinates.

Best Club Night

'80s & '90s Retro/Goth

Aaron Thackeray

When Rock Island closed in 2006 after a long, legendary run, it left a big hole in the gothic and industrial community. While there are still rumors that Rock Island will one day start up again, it's probably not going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, for those who frequented the legendary club on 15th Street, there's a good chance you'll run into somebody you know at Milk on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when the club hosts '80s & '90s Retro/Goth nights. Resident DJ Mike Rich spins a thoroughly decent set of new wave from the Reagan era, with a bit of old-school goth thrown in; Paul Italiano, FashioNation owner, spins at the club once a month. (Both Rich and Italiano are former Rock Island DJs.) While Milk, with its Clockwork Orange theme, is a bit small, it's still a great spot to get your retro dance on and hang with a fascinating mix of folks, some decked out in full goth regalia.

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