Jello Biafra Will Spin at Meadowlark's Inaugural Thursday Kicks

This Thursday, January 7, marks the launch of a new weekly event at the Meadowlark called Thursday Kicks. The first Thursday of the month will be called "Teenage Kicks," which will feature all-vinyl punk and garage-rock music. The second Thursday in the series is called "Nightshift," an all-vinyl night featuring disco and new wave. The third Thursday will be titled "Vintage Kicks," a collaborative night of vinyl spinning between the Teenage Kicks DJs and Denver Vintage Reggae Society when they will play punk and early ska and Jamaican reggae. The fourth Thursday brings forth "Lituation," a night of trap and underground hip-hop. On the fifth Thursday, there will be a collaborative event wherein Bodhi, Michael Stein and Michael Sechman, who hosts the Disco2000 event and helped to start Teenage Kicks, will bring in live acts that could include heroes of underground music.

This week's inaugural event will feature Incredibly Strange Dance Party with Jello Biafra, who not only fronted punk legends Dead Kennedys but whose Alternative Tentacles imprint fostered a genuine underground music world not narrowly defined by punk. As a fan of outsider music, psychedelia, punk and anything outside the mainstream, you can bet Jello will bring in some well-chosen oddities.

“We found out he'd be in town for the holidays and invited him to come deejay,” says Stein. “The man loves music and wanted a chance to spin the countless punk records he's bought from Wax Trax and Black and Read over the years. And if he thinks you can inspire him to shake his tush on the dance floor, he is willing to step to the tables to return the favor.”

“Teenage Kicks has been going on for a year and has made us aware that we need to have a consistent night curated for the music lovers in Denver who want to go out and party without feeling embarrassed by the music they're dancing to,” says Stein, explaining the night's raison d'être. “It's for people who crave opportunities to hear something new and to be around people who get that. It seems like finally, even in Five Points, the weekend has been lost to the yuppies, making Thursdays seem like the natural choice. Bodhi, who hosts Teenage Kicks and has been picking up records in the punk section since age ten, has helped me curate the series along with the DJs of each individual night, which vary in genre but not in aesthetic/ideology.”