Punk Rock

Ascaris considers itself a punk band that plays metal

SoCal Punk Invasion

Wednesday, July 29, PT's Inferno

999

Monday, July 27, Marquis Theater, 866-468-7621.

Green Day

Saturday, August 15, Pepsi Center, 303-830-8497.

Over the weekend: Green Day at Pepsi Center

Billy Joe Armstrong engages the crowd (Aaron Thackeray)​Green Day, Franz Ferdinand Pepsi Center Saturday, August 15, 2009Better than: Hanging out with eleven-year-olds at an indoor recreation center. The members of Green Day and their crew tried with all their might to summon the spirit of an old ... More >>

The melodramatic rock of Aloft in the Sundry is a scene kid's guilty pleasure

Billy Joe Armstrong engages the crowd (Aaron Thackeray)​Green Day, Franz Ferdinand Pepsi Center Saturday, August 15, 2009Better than: Hanging out with eleven-year-olds at an indoor recreation center. The members of Green Day and their crew tried with all their might to summon the spirit of an old ... More >>

Q&A with Justin Sullivan of New Model Army

​These days, a real punk band (sorry, Green Day) can almost never find its way onto the pop charts. But back in the day (see: mid-'80s), England's New Model Army released political punk that didn't merely sell to left-wing extremists. Almost thirty years ago, frontman/mastermind Justin Sullivan, w ... More >>

Meet the New Model Army, same as the Old Model Army

​These days, a real punk band (sorry, Green Day) can almost never find its way onto the pop charts. But back in the day (see: mid-'80s), England's New Model Army released political punk that didn't merely sell to left-wing extremists. Almost thirty years ago, frontman/mastermind Justin Sullivan, w ... More >>

Snuggle!

Tuesday, November 24, Blast-O-Mat, www.myspace.com/blastomat.

Moovers and Shakers rounds up our favorite local releases of the year

Tuesday, November 24, Blast-O-Mat, www.myspace.com/blastomat.

What is the true definition of punk? Let's consult the experts, shall we?

Patti Smith provided an interesting definition of punk rock in the current issue of New York magazine: "Punk rock is just another word for freedom." That got us thinking about what punk is and was, and how, as with all abstractions, you get to make up your own definition. As you can see in the ab ... More >>

Q&A with Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague

Caught Nouvelle Vague last night at the Bluebird and want to know more about the act? Your wish is our command. We recently caught up with Marc Collin and fired a few questions at him about the projects musical goals, the act's artistic approach to re-contextualizing songs and how the studio project ... More >>

P.O.S. mates punk and hip-hop with aplomb

Caught Nouvelle Vague last night at the Bluebird and want to know more about the act? Your wish is our command. We recently caught up with Marc Collin and fired a few questions at him about the projects musical goals, the act's artistic approach to re-contextualizing songs and how the studio project ... More >>

Pitch Invasion makes poppy punk rock seem relevant again

Caught Nouvelle Vague last night at the Bluebird and want to know more about the act? Your wish is our command. We recently caught up with Marc Collin and fired a few questions at him about the projects musical goals, the act's artistic approach to re-contextualizing songs and how the studio project ... More >>

Fucked Up

Tuesday, May 4, Larimer Lounge, 303-291-1007.

Lion Sized

Cough Up Your Teeth
Self-released

Ideal Fathers rarely disappoint, and this Wasteland show was no exception

The Fugitive Kind (Tom Murphy)​ Ideal Fathers • Vicious Women • Fugitive Kind 05.28.10 | The Wasteland Although the Fugitive Kind from San Francisco may be the same band that former Blatz guitarist Robert Eggplant helped start, the female-fronted five-piece sounded like a more brutal Dea ... More >>

Westword Music Showcase headliners: Legendary, iconic ... those are just a few words to describe the splendor that is Superchunk

Jason Arthurs​ Superchunk never tried to be the biggest band in the land, but it did make music on its own terms and became an iconic outfit in its own right by embodying what it means to be an indie rock band. While the band didn't enjoy nearly the same level of commercial success as many of ... More >>

The Gamits at the Bluebird

Jason Arthurs​ Superchunk never tried to be the biggest band in the land, but it did make music on its own terms and became an iconic outfit in its own right by embodying what it means to be an indie rock band. While the band didn't enjoy nearly the same level of commercial success as many of ... More >>

Screeching Weasel

Jason Arthurs​ Superchunk never tried to be the biggest band in the land, but it did make music on its own terms and became an iconic outfit in its own right by embodying what it means to be an indie rock band. While the band didn't enjoy nearly the same level of commercial success as many of ... More >>

Screeching Weasel

Wednesday, August 18, Gothic Theatre, 303-788-0984.

The Gamits CD-release show Saturday at the Gothic Theatre

Wednesday, August 18, Gothic Theatre, 303-788-0984.

MEN

Monday, September 6, hi-dive, 720-570-4500.

Billy Duffy of the Cult on punk's influence and playing with Morrisey in the Nosebleeds

​ Many people heard The Cult after its breakthrough album, Love, which contained the classic single "She Sells Sanctuary," was released in 1985. But The Cult increasingly became a worldwide phenomenon with its following two albums, Electric and Sonic Temple.

Our favorite T-shirts and Social D tattoos from Saturday night at the Fillmore

Travis shows off his Social D neck tat. He received it eight years ago and has seen Social Distortion four times.​As you might have heard or read, Social Distortion was in town over the weekend, playing Friday and Saturday night at the Fillmore Auditorium (Read our review of Social Distortion ... More >>

The men of Eolian on their backgrounds and the creation of Egg, their concept album

Matthew Ballantine-PattonAdam Edwards, Ian O'Dougherty and Sean Merrell are Eolian​ In this week's issue, the Rough Mixes entry focusing on Eolian, the progressive rock project led by Ian O'Dougherty (Uphollow, Ian Cooke, TaunTaun) and featuring occasional Backbeat contributor Sean Merrell (T ... More >>

Greg Graffin of Bad Religion: still straight-edge after all these years

Matthew Ballantine-PattonAdam Edwards, Ian O'Dougherty and Sean Merrell are Eolian​ In this week's issue, the Rough Mixes entry focusing on Eolian, the progressive rock project led by Ian O'Dougherty (Uphollow, Ian Cooke, TaunTaun) and featuring occasional Backbeat contributor Sean Merrell (T ... More >>

Bad Religion at the Fillmore, 11/12/10

Eric Gruneisen​ BAD RELIGION With Bouncing Souls • Off With Their Heads 11,12.10 | Fillmore Auditorium Yes, lead singer Greg Graffin was a little rounder, a lot balder and dressed like the college professor that he is, but his voice was still as crystal clear as ever. Last night's Bad Reli ... More >>

Veronica

Emerging From Troubled Days
Self-released

Dean Spunt of No Age on the importance of DIY

Todd Cole​No Age (due tonight at The Bluebird Theater) isn't a band that has hit the mainstream yet, but it has enjoyed an unexpected rise to prominence as a noisy pop band, making art grounded in notion of doing things your own way -- regardless of whether or not it's met with the stamp of ap ... More >>

The 20 bands that inspire tattoos like no other

An average Misfits fan.​Personally, it's been the "One Bad Album" rule. That's all it takes for a band's musical reputation to be asterisked forever, which makes getting a tattoo of that band, well, risky. You have to wonder how often thirty-somethings across the land hear "Nice Chi' Pep's tat ... More >>

Tonight: Zinester and graphic novelist Cristy Road at the Denver Zine Library

"Medusa," by Cristy Road.​Cristy Road is a queer punk-rocker radical feminist Cubana artist and writer; her career as a 'zinester dates back to the 7th grade and a time when she struggled with personal gender and identity issues, masking over her true feelings with a combination of deep-felt l ... More >>

Dave Chandler of St. Vitus on the band's early days at SST and what inspired the reunion

Tina-Korhonen​St. Vitus (due tonight at Summit Music Hall) were one of the pioneers of a style of music that took its direct inspiration from the first four, maybe even the first six, Black Sabbath albums. The band's aggressive guitar work flirted with psychedelia but was too heavy to ever be ... More >>

Hey Ronnie! 10 best punk songs about Reagan

April 1983 issue of TIME. How could '80s lefties not kind of loathe and fear this guy?​Thirty years ago today, at 12:27 p.m. mountain time, John Hinckley, Jr., shot then-president Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Reagan, of course, survived the shooting, ... More >>

Q&A: H.R. of Bad Brains just wants everyone to love Jah and learn how to love universally

​Bad Brains (due tonight at Summit Music Hall with Frontside Five and the Other Russia) is a band that's consistently mentioned in the same breath as Black Flag and and Minor Threat as groups that made massive contributions to defining the hardcore/punk movement in the late '70s and early '80s ... More >>

Kaia Wilson on Team Dresch, how she got into punk and her first solo tour in fourteen years

​Kaia Wilson (due tonight at Yellow Feather Coffee) was a teenager in the late '80s and early '90s in Oregon when she became involved in the Pacific Northwest's underground music scene. Although she played shows with many of the famous bands of the era with her band Adickdid, she first came to ... More >>

Westword Music Showcase 2011

The Westword Music Showcase celebrates seventeen years, a lifetime for some of 2011's performers

Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets on the band's legacy and his vivid lyrical imagery

Photo by Jaime Butler​When Meat Puppets (due tonight at the Bluebird Theater with Bad Weather California and The Black Box Revelation) formed and released its first few records on SST in the early '80s, the Phoenix-based act challenged punk rock conformity with its eclectic blend of countrifie ... More >>

Elias Bender Ronnenfelt of Iceage on Copenhagen DIY, gear and zine controversy

Alberte KarrebaekIceage​Iceage from Copenhagen, Denmark (due tonight at Rhinoceropolis) are all under the age of 22 but in its relatively short time together, the band has garnered a buzz for the sonic savagery of its live shows and the harrowingly resonant emotional tenor of its music. Its de ... More >>

Review: Against Me! at the Warped Tour, 8/5/11

Against Me! at the Denver stop of the Vans Warped Tour​AGAINST ME! at WARPED TOUR | 8/5/11Without delving into the history of the Vans Warped tour, it can be argued that a lot about it has changed. What started as a tour meant to showcase punk-rock rebellion, has now become a major cog in the ... More >>

Ten best songs about quitting your job

"Oh, I can absolutely work Saturday. I didn't have any plans anyway."​The job market's still very tough, your 401 (k) has probably lost its value over the last week, and your rent, car payment and baby mama aren't going to get paid on their own. You hate your job, your boss treats you like gar ... More >>

Stiff Little Fingers

Saturday, August 20, Summit Music Hall, 1-866-468-7621. 

Is Stranahan's the punk rock of whiskey? Ask the bartender...

​Growing up in New Jersey, I was a punk-rock kid. I started with Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones and the Clash, and moved on to Bad Brains, Fear, the Misfits, early Bad Religion, then into NY hardcore, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, etc. As the '80s progressed, so did my punk-rock fervor. I re ... More >>

Keith Morris of OFF!: "I don't see the light at the end of this tunnel"

​Growing up in New Jersey, I was a punk-rock kid. I started with Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones and the Clash, and moved on to Bad Brains, Fear, the Misfits, early Bad Religion, then into NY hardcore, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, etc. As the '80s progressed, so did my punk-rock fervor. I re ... More >>

Review: Denver does CBGB at the hi-dive, 10/29/11

Josiah Hesse​DENVER DOES CBGB at HI-DIVE | 10/29/11While the rest of the world celebrated Halloween weekend 2011, down at the hi-dive this past Saturday night it was 1976. Less a Halloween show and more akin to a Civil War reenactment or a Renaissance Festival, the night offered romanticized t ... More >>

Rise Against

Tuesday, December 6, 1STBANK Center, 1-866-461-6556.

Social Distortion, Hells Belles, Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Mickey Avalon and more this weekend

Social Distortion kicks off a three-night stand at the Ogden Theatre tonight​If you're looking for some captivating music this weekend, you need not look very far. Social Distortion kicks off its three-night stand tonight at the Ogden Theatre. Sean Paul is playing a free show tonight at Cassel ... More >>

Mid-Winter Punk Film Festival kicks off on 2/2

The Day the Country Died kicks off the festival on February 2.​Those looking for a little rowdy cinema to warm up those dreary final months of the season, should look no further than Growler Distro's Mid-Winter Punk Film Festival, which features only the most hardcore selection of underground ... More >>

Bill Stevenson of Descendents: "Maybe it's just all of our fans are paying us back for some good music we've given them "

Chapman BaehlerDescendents Descendents (due tomorrow night at the Fillmore Auditorium) didn't exactly invent pop punk, but the band's musical influence can be heard throughout that movement whether latter day poppy punk bands know it or not. Starting in 1978, Descendents were early compatriots of w ... More >>