The crowd didn’t seem to mind Phoenix’s simple and straight-ahead approach during its 6:45 p.m. set in the Bison Tent at Mile High Music Festival. The Paris-based band have built a loyal commercial following in the United States during the past year sticking to the basics. It’s an approach that…

Cypress Hill, 4:45 p.m. on the Wolf Stage I walked straight in the clouds of smoke and the packs of dancing 20-somethings as the first strains of “Insane in the Brain” sounded from the Wolf Stage. I should probably clarify that — by “strains,” I mean I heard B-Real loudly…

Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, 1:30 p.m., Bison Tent Blame it on the early hour, chalk it up to the inconvenient location of the Bison Tent on the far eastern end of the complex. Maybe it boils down to the fundamental feel of the open-air stage, a forum that doesn’t exactly…

The Motet, noon on the Wolf Stage Two years of experience can make a difference. The organizers of the Mile High Music Festival seem to have learned from the mistakes of years’ past for the 2010 version of the mega fest. Arriving at the massive soccer complex at Dick’s Sporting…

Mainstream success hasn’t complicated Laurent Brancowitz’s approach to music. As lead guitarist and a founding member of the alt-rock quartet Phoenix, Brancowitz played a formative role in honing the band’s straightfoward sound, a mixture that blends ’80s pop cues, soul-informed guitar licks and plaintive vocals. “It’s a thing we’ve always…

UMS Travelogue, Night Four 7.25.10, Baker District/South Broadway The mood was more understated from the beginning. As the fourth and final day of the UMS got underway on a stifling Sunday afternoon, the sense of weariness felt almost palpable. After four straight days of live music in venues spread up…

UMS Travelogue, Day Three 7.24.10, Baker District/South Broadway I decided to change my pattern for my third crawl along Broadway for the UMS. I’d started late on Thursday and Friday nights, checking out the first venues at 10 p.m. at the earliest. I wanted to get a head start for…

UMS Travelogue, Night Two 7.23.10 | Baker District/South Broadway I started my tour of South Broadway relatively late in the evening, heading south from the 404 Lounge at around 9:45 p.m. Turns out I still had plenty of time to catch a wide variety of acts in a wealth of…

The scope of Grant Gordy’s freshman release is ambitious, to say the least. Swinging echoes of Django Reinhardt, dense guitar melodies worthy of Bill Frisell, Doc Watson-inspired flatpicking and counterpoint experiments straight out of a Debussy suite all find a place across the thirteen instrumental tracks. It’s a brainy musical…

It was hard for Grant Gordy not to feel ridiculous as he crossed the casino floor in Central City. A showgirl tossing out beads led the parade, and a stilt walker brought up the rear. Gordy was caught somewhere in the middle, picking out Cajun tunes on a tenor banjo…

Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa 06.07.10 | The Paramount Theatre Dweezil Zappa stressed again and again how thoroughly his band had done their homework. At several points during Monday’s two and a half hour show, he explained how the seven-member ensemble had dissected the original stereo mixes of Frank Zappa songs…

Manchester Orchestra • The Features • Biffy Clyro • O’Brother 03.18.10 | The Gothic Theatre A teaming crowd had packed the floor of the The Gothic Theatre by the time Manchester Orchestra took the stage. No one seemed more surprised by this than the band’s frontman. “I did not expect…

Dwight Thompson was ready to quit. After years of playing bass for hire, he’d simply had enough. “I was actually at a point this year when I was like, ‘I’m giving this two more years and then I’m done,'” he recalls. “I’d rather have a day job than play music…

After eight years in its current lineup, Tequila Mockingbird has seen its fair share of conflicts, drama and strains. Struggling to carve a viable niche in the Denver music scene hasn’t been easy, and recording a new album during the past two years has only added to the pressure. “I…

Paper Bird, These United States, Dovekins Thursday, December 31, 2009 hi-dive Better than: Going to a New Year’s concert that didn’t feature kazoos and Jefferson Airplane covers. It was easy to overlook the elements of chaos that marked Paper Bird’s New Year’s set at the hi-dive Thursday night. The headliners…

See more photos on the slideshow page. 3OH!3, Meese, The Photo Atlas, The Pirate Signal Saturday, December 19, 2009 Fillmore Auditorium Better than: Sampling the diversity of Denver’s homegrown musical styles at four different venues. Anyone looking for an in-person illustration of the range of the Mile High city’s musical…

Pacific Pride, Weed Diamond, Green Typewriters November 27 hi-dive What it was like: Making the most of a menu of three or four chords. The stark sounds of Pacific Pride’s CD release show at the hi-dive on Friday seemed especially fitting this weekend. Following the sumptuousness and excess of the…

Puscifer, Uncle Scratch’s Gospel’s Revival Saturday, November 21, 2009 Paramount Theatre Better than: Watching old reruns of Hee Haw. It would have been hard to predict the format and content of Saturday night’s Puscifer show based solely on the outfit’s studio recordings. A side project of Tool frontman Maynard James…