From a hotel in Boise, Dan Whitford, the mastermind behind Australia’s electropop outfit Cut Copy, recounts one of the band’s earliest experiences in Denver.

In the renovated hall of an actual church founded in 1889, the Denver club known as the Church specializes in a more experimental style of nightlife, with genres ranging from EDM and trance to drone, goth and industrial.

A soon-to-open club with “a fresh vybe,” #Vybe, the brainchild of local promoter Joe Miranda, will make its debut during the Westword Music Showcase, in the space that was once home to Broadway’s.

This is a big week for Alejandro Rose-Garcia, the Austin-based Americana musician who performs his honest, bluesy folk tunes under the stage name Shakey Graves.

If you want to dance the Westword Music Showcase away, head to Vinyl, a four-story club that’s a mainstay in the Golden Triangle.

One of Denver’s premier event venues, City Hall will host Westword Music Showcase performers on two of its stages: the main stage and the amphitheatre.

A few days ago, Rob Ingraham, saxophonist for New Orleans-based roots-rock/soul group the Revivalists, was passing through customs, returning to the U.S. after a string of shows in Canada.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a spot in Denver that has more hometown pride than Stoney’s Bar and Grill.

Denver’s hottest club for all things Latin, La Rumba has been a staple of the Denver club scene since 1997, earning a loyal following of dance and music lovers.

Youth on Record is a non-profit social-justice organization that gives local kids a creative outlet to help them realize their potential, working through schools in some of Denver’s most vulnerable areas.

Housed in what used to be Jonas Bros. Furs, the modern-day-speakeasy-themed Bar Standard is one of the best spots in Denver for live DJs.

What started fifteen years ago as a simple farmers’ market has evolved into a flourishing hub for the Denver community, thanks to Civic Center Conservancy, a local nonprofit working to activate Denver’s historic Civic Center Park. The Conservancy, which is a beneficiary of the Westword Music Showcase, hosts weekly events that start in April and run through October in Civic Center Park.

Although Alejandro Rose-Garcia isn’t a Colorado native, it’s easy to mistake him for one given his easygoing manner and sincere love of the outdoors.

It was a long journey for Jimmy Vallance and Tom Howie, the electronic duo now known as Bob Moses, to start making music together.

In 2012, Ryan Winnen, drummer for Nashville’s breakout indie-pop sensation COIN, found himself playing at “an arguably intolerable volume” in a dorm room with two of his Belmont University schoolmates.

Westword has released a ticket bundle called the Showcase Squad Pack, four tickets to our annual music showcase for only $220, a savings of $40.

In the summer of 2011, Erinn Peet-Lukes posted to Craiglist that she was looking for someone to busk with at Pike Place Market in Seattle. Unbeknownst to her, she had planted the seed for what would become one of Colorado’s finest bluegrass acts.