Les Paul’s nose was running. It was during one of his weekly Monday gigs at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York, and I was sitting about ten feet from where he was sitting on stage. He looked at me, pointed at the napkin on my lap and gestured for…

I’m just back from “Boulder’s Home of the Blues,” and while it might seem a bit odd to have a blues club inside of an organic restaurant that’s also part of Boulder’s first zero-waste hotel, Blues & Greens Restaurant in the Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites (800 28th Street) is…

Although Mardi Gras festivities usually happen in February or March in New Orleans, there’s a chance Red Rocks might get soaked in a Bourbon Street vibe when some of the Crescent City’s finest musicians take over the venue tomorrow, August 8 as part of the Mountainside Mardi Gras Music Festival…

For the most part, the weather in New York is made up of extremes. But for Denver-based bassist Lelah Simon, who studied at the New School with legendary jazz bassists Buster Williams and Reggie Workman, there were two times a year when the weather in New York was perfect —…

We’d just grabbed a table in the back of BJ’s Carousel (1380 South Broadway) when a drag queen sitting right in front of us and wearing a lot of turquoise-and-silver jewelry turned around in her seat and asked, “Are you here for the show, or did you just stumble in…

Sonic Youth Friday, July 31, 2009Ogden TheatreThree songs into Sonic Youth’s muscular set, Kim Gordon sang, “I want you to levitate me/Don’t you love me yet?” during “Sacred Trixter.” Although her feet might have still been on the ground, those first three songs, which also included the opener “Stereo Sanctity”…

For the last decade, Bands for the Lands has used live music and other arts to further the cause of conservation and sustainability. The Denver-based non-profit will take that one step further with the introduction of the the Ticket-Tee at concert featuring Black Sheep Brigade, Primasonic, Light Travels Faster and…

Black FrancisWednesday July 29, 2009The Walnut RoomBetter than: Seeing him at a much bigger venue. Black Francis (aka Frank Black aka Charles Thompson) doesn’t tour in a van. Dude’s been riding around the country in a big-ass tour deluxe tour bus, which seemed really out of place parked outside of…

While being hailed as one of the city’s best blues bands, the Informants also mix it up with soul, rock and rockabilly, as heard on their outstanding 2007 debut, Stiletto Angel. The group continues down a similar path on its new album, Crime Scene Queen, which was produced by Big…

From Unadorned’s balls-out opener, “Escape From the Suburbs,” all the way through to the disc’s bonus cut, CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” it’s apparent these guys are well-schooled in the ways of ’70s and ’80s punk and garage rock. The garage-y “Repossession,” one of the album’s highlights, is…

Jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall has released a dozen albums in the two decades she’s been performing professionally. Her latest album, the bossa-nova-tinged Quiet Nights, might be her most romantic effort to date. She has said the album is very womanly — “like you’re lying next to your lover…

I recently stopped by Platte River Bar and Grill (5995 South Santa Fe Drive, Littleton), a good local bar and also a good local restaurant serving Mexican food and burgers. I spotted a guy and his son, who looked about ten years old, sitting at the bar, eating chicken wings…