Like the quixotically stylish music of his full-time band, Fingers of the Sun, Nathan Brasil’s solo side-project, Salads and Sunbeams, is a warm and accessible, stripped down version of the mustachioed songwriter’s dream-pop style. “It’s a lot of odds and ends that didn’t work with Fingers of the Sun or…
Yes, yes, we all know him as The Weasel, the speech-impaired, blank-eyed wonderboy who confused parents and enthused Gen X-ers in films like Encino Man, Son in Law and Bio-Dome. But Pauly Shore’s revival as a standup comedian is more than just a ’90s novelty act: Descended from Mitzi Shore,…
After two years of dropping deep house beats at Lipgloss, option4 (aka Brennen Bryarly) will be bidding farewell this weekend to the long-running indie-dance night, performing his final set this Friday night at Beauty Bar before moving on to his own residency at NORAD. We spoke with both Bryarly and…
One of the most beloved (and most duplicated) albums of the twentieth century, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon has been adapted into endless forms of live entertainment, from kid-friendly laser-light half-time shows to the Flaming Lips’ brain-bursting acid tests. So it only makes sense that the album would…
Ben Kronberg could be the most successful comic to come out of the Denver comedy scene recently. Crafting Mitch Hedberg- style micro-jokes, delivered with a creepy dead-pan stare, Kronberg has developed a style all his own that’s gaining some national recognition. After showcasing on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham series,…
With Denver’s local comedy scene finally beginning to catch up with Comedy Work’s national acts — in terms of both talent and swelling audience numbers — we figured it was time to assemble some of our favorite standup shows for the coming month. As we salivate over the smorgasbord of…
Baby-faced Rory Scovel has been lighting up the comedy world with his classic observational humor, mixed with context-free voices that he applies randomly to no particular jokes or bits (he’s been known to drift into a German accent at random points in the show, and may or may not continue…
After a teaser in which Conan O’Brien plugs his standup guest as Adam Clayton-Holland (a reference to the U2 bass-player that Adam Cayton-Holland is surely used to), Denver’s former What’s So Funny? columnist was introduced to one million nation-wide fans in his late-night TV debut. Utilizing material familiar to local…
Denver comic and former Westword scribe Adam Cayton-Holland will be making his standup debut on TBS’s Conan next Tuesday, January 29. “This is my first appearance on a late-night TV show,” Cayton-Holland tells us. “I did a small spot on the TV show Happy Endings, but yeah, in terms of…
In the concert film I’m Your Man, folksinger Leonard Cohen describes his childhood reading of the Torah as the earliest, and one of the strongest, influences on his poems and lyrics. And so it’s a wonder that it took so long for sometime to create a Jewish tribute concert to…
On Joshua Novak’s latest release, the talented songwriter appears to have gotten a bit too comfortable within his own sound. Ephemeron has its moments of tranquil beauty, and as an introduction to Novak’s work, it stands up as an intriguing record. But the emotional tone of this album is consistent…
It’s a common saying around the Beltway: Politics is just show-business for ugly people. The parallels between politician and pop star are too numerous to list here, yet by simply looking at the quotes dolled out by rockers and legislators over the years — and trying to figure out which…
THE WALKMEN @ THE OGDEN THEATRE | 01/21/13 Like a punk band scoring a gothic Western, the Walkmen delivered a set at the Ogden last night that came off as a unique chemistry of contrasts. Blending all the feverish energy of rockabilly inside a tightly controlled package of casual style,…
The most common byproduct of politics is high blood pressure, and no one experiences that kind of pre-stroke madness like standup comedian Lewis Black. With his shaky hands, bulging eyes and unbuttoned suit, Black often appears as an out-of-work schmuck who writes angry letters to the White House and TMZ…
Despite our collective relief at viewing the 2012 presidential election in the rearview mirror, stressed-out political comedian Lewis Black has yet to calm down. “Hallelujah — our long national nightmare is over. Now we face a fiscal cliff. Sounds like an event from the X Games. Here’s hoping both parties…
Over the last decade, the popularity of listening to people talk about standup comedy has nearly eclipsed the joys of actually listening to standup. And while this generation’s crop of indie-comedy podcasters has popularized the art of self-reflective dissection, there’s certainly some worth in letting comedy elders tell their stories…
Gateway Acts is a new ongoing series on Backbeat in which we examine the music that served as an entry point for our burgeoning musical obsessions, a gateway drug that tuned us in and turned us on. Today, Josiah Hesse gives up the goods on his Beck jones. There is…
It’s no big secret that the Internet has dramatically changed the way we work, socialize and get around, but is it changing us? In his New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer finalist The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, author Nicholas Carr argues that the advantages of…
Did you know that when we use a Google search engine, scan Twitter feeds or compulsively reach for our smart-phones, we’re actually engaging evolutionary tools that have been with us for tens of thousands of years? And while these tools have aided our species survival, author Nicholas Carr argues that…
New Year’s resolutions are typically useless; they’re often way too ambitious and usually forgotten by February. But there’s value in the ritual of taking stock of the past year and making goals for the year to come. When I was asked about my resolutions, I said couldn’t think of a…
As it is for most musicians, a New Year’s Eve gig is nightlife-prime-real estate for a comic. Big money, big crowds and an audience that’s ready to let its PC guard down and get loose. Consequentially, you never turn down a NYE standup gig — if you can get one…
No question, 2012 was the year of the comedian in Denver. A lifelong fan of standup, I’ve had the pleasure of reporting on some amazing shows this year — and I’m sharing some of the high points here. Still, I’m sure there’s a vast ocean of talent that slipped past…
