The Rock and Roll Marathon series returns to Denver for the fifth time this October. Today, organizers announced a new route with a much larger footprint and a few new neighborhoods. Instead of a quick loop through downtown before a tangle out by City Park, this year’s race will head…
We’ve just announced the winners of this year’s Westword Music Awards. See the winners in each of our forty categories in the post that follows — the names of the artists who came out on top of the public vote are bolded and enlarged. We took a few photos of…
The votes have been tallied for this year’s Westword Music Awards, and the trophies are almost ready. We won’t blow the surprise, but suffice it to say they will not bludgeon as effectively as last year’s. Find out what they look like tonight: Thursday, June 26 at Cassleman’s. An Awards’…
It is no surprise at this point that KISS fans do not come unprepared. Still, a flock spanning three generations spent hours getting that eye-star just right before last night’s show at the Pepsi Center. Photographer Aaron Thackeray was there to commemorate their work. Here are our favorite face-painted KISS…
After months of planning and lead-up, the twentieth Westword Music Showcase arrived promptly at noon on Saturday. I started my day watching SF1 both tap dance and absolutely nail down a cover of “Bombs Over Baghdad,” and the next ten hours passed in a blur of sweaty singers and silly…
We are live from the twentieth Westword Music Showcase. Friends, I can now give you the exclusive news that there are tiny ferns on every table in the VIP section. There are also many bands. More than 150 bands, actually, playing seventeen stages in the Golden Triangle. Stop me if…
Update: More details have emerged about last night’s shooting outside Red Rocks, and it appears the shooter was targeting Schoolboy Q after his performance opening for Nas and Flying Lotus. Schoolboy Q had just gotten into a white SUV near the south entrance of the actual amphitheater when someone who…
Riot Fest will return to Denver this fall with a lineup including the Cure, the National, Weezer, Wu-Tang Clan and more. It will take place over three days, from September 19 to 21, at May Farms in Byers. Just now, the festival has announced each day’s lineup and started selling…
Update: Winner number one is mini-d. A schedule-maker after our hearts in that he or she will never be able to see all that stuff. We’re giving away a couple more pairs of tickets, so keep your schedules coming in the comments or on social media. The Westword Music Showcase…
There are successful, vibrant music scenes in every corner of the world. So what makes ours different? We asked several bands playing this year’s Westword Music Showcase to tell us: What is, in your opinions, the best thing about playing music in Colorado? Their set times for this Saturday are…
Here’s the thing: When you let a bunch of people into a field where there are several dozen very high quality beers in limitless supply, and then you close with a ’90s cover band, people will sing every word and hug strangers and generally head out of there with smiles…
Daniel Pujol is a rock-and-roll songwriter from Nashville playing tonight at the Larimer Lounge, and he would like to communicate with you. He’s at several disadvantages there, especially if he sticks to the methods we mostly rely on these days. He could send you a text message, but they are…
It is, as even casual observers of this section and/or billboards in the vicinity of the Golden Triangle will be aware, Westword Music Showcase season. I say season because it’s not just the festival itself (but: June 21 on that). It’s also about the related Westword Music Awards, which give…
Backbeat’s goal has always been to get more people involved in the Denver music scene and to give the people who already are some things to think about or laugh about or generally just spend time with. That mission has evolved over the years as our resources have, and starting…
Film on the Rocks kicked off its fifteenth season on Tuesday with a screening of Caddyshack. As at all of these, a couple Colorado bands played opening sets. We won’t make you wait for a verdict: It is spectacularly awesome to have one of those spots. There are down sides…
It’s Westword Music Showcase month, and today we have a schedule for you. In case this is unfamiliar territory: For the twentieth year, we’ll celebrate the wide array of Denver’s music scene with a music festival right here in the city. The thing has grown over the decades, and this…
Let’s keep it simple for a moment: Science Partner and In the Whale are playing a show next Friday, June 6 at Stoney’s, and it’s free. Doors open at 7 p.m. and it’ll be over by 10. “Science Partner all is about the bounce and the sigh” wrote Jason Heller…
The outdoor summer concert series keep rolling in. Today, we have the full lineup for (of all places) a fancy steakhouse. But Elways Cherry Creek is no tourist in music. This year marks the steakhouse’s tenth Live From Elway’s Backyard series, and it will feature some impressive local talent. The…
It’s a great time to be a fan of country music. Mainstream artists like Kacey Musgraves are challenging old stereotypes. And in the vast field outside the pop country stratosphere, there are songwriters whose wit and clarity transcend genre. Key among those is Randy Rogers Band, which will headline Red…
The way you find a band is important. I discovered Haim in a park in small town Illinois with five story oak trees towering over strings of warm lights. I was camping nearby and drinking wine straight from the gallon-sized jug. The three sisters from LA drew me around the…
The Westword Music Showcase is one month away. On June 21, 130-ish Colorado bands and artists of every possible variety will play assorted venues around the Golden Triangle. Each of those bands is a nominee for a Westword Music Award, and they represent a music community that is easy to…
10. Stephen Stills came to Boulder on Saturday. He talked about his busted knees and encouraged fiscal responsibility. 9. Stephen Stills is capable of a particular confluence of guitar chords and mythology reserved for songwriters born before, say, 1953. Maybe their stories have simply had the time to become indelible…
