SAT-TUES | STRING CHEESE INCIDENT at 1STBANK | 12/28-12/31 String Cheese Incident will be presenting its twentieth-anniversary celebration with various openers during its New Year’s run at 1STBANK Center. The group has Bootsy Collins joining forces on Saturday, December 28, and confetti rockers Flaming Lips on Sunday, December 29. Past…
In what’s become an annual tradition for us, we ask a few members of Team Backbeat to reflect on an album they’re thankful for in honor of Thanksgiving. In eighth grade, Green Day’s song “Longview” exploded into my little world and got seemingly everyone I knew to start learning a…
BLACK JOE LEWIS at BLUEBIRD THEATER | 11/25/13 Last night’s Black Joe Lewis show at Bluebird showed that the garage heavy sound all over the band’s latest release, Electric Slave, sounds incredible live and has really rejuvenated old hits. Now that the group has dropped “and the Honeybears” from its…
There was a lot of excitement leading up to Phish’s Fall tour, as indoor Phish is a whole different monster from the summer shed extravaganzas that leave you in the sunlight for the first set; these shows get dark and dirty from the get go. The band rehearsed and wrote…
STIR FRIED at DONKEY O.T. | 11/8/13 Deadhead bars and Denver go hand in hand, and Jay Bianchi’s new bar/venue, the Donkey O.T., near Mile High Stadium in the space of old club Atmosphere, is one of the swankier deadhead bars you’ll step foot in. It’s clean, big and connected…
There are countless bands that stray from the traditional song formula and jam the hell out live. Many of these acts fall under the amorphous indie tag, but there are a few that have notable prog- and psychedelic rock undercurrents flowing through their music, which is naturally conducive to improvisation…
Phish just finished a stunning run of shows on the East Coast last week in which the band debuted new material. While the new tunes will no doubt inspire much debate, the band’s already sprawling archive of performances provides endless fodder for discussions of which versions are the best. Admittedly,…
Shakey Graves (Alejandro Rose-Garcia) is a one man force to be reckoned with. Armed with a vintage guitar, attention grabbing musical stylistics and a drum made out of a suitcase, this one man band grabs audiences like no other; you can hear a pin drop at his shows. In advance…
In the past few years, fuzz guitars have come conspicuously back to the forefront, and they’re being played by some female-led outfits that sound like they came straight out of the mid-’90s, when Juliana Hatfield, Liz Phair and Courtney Love were queens of the Sam Goody racks. Mixing jangly and…
One of the things that made the Grateful Dead so special was its ability to flawlessly transition from one song into the next, often taking the audience, as well as band members, completely by surprise. Masters of improvisation, these musicians had such great non-verbal communication on stage that they could…
For many jam band fans, traveling and seeing concerts goes hand in hand. Often when a favorite band announces its tour, folks will scan the tour dates and choose which dates to go to depending on which venue they are booked at. From giant outdoor summer sheds to intimate houses,…
LOTUS @ RED ROCKS | 10/4/13 Despite predictions of snow all week, the weather stayed calm but frigid at Red Rocks as Lotus performed its show, which had been rescheduled due to the flooding a couple weeks ago. Even though it was cold, all quickly warmed up dancing to the…
For many bands, the light show is almost as integral to the live act as the music, so much so, in fact, that lighting directors are often heralded as an additional member of the group. These illumination wizards have the most open and creative space to work in, and as…
Phish is the greatest cover band on earth, hands down. Some songs have become staples — so much so that we’ve come across fans, even well versed fans, who didn’t realize songs like “Funky Bitch” was a cover — while others are only busted out occasionally, sometimes only once. Of…
FURTHUR at RED ROCKS | NIGHT FOUR | 9/22/13 Last night marked the final show of Furthur’s annual four-day Red Rocks run, and Mother Nature continued playing a prominent role as dark rain clouds quickly moved by on the horizon. Luckily, everyone came prepared for the worst, and for very…
FURTHUR at RED ROCKS | NIGHT THREE | 9/21/13 Furthur’s third show at Red Rocks had two special guests — a monster Harvest Moon that was even bigger than the night before and an hour-long fireworks display in the background. The venue filled up much faster on this night than…
FURTHUR at RED ROCKS | NIGHT TWO | 9/20/13 As Furthur took the stage to a sold out crowd last night at Red Rocks, they were upstaged by a massive orange Harvest Moon coming up over the horizon. The band began some preliminary warm-up jamming, as tons of cell phones…
FURTHUR at RED ROCKS | NIGHT ONE | 9/19/13 Furthur kicked off its four-night run at Red Rocks last night, fresh from announcing the news of their upcoming touring hiatus. “Would this be the last time we would see these living legends of the Grateful Dead at Red Rocks?” seemed…
Tonight at Red Rocks, Furthur kicks off its highly anticipated four-night run. The band just announced a touring hiatus after its Mexico run in January, so you definitely won’t want to miss these shows. Like the Dead, Furthur attracts followers that are unfailingly devout, all of whom you can meet…
The term “jam-band scene” is icky and cringe-worthy. It hurts to even type it. But then again, so is the word “indie” when it’s used to describe bands on major labels, but sometimes you have to hang a handle on something simply for the sake of discussion. Stereotypes are made…
Kind of soggy over here today. No surprise. Colorado is notorious for dumping buckets of rain on concert-goers this time of year. Rain doesn’t stop the show, though, and it shouldn’t stop you. If you’re a seasoned concert vet who already has head-to-toe rain gear at the ready, consider this…
PHISH @ DICK’S SPORTING GOODS PARK | 9/1/13 One of the best things about Phish playing Dick’s on Labor Day Weekend is that each night you get treated to a good, juicy, late summer, Colorado sunset pre-show, and then you get to see two whole sets of Kuroda’s light show,…
