Last night, the forecast of “light rain” left out the bit about two full hours of torrential rain, mild flooding, and seriously limited visibility issues on the roads. Driving through these conditions to get to Red Rocks either inspired a bit of foolhardy bravado or the urge to turn back…
When Jane’s Addiction released its debut studio album, Nothing’s Shocking, in 1988, it was a watershed moment in what came to be called alternative rock, though at the time, there wasn’t such a clumsy genre tag for it. Still, Jane’s Addiction didn’t really fit in with any popular trends of the…
According to Mac Sabbath manager Mike Odd, lead singer Ronald Osbourne believes he teleported across space and time from the 1970s to 2014 to start the band. Think Back to the Future in reverse. The true origins of Ronald Osbourne are shrouded in mystery as is the case with his…
Colorado Springs might not be known for its indie music, but bands like Eros and the Eschaton are trying to change that perception. “The people that are making waves in the Springs music scene are in the Springs intentionally, for the sake of making a scene,” says Eros keyboardist Mitchell…
Pioneers of what was once called “art rock” and “progressive rock,” Yes has cast a long shadow on development of any rock music that dares to incorporate literature, high art, futuristic ideas and unadulterated creativity unbound by everyday concerns. Along with contemporaries King Crimson, Curved Air, Emerson, Lake & Palmer,…
At this point in its career, Beach House has reached an axis where its songwriting carries great emotional intimacy, its stage show features elevated rock theater, and its fanbase is large enough to support the band making music full-time. Yet the band still plays intimate venues which highlight the best of these…
Even though co-headliner Boris had to step out of the Denver date due to illness, it didn’t seem like many if any fans opted out of attending the Earth show on Friday night, August 19, at the Bluebird. One might credit the addition of local support with the bluesy hard…
Beach House is winding down its touring cycle for its 2015 albums Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars. During the past year the band has made good on its impulse to have diverse performance experiences with elaborate props and a light show made especially for the tour. “We had…
The first-ever Denver Keytar Fest, being held this Saturday, was organized by independent concert promoter Claudia Woodman, who has been booking shows for underground bands in Denver for several years. Known as “Claudzilla,” Woodman brings some verve and skill to playing the keytar, an instrument that some may see as silly…
After several years as a weekly dance party, Lipgloss will become a monthly event at Pearl’s, with a monthly special event held at Bar Standard. The last weekly Lipgloss will be held at Bar Standard on Friday, September 2, says Lipgloss founder Michael Trundle. Zia of the Dandy Warhols will…
With multiple platinum albums under his belt, Josh Groban is among the most successful pop singers of the past fifteen years. He has also appeared on most prominent television talk shows, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 20/20, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. (He even performed…
Creative Adult’s early seven-inch singles were often presented as punk, but their relatively nondescript cover art gave little away about the music within. Certainly punk seemed to be at the root of it, but it was also noisier than that, more willing to color outside the lines of what punk…
Over this past extended weekend, Rocky Mountain Low didn’t just showcase a slice of the real underground rock scene in Denver. It could have been just all straight ahead rock or punk or metal or a combination thereof. But what it did though, without overtly stating this as a purpose,…
The most obvious way to find the different ethnicities represented in Denver’s population, from Italian to Vietnamese to Mexican, is in our wide variety of restaurants. (Westword food editor Mark Antonation has dedicated an entire series to ethnic food in Denver.) But why not treat your stomach and your ears…
The first Rocky Mountain Low festival starts on Thursday, August 11. Organized by Reed Bruemmer, formerly of Speedwolf and currently of Poison Rites, and Brian Castillo of Heavy Dose Records, Rocky Mountain Low will be a curated showcase reflecting a slice of underground music in Denver and beyond. Expect punk, experimental…
Better known these days under the moniker Lisa Prank, Robin Edwards has longstanding connections to Denver’s art and music communities. Edwards, a former Westword contributor, grew up in Colorado, and while still in high school, she got involved in the local underground scene. Before becoming a musician, she was a…
Marilyn Manson has been keeping sets short on his current tour, which he’s co-headlining with Slipknot, and the performance at the Pepsi Center on Sunday, August 7, was no different. Even at eleven songs, the Manson set felt like it passed all too quickly. This despite set and costume changes…
Every year, Denver delivers up worthy new bands in various genres, or non-genres, and this past year has been especially rich in that regard. In a future list, perhaps we can include artists like Born Dumb, Herse, Jimmy V, Julien, Bag, Total Goth, Silver Face, eHpH, Never Kenezzard and PterrorFractyl,…
Since 1994 Michael Franti has been best known for his band Spearhead, a funk and soul outfit with lyrics that commented on social issues with an uncommon level of sensitivity and a measured critique. Prior to that, Franti had been the main vocalist in industrial rap acts the Beatnigs and…
Deerhoof has been unleashing frenetic, eccentric rock music upon the world since 1994. That the San Francisco-based band’s sound is impossible to pigeonhole has long been a part of its appeal. It has never aimed to embrace a single genre or genre at all beyond loosely categorized “rock.” “We’ve never…
This Saturday, hip-hop duo Calm. will play its first show in three years, opening for Extra Kool at the release show for his latest album, Eight. The two acts more or less came up together, forming the early core of local underground hip-hop imprint Dirty Laboratory in the mid-2000s. Calm.’s…
The 2016 Underground Music Showcase: four days of numerous shows, countless forms of entertainment and music fans spilling onto the sidewalks of South Broadway. Yet one of the most striking impressions of this year’s UMS is that it felt smaller. Not smaller in terms of lacking quality or crowds, but…
