Westword’s 2013 Best of Denver issue hit the streets yesterday.This year’s prize for Best New Public Art? “Bridge,” by Stephen Shachtman, a work located near Fort Logan in southwest Denver. How does this choice fit with our picks of the last ten years? Some pieces are still controversial, years later;…
Winter is officially in the books. Spring is finally here, and we’ve got a whole new batch of shows to look forward to. Before we forge ahead, we thought we take a look back at all the shows we made it out to in the past few months and single…
Our first Best of Denver hit the streets in 1984, almost seven years after this paper published its first edition in 1977. It was the biggest issue of Westword up to that point — and about the size of an average weekly edition today. We were still a decade away…
The Best of Denver 2013 has hit the streets, and once again, LoHi is our Best Restaurant Neighborhood. At the end of 2012, the LoHi Merchant Group did a count of all the eateries in the area and came up with over fifty — more than double the count from…
The 2013 Best of Denver issue is on stands now, and in its 196 pages you’ll find Westword’s picks for the best people, places and services in Denver. Along the way, though, we asked you, our readers, to nominate and then vote for your favorites online, on paper ballots and…
Our annual Best of Denver issue hits stands today. It’s a painstaking issue to put together each year, but one that everyone looks forward to. This edition is even more significant, however, as it’s the thirtieth edition. It’s also a minor milestone for Backbeat, as it marks the tenth edition…
As people who think about, talk about, write about, listen to and make music, it’s not surprising that the most common (and favorite) topic of conversation among us is the same: “What are you listening to right now?” Stick a quarter in us, and, boy, wouldn’t you know it, off…
Central Bistro & Bar will start serving lunch tomorrow, eight months after Isiah Salazar opened his restaurant on the very edge of LoHi, almost three months after opening exec chef Lance Barto abruptly left the kitchen. That kitchen is now in the hands of Gerard Strong, who’d come from Z…
The Colorado Brewers Guild, which represents more than 100 of the state’s 160-plus breweries, took over Colorado Beer Week this year, revitalizing it as Colorado Craft Beer Week. Brothers Scott and Jason Kerkmans started Colorado Beer Week as a for-profit production in 2011, but it needed more of a push…
Oh, man! What a spring concert season you have in store. We originally set out to assemble a list of the 25 best concerts this spring, and we found there were so many great shows, we had to expand it to the fifty best shows, from hot buzz bands like…
Left Hand Brewing pulled out all the stops on Saturday with Hops & Handrails, a family-friendly beer festival featuring 23 Colorado breweries, live music, local food, and a 25-foot-high ski and snowboard ramp that was built just for the occasion. Check out our photos of the event or click the…
The New Kids on the Block Party, part of Colorado Craft Beer Week, went down last Saturday night at the Lobby American Grille, and being there was like being in a cold beer time machine. The point was to celebrate breweries that have opened in Colorado in the past two…
It’s fair to say that the fans who stuck it out at Friday night’s FIFA World Cup qualifier match at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park were the diehard variety. During the game between the U.S. men’s soccer team and Costa Rica, Mother Nature covered the field in layer upon layer of…
In our preview of the Concoctory’s impending arrival, owner Mar Wiiams described the new South Broadway shop as, “a fusion of electronics and arts,” and our visit to its grand opening cemented that sentiment with a fun and friendly DIY experience. Photographer Danielle Lirette stopped by the new spot and…
LOW @ LARIMER LOUNGE | FRI, 3/29/13 Since its inception in 1993, Low has created a body of work characterized by a fragile intensity. Although often lumped in under the banner of “slowcore” with a group of bands of similar sonic leanings, like Red House Painters, Galaxie 500, Tarnation and…
After the Aurora theater shooting last July, plenty of people across the country were nervous during their next trip to the movies — especially if the flick they were seeing was The Dark Knight Rises, which was unspooling as a gunman killed twelve people and injured seventy others. Still, Ohio’s…
It’s not time for the Denver County Fair quite yet — that won’t happen until August 9-11 — but it’s time to start getting excited about it. To help you with your immediate pie cravings and future funnel-cake dreams, we present this year’s Denver County Fair poster, the third in…
CONSPIRATOR @ OGDEN THEATRE | SAT, 3/23/13 Conspirator is an apt name for this supergroup of sorts, which comprises members of several well-known acts. Exploring the ethereal realms of EDM, the quartet — Aron Magner and Marc Brownstein of the Disco Biscuits, KJ Sawka of Pendulum and Chris Michetti of…
Three years ago, Blake Street Tavern moved a block south from the spot it had been for close to seven years, into the massive warehouse space at 2301 Blake Street that had once been home to Polly Esther’s (and many clubs before that). The first floor was filled with a…
The Wazee Supper Club got a makeover last year, so it will be ready for its close-up at 6:30 p.m. Monday, when fifteen women will be there to audition for three spots on Denver’s newest reality show, Mile High Social. This group of finalists has already been whittled down from…
Although Mile High Social, Denver’s newest reality show, is pegged as an honest project with a humanitarian bent, its creators were still amazed by how “real” the first casting call turned out. “I was surprised by how open the women were on camera,” Koncrete Media co-founder Dennis Flippin says. “It…
We’d missed the closure of Hoot and Howl — just as most people missed the restaurant/venue when it was actually open in the Shops at Northfield Stapleton. That development isn’t very old, but already the space at 8270 East Northfield is getting a reputation as a black hole, having already…
