Music

Indie sweethearts Tennis lit up the Bluebird Theater on Saturday, March 4, just days before the March 10 release of the duo’s latest album, Yours Conditionally. In a night filled with strong emotions, married couple Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley performed to a sold-out audience and had much to say about…

With one of the warmest Februarys on record, spring fever has hit earlier than expected. Your favorite DJs and electronic music artists are heating things up and filling up dates throughout March in the Mile High City.  If you’re looking to hit up a nightclub, dance in a large venue…

Vince Staples is the kind of dream star that doesn’t come along often in pop culture. Off stage, he’s witty, bantering about everything from cold pressed juice to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. To see pure Staples gold, check out this 2016 appearance on Bill Simmons’s ill-fated HBO talk show Any…

The last time Westword chatted with Havok frontman David Sanchez, the local metal titans were reeling after being unceremoniously ejected from a tour with Megadeth, after they rejected a management contract with Dave Mustaine’s son Justis. At the time, Sanchez said, “They wanted to get us on paper and lock…

Rapper Vince Staples brings his Life Aquatic Tour to the Gothic Theatre for a pair of nights this weekend while Tennis, who recently released Yours Conditionally on its new label, is at the Bluebird on Saturday night. This weekend’s lineup also includes the String Cheese incident at the Fox Theatre…

A few weeks ago, we noted that Jon Bon Jovi was seeking a Denver act to open for his band’s concert at Pepsi Center. Today, March 2, Live Nation announced the group has been picked: The Patti Fiasco — from Fort Collins. In a 2013 album review, Westword’s Jon Solomon…

Sickness has been going around lately, and famous musicians, well, they’re no exception. Anthony Kiedis, the front man of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has come down with bronchitis, and the group has been forced to reschedule its Thursday, March 2, Denver gig. The new show will take place October 16,…

Jesu Berkeley, aka Deej Karbon, worried his daughter’s Denver elementary school had no music program, so he asked the principal if he could start teaching deejaying classes. The response: Sure, if you can find a way to fund it. Now, he’s running a Kickstarter campaign and hosting a March 4…

LVL UP put out one of the better indie rock records of 2016 with Return to Love. It is a disarmingly moving album, imbued with warmth and introspection. Though based in New York City, the four-piece band was founded at SUNY Purchase in 2011. The group started as a recording…

Depeche Mode plays at the Pepsi Center, on Friday, August 25, on its world tour in support of the band’s fourteenth studio album, Spirit, which will be released on March 17. While tickets ($39.50-$129.50) go on sale to the public on Friday, March 10, at 10 a.m., fans can register for…

Wilco and Death Cab for Cutie will headline Velorama, a three day music, shopping and food festival held in the River North Art District, August 11-13. Also on the bill: Saint Motel, La Santa Cecila and the New Pornographers. The event will take place as part of the Colorado Classic bicycle race, the…

Things are about to get wild for the Canadian rock group, Japandroids. After nearly five years between recordings, they’ve released a new album, Near To The Wild Heart Of Life, scheduled some touring and have found themselves more confident than ever in their singing and songwriting. The duo has not only found a renewed energy for…

Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, the husband-and-wife duo behind Denver band Tennis, have just finished writing and producing their fifth album, Yours Conditionally, under their brand-new label, Mutually Detrimental. A booker for Coachella heard a single from the new record and asked Tennis to play the giant music festival in April.

Casey James Prestwood, veteran of Colorado country-rock band Drag the River and acclaimed Alabama emo group Hot Rod Circuit, is a country-music encyclopedia. Get him talking about legendary session musicians and he’ll spin a yarn the size of Texas. Discussing the earnest, emotional and sometimes downright depressing lyrics he sings over his backing band, the Burning Angels, however, doesn’t come so easily.

Is that a cloud of weed headed toward Colorado? Nope. It’s Snoop Dogg and his caravan of hip-hop greats bringing the annual Wellness Retreat back to the state, this time to Red Rocks. He will be sharing the stage with burning-hot rapper Wiz Khalifa, the hip-hop legends in Cypress…

In the wake of the Ghost Ship tragedy in December 2016, the network of informal, unconventional and otherwise underground music and art venues took a major hit nationwide, as many were shut down or put on indefinite hiatus in the name of safety. But in Denver, a pair of shows at the Five Points vegan hole-in-the-wall, the Handy Diner, proved DIY is thriving.

Technology evolves quickly, and in the world of electronic music and the many sub-genres that branch off of it, the flavor of today can be stale by tomorrow. That said, there are many artists in the region who have learned to grow with the technology. This year will be a…