We’re excited to announce the bands and musicians who made the ballot for this year’s Westword Music Showcase. More than 200 musicians, fans, journalists and industry players weighed in on their favorite acts in the Front Range. Based on those recommendations, we have have compiled this ballot showcasing some of the…
KUVO DJ and storied singer Venus Cruz says that when she arrived in Denver from New York, she felt like “the first Latina on the surface of Mars.” It was 1992. As Cruz tells it, the city was poor, economically and culturally. But for someone fleeing a tumultuous past, in…
This month 53-year-old DJ Paul Oakenfold plans to be the first DJ to “party at the top of the world” and play Mount Everest. Tomorrow, March 16, he plays Denver. Everest won’t be the world-renowned DJ’s first extreme trip. Over his thirty year career, he’s played everywhere from an Alaskan…
As eclectic and musically wide-open as the Denver scene is, there are still some areas and genres where we’re lacking. Much of that has more to do with the variety, or lack thereof, of cultures in the Denver region. We might have, for example, a lot of Latinos in Colorado,…
The rock band American Authors has performed all around the world, making a name for itself with songs like its recent hit, “Born to Run.” The group is slated to play in Denver on Friday, March 17, for Channel 93.3’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festival, Keggs & Eggs, which promises…
Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…
On Thursday, March 23, the Ogden Theatre stage will be graced by a slate of Colorado superstars: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, DeVotchKa, Joe Sampson, and Jonny 5 and Brer Rabbit of Flobots. While it’s easy to be wowed by the star power of the lineup, the concert has…
As the lead singer for hard-rock band Heart, Ann Wilson was one of the very few prominent female voices in an era overwhelmingly dominated by men. Her electrifying voice and knack for turning an imaginative phrase were instrumental in establishing Heart as one of the great bands of the classic-rock…
P.O.S., born Stefon Alexander, started playing music in punk bands like Om, but by the turn of the century was doing hip-hop. He’s a founding member of Doomtree, a hip-hop collective that began as a production project that turned into one of the most successful underground hip-hop crews of recent…
Last year it was widely reported that Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Juggalos would take place in Denver. Not so. “We couldn’t find a location in Colorado that would work for the Gathering,” Jason Webber of Psychopathic Records e-mailed Westword on March 13. “We should be announcing a final location…
In the mid-’90s, Orange County ska punk was very much the in thing. Bands like No Doubt, Reel Big Fish and the Aquabats took a third-wave ska scene from cities like Anaheim and Huntington Beach into the upper reaches of the Billboard charts. Forming in 1995 and taking its name…
British rockers Enter Shikari have risen from playing the darkest dives and the bottom of festival bills to headlining arenas in the UK. Here in the States. though, the band hasn’t quite managed to get a foothold on anything like that level of success yet. That’s not particularly unusual; there…
Guitar wiz Adrian Belew, who’s worked with King Crimson, David Bowie and Frank Zappa, returns to the Boulder Theater on Tuesday with his power trio, while Ann Wilson of Heart takes over the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday. Also on tap this week are Residual Kid at Lost Lake Lounge, Etienne…
Since the early ’90s, Roni Size has been a critical force in developing jungle and drum-and-bass. Born Ryan Williams, Size was the son of Jamaican immigrants in Bristol, England, and listened to dub and reggae from an early age. The inventive rhythms of both genres and dub’s soundscaping influenced the…
Jesse Manley and his six-piece band will release their latest album, Dust, at Syntax Physic Opera, Friday, March 10. The recording represents the fourth time Manley has written music for the ballet company Wonderbound. This is quite the unusual partnership for a guy whose musical roots lie within the folk…
Although St. Patrick’s Day is Friday, March 17, things kick into gear this weekend with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi, as well as a number of other celebrations with Celtic music and Irish dance. Here’s your guide to events throughout the…
Curved Light is an electronic music project that emerged in 2015 when Peter Tran moved with his partner, visual artist Deirdre Smith, to Austin. It is the product of his life in music and his work with the experimental rock bands Les Rhinocéros and Hume and her work in video…
Samiam came out of the same Berkeley, California punk scene that was fostered by the legendary DIY venue 924 Gilman Street. Coming along slightly after acts like Green Day and Operation Ivy, Samiam never gained as much commercial popularity as its predecessors. But the group tasted success. In the mid-90s,…
A number of acts perform two-night stands this weekend, including the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus, which perform its “Heartthrobs: The Evolution of the Boy Band” program at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Bro Safari at the Ogden Theatre, the New Mastersounds at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom, the Greyboy Allstars at the…
Colorado bands performing at South by Southwest did not sign onto a petition that convinced the festival’s leadership to strike anti-immigrant language from its contract with artists. But many Mile High acts performing at SXSW find the contractual language objectionable and celebrate their fellow musicians for convincing the festival to…
Jamaican reggae and dub singer Chronixx (real name Jamar McNaughton) is a passionate believer in the music that his home nation has produced and, more to the point, keeps on producing. The son of Chronicle, a popular reggae singer in his own right, Chronixx has been immersed in music and…
Father John Misty, who performed on Saturday Night Live last weekend, visits Red Rocks on Friday, August 25 with Jenny Lewis opening. Tickets ($55) go on sale on Friday, March 17, at 10 a.m. Darius Rucker headlines Red Rocks with Lauren Alaina opening on Tuesday, August 1; tickets ($39.50 -…
