Editor’s Note: Kalyn Heffernan is a familiar voice to many regular readers of Westword Music. We’ve written about her band Wheelchair Sports Camp many times over the years, and she has sent us dispatches from previous trips to SXSW. This year, she shares this recap of the band’s fifth trip to…
The thing with Madrid quartet Hinds is that they’ll lull you into a false sense of security again and again, especially if you’re not massively familiar with them going in. Like the Pixies (there are other reference points but Frank Black’s band works perfectly here), they’ll start a song with…
It was Taking Back Tuesday, and I had nothing to wear. The Emo Night L.A. DJs brought another edition of their popular throwback party to the Marquis Theater last night, giving twenty- and thirty-somethings the chance to relive a very specific moment in recent music history — the third-wave emo-inflected…
Music festivals are often thought to be a strictly summer kind of thing, but luckily for Colorado, our three hundred days of sunshine lends to a whole extra season of live music outdoors. This spring, electronic acts like Diplo and Kaskade, local superstars like Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats…
Kevin Haskins was still his teens in 1978 when he became a founding member of post-punk band Bauhaus. Along with his brother and bassist David, guitarist Daniel Ash and singer Peter Murphy, Bauhaus brought together ideas from punk, glam rock and the avant-garde and created a brooding yet dynamic and…
Lauren Zwicky is all about aesthetics, something that’s evident in her work as a hair stylist as well as in her efforts as a DJ and event organizer. For her, music can influence the way we present ourselves to the world as much as the way we look can have…
Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho runs this week from Wednesday, March 23 through Sunday, March 27. The festival, inspired by organizer Eric Gilbert’s experience with the UMS. At that time, the musician’s band Finn Riggins was on tour for most of the year. That heavy touring brought the band through…
The team over at Denver’s RMG Engineering have made a killer infographic with ten reasons explaining why Red Rocks Amphitheatre is one of the most amazing venues in the country. Nay, on the planet. And we could not agree more. But, hey, we’re pretty biased. “We decided to make this infographic…
Dinner is served. Kontrast & Fo Chief, two emcees perhaps best known for their work with rap crew Fresh Breath Committee, first gave the world a taste of their own beats and lyrics back in 2011 with the digital album Cannonball Soup. They followed that up in 2014 with Cannonball…
Tripp Wallin has been an active performer and prolific creator of music and performance art since he moved to Denver from Tucson, Arizona in 2002. When he said that his next Tripp Nasty show on Wednesday, March 23, at Club Scum would be his last, it came as a bit…
Gogol Bordello played its jubilant gypsy punk for a sold-out crowd at the Ogden Theatre on Sunday night. The band, led by pied-piper Eugene Hutz, has been mixing accordion, violin and multi-ethnic folk music traditions with straightforward rock hooks since its 2005 breakout album, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike. Check…
Delaney Clements, a thirteen-year-old from Grand Junction who had become an advocate for children with cancer, died last night after a six-year battle with neuroblastoma. Clements had developed a strong presence on social media with more than 86,000 Instagram followers — a platform she used three months ago in order…
Starting on March 23, Denver’s beloved Summit Music Hall in LoDo will celebrate its sixth year in business with a series of special shows. In addition to the music, these shows will feature six-dollar drink specials, prizes and giveaways, as well as other special events to commemorate the occasion. “The…
It is stunningly loud, cosmically trippy, creating a soundscape that takes listeners on an inward journey, both on records and in a live setting. The aptly named post-rock band This Will Destroy You is headed back to Denver on its West Coast tour, and is happy to be stopping here…
In 2001, the University of Northern Colorado was on the brink of selling public radio station KUNC to KCFR, the Denver station owned and operated by Colorado Public Radio. The amount on the table was $1.3 million but upon hearing the news, general manager Neil Best approached the Board of Trustees with the idea…
Another year, another twelve months of outstanding local music videos. We watched more videos than we can remember this year, and there were lots of winners, showing off the Denver music community’s signature innovation and sense of humor. Though it’s impossible to make a comprehensive list, here are the ten…
This week’s lineup include’s B. Dolan tonight at the Walnut Room, Magma Tuesday at the Gothic Theatre, They Might Be Giants at the Ogden Theatre on Wednesday and Santigold at the Ogden on Thursday. See the full list of our picks below. MONDAY, MARCH 21 Alt Nation Advance Placement Tour…
Red Rocks doubles both as an iconic symbol of Denver’s local music culture and as a go-to spot on the international music circuit. This summer, a several bands who got their start in Colorado are gracing the Red Rocks stage, blurring the local and international music scenes. Be sure to…
They Might Be Giants is one of the most well known bands from that pre-alternative rock era in the 1980s when there wasn’t an all-encompassing, vague umbrella term for music that wasn’t punk, wasn’t mainstream pop, not quite straight-ahead rock and yet accessible. The band’s self-titled 1986 debut album was…
Two bands have been added to the lineups for the main stages at the 2016 Westword Music Showcase on Saturday, June 25, 2016: Chef’Special and Denver’s own 888. Chef’Special, a Dutch alternative folk-pop band from Haarlem, Netherlands, will join Dillon Francis, Matt and Kim, Health, and Black Pistol Fire on…
Progressive rock started out as largely a British phenomenon in the late ’60s but quickly mutated when it spread to the European continent and beyond. The artists that pioneered the genre attempted to bring artistic credibility to rock music either by infusing it with elements of classical-musical structure and daring…
Gogol Bordello brings its super-charged gypsy punk to the Boulder Theater on Saturday night and to the Ogden Theater on Sunday night while the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus’ “The Show Music Go On: The Music of Queen” is at the Temple Buell Theatre for one show tonight as well as a…
