Concerts

This morning, Jay-Z announced his new world tour, 4:44, and the multi-million-record-selling rapper is Denver-bound.

Beck, born Bek David Campbell, has been the king of the oddballs and uber-cool malcontents since first bursting into the public consciousness in the early ‘90s.

After headlining Red Rocks on Wednesday, Ween is at the Ogden for two nights, while Beck, Santana and Michael Franti & Spearhead also play Red Rocks this week. Preservation Hall, which opens for Beck on Tuesday, stops by the much more intimate Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox tonight, and Natalie Merchant is at Denver Botanic Gardens on Wednesday.

Lorin Ashton, the electronic music producer and DJ who plays under the name Bassnectar, grew up throwing death metal concerts at his town library.

Bassnectar returns to Colorado for a three-night stand at 1STBANK Center, while the Avett Brothers take over Red Rocks for three nights as well.

Looking for the best world music events of the summer? Here’s our guide.

Since forming the Queers in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1981, Joe Queer (aka Joe King), has found himself under attack from Democrats and Republicans. The left has taken offense to the band’s name, a word that has been used to attack gay people over the years. The right has taken the Queers, who will play Boulder Theater on July 12, at its word and attacked group members for being gay, which they’re not.

The Laid Back Festival continues in the spirit of the late Gregg Allman, who co-founded the music, drink and food gala in 2015. It returns to Red Rocks on Sunday, October 1 with Sheryl Crow, Ben Rector, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, the London Souls and Quaker City Night Hawks.

Wheelchair Sports Camp MC Kalyn Heffernan had long known about ADAPT. The disability rights group had used direct action to push the government to create broader accessibility, to advocate for healthcare and to free disabled people from nursing homes starting in the late-1970s. These activists, that changed federal policy, got their start in Denver.

Shon and Cherie Cobbs, the husband-wife duo behind the dream-pop trip-hop band Plume Varia, grew up with military parents, married early and didn’t start playing music together until their thirties.

Michelle Guadalupe Felix Garcia, a 16-year-old from Mexico, has been enamored with the music of the Fray, and particularly the Denver group’s frontman Isaac Slade, for some years now.

Musicians are rallying to raise money for Zuma’s Rescue Ranch, a Littleton group that uses horses saved from slaughter in therapy for veterans with PTSD and youth in the foster-care system.

Blues Traveler returns to Red Rocks for its annual Fourth of July show with Rusted Root, Spin Doctors and the Samples opening the show, while Queen and Adam Lambert take over the Pepsi Center on Thursday.

Since Tuesday, June 27, Westword has been following Wheelchair Sports Camp MC Kalyn Heffernan’s efforts with the disability-rights group ADAPT to convince Senator Cory Gardner to vote against a GOP healthcare proposal that would leave 22 million without health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Guitarist Marc Ribot, who’s worked with heavies like Tom Waits and Elvis Costello, says playing music is all about what you do with your limitations, and playing acoustic guitar, which he’ll do when he plays two solo sets at Dazzle this Saturday, has definite limitations.

Umphrey’s McGee returns to Red Rocks for a three-night run that kicks off tonight, while Rise Against and Deftones co-headline at the Pepsi Center tonight.

On Friday, July 7, the Open Media Foundation hosts its next monthly free Open Music Session event, which will spotlight music from Joseph Lamar and comedy from Caitie Hannan and Joshua Skillman.

HAIM stops at the Ogden Theatre on Wednesday, September 13, in support of Something to Tell You, which is slated for release on July 7. Tickets ($35) go on sale on Friday, June 30, at 10 a.m.

A sit-in almost turned into a shit-in when disability rights activists with ADAPT started needing to use the restroom — which had been shut down — after they had spent the night in Republican Senator Cory Gardner’s Denver office, trying to force him to vote against a Republican healthcare proposal that the Congressional Budget Office says would leave 22 million uninsured by 2026.

The votes are in. The winners of the 2017 Westword Music Award were announced Tuesday, June 27, at Globe Hall.