Concerts

We may be weeks away from summer, but concert season is in full swing, the clubs are getting hotter and Denver’s EDM scene is exploding. Here’s your guide.

Punk Rock Bowling, which has a long history in Las Vegas but debuted in Denver, returns this year at the Summit Music Hall and Marquis Theater with a lineup that features a ton of bands like the Vandals, Lawrence Arms, Teenage Bottlerock and more.

To help you plan your calendar, we’ve selected ten of our favorite summer music festivals in Colorado, which run the gamut from jazz and blues to punk and hard rock, with some EDM and classical mixed in.

In the summer of 2011, Erinn Peet-Lukes posted to Craiglist that she was looking for someone to busk with at Pike Place Market in Seattle. Unbeknownst to her, she had planted the seed for what would become one of Colorado’s finest bluegrass acts.

Galactic and Pepper team up for a co-headline show at Red Rocks on Sunday, September 24 with Tribal Seeds and Fortunate Youth opening. Tickets ($30/$38.75) go on sale on Friday, June 2, at 10 a.m.

The story of the band Boston is one of the strangest in rock, especially when it concerns a group that is, on the surface, so inoffensive. This is a band that formed in 1976, 41 years ago, and yet to-date has only released six studio albums. Much of that sluggishness with new material can be put down to some circumstances that vary between the cliched and the downright tragic.

Kayla Marque had been waiting for a text message all day. Just before midnight on March 18, it arrived: “Uploaded.”

For her first tattoo, then-nineteen-year-old Jessica Hernandez inked a line of verse from Cuban poet José Martí onto her skin. It reads, “Y antes de morirme yo quiero/Echar mis versos del alma,” which translates to, “And before I die I want/to share the verses of my soul.”

The Denver-based Americana band Treehouse Sanctum releases a new music video.

It’s a big week at Red Rocks with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ fortieth anniversary hitting the venue tonight and tomorrow, Trey Anastasio Band taking the stage on Wednesday, and Chromeo and Rufus du Sol playing there on Thursday.

Denver has incredible venues. Some have seats; others don’t. Head to the Fillmore, Gothic, Ogden or Bluebird, and you’ll find yourself on your feet throughout shows. This makes sense for moshing, dancing and mixing-and-mingling, but sometimes you just want to take a load off – especially as you get older.

Drugs and music are a timeless combination, like peanut butter and jelly.

Seattle-based electronic duo ODESZA take over Red Rocks on Saturday and Sunday, while Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson teams up with the Colorado Symphony at Red Rocks tonight.

The Disco Biscuits might travel to Colorado from Philadelphia, but the east coasters may as well be a Denver band at this point.

Midnight Oil has not toured for more than a decade. The time has come; a fact’s a fact, as the group’s hit song “Beds Are Burning” goes.

Belgian industrial/dance band Lords of Acid headline the Gothic Theatre with Christian Death, Combichrist and ITSOKTOCRY opening. General admission tickets ($34.50-$40) and a limited number of early bird tickets ($24) go on sale on Friday, May 26, at 10 a.m.

Memorial Day is here. It’s time to dance and sing our hearts out, remembering those who have come and gone before us, who have struggled to make this world a better place.

Lost Walks vocalist Dameon Merkl sits in the back room of Carbon Cafe & Bar. The experience is surreal for him. The now-upscale joint was once home to Paris on the Platte — a hot spot for Denver’s counterculture for nearly thirty years.

Sure, hiking, backpacking and rafting are all good reasons to go to the mountains. But when you’re tired of nature, consider attending these stunning live-music events, venues, concerts and festivals – some of which are free – up in the high country.

After finishing classes at Bear Creek High School on Thursday, June 10, 1971, Steve Baum, who had just turned sixteen, and a few of his high school buddies drove straight to Red Rocks Amphitheatre to see Jethro Tull. Little did they know, tear gas would soon be burning their eyes.

One of the first DJs to explode into mainstream stardom, Paul Van Dyk won the first ever Grammy for “Best Dance/Electronic Album” in 2003. Van Dyk didn’t stop there: He was named No. 1 DJ in the world for two consecutive years as he went on to sell over three-million albums.