At the Underground Music Showcase (UMS) last summer, I watched as three (admittedly) small, skinny and awkward-looking kids took the stage at the 3 Kings Tavern and, as the crowd adjusted to the amount of distortion coming from the amp, announced that they were Residual Kid. The group is comprised…
Robin Pecknold, whose Seattle alt-folk band Fleet Foxes has somewhat vanished since 2011’s Helplessness Blues peaked at #4 on the Billboard chart, made for an interesting opening act last night at the Boulder Theater. At the age of 22 in 2008, Pecknold struck indie gold with haunting, creative tunes like…
Atlas Genius, made up of Australian brothers Keith and Michael Jeffery, along with a semi-revolving ensemble, will headline the Bluebird on Wednesday, April 6. Singer-songwriter Skylar Grey also performs. Known to many for the success of their 2013 debut album When It Was Now, and breakout single, “Trojans” (which reached No. 4 in…
The Vail Jazz Festival has recruited numerous internationally known jazz legends for more than two decades, and this season, which kicks off in July, is slated to be its biggest season ever. This year’s lineup includes veteran guitarist John Pizzarelli, Canadian trumpeter Bria Skonberg, young pianist Joey Alexander, Grammy-winning vocalist Cecile…
They say that there are only three sure things in life: death, taxes and Iggy Pop. The former Stooge simply doesn’t know how to do bad shows – he won’t allow himself the luxury of an off-night. While his age is showing quite vividly on his face and even moreso…
Justin Bieber brings his Purpose World Tour to the Pepsi Center tonight while Gary Clark Jr. headlines the Ogden Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also tonight Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is at the Boulder Theater and Ra Ra Riot is at the Bluebird Theater. Lissie, Rita Wilson and Pete…
First Friday at Denver Open Media Foundation is extra-special today, as the nonprofit launches a major new media project – a radio station of the people by the people. Going live on June 3, Open Media’s low-power radio broadcast will air on 104.7 FM twenty-four hours a day, covering “most…
I’m half a football field away from Bruce Springsteen as he plays “Meet Me In The City,” and all I can think about is my father. I’m thinking about his vast vinyl collection, and how, when I was a kid and he wasn’t home, I would go through it. I…
Iggy Pop comes to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Saturday with Josh Homme and Dean Fertita (both of Queens of the Stone Age) and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders in support of his new album, Post Pop Depression. Legendary Los Angeles punk band X headline the Summit Music Hall…
If you ever wanted to go back to the Aztlan, now’s your chance. Tim Correa could write a book on the past thirty years of running the Aztlan Theatre with his wife Aurora. “We’ve seen it all,” he laughs. “More or less.” Upon entry to the front bar, the couple…
The inaugural edition of the Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival (or LEAF) takes place this Friday, April 1, at Founders Hall at Colorado Music Festival Center/Center for Musical Arts in Lafayette. The festival will feature live performances by artists who bring together music and visual components as part of an integrated…
Tom Petty and Mudcrutch, the pre-cursor to Heartbreakers he formed in 1970, kicks off its first national tour at the Ogden Theatre on Thursday, May 26. The band is releasing its sophomore release, 2 , on May 20 on Reprise. Tickets ($84.50) go on sale on Friday, April 1 at 10 a.m…
Joanna Newsom’s 2015 album Divers showcased how the songwriter could fill in her compositions with rich sonic colorings akin to orchestral arrangements. Newsom recorded with members of the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. But her spare compositions have always been imbued with a haunting yet warm quality that transports the…
When Pete Townshend, lead guitarist and songwriter of the Who, said earlier this year that the band won’t be touring again after this “Hits 50” jaunt — was anybody really surprised? The writing has been on the wall for some time and the fact that Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey…
Booking bands and musical acts with women/non-binary/genderqueer/trans folx in them seems like an abstract concept for most festival organizers. I say this because every year like clockwork, as major fest line-ups are announced, there is a continually — and at this point what seems like intentionally — devastating lack of…
The Ultimate Music Experience (UMX), Denver’s annual battle of the bands, takes place during the day on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, at Pearl’s, and is your chance to catch competing local bands and vote on the finalists who will perform at the Capitol Hill People’s Fair, June…
In Denver’s muggy dance halls and dingy rock clubs, standing amid the billowing veils of local music history, stands one man. El Brian Castillo could be found in nearly every venue and music sub-scene from rock and metal to dance and hip-hop over the last decade, and now he’s working…
The rumors have finally been confirmed: this August, you get to dance yourself clean on the Rocks. LCD Soundsystem will return for two consecutive nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre this summer. James Murphy’s reunited band will perform August 2-3 in Denver, as part of a slew of summer dates including…
Gordon Koch, drummer with the local, intensely heavy grind-metal band Call of the Void, says that it’s not easy living, working and rehearsing in the metal-wasteland that is Boulder, a condition that’s made all the more difficult by the fact that it wasn’t always that way. “I grew up there…
Being a music fan in Denver is kind of the best. There is no shortage of shows and talent, and there is some event or band news to bring a smile to a music-lover’s face every day of the week. However, if you fall into the main demographic of music-lovers…
When Queensryche’s third album Operation: Mindcrime was released in 1988, it drew immediate comparisons to concept albums like Pink Floyd’s The Wall and The Who’s Quadrophenia. The album is a thoughtful and incisive social and political commentary that told the story of a drug addict recruited into a world of…
Incite Productions is a relatively unknown collection of artists and theater technicians who leave their mark all over Denver in unique, creative and often bizarre ways. They’ve floated down Delaware Street in a makeshift boat dressed as George Washington. They’ve danced on the steps of the Anthem Blue Cross building…
