“I’ve had people tell me my music is too silly, and other people have said I’m a terminal bummer,” says the musician known as Little Fyodor. “To me it’s a mixture of both. Oscar Wilde once said, ‘Give a man a mask, and he’ll tell you the truth.’ I think…
The sun was beating down on the Riot Fest stage and GZA looked sweaty. Joined only by his DJ, the Wu-Tang rapper was just a couple of songs into his Saturday afternoon set. Between the dearth of onstage bodies and the sweltering heat, he clearly needed some help keeping up…
“This beer is for chugging or chucking,” shouts In The Whale frontman Nate Valdez, right after a shiny, labeless can is thrown past his head. The punk rock duo is on stage at Black Shirt Brewery. It’s the Saturday night release party for the band’s beer, Whales Suck, and fans…
In addition to the activity at the National Western Complex over the weekend, Riot Fest helped facilitate a series of after-shows, featuring some of the festival’s biggest names playing in venues around town. Among the most successful (and compelling) of those was Thrice’s Friday night appearance at Summit Music Hall…
On Friday night at Riot Fest, the news of Motörhead’s cancellation spread like a viral video. But it didn’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone who knew that the band had ended its set early in Salt Lake City the night before because Lemmy was having issues…
The Still Tide graced the stage of the Open Media Foundation with an ethereal performance at the Open Music Session for August 2015. Since their move to Denver from New York state in the beginning of 2015, the newly-local band is exerting a pull on audiences that’s almost, well, tidal. Alums…
If you don’t know what to expect, a GWAR show can be a little disturbing. When the on-stage choreographed violence begins, and the first spurts of fake blood and semen begin streaming into the crowd, more than a few people become varying degrees of confused and disgusted. They’re finding out…
As Anthrax was nearing the end of its Friday night performance, singer Joey Belladonna made an announcement to the crowd: Motorhead had canceled its scheduled appearance at the festival, citing the health problems of its singer, the inestimable Lemmy Kilmister. “Motorhead won’t be playing tonight,” Belladonna said. “But I want…
Sure, it’s probably smart to pace yourself when staring down the barrel of a three-day festival the goes until the wee hours. But Riot Fest gets going early and people showing up late to see System Of A Down or Ice Cube missed a lot of the fantastic day-one sets…
Chelsea Wolfe is about to kick off a series of shows with Denver’s Wovenhand playing support. They’ll start this Saturday, August 28 at the Bluebird Theatre. The pairing is perfect, as both projects are possessed of great musical darkness and intensity. “My record label and management company recently brought [Wovenhand]…
Riot Fest weekend is here — a huge array of punk, hip-hop and rock bands will come to the National Western Complex. Elsewhere, Pretty Lights plays Telluride, Dave Matthews Band is at Fiddler’s Green. The full list of our picks follows. ALL WEEKEND Riot Fest$99.98/VIP $259.98 2 p.m. National Western…
L7 will play Riot Fest on Sunday, August 30 at 6:30 p.m. on the Rock Stage. Though often lumped in with the grunge and riot grrrl movements, L7 really predated both. Donita Sparks met Suzi Gardner while part of the L.A. punk scene in the early ’80s. Gardner even sang…
The first time I heard about Burning Man, I was eighteen years old and my best friend from high school had just returned from a four-month trip trekking across India. I told her what I’d been up to — discovering the rave scene in the Midwest, basically — and she…
“You’ve got to know when to leave,” says Wesley Eisold, the singer for the semi-legendary Boston hardcore band American Nightmare. It’s a statement few of the band’s fans most likely would have agreed with in the summer of 2004 when American Nightmare abruptly cancelled a tour and then, the following…
As Straight Outta Compton sparks a new interest in hip-hop around the country, plenty of artists have long been working to embody what NWA did in its time, creating independent, unapologetic art. Denver is full of such artists. You can routinely find hip-hop in venues across the city, including the Roxy and…
Riot Fest runs this weekend, starting Friday, August 28 and going through Sunday, August 30, at the National Western Complex. The eclectic line-up includes respected and legendary bands like the Pixies, Run-DMC, System of a Down, the Prodigy and Snoop Dogg. But the early part of each day is filled…
Singer-songwriter Megan Burtt has always been a gifted musician with a rich and vibrant voice. But her career hasn’t always gone smoothly. After graduating from Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2008, singer-songwriter Megan Burtt moved to Cleveland, Mississippi, about hour south of Clarksdale, which is hailed by many as…
Mother Earth Sound System is not a typical promotional entity. MESS, as it is referred to, puts on one of the longest-running Colorado music festivals devoted entirely to dance music: Full Moon Festival. What started in April 1993 at a Berkeley Marina in San Francisco, with Scott Everett and Whitsitt…
Nederland’s Elephant Revival is a band beginning a new chapter. Coming off the release of a live album and DVD called Sands of Time, the band is working on a new studio album in Maine with sound engineer (and longtime Josh Ritter collaborator) Sam Kassirer. According to violinist Bridget Law,…
The Prodigy will headline Riot Fest on Sunday, August 30. Even before the 1996 hit “Firestarter” broke the band to U.S. audiences through heavy MTV rotation, the Prodigy was one of the biggest electronic acts of the decade. Though associated in the press with the big-beat movement, the group predated…
Two fans were climbing in a restricted area at Red Rocks Park after last Friday’s Yonder Mountain String Band when they fell. One, 29-year-old Spencer Cooke, died of his injuries, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office. The Denver Post reported the man’s name yesterday. The other fan, who has…
The hi-dive and Nathaniel Rateliff are both a little rough around the edges, so it’s fitting that, last night, he and the Night Sweats played an instantly sold-out show there. The crowd felt like a family as it welcomed the Night Sweats to the packed stage. Fans and lifelong friends clapped along…
