Delicate-voiced Minnesota singer-songwiter Luke Redfield, somewhat of a nomad, has spent a lot of time in Boulder and Denver over the years. January found him headlining Shine and the Walnut Room, with his sometime-backup singer Patrycja Humienik, a University of Colorado graduate who lives in Denver, opening both shows as…
If rock ‘n’ roll had a baby and that bay was schizophrenic, its actions would most likely be represented in the stage presence of Alex Cameron and Foxygen. The two groups played at the Fox Theatre this week, and I witnessed the entire episode. When we arrived at the theatre…
The Pepsi Center was moving and shaking on Wednesday evening to the smoky sounds of the infamous Fleetwood Mac. The night was full with velvet-draped microphone stands, beards, vests and the crackle of big personalities. Although the group seemed to be in high spirits, there was a suggestive tinge of…
Ultra Music Festival is 36 solid hours of EDM-themed overstimulation. Superfamous DJs! Pop-star cameos! Half-naked ladies! Oiled-up beefcakes! Dancing robots! Human tacos! Toothpaste Man! Pyrotechnics! Cryo cannons! Fireworks! Everything at Ultra deserves an exclamation point. Or maybe ten. And there’s never less than 120 decibels rumbling through your already stimuli-flooded…
Unlike many acoustic-guitar-playing solo acts today, Joe Pug was not previously part of an established band; in fact, he’s never played in a band, period. So when his debut EP, 2009’s Nation of Heat, sold 20,000 copies, it was not because of an already established fan base, but because of…
Ten years ago in 2005, I went to my first Ultra Music Festival. Back then, it lasted just a day. Moby played, but he brought a full band and did all original material. The Carl Cox & Friends tent was still actually a tent. No one yet knew what a…
Over the weekend, drama prone DJ Joel Thomas Zimmerman, also-known-as Deadmau5, asked an Ultra related question that has Twitter buzzing: Did Krewella, the electronic music producing female sister-duo, fake their set? This all started when Deadmau5 tweeted “Aw man. Krewellas got them new completely wireless DJMs??? I’m jealous.” During their set at…
Melbourne Australia’s Smith Street Band, due tonight at the Summit Music Hall, is a passionate and earnest group, whose world travels and experiences have offered its members unique perspective on politics, passion and self-evaluation. Their latest, Throw Me In The River, is an account of these experiences and emotions. The…
Any veteran of Ultra Music Festival who attended this year’s three-day event was pleasantly surprised by the increased organization and overall maturity of the audience. Certain seemingly simple measures, like an 18-and-over age policy and significantly improved perimeter security, taken following 2014’s trampling of security guard Erica Mack and the…
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book SAINT COLE from Fantagraphics books. Last Week’s episode of Rufus…
There have been a lot of changes at Ultra Music Festival. The audience is over 18 now. And many of rave culture’s familiar accouterments — finger gloves, glow sticks, rage totems, etc. — have been banned under the fest’s new Prohibited Items policy. There are those of adult age who…
Master jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith (who’s due tonight, March 30 and Tuesday, March 31 at Dazzle) and says the Hammond B-3 is a part of him, that it’s an extension of himself. He’s been eating and breathing the organ for the last five decades since starting to play it…
Jay Bianchi, owner of the Grateful Dead-centric bars Quixote’s True Blue and Sancho’s Broken Arrow, is resurrecting the Owsley’s Golden Road name in Boulder, seven years after opening a venue of the same in Denver. While Bianchi is currently booking shows at the Goose Bar (1301 Broadway) in Boulder as…
Downtown Miami’s 32-acre Bayfront Park is swarming with some 60,000 glistening, glittered bodies. The lights on Ultra Music Festival’s Main Stage make the Vegas strip look like the ass of a dying lightning bug. The minimally dressed millennials are dancing like they’re mad at the ground, and Snapchating every second…
Since opening five years ago in Capitol Hill, the Denver Beauty Bar location been home various weekly dance nights, like Liplgoss and Motown Thursdays, and hosted some high profile talent like Prince Paul, Victor Duplaix, DJ Nu-Mark, the Smiths’ Andy Rourke and Love and Rockets/Bauhaus guitarist Daniel Ash . But…
After a fifteen-year run with the Jello Biafra-founded label Alternative Tentacles, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club has launched its new label, SCACUNINC, which will also release material for Auto Club projects DBUK, and Munly & the Lupercalians. “We just kind of wanted to take control,” Cessna says. “We just wanted to…
The last time Jake Gould, a.k.a. Northcote, came through town, he played a solo acoustic show at the hi-dive and, even without musical accompaniment, his songs were powerful and resonant. This time through, at the Ogden Theatre, opening for The Gaslight Anthem, he brought with him a full backup band,…
Watching Ultra Music Festival’s idyllic official after-movies, you might get the impression that UMF is some kind of utopian music-based society where the young and beautiful run only in slow motion, where everyone is welcome and everything is pleasant. In some ways, this is true. You’re more likely to have…
Editor’s Note: Denver rock band In the Whale is in Austin this week for SXSW. The duo of Nate Valdez (vocals and guitar) and Eric Riley (drums and backing vocals) will be documenting their exploits and observations for Westword Music. For more shenanigans, follow In the Whale on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. For the most shenanigans, head to…
Admittedly, we’re a couple of squares. We’re not party dudes, so four days of non-stop drinking isn’t really our thing. Prior to our show Friday afternoon, we kept far away from the chaos of 6th street. On the west side of Austin, we came across the Hope Outdoor Gallery and…
While Sixth Street in Austin was raging with drunken crowds, chaotic bars, and long lines, twenty miles outside of Austin off of a farm to market road, the Music Ranch was mellow with outdoor stages, tents and fire pits. Founded in 2010, The Music Ranch is a camping ground set…
CJ Boyd has basically been on tour since 2008 with some lengthy stays in various cities around the United States including Denver. Despite his nomadic lifestyle he has also been a prolific songwriter and musical collaborator with an impressive discography. But the affable musician recently made a decision about one…
