Concerts

Until recently, Sunday nights in Pueblo meant everything to kids who were into the city’s music scene. Phil’s Radiator was the only all-ages venue within a thirty-mile radius, and the old mechanic’s shop would fill up with teenagers displaying Xs on their hands and band names on their Converse All…

Today is the last day to purchase a line of clothing designed by the electronic music producer Derek Vincent Smith, a.k.a Pretty Lights. He is paying homage to his home state and to his alma mater, the University of Colorado in Boulder, with the Colorado-based merchandise. The collection is called…

The Mishawaka Amphitheatre, one of Colorado’s oldest music venues, announced last week that Z2 Entertainment, which operates the Boulder and Fox theaters, will take over booking duties starting with the 2015 season.”We’re really excited, because Z2 can bring the shows the Mish is used to, like the jam bands and…

The Westword Music Showcase will return this summer. We’ll celebrate the broad and vibrant Colorado music scene with a day-long festival featuring some of the area’s most interesting bands, DJs, groups and solo artists. Finalists for the Westword Music Awards will, as always, make up the vast majority of the…

“My doctor told me to drop everything I was doing and check myself into the ER immediately. They would be expecting me,” Jason Hornyak writes in his equally hilarious and sincere blog CancerTrolling. Hornyak went to the ER last week. He went from normal to making a new home in…

[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80’s 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 YOUTH IS WASTED. Last Week’s Episode! • BACKBEAT’S GREATEST…

Rush headlines the Pepsi Center on Saturday, July 11 as part of its 34-city 40th anniversary tour. Reserved tickets ($46-$126) go on sale on Friday, January 30 at 10 a.m. Also, exclusive Rush ticket packages are available vipnation.com. Ryan Adams’ Red Rocks show on Thursday, June 4is one of many…

At some point last year a drummer with arm sleeve tattoos wandered into Coda Brewery in Aurora. He struck a conversation with the owner, Luke Smith, a pharmacologist turned brewer and lifelong musician, and the local band Dragondeer came up. Blank quickly went to the back of the brewery to…

Nearly 200 artists recorded recorded at Caribou Ranch, just outside of Nederland, throughout the ’70s and early ’80s. Starting with Joe Walsh’s 1972 debut solo album, Barnstorm, the ranch’s recording studio hosted some huge names in music, including Michael Jackson, the Beach Boys, Chicago, Frank Zappa, Billy Joel, Elton John…

“I’m stunned,” guitarist Bill Frisell said to a crowd of over 900 people. He was standing on the stage in the auditorium of East High School, from which he graduated in 1969. “I can’t believe this is happening. I used to have dreams like this. Really weird dreams too. I…

Thirty-eight governors around the country celebrated their inauguration this year. Most of them held events marking the occasion, ranging from elaborate galas to tours of the state’s barbecue restaurants (Arkansas). Here in Colorado, John Hickenlooper marked his reelection with a formal ceremony at the State Capitol followed by a dinner…

Stevie Wonder brings his Song of Life Performance tour to the Pepsi Center on Tuesday, March 17. Tickets ($39.50-$149.50) for the show, which is a live adaptation of his Songs in the Key of Life album, go on sale on Friday, January 23 at 10 a.m. The Disco Biscuits return…

During last night’s showcase of black metal, Revenge put in a solid set of deathgrind-inflected black metal and Watain had a skeleton and goat head altar with lit candles. The band’s actual performance was entertaining enough but straddled the divide between black metal and more commercial metal, to the point…

The chill winter night seemed almost too perfect a climate for going to see experimental music at La Cour. The bar/restaurant, with its Parisian flair, had a modern take on Japanese classical art hanging on the inside walls. Outside, there was a glass-walled fire in the center of a stone…

[jump] 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 YOUTH IS WASTED. Last Week’s Episode • BACKBEAT’S GREATEST…

The City of Denver is imposingnew restrictions for concerts at Red Rocks this year, and some members of the the electronic music community argue that those limits (which include decibel ceilings throughout performances) unfairly affect EDM. A petition called Respect The Rocks has racked up almost 14,500 signatures in support…

On Saturday, January 17 at Larimer Lounge, Instant Empire will be performing some of the unreleased material from its forthcoming debut full-length, Lamplight Lost, due for release this Spring. Sharing the stage with the Royal and Montoneros, the “aggressive indie rock” outfit will end the night on unique interpretation of…

Varma Cross from Lawrence, Kansas is playing Friday, January 16th, at Carioca Café with Joy Subtraction and Hooper and on Saturday, January 17 at The Oriental Theatre with Photo Atlas and Holy Fear. Though the guys in Varma Cross are Kansas natives, the shows will be a homecoming for bass…

Governor John Hickenlooper celebrated his re-election earlier this week with a formal inauguration ceremony followed by a dinner at the Fillmore Auditorium and a concert at the Ogden Theatre. We’ll have much more on the latter in next week’s issue of Westword. It was an improbable arrangement of some of…