Tonight, Westword, Open Media Foundation and Greater Than Collective will co-hosting a live performance by Denver’s Kitty Crimes at the Denver Open Media studios at 7th and Kalamath. It’s a continuation of our Open Music Sessions, where we will create several videos based on regular live tapings of exceptional bands…
It’s a good weekend here in Denver, with hip-hop deity KRS-One playing Cervantes’ and the criminally under-appreciated Ralph Gean playing Mutiny Information Cafe tonight. Elsewhere, the Gypsy Jane Cannabis Carnival brings E-40 and others to the Merchandise Mart. The rest of our picks are below…
Denver’s Chimney Choir will be playing at Syntax Physic Opera tonight. But playing is really an understatement. As the flyers pronounce, this is “The Launch.” See also: Denver’s Ten Best Small Venues…
Hopsin has done well in Colorado, playing to packed rooms in Denver and elsewhere for several years now. But something strange happened at his scheduled January 30 show at the Aggie Theater. He was supposed to play alongside Dizzy Wright, DJ Hoppa, and Black Pegasus. But, without explanation, he didn’t…
Wesley Davis has long been hosting his Textures series, with its focus on live ambient music. A couple of years ago, he used to host Textures in the basement of Gypsy House Café, but at the series’s new home, Mutiny Information Cafe, he doesn’t have to bring in a P.A.,…
There’s an Internet meme that tells you what band you’re probably into based on state. For Colorado, that band is Naked and Famous. In 2013 that band played at the Fillmore to a large crowd. That sort of mixture of rock and synth pop and R&B finds a different manifestation…
. In recent years, fall has come on with a vengeance: with uncharacteristically heavy rains and early snow, and winter has refused to leave. But this year it has felt more like we’ve been given a reprieve. That climate, that natural ambiance perfectly suited a place like Chautauqua Auditorium and…
Sixteen-year-old me would’ve been obsessed with Lorde. Seriously: her number one fan. I would’ve bought tickets to her 1ST Bank Center show as soon as they went on sale, gotten to the venue early, and would’ve been the girl randomly cheering from the front long before Lorde appeared on stage…
Itchy-O is a band that defies explanation: It’s a massive, noise-making horde of masked weirdos, an ecstatic jumble of influence and culture and myth. The Denver-based mobile unit is celebrating the release of its first full-length album, Burn the Navigator, on Alternative Tentacles. It headlined a show over the weekend…
Boulder-based Big Gigantic — the instrumental livetronica, hip-hop, jazz and electronic duo — took the Red Rocks stage this weekend for its third annual “Rowdy Town” show. The group collaborated with Denver-based funk band the Motet to do a full band set each night. Dominic Lalli, saxophonist of Big Gigantic…
Whenever someone mentions Ty Segall to me, I immediately feel compelled to tell the story of my friend Kevin. Years ago, at the sadly-defunct Boulder warehouse venue Astroland, a Ty Segall show got a bit insane, the band threw the drum set into the crowd, and Kevin’s head collided with…
[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. Rufus Baxter: Part Eleven Rufus Baxter:…
Last weekend, Skylab, which featured headliner Tiesto, brought some 10,000 people to the Denver Coliseum. Among those were approximately 150 members of the online rave community Colorado EDM Family. A few of the “EDM Fam,” as they call themselves, saw a young girl fall to the ground outside the venue…
When Lonely Boy (also known as Joshua Heath) launched the Blend in Los Angeles about ten years ago, he envisioned the night as a combination — a blend — of electronic and live music. “At the time, I had a live band, and we wanted to do a night where…
Brennan Bryarly, founder of the Hundred, put on his first festival this weekend, Cloak and Dagger, which was held in the Golden Triangle at City Hall and Vinyl and featured almost thirty electronic producers and DJs. The festival was in the works for two years. But when Bryarly first tried…
Live music always offers some kind of release, but Riot Fest appeared to be a particularly welcome respite for many fans. Tom Murphy It’s been almost two decades since I first saw Mineral, and the time hasn’t hurt its sound. It hasn’t helped it, either. Mineral’s brand of whiny emo…
Some unlikely VIPs rolled into the back gate of Riot Fest on Friday, driven in a chartered bus from their high school in Byers, Colorado. In addition to the easy entrance and free ride, the young music fans, all teenagers, got free passes to the entire weekend-long festival courtesy of…
It’s one thing to brave I-25 traffic to get to Riot Fest, or even to make the hour-long drive from the Byers (the original site of the festival), but a lot of people made a real trip out of this year’s festival. Walking around the parking lots at Sports Authority…
“I was excited to someone in the hip-hop genre who is progressive,” explained Brittany Fitzgerald in the outdoor space behind Rhinoceropolis over the weekend. “It’s good to see somebody with a strong voice.” She was talking about Mykki Blanco, the stage name of rapper and performance artist Michael Quattlebaum Jr…
At noon on Saturday, Riot Fest officially begins for the day, and fans come streaming through the gates. Inside, carny Robert sits at his booth with his back to the entering crowd, enjoying a breakfast of pierogi and cigarettes. His feet up on a stool next to him, his plate…
Maybe it’s the punk rock origins of Riot Fest that brought out the funny and the ridiculous in various performers and attendees at Riot Fest. It was mostly the usual self-deprecating and/or sarcastic commentary one expects out of musicians but there were a handful of gems both inspired and just…
“Punk rockers are nice,” says Owen Clark, who, at five years old, is one of the younger attendees at Riot Fest in Denver. His mother, Tyanne Clark, says she wrestled with the decision to bring Owen and his brother, two-year-old Noah, from Colorado Springs to see the festival. “It was…
