Concerts

For nearly three decades, the City Park Jazz series has been filling the Mile High City with colorful sounds and vibrations. Packing a picnic and spreading out a blanket in front of the pavilion has become a veritable rite of summer. Organizers are once again giving the area’s most talented…

Tomorrow night at the Meadowlark, the Solution crew will celebrate seven years of bringing the best hip-hop to Denver. Seven years! Can you believe it’s been that long already? Heck, it’s already been a year since the multiple Best of Denver award-winning club night returned to a weekly at the…

I made all the wrong moves,” says Stephen Malkmus. “Don’t you think sometimes life is about making all the wrong moves? In the end, it’s making the wrong choices — trying the wrong drugs, dating the wrong girl, taking the wrong class, crashing into the wrong tree when you’re drunk.”…

Seamlessly crossing language barriers mid-flow and writing pointed political lyrics about race and food, 2MX2 carves out an identity that is authentic and compelling on its newest project, GMO (Genetically Modified Oppression). The possible drawback to the album’s uncompromising positivism is that it can feel like being struck repeatedly in…

On “Never Said,” the opening cut on the Media Fires’ latest offering, Lit, Brian Quinn’s vocals are ragged and raging. The lines about never getting it right that follow the tune’s catchy opening riff pop with a kind of desperate energy. The mood is hypnotic, and it suffuses every one…

As a guitarist, Tom Carleno has spent more than two decades performing with various projects in Colorado, including the acoustic jazz ensemble Perpetual Motion (which also features his wife, violinist Josie Quick). Perfect Imperfection is his first solo effort. Throughout the disc, Carleno, who is a brilliant fingerstyle guitarist, displays…

The latest EP from déCollage feels like a collage-pop, Animal Collective-esque, psychedelic version of Stevie Wonder’s 1979 weirdo masterpiece Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants” — except that Reed Fuchs and company probably had none of that in mind when they made it. Rather, the players were…

TUES | MANOWAR at OGDEN THEATRE | 2/18/14 Manowar is powered by lyrics crowned in fantasy-flamed swords, armor, and everything having to do with metal warfare clashing into Norse mythology. Eric Adams’s powerful vocals are steeped in wordy wizardry that really drives home the aggressive themes. “Man o’ War” was…

FRI | JJ GREY & MOFRO at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 2/21/14 Blues lead man JJ Grey headlines an all-star night at the Fillmore, and it’s sure to be a bluesy, rocking showdown. With a Southern-tinged flavor that adds extra authenticity, Grey commands attention with his big voice, singing songs about…

FRI | MICHAL MENERT, WINTER WARMER at FILLMORE | 2/14 Since dropping his debut solo album Dreaming of a Bigger Life, Michal Menert has been steadily touring the country building a grassroots following in the same way Derek Vincent Smith of Pretty Lights did when he first hit the scene…

ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 2/1/14 Rather than linger through decades of drama and/or mediocrity, Rocket From the Crypt rose to fame in the 1990s with bonafide big-band punk, but chose to disband in 2005, despite continued acclaim. Notoriously busy frontman John Reis (aka Speedo) had…

NAKED RAYGUN at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 1/31/14 Everyone who got to see Naked Raygun at Riot Fest last year got to see a good set, but it wasn’t near the caliber as this show. Jeff Pezzati was even more of an unconventionally charismatic and eccentric frontman than usual, prowling…

FRI & SAT | LOTUS at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 2/7-2/8 The jazzy electronic quintet Lotus, known for its precisely timed improvisations during live shows, is celebrating its thirteenth year together. This weekend, fresh off the release of its most recent effort, Lotus, the band, which is signed to Boulder’s SCI…

In August 2007, Castle Rock Radio was founded by the Colorado-based National Web Broadcasting Corporation. In just six years, though, the company concluded that its business model was essentially not working, and started seeking investors for a bail-out option. Sean and Adriana Hakes, along with partner Susan Gomez purchased the…

FRI | ICELANTIC’S WINTER ON THE ROCKS at RED ROCKS | 1/31/14 More than misogyny or materialism, intelligence and verbal skill are championed by Jurassic 5; the vocabulary is impressive and the verbal acrobatics the guys perform are outstanding. J5 carries the energy and excitement of a newer era group…

SAT | ROB PAINE at THE FUSION FACTORY | 2/1/14 Some musicians are such activists for the artistic community in their neck of the woods that their names become part and parcel of the scene in that particular place — and that’s exactly what Rob Paine has done in Philadelphia…

TREY ANASTASIO BAND at OGDEN THEATRE | 1/29/14, NIGHT TWO The line to get inside the Ogden was even longer last night than the previous evening for the second of two shows from the Trey Anastasio Band. The wait was worth it, though. Once we all made it inside, we…

It’s not unusual these days to see a Denver band performing on national television. But this Friday morning, it will be a little more gratifying seeing another beloved longtime local act finally get a few minutes in the spotlight when the Railbenders appear on the Today Show performing “Time to…