Concerts

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO at SOILED DOVE UNDERGROUND | 11/22/13 One big takeaway from Alejandro Escovedo’s show at the Soiled Dove Underground: The man lives the songs he writes. On stage, he spun tale after tale, at times foraying into extended monologues, to describe the backstory of each song. When millionaire rockers…

SAT | CAT POWER at GOTHIC THEATRE | 11/23/13 Cat Power is the sometimes solo, sometimes full-band, project of Chan Marshall. Although born in Atlanta, Marshall made her way to New York City in the early 1990s and became involved in the underground music scene in the Big Apple. In…

SAT | CATZ ‘N DOGZ at NORAD | 11/23/13 Catz ‘N Dogz has had a smashing year so far. In addition to being invited to create a BBC 1 Essential Mix, the powerhouse duo has collaborated with a mother lode of impressive acts, including Eats Everything, with whom it put…

Black Friday is at hand. And while we’ve all come to begrudgingly accept the fact that this annual fateful day unofficially serves as the kickoff of the holiday season, there’s a new tradition being started by some local faves that’s far more worth getting excited about. Here’s BLK Tuesday, a…

In the Whale has the kind of live show that can literally turn the head of a rock star. No, really — not speaking figuratively here. Ask Slash. The Guns N’ Roses guitar god hand-picked the band to open for him after seeing footage of Eric Riley and Nate Valdez…

An odd duality marks Counter Counter Culture, Skyfox’s latest effort. There’s a common thread of pain that comes through in the lyrics on each of the ten tracks. Whether it’s the agony of a romance gone bad — a theme spelled out in songs like “Drug in Me (Down)” —…

For a guy who grew up learning to play Elton John songs on his autoharp while listening to the radio, Clay Cabe has quite an affinity for funk. Although his debut, 2003’s December, was an acoustic-driven folk-rock album, The Underworld is more of an eclectic effort. There are still a…

Many sludge/doom bands tune their guitars to drop C. Joseph Weller Myer of Whilt goes one step further, playing a bass that evokes the lowest registers of both guitar and bass. “Black Leaves” is a clear reference to marijuana — the kind Satan keeps for himself in a secret stash…

“Night of Lonely Zombies,” from Locusts of Egypt’s sophomore effort, Fondness, could easily be a long-lost ’70s power-pop song; it also recalls the sound that Elephant 6 became known for in the ’90s. Meanwhile, Jim Angell and Eugenia Appelhaus’s higher-register vocals and the way they sit in the mix call…

In 2009, a study commissioned by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs introduced Creative Vitality Index (CVI), a metric created by Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) to measure our city’s cultural viability. Based on Denver’s CVI, the study determined that the Mile High City was an emerging national cultural hub,…

Catz ‘N Dogz (due at NORAD this Saturday, November 23) has had a smashing year so far. In addition to being invited to create a BBC 1 Essential Mix, the powerhouse duo has collaborated with a mother lode of impressive acts, including Eats Everything, with whom it put together a…

THUNDERCAT at LARIMER LOUNGE | 11/19/13 Standing in the middle of a pulsating crowd of people dancing their asses off last night at the Larimer Lounge, I noticed the scene was tastefully decorated with diverse pockets of older gentlemen, hippie chicks, approachable beardos and cool guys. Somehow, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner…

MICHAL MENERT at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 11/16/13 Taking the stage waving a Colorado state flag bearing his own name, Michal Menert humbly thanked the crowd for coming out and supporting him and then opened up the throttle of samples. With a new custom light stage, AC Lao on the drums,…

THURS | JOHN LEGEND at ELLIE CAULKINS OPERA HOUSE | 11/21/13 A child prodigy who’s been playing the piano since age five and attended college at sixteen, John Legend played with Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson, among others, before Kanye West noticed his talent and took him under…

SAT | MICHAL MENERT at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 11/16/13 Since 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. Menert has…

FRI & SAT | THE BLACK CROWES at OGDEN THEATRE|11/15-11/16 In the late ’80s, many young musicians were embracing the myth of the ’60s. In 1989, the Black Crowes (due at the Ogden Theatre on Friday, November 15, and Saturday, November 16) emerged from that cultural backdrop with a bluesy,…

THE BLACK CROWES at THE OGDEN THEATRE 11/13/13 While the crowd on Wednesday night seemed completely receptive to first of the Black Crowes’ three nights at the Ogden Theatre, the place pretty much exploded with energy once the band launched into “Remedy” about an hour and a half into its…

Over the past decade or so, Broadways Sports Tavern, a pool and dart bar at 3978 South Broadway, was open one day a week for a pool league. But in September, Danielle Jurnisky, who was an owner of the Aussie Pub down the street, and Chel Johnson, who was a…

NINE INCH NAILS at 1STBANK CENTER | 11/13/13 From the very beginning, a Nine Inch Nails show creates a different kind of space, a heightened reality, accompanied by an unsurpassed light show. A pulsing low end preceded the band taking the stage, and the six distinctive lighting rigs above each…