Concerts

MOON BOOTS @ NORAD | FRI, 5/24/13 Moon Boots maintains a mysterious persona appropriate for a being who’s allegedly imbued with sentience in a top-secret NASA experiment, but here’s what we know about him: He’s based out of Chicago, he’s signed on the French Express label, and he has a…

The Great American Techno Festival has revealed part of the lineup for the third annual edition of the burgeoning techno extravaganza. Following up last year’s banner lineup of Kevin Saunderson and John Tejada, this year’s Great American Techno Fest, which is slated to take place Friday, September 13, through Sunday,…

People come up and say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before. When are you playing again?'” marvels bassist Harmony Star about how audiences often react to her band, Dangerous Nonsense. “We don’t even know how to explain it. Our influences couldn’t explain what we sound like.” “And it wouldn’t…

With its refreshing take on percussion and production, the music on Dawn Safari’s Mask isn’t what you’d expect during the height of bass’s fame. Rather than building up to massive drops, this chilled-out drum-and-bass relies on samples and loops, with nods to hip-hop — but even those are subtle and…

Durango’s self-proclaimed country-fried indie-rock act Farmington Hill sums up Road to Nowhere as “music suitable for both a raucous Saturday night and the accompanying Sunday hangover.” Sure enough, some of the five-piece’s twangy alt-country tunes — “Oh Yeah,” “Pass Me the Bottle,” “Pass Out” — could be the ideal soundtrack…

It’s fairly clear from the opening cut of Justin Francoeur’s debut, Moving Through Universes, what an ambitious undertaking the disc was: “Gravity” starts off with a rock groove and gradually works in various worldly elements such as the erhu, a Chinese stringed instrument played here by Brian Mullins. Francoeur clearly…

There is something otherworldly and old-worldly about the songs on the Seven Hats’ Scientific American; they’d be right at home on a Guy Maddin soundtrack. Julie Davis’s voice, while in the foreground, sounds like it was captured on film and then played until the film stock was worn to the…

We’re still a small band,” Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith insists. “We’ve still got a long way to go before we’re like, ‘This is a secure position for us.'” Perhaps so, but Dawes has certainly been making big moves lately. The quartet played fourteen showcases at South by Southwest this year,…

So last week, as all of the gear was being broken down and loaded out after his unprecedented two-day, four-show run, Prince had a super-duper, triple secret after party at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret. It was so secret, in fact, that Becky Toma, who handles promotions and marketing at the club,…

TURBONEGRO @ OGDEN THEATRE | 5/20/13 The familiar feedback leading to the down-strumming guitar intro of “Get It On” drew people to come from the upper areas of the Ogden to join in the pit down front last night. Turbonegro’s new lead singer Tony Sylvester, dressed up like some bizarre…

VAMPIRE WEEKEND @ RED ROCKS | 5/20/13 Last night at Red Rocks, Vampire Weekend showed all the strength that has made it so compelling since the release of its first record five years ago. From Ezra Koenig’s effortless falsetto and drummer Chris Tomson’s rollicking drum rolls that eerily echo old…

Seven months after Tavern 13 relocated a few blocks south from its previous location at 1312 South Broadway to the former Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli spot at 1643 South Broadway, the venue shut its doors the first week in May. When we stopped by to confirm the bar’s closure, a sign…

Possibly the most famous and influential keyboardist in the history of rock, Doors co-founder Ray Manzarek, died yesterday at age 74 from complications due to bile-duct cancer. Known as the lanky professor crouched off to the left of Jim Morrison, Manzarek was an erudite multi-instrumentalist who delivered a complex and…

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 5/17/13 Near the end of its set, Black Moth Super Rainbow performed “Sun Lips,” one of its signature older songs. While some people sang along a bit earlier in the show, it seemed like everyone up front knew the words to this…

3 LOCO @ CERVANTES’ MASTERPIECE BALLROOM | 5/17/13 First there was silence. Then there was hysterical screaming, as Andy Milonakis walked on stage. “Pussy, pussy, pussy, marijuana,” he rapped over and over again. Yup. This was definitely a 3 Loco show. What a curse 3 Loco faces; they’re completely average…

TURBONEGRO @ OGDEN THEATRE | MON, 5/20/13 In 1989, when Norwegian band Turbonegro got together, it was clearly fueled by a love of Alice Cooper and acts like Hanoi Rocks and the Stooges. You can hear the influence in songs like “Sell Your Body (To the Night),” which features an…

In 2011, Jammin Joe’s moved from Wheat Ridge to its current location in Arvada, a strip-mall spot that was previously home to the Brickhouse Nightclub and the very short-lived Mind Bender’s. Since relocating, Jammin’ Joe’s has brought in a steady parade of local hard-rock acts, as well as ’80s hair-metal…

IMAGINE DRAGONS @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | 5/16/13 On stage at Red Rocks last night, Dan Reynolds couldn’t get over the emotional weight of the moment. “This may be the greatest night of our lives,” Reynolds declared after “Round and Round,” the band’s energetic opener. Later, he marveled, “This is…

GLOBAL DUB FESTIVAL @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | FRI, 5/17/13 The music of Excision (due at Red Rocks this weekend with Flux Pavilion, Zomboy, Dirtyphonics and Designer Drugs) is a fitting soundtrack to the desolate, gritty, apocalyptic landscape of a future ruled by homicidal machines. His tunes are warped, stuttering…

NATHANIEL RATELIFF & NIGHT SWEATS @ BOULDER THEATER | 5/17 At this stage of his career, particularly in Denver, Nathaniel Rateliff is a man who requires absolutely no preamble. Nonetheless, the limited-edition two-song seven-inch he produced for Record Store Day feels like a fresh and glorious reintroduction to a songwriter…

The members of Chimney Choir want to show their audience just how messy the creative process can be. “People just see the final product when an album is released. That’s not really how it is for us,” insists David Rynhart, a founding member of the band, who serves as guitarist,…