He was the backbone, part of the nerve center of a great rhythm and blues band that made the music of a bygone era live, breathe and jump again. But Donald “Duck” Dunn’s musical accomplishments went far beyond the scripted praise he earned from John Belushi playing the fictional Jake…
DRAKE @ COMFORT DENTAL AMPHITHEATRE | 05.14.12 Last night at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre, not only did Drake bring along a slew of his homeboys for The Club Paradise tour, he displayed mind-blowing artistry. Erudite and gorgeous, the Toronto MC charmed the entire place with his theatrics and gestures while his…
If you haven’t picked up your tickets to the Westword Music Showcase yet, here’s another reason to get on it: Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe presents a Tribute to the Beastie Boys at this year’s Showcase. This is going to be absolutely sick! Page down to see what you have in…
THE LUMINEERS @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 5/11/12 Wesley Schulz announced that the band was going to perform a Sawmill Joe song and it was obvious much of the crowd knew what was coming, as The Lumineers started the song and brought Joe back on stage. Between pretty much all the…
THE FRAY @ RED ROCKS | 5/11/12 It was cold last night at Red Rocks. Like balls-into-your-body-cavity cold. Seriously. It was also wet and foggy and miserable. Once the lights went up, though, the Fray’s sound cut through the fog and rain and made everyone forget their frostbitten feet. The…
BLACK STAR @ CERVANTES’ | 05.11.12 The first strains of the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” started blaring through the speakers as Yasiin Bey shook himself onto the stage to thunderous screams of applause. Wielding an red old school “drop mike,” the Brooklyn MC fist pumped and enticed the…
If the old cliche is right and one photo is really worth 1,000 words, then how much is a website full of videos worth? A lot, the creators of Audiovore would argue. So in November, two staunch Colorado music enthusiasts began to develop content for a digital archive of the…
It’s the weekend! As always, there’s no shortage of things to get into. If you’re looking to twirl and whirl like a dervish all over the city, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got the drop on the hottest dance music and parties going down, from the return of…
Welcome to the weekend! The sun’s hiding this morning and rain’s in the forecast for the next few days, but even that can’t dampen spirits today. The Nuggets destroyed the Lakers last night, and you’ve got another full slate of local goodness on tap this weekend: Tonight the Fray kicks…
Okay, so just when you think the summer couldn’t get any hotter, it just did. Check it: Q-Tip is performing a DJ set at the Official Westword Music Showcase After Party at City Hall. Tickets go on sale this Monday at CoClubs.com. Oh, and stay tuned, we have another killer…
This Friday night, the DMC World DJ Championship returns to Colorado for another eagerly anticipated edition of the battle at Casselman’s Bar & Venue. Last year’s champion, Colorado’s own DJ Vajra, of course, went on to become the greatest DJ in the world, besting competition from all over the globe…
Wesley Schultz has never been to the Bluebird Theater. Not for a show, anyway. And he’s never been to Red Rocks, either. Since moving to Denver from New York, he’s purposely avoided both. “I think it’s superstitious or something,” he explains. “If I really want to play somewhere, I probably…
In the muddled world of dubstep, the names that have stayed true to form are few and far between. Cookie Monsta (known in his U.K. home town of Nottingham as Tony Cook) broke onto the scene in 2007, signed with Circus Records (the premier label for dubstep artists) a few…
Last month, rocker Ted Nugent drew Secret Service scrutiny when he said, “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year,” at an NRA convention in St. Louis. That was on April 18, ancient history in the…
We’re just over a month out from this year’s Westword Music Showcase, and we’ve already let you know who we have headlining the mainstage this year — but keep it locked on Backbeat for another big announcement this coming Monday. Now it’s time for us to give up the goods…
A lot of big concert news this week. Really big. Emphasis on big, both in stature and some literally in name: Leonard Cohen is coming back to Colorado this fall for a date at the 1STBANK Center. Before that, though, Big Gigantic is slated to make its Red Rocks debut…
So by now you’ve probably heard the news: The tenth annual US Air Guitar competition is about to get under way, and the national finals are slated to take place in Denver on Saturday, July 21, at the Bluebird Theater. The culmination of a dozen separate regional events, which kick…
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 05.08.12 If you decide to put all of your eggs in Anton Newcombe’s basket, they’re going to end up scrambled. The lead singer of early-’90s psychedelica group Brian Jonestown Massacre might be the group’s longest-running member, but he also seems to be the…
Since its earliest days as an appealing garage-surf two-piece, School Knights (due at the hi-dive on Friday, May 11) has doubled its membership. Founded by former Weed Diamond guitarist Michael Stein and drummer Zack Roif, the band added Ben Donehower on bass and Morris Kolontyrsky on guitar to help fill…
The ladies love Drake — and it’s not hard to see why. The Frank Sinatra of hip-hop, as he’s been called, Drake is classy, elegant and can rap his face off to almost any melody. The Toronto native took the hip-hop scene by storm with his catchy lyrics, emotive production…
Since 2005, Montreal’s Plants and Animals has been writing some of the most critically acclaimed music to have come out of that town in recent years. Its debut album, Parc Avenue, found the band exploring a vast array of sounds with a sense of playful abandon. It was a sprawling…
Time Capsule is ProJect Aspect’s 1320 Records debut. Showing notable maturity, the rising producer more than lives up to the outsized expectations that come with being on STS9’s label. If the opening track, “Tina Turnon,” doesn’t grab you instantly with its beat-matching bass line, then the slow roll into “White…
