Concerts

Lucinda Williams learned an important lesson from her poet father, Miller Williams: Never censor yourself. And indeed, since her 1978 debut, Ramblin’ on My Mind, the 58-year-old singer-songwriter has never held back in her lyrics, shooting straight from the hip with her brutally honest songs. “Otherwise, what’s the point?” she…

Though straight-edge is a movement often attributed to Minor Threat, that band never embraced the term as codified in the lifestyles and ideologies of groups that followed in its wake. One that truly took the message to another level of stridency was Youth of Today, whose members were not only…

There is no one box to check for Lykke Li: Part pop star, part soul singer and partially just her own weird and appealing self, the Swedish performer can place her voice into any fold and command the instruments around it. Only two full albums into a relatively newborn career,…

Madlib, the reclusive, innovative and shape-shifting mastermind from California, is coming to Denver, and to hear hip-hop heads tell it, he’s the greatest thing since ice cream. Considered by many to be a purveyor of the progressive sound of the future, Madlib combines beats and words with sounds unlike anything…

Nothing about this Syracuse-based band is particularly riotous; in fact, it uses classical instrumentation in its songwriting. What’s more, those instruments never seem like a fashionable affectation. When you hear Ra Ra Riot’s winsome, gently affecting pop songs, you get the feeling that everyone in the band was in on…

In the slew of also-ran movies released during the cinematic abyss of February this year, you might have missed Drive Angry, a nu-metal and semen-drenched muscle-car flick starring Nic Cage as a leather-jacket-clad badass named John Milton who (wait for it) escapes from Hell to save his granddaughter from some…

“Love Scene” is the first of the three songs on this release, and it establishes a mood like the alternative soundtrack to an early Michael Mann film. The slow gyre of volume in the song gives it a disorienting feeling, like being in some labyrinthine American version of an underground…

A lot of the songs that make up the sixteen-track Social Awkwardness feel like they could have been written and recorded by a nerdy, socially awkward high-school kid circa 1987, in a basement lined with Joy Division, Legendary Pink Dots and Devo posters. Thing is, though, Ian Fellerman, the mastermind…

There’s one thing you can count on when a recession hits: Folk music will rise, especially in the former Wild West. The allure of dusty guitars and songs begging to be sung with battered voices will always be a strong draw. For songwriters, the challenge is setting yourself apart from…

Before ever playing a show together, Ezra-David Darnell and Jordan Hubner had played music and written songs as fellow students at the University of Colorado Denver for a handful of years. When they first got together, Hubner was a member of outfits like Hawks of Paradise and Pacific Pride. Hearts…

Metaphysically speaking, November 11, 2011, is an important date. In numerology, eleven is what’s known as a “master number,” a higher vibration of the number two — and when you get all those elevens in a row, there’s bound to be some magic in the air. The Whomp Truck crew…

Since the last half of the ’90s, the music of Orbit Service has been through a few different permutations, from early soundscaping experiments to blissed-out space rock to deeply introspective psychedelia — all of it informed by the dark shadings of Randall Frazier’s colorful imagination. This year, Orbit Service (due…

SBTRKT at THE BLUEBIRD THEATER, 11/5/11This past Saturday night at the Bluebird Theater, U.K.-based, vowel-abstaining electronic artist SBTRKT (aka Aaron Jerome) set it off with the help of Mikey Thunder and Peter Black. Offering up a set of music that featured live drums and vocals and donning a ceremonial mask,…

JUDAS PRIEST at 1STBANK CENTER | 11/5/11 Somewhere early in the set, Rob Halford told us that the band was going to play material from all roughly forty years of its career including hits and older and more obscure material. And that for the “next two hours and twenty minutes”…

HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD at the FILLMORE | 11/4/11What the Fillmore really means by “all-ages show” is this: At least one shirtless 17-year-old will approach you — slowly, so as not to startle you — and ask you “wazzup.” If you are attending the World War III Tour to see Asking Alexandria…

PAPER DIAMOND at the OGDEN | 11/4/11Paper Diamond (aka Alex Botwin) cut the bullshit last night on its first headlining appearance at the Ogden. With the assistance of fellow Elm and Oak labelmate Raw Russ, Boulder locals Sorry For Partying, and Minnesota, Paper Diamond dropped new material and showed Denver…

BOUNCING SOULS at MARQUIS THEATER | 11/03/11Last night at the Marquis, Bouncing Souls played the second night of their four-night stand with Anchor Point and Tim Barry. The band has two more sold-out shows at the Marquis, tonight with Broadway Calls, the Architects and Luther, and tomorrow night with Teenage…