Concerts

For those who haven’t left for work yet or have a TV set in the office, Matt Lauer just mentioned that the Fray — who’ll be performing at this weekend’s Mile High Music Festival — we’ll be performing live on the plaza momentarily. For those without such conveniences, we’ve posted…

Next to writing the music, picking a name is probably the most critical and challenging aspects of starting a band. Sometime an intriguing name will attract listeners on its own, sight unseen (see: I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness). Pick the wrong one and you risk being chagrined every…

Update: Purpose (aka Mykal Hudson) ended up winning the Denver Idol competition, earning 48 percent of the vote to best the other two finalists. As a result, unlike thousands of would-be hopefuls sleeping under the stars for their chance to showcase their talents, Purpose earned a guaranteed audition at Invesco…

You could purloin a copy of Boulder Acoustic Society’s new album, Punchline, using whatever methods you kids use to rip music off the internet, but then how would you see the band in 3D? When you purchase a hard copy of Punchline, out August 18th on Nine Mile Records, not…

After a wildly successful Westword Music Showcase this year, we’ve tallied the votes, ordered the statues and put the bubbly is on ice. A week from today at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 13, we’ll be announcing the winners in the individual categories at the Gothic Theatre. Whether you’re a…

Lazy LesterThursday, July 9, 2009Boulder Outlook Hotel, BoulderBetter Than: The canned blues playing over the PA between sets — by a long sight.Admittedly, when I first heard about this show coming up, I had to look up who Lazy Lester (Leslie Johnson) was, but after listening to a great deal…

Pitchfork’s Mark Richardson can’t get enough of Travis Egedy’s Pictureplane, slapping the most coveted three words in modern music criticism on “Goth Star,” the first offering from his upcoming full length, Dark Rift. The album’s out on August 4th on Lovepump United. Richardson starts by marveling at 2007’s “Flashion (You…

When tickets to the four nights of Phish at Red Rocks went on sale a few months ago, they sold out about as quick as it takes me to lose a game of washers (the new backyard game sweeping my neighborhood)…yeah, pretty fast. Of course, the concert announcement and subsequent…

Now there are two compelling reasons to make your way to the Meadowlark on a Tuesday night. Denver’s most bipolar bar — with the dingy basement speakeasy and the gorgeous backyard garden party vibes — has been offering up a diverse and not entirely offensive open mike extravaganza for the…

If you aren’t an avid reader of the ticketing industry website Ticket News, you may have missed the news that the Pepsi Center is dumping Ticketmaster. The venue will be switching to TicketHorse, a ticketing company owned by Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owner of the Pepsi Center and several other local…

Kyle Simmons wasted no time making things happen when she first felt the call of music. “I started writing as a solo artist when I was fourteen, released a record at the age of sixteen, and then at the age of eighteen signed with a label.” Now frontwoman of Speakeasy…

Today there are building projects all over the place, but back in the ’80s, the area behind Coors Field felt like some kind of bizarre wasteland. There was no Coors Field, of course, and you had to really work to find the original Tracks or the old Skyline Cafe (which…

Waves of hardcore have come and gone since the salad days of the early ’80s. With few genuine musical outlets for angst and rampaging energy open to young people in the past several years, it was inevitable that a band like Dethbox would come along and put its own stamp…

The music of Audiofly is a delicious mix of funky techno and the deep, dirty side of house: sexy, driving and warm, but always with a distinctly electronic edge. Since meeting in 2002, the duo of Luca Saporito and Anthony Middleton have had tremendous success under the collective name (and…

Copy editors, grammarians and assorted other speakers of English: Apologies in advance for our e-mail interview with Calvin Broadus, aka Snoop Dogg, whose Blazed and Confused tour kicks off in Denver. Turns out Snoop is as big a fan of creative spelling and unusual word usage as he is of…

The Flash Mob is a band that had no problem finding its groove. Formed from the remnants of Boondok Saints and Ultrachronic, the outfit got off to an auspicious start providing main support for the Flobots and hasn’t looked back. A song the players wrote the first time they practiced…

Eric Crespo is at the epicenter of the sonic force known as Ghost to Falco. There’s an eerie timelessness to Crespo’s voice, whether he’s singing more conventional-sounding Americana or the heavy, deeply rhythmic haunted pieces for which his projects are more well known. Comparisons to Nick Cave and 16 Horsepower…

Justin Vernon, Bon Iver’s central figure (joined on these bills by The Wheel), is a Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter who first gained widespread attention for last year’s For Emma, Forever Ago, a cathartic recording laid down during a three-month stay in a remote cabin following the collapse of a romantic relationship and…

Although there have been bass-and-drum duos before, Pittsburgh’s Dark Lingo takes that basic formula and twists it into compellingly nightmarish shapes. Making human voices inhuman by passing them through various guitar effects pedals and then making them swim through the thick churn of hypnotic, distorted bass patterns and insistent drumming,…