Holy mother of God! It is hotter than July out here at the Mile High Music Fest. Oh, right, it is July. Let me put this another way: Imagine being trapped in a port-o-let in the middle of a Texas inferno. Yeah. It’s like that, only hotter. I can literally…
Things have really been heating up Sutra (1109 Lincoln Street) since the club pumped it up its sexy factor last year by installing a stripper pole, a swing and mini-stages. But the place will most likely be hitting the boiling point when the Girls Gone Wild crew rolls into the…
Steely Dan Thursday, July 17, 2008 Red Rocks Better than: Singing alone in the rain. After the Joey DeFrancesco trio warmed things up, the Steely boys (and girls) kicked off their set with “The Royal Scam,” and then went into “Show Biz Kids,” where the lead saxophonist shredded his alto…
Curtis Fuller Thursday, July 17, 2008 (second set) Dazzle Better Than: Fishing with some really good bait. John Coltrane’s Blue Train was one of the most celebrated albums Curtis Fuller played on, so it seemed fitting for the trombonist to open up the set with “Maze,” a song he wrote…
Bella Morte, Torso, the Siren Project Thursday, July 17, 2008 Oriental Theater Better Than: The stuff that most of the Goths seem to be into these days. I’m not sure if they’ve upgraded the sound system or just have better sound guys or what, but last night, the Oriental sounded…
Previously located in a basement near 2nd Avenue and Fillmore Street in Cherry Creek, RooBar could be hard to find your first time there. But once inside the subterranean spot, it felt like a secret speakeasy of sorts. Knute Hanson, who owned the bar for the last decade, had to…
Low Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Bluebird Theater Better than: The nap I needed to take earlier in the day. Halfway through Low’s set Wednesday night, she turned to me said that they sound “angelic.” I laugh at this because what does that even mean? The word I kept thinking of…
Gravy Train!!!!, the Pseudo Dates, Triangle Forest and Agent Alejandro Wednesday, July 16, 2008 hi-dive Better Than: A straight-laced dance music show. Triangle Forest had driven a thousand miles and made it to the hi-dive around 8:30 p.m., the time they were supposed to play. Normally when this happens, your…
Rodrigo Sanchez really wants you to like heavy metal. “Sometimes people don’t even have a minute for metal,” the guitarist notes. “They think it’s too loud, or whatever stupid thing they think.” As one half of Rodrigo y Gabriela — the dynamic Mexican duo who became international world-music superstars with…
We Are! We Are! is a hard-charging instrumental rock trio with a danceable, muscular sound and a killer live show. The group formed in the summer of 2003 in Asheville, North Carolina, and relocated to Denver in 2006, where it’s been wowing audiences ever since with tight, high-energy performances. We…
While preparing for John Coltrane’s 1957 landmark album Blue Train, trombonist Curtis Fuller says he had only three hours to learn the tunes before the band started recording at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in New Jersey. Fuller, who was 22 at the time, said he teased Coltrane about learning the…
The Alarm, Guerilla Tactics (The Twenty First Century Recording Company). With this overall winning collection of mostly under-four-minute tunes, death-defying Welsh rocker Mike Peters has bridged the gap between the memorable melodies and polished production of his classic alternative fare and the brash, decibel-drenched rock of his more recent musical…
A cousin in Louisiana once shot a cow with an AK-47. Legend has it that he and some friends hoisted the dead cow pumped full of bullets into the back of a pickup and drove it over to my uncle’s house, which used to be a church. They somehow dragged…
Because singer Malgorzata Wacht moved to the United States from Poland before the term “alternative” became synonymous with “grunge,” she never had to be saddled with that musically hermetic attitude that precludes certain people from appreciating the haunting and seductive beauty of Dead Can Dance, as well as the imaginative…
If trance is your thing, you need to make plans to go to the Global Dance Festival on Saturday, July 19, at Red Rocks. Nothing like seeing one of the most popular trance DJ/producers in the world — Ferry Corsten, consistently voted into the top ten of DJ magazine’s top…
Rachel Pollard’s first full-length is filled with delicate, melancholic poetry and winsome reverie. While Pollard often sings about heartbreaking experiences with the hindsight of wisdom, her outlook and delivery are informed by a certain innocence that welcomes the pitfalls of life and relationships. Because of this, each of these tender…
No surprise that Boom Bust recalls last year’s Holladay. Both EPs were produced by Hot IQ Bryan Feuchtinger, and they share an appreciation for tight, punchy songcraft. Still, the latest disc, which will be feted during a Saturday, July 26, hi-dive show featuring the Jim Jims and the Black Apples,…
Metal bands that transition from the underground to the overground can suffer painful backlashes. Thus far, though, Mastodon – part of a massive Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival lineup that includes Slipknot, Disturbed, Machine Head, Underoath, Dragonforce, Five Finger Death Punch, The Red Chord, Suicide Silence, 36 Crazy Fists, Airbourne, Black…
Although better known as the backup singers for Jenny Lewis on Rabbit Fur Coat, Chandra and Leigh Watson are no slouches on their own. Having grown up in Louisville, Kentucky, these twin sisters, like many Southern kids, started singing in the church choir. Upon relocating to Los Angeles, the twins…
Hip-hop artists don’t typically reject critical acclaim, but neither do they expect that good reviews will translate into big sales – and Britisher Dizzee Rascal’s probes into the American market demonstrate why. Rascal has won raves for his spare, raw hybrid of hip-hop and dance music – a form originally…
My Feral Kin took root in the artistically fertile DIY soil of Phoenix, Arizona, and is currently one of the promising groups across the country tapping into a more tropical sound born of non-English-speaking folk traditions. Stands to reason: Julio Mendoza Jr., Kin’s primary creative force, is the son of…
Danger Mouse is arguably the most adventurous producer to tackle a Beck project since the Dust Brothers helped birth a 1996 baby called Odelay (the Dusters’ return for 2004’s Güero doesn’t count). The resulting sound is satisfyingly dense and intricate; the neo-surfisms of “Gamma Ray,” the delicate psychedelia of “Chemtrails”…
