Concerts

Music wasn’t supposed to be Kayla Marque’s life. “My dad wanted me to be an athlete, so that’s what I grew up doing,” says the Denver-born-and-raised singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. “I started playing basketball at five. In high school, I quit basketball because I found volleyball. I thought it was the best thing ever.” Marque had always considered herself an athlete, feeling what she describes as a “hunger, drive and competitiveness” for sports that she didn’t have for other things. But underneath the team uniform, a musician was hiding.

Prior to November 8, Sadie Dupuis figured she would release Slugger, her first album as Sad13 (pronounced “Sad Thirteen”), to an America celebrating the election of its first female president. Like most people, she hadn’t planned to go to bed on Tuesday night coming to grips with the startling new reality of President-elect Trump, and she certainly didn’t plan to release her album three days later still reeling from the news.

Classic Kanye. Kanye West gives the middle finger to the Mile High City for the fourth tour in a row. Yeezus? More like Yeesh-uz.

Thanks in part to college students returning to Denver for the holidays, Thanksgiving Eve, this Wednesday, November 23, 2016, aka Drinksgiving aka Black (Out) Wednesday, is the biggest bar night of the year. We’ve rounded up a number of EDM events as well as concerts happening the night before Thanksgiving. See the full list below, and check back on this post, as we will update it as we hear about other events.

The Fray, who released Through the Years: the Best of the Fray earlier this month, play an intimate show at the Fox Theatre on Friday, November 25 before headlining 1STBANK Center the following night. Leftover Salmon performs the music of Neil Young at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox on Friday, November 25 and headlines the Fillmore Auditorium the following night with Los Lobos opening. This week’s lineup also includes FIDLAR, 12th Annual Last Waltz – Revisited, Paper Bird and Snow Tha Product.

Evan Stephens Hall wanted to make sure I heard him right. A few hours before Pinegrove’s show last July, and we were sweating over pints on Larimer Lounge’s back patio, nearly shouting over the clanging of soundcheck. The young rock band’s lead singer-songwriter was describing a song cycle he wrote…

Multi-instrumentalist Kris Drickey is an eternally creative spirit. Her work in the Denver-based folk/americana/whatever-the-hell-you-wanna-call-it band Chimney Choir has always had a sense of collaboration and whimsy. The group’s latest effort Dream is a continuation of these sensibilities while creating a new world, which may be a dream after all. Growing up in the cassette-tape generation, Drickey’s love of tapes continues to this day, as well as her somewhat guilty love of Mariah Carey.

Charleston, South Carolina’s Shovels & Rope is at the Ogden Theatre for two nights this weekend while Rufus du Sol and Faceman also have two-night stands. This weekend’s lineup also includes Life Aquatic’s Tribute to David Bowie featuring Seu Jorge at the Gothic, Darlingside at L2 Church,  Glen Phillips at Swallow Hill, the Posies at the Oriental Theatre, Andy McKee at the Soiled Dove Underground. See the full list of our picks below.

“Everyone always thinks I’m the one that did this, but I’m not,” Steve “Faceman” says about his latest mastermind, “Faceman’s 100 Year Storm,” a two-day festival taking place this weekend at the Oriental Theatre during which 100 bands will perform twenty-minute sets. “Everyone can come up with an idea, but if other people don’t put their hearts in it as well, nothing comes of it. I’m always fearful that it’s a selfish endeavor.”

“The Other Black comes from the idea that music should help,” says Denver musician Wesley Watkins. “People are very afraid of the unknown. I’ve spent a lot of time as an outcast in my life, in the black community, specifically in Denver, but just in the community. I’ve had some very unconventional things happen to me in my life, and with all this election and everything I really want to encourage people to love themselves, so that they can start to love others.”

Few bands can point to one event or festival as a catalyst and jumping-off point for its success. For Massachusetts’s Darlingside, however, much of the group’s recent success can be traced back to the Westin Hotel in Kansas City, where last year’s Folk Alliance Festival was held.

Bruno Mars, who set to release his new album on Friday, brings his 24K Magic World tour to the Pepsi Center on Monday, October 30; tickets ($49.50-$150) go on sale on Monday, November 21, at 10 a.m. New Kids on the Block headline the Total Package tour at Pepsi Center on Saturday, June 10, with Boyz II Men and Paula Abdul; tickets ($29.95-$199.95) go on sale on Saturday, November 19, at 10 a.m. As we announced earlier this week, Sting will be at the Fillmore Auditorium on Tuesday, February 14, and Devendra Banhart is coming to the Boulder Theater on Friday, February 3.

Charleston, South Carolina duo Shovels & Rope, which plays the Ogden Theatre on Friday, November 18, and Saturday, November 19, know that some seeds are worth watering, allowing them to grow and bloom — while others are best left in the cold, dark ground.

Nearly a year ago, Pearl’s opened at 603 East 13th Avenue in the space that been the Beauty Bar for the last five years and a longtime home of the Snake Pit before that. Mike Barnhart, who was a co-owner of the Beauty Bar, and Tucker Schwab, a Beauty Bar bartender and manager, opened Pearl’s with a dance club in one room and a neighborhood bar in another room. But now they’re trying to keep the venue afloat with an Indiegogo campaign to raise $60,000 over the next twelve days.

As the line for the sold-out, highly anticipated “Evening with Morrissey” at the Boulder Theater snaked around the block, one could not help but notice an ambulance parked directly in front of the entrance.

Sting, who teamed up with Peter Gabriel at the Pepsi Center last July, returns to the area but at the much more intimate Fillmore Auditorium on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14. The tour is in support of the singer and bassist’s brand new album, 57th & 9th, and features his longtime guitarist Dominic Miller, drummer Josh Freese and guitarist Rufus Miller.

Monica Birkenes, known as Mr Little Jeans, came into musicianship in a way that many of us fantasize about: She ran into Beyoncé’s entourage, expressed her interest in making music, was taken gracefully into the studio where she laid down some poignant tracks and began her career as a musician. Her latest EP, Fevers, was released late September, and now Birkenese is making her way around the country with her latest tour. She spoke to Westword from the road somewhere in Nebraska to talk about touring, her upcoming full-length album and her creative process post-Beyoncé.

Morrissey, who once tried to start a band in Arvada, headlines the Boulder Theater on Monday, November 14, while Amanda Palmer is at the same venue on Thursday, November 17. Also tonight, there’s a conversation and Q&A with Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina (Masha) and Alexandra Bogino (Sasha) at the Oriental Theater, Lucius is at the Gothic Theatre and later in the week it’s the Lukas Graham at the Fillmore, the Sounds at the Summit Music Hall and Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman at the Paramount Theatre. See our full list of picks below.

Westword Music is keeping an eye on events that respond directly to the recent election, whether these are music-related protests or gatherings, benefit concerts or workshops. Please send tips and event info to editorial@westword.com.Below are a couple of events that involve local artists. We will be updating this post with more information as we receive it.

This Saturday at Cameron Church, avant-garde guitarist Neil Haverstick is holding Microstock 11 wherein he and Ned Evett, an associate of Joe Satriani, will demonstrate their own microtonal compositions in individual sets. Microtonality or microtonal music has been around since humans started making music. Generally speaking, a microtonal music is that which contains tiny intervals between notes, making it different from the twelve tone equal temperament scales we hear in a lot of popular or even classical music. Often the concept is associated with non-Western music, but it has long been a part of gospel, blues and jazz where the inflection and manipulation of standard use of the strings is often employed with bends and pulling on strings with one hand as they are struck with a pick in the other.

Kevin O’Brien never wanted to be in a band. But when the full-time comedian (and occasional Westword contributor) had the chance to start jamming with his friend, fellow comedian and musician Sam Tallent, he loved it. Now, the beer-drinking guitar-playing hangouts have turned into a serious band, Big City Drugs, which celebrates the release of its EP at 10 p.m. tonight at GLOB.

Rob Burleson is a familiar and friendly face to anyone who has been around the local music scene. After playing in dozens of bands — Hearts of Palm and Lion Sized, just to name a few — he found his way to the “vacation-rock” outfit SPELLS, which has quickly become…