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…
Ben Folds teams up with the Colorado Symphony again for two nights at Boettcher Concert Hall this weekend while YouTube sensation Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox headlines 1STBANK Center tomorrow night. Also this weekend SPELLS celebrates the release of its first full-length album at 3 Kings, Colfax Speed Queen debuts its sophomore album at Lost Lake Lounge, Lane 8 is at the Bluebird Theater and rapper YG is at the Ogden Theatre. See the full list of our picks below.
At eighty years old, Harry Tuft is finally getting the time and opportunity to do what he came to Colorado to do in the first place in 1960: play music. Not that Tuft hasn’t played music all along and put out albums, but it is the first time he’s been free to do so without the weight of running a store, leading the local chapter of the musicians’ union, or, in years past, booking acts like Joan Baez and arranging for her to meet the Beatles when the Fab Four played Red Rocks in 1964. He basically served as the de facto godfather of Denver folk through his establishment of the Denver Folklore Center in 1962, and he was instrumental in founding Swallow Hill. If Tuft hadn’t left Philadelphia to move here, inspired by stories of the opportunities to play live out west, Denver music and culture would be immeasurably diminished.
The Motet is making its second annual pit stop in its home town to Denver to bring “dance your ass off” funk for two nights at the Ogden. The band’s Hometown Hustle show is even more of a homecoming for one of the newest members, vocalist Lyle Divinsky. Divinsky joined the Motet in January 2016 after frontman Jans Ingber left last year.
Colfax Speed Queen is releasing its sophomore album Talk To Your Doctor through Heavy Dose Records on Friday, November 11. The Denver-based rock band started in 2010 as a college project for singer/guitarist Matthew Loui who had only recently started playing guitar.
Bonobo, who’s set to release his new album Migration in January, and Nick Murphy (formerly known as Chet Faker) will be at Red Rocks on Friday, May 12. General admission tickets ($39.95) go on sale on Friday, November 11 at 10 a.m. Bring Me the Horizon will release the DVD/CD package Live at the Royal Albert Hall next month and the band headlines the 1STBANK Center on Wednesday, March 29 with Underoath and Beartooth opening. General admission tickets ($39.95) and GA bowl tickets ($32.50) go on sale on Friday, November 11 at 10 a.m. DMX brings his A Very Special DMXmas Show to Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom on Friday, December 23; tickets ($33/$35) go on sale on Friday, November 11 at 10 a.m.
When Daniel Goldstein aka deep house artist Lane 8, released debut album Rise last year, heads turned. With tracks premiered by the New York Times, SPIN, and Billboard and topping the Hype Machine charts, Lane 8 went on tour ready to connect with an army of new fans. Goldstein, however, didn’t expect the reaction to his better-known songs to be so, well…uninspired.
Experimental pop band Holophrase has always existed on the fringes of Denver, whether with its difficult-to-qualify musical style or in its living arrangements. The band currently resides in Henderson, a community in Adams County. At the end of a dirt driveway, three-fourths of the band shares the basement of a house and a garage. Outside, you can see undeveloped fields, an increasingly rare sight in most of the metro area.
We’ve endured the seemingly endless death spiral of the 2016 presidential campaign, cast our votes and taken selfies of our flag stickers…now what? We’ll be obsessively watching tallies and forecasts, but once the polls close, we need safe havens, distraction, healing and maybe even celebration. We need music, people, sweet music. Here are seven concerts in Denver on election night 2016.
Chuck Coffey has more Denver music pedigree on his own than a lot of bands combined. Starting Not Bad Records in 1997, Coffey helped numerous Denver bands put out albums and gain much needed exposure, all while playing in notable Denver bands like Eyes and Ears, Big Timber, Contender and countless others. These days, Coffey continues to help out bands from all over the world on his Snappy Little Numbers imprint and is set to put out his first full-length with his current band SPELLS.
The sci-fi thrash-metal band Vektor started in Tempe, Arizona and now calls Philadelphia home. But its origin story truly begins in rural valley outside Durango, where vocalist and guitarist David DiSanto lived during middle school and high school.
We’ve put together a list, in no particular order, of nine Denver musical pairs. #Relationshipgoals, anyone?
Courtney Barnett was set to appear at Project Pabst last May but she had to cancel her gig after getting an offer to appear on Saturday Night Live. Anyone bummed that she didn’t make the festival can see her headline at the Ogden Theatre on Tuesday, November 8. Sabrina Carpenter is at the Bluebird Theater tonight, Monday, November 7, and the Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi brings his band CRX to the Larimer tonight. Napalm Death and the Black Dahlia Murder are at the Summit Music Hall tomorrow. See our full list of picks below.
The creative young Boulder trio Grass is indicative of the music being pushed over the last year by ambitious local cassette label First Base Tapes: gritty and experimental but catchy, clever and (while ear-bleedin’ loud) deceptively pleasant.
Rae Sremmurd brought the Sremmlife II tour through Denver last night and turned the Ogden into a Tumblr-age hit factory, playing banger after banger. Perhaps more than the songs played, the sold-out show featured many ridiculous onstage antics. For those of you who didn’t get a ticket to the show or didn’t get any Snapchats from your friends who were there, Westword compiled a list of all of the wild moments that you missed.
This summer, the Colorado Department of Transportation launched its driver-safety campaign titled “A Few Can Still be Dangerous.” This message for the general public came from results of a CDOT survey last year which revealed that 70 percent of young men ages 21-35 in the state of Colorado believe that they are safe to drive after consuming two or three drinks.
The best concerts around Denver for November 4-6, 2016, including Safe in Sound, Marc Anthony, Sturgill Simpson and more.
Colorado is home to more than its fair share of great music. Perhaps no one knows this better than the musicians themselves. With that in mind, we asked one of our favorite Colorado artists which other local artists we should be checking out, and thus began the “One Band Leads to Another” musical scavenger hunt. It works like this: A band recommends a band, then that band recommends a band, and so forth. Follow the thread to discover new Colorado voices, enrich your local listening experience and find out where you can catch these bands performing live this month.
As a member of Dualistics, Science Partner and more recently the Gin Doctors, singer, guitarist and songwriter Tyler Despres was a fixture in the Denver music community for more than a decade. He died on Tuesday, November 1 the age of 34, of an aortic aneurysm.
List of concerts announced this week for Denver and Colorado.
Concert review of Young the Giant at the Ogden Theatre in Denver.
