Colorado Missed Connections: Summer Concert Edition

We’ve all been there. Maybe you’re at a sweaty club digging the close, hot vibe when your eyes meet for just a split second. Then it happens again. And again. But you don’t act on your instincts. Or you could be outside under that big, blue sky at Red Rocks,…

The Night Goth Music Came to Longmont’s Dickens Opera House

Driving into Longmont from Denver on Highway 119, you will see a vast, seemingly abandoned factory complex that looks like it hasn’t been used in decades. This sight wasn’t so uncommon in Denver at the turn of the century, but now, it’s largely unheard of. The city is changing, and…

Ben Harper on Albums on the Hill and Playing in Colorado

What’s left to be said about Ben Harper, the genre-blending, Grammy-winning, rock and blues monstrosity? Not a lot apparently. Despite playing what is bound to be a career-high show at Red Rocks on Tuesday Harper was less than verbose in our pre-show interview. Still, he managed to namedrop a slew…

The Larimer Block Party Lineup: Del the Funky Homosapien and More

Denver is getting another music festival: The Larimer Block Party, which will shut down the 2700 block of Larimer Street on Saturday, September 26. Headliners include Del The Funky Homosapien, BADBADNOTGOOD, Joywave and Sango (view the full lineup below), all playing on an outdoor stage in the street. The surrounding…

Colleen Green Defies Musical Movements at Dryer Plug Studios

In another era, let’s say twenty years ago, an artist like Colleen Green would have been a mainstream star, at least in the alternative rock world. In fact, her music is a little reminiscent Veruca Salt. Even today, in a time when the music industry is in flux, Green still…

The Unlikely Return of Goth Promoter Joshywa Schrader

Concert promoter and DJ Joshywa Schrader was one of the mainstays of the Denver and Boulder goth scene in the 1990s and 2000s, though he hasn’t organized any shows for the past four years. But when Schrader was given the opportunity recently to book a show with Australian band Angelspit…

Roddy Bottum of Faith No More: “Bigotry Is Chickenshit.”

Tonight — September 8 — legendary experimental rock band Faith No More brings the weird and the wonderful to Red Rocks with opener Gogol Bordello. FNM started in 1981, shortly after high-school friends Roddy Bottum and Billy Gould moved to San Francisco, where Bottum attended San Francisco State University as…

Detour Aims to Send Colorado Bands on More Meaningful Tours

Over the next three weeks, the Flobots will visit fifteen towns across Colorado, playing everything from a fundraiser to a street party, hosting workshops at museums and having a powwow and song-sharing session with the Ute tribe. The tour is the first run of a pilot program from state agencies…

Colleen Green’s I Want to Grow Up Is Punk for an Adult World

Los Angeles-based songwriter Colleen Green performs at Dryer Plug Studios this Sunday, September 6, with Future Single Mom, Safe Boating is No Accident and Male Blonding. An East Coast native, Green moved to Oakland in 2008 and became part of the garage punk world in the Bay Area as a…

Wale Will Host This Year’s White Party

Denver’s infamous White Party, which gets its name from the fashion rule about wearing white after Labor Day, celebrates its 13th anniversary this year with a star-studded line-up. This year’s White Party, sponsored by 3Deep Productions and Ciroc, will take place as usual at Club Beta, on September 6, the…

Why the JAS Labor Day Experience Isn’t Like Other Music Festivals

Jazz Aspen Snowmass: Labor Day Experience celebrates its 25th year this weekend. The music event, organized by the non-profit of the same name, takes place in Snowmass Village. As the event has evolved and streamlined over the years, the Labor Day Experience features two main acts each night, with a…

Sunnyside Music Festival Returns to Chaffee Park

The Sunnyside Music Festival — one of only a few located in a park within Denver’s city limits — returns to Chaffee Park at 44th and Tejon Streets on Saturday, September 12. The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and features seven local artists, including standout funk act…

Rafael Reyes of Prayers on Finding a Positive Outlet in Music

San Diego-based electronic band Prayers performed at Riot Fest on Friday, August 28, and proved to be one of the most electrifying acts of the entire weekend. When Rafael Reyes and Dave Parley took the stage, there was a relatively sizable crowd assembled in front of the Radicals Stage setup…

Little Fyodor and Babushka Are Experimental-Music Legends

“I’ve had people tell me my music is too silly, and other people have said I’m a terminal bummer,” says the musician known as Little Fyodor. “To me it’s a mixture of both. Oscar Wilde once said, ‘Give a man a mask, and he’ll tell you the truth.’ I think…

Meet GZA’s Twelve-Year-Old Riot Fest Hype Man

The sun was beating down on the Riot Fest stage and GZA looked sweaty. Joined only by his DJ, the Wu-Tang rapper was just a couple of songs into his Saturday afternoon set. Between the dearth of onstage bodies and the sweltering heat, he clearly needed some help keeping up…

How Local Bands and Breweries Are Joining Forces

“This beer is for chugging or chucking,” shouts In The Whale frontman Nate Valdez, right after a shiny, labeless can is thrown past his head. The punk rock duo is on stage at Black Shirt Brewery. It’s the Saturday night release party for the band’s beer, Whales Suck, and fans…