Concerts

Riff Raff mysteriously postponed a Denver show earlier this year. It’s back, just in time for a Texas-esque week of heat and thunderstorms here in Colorado. The Houston native should feel right at home. He does in most places. It’s a good week for other bands who get people angry…

The house show used to be something you could count on in Denver with some regularity. But in the last two or three years, such things have dwindled, becoming virtually nonexistent. What makes going to these kinds of shows special in a way that can’t be duplicated at a venue…

“I’m a man, I can take it,” Morrissey said on Saturday after being knocked to the ground by an overzealous fan during his show at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Looking a bit more grey than his last appearance in Denver seven years ago, Morrissey was genial if a bit…

Red Rocks’ season is in full swing, with Global Dub Festival tonight and country star Brantley Gilbert on Sunday. In between, you can catch Will Hoge at Grizzly Rose, Chris Robinson Brotherhood at Cervantes’ and, of course, the dude who wrote “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” He’s playing the Boulder Theater…

As a clumsy and shy teenager, a pre-Smiths Morrissey began his first of many pilgrimages to the U.S. in 1976, visiting his sister in New York. “I manage three more trips to America before 1980,” Morrissey said in his recent memoir, Autobiography. “But by now Mary has moved to the…

When Colorado Symphony Orchestra announced their Classically Cannabis concerts, a series of bring-your-own-weed performances, it sounded like a great merging of the city’s classical music culture and its rising cannabis culture. But the City of Denver felt the shows violated the ban on “public” consumption of marijuana stipulated by Amendment…

Update, 5/16: We’ve added a couple dozen bands to the lineup, bringing the running total to 121 Colorado bands in addition to the five touring ones — the full list as of today is below! The Westword Music Showcase is less than two months away. On June 21, 130-ish Colorado…

In a world where you can buy a Dead Kennedys T-shirt at Urban Outfitters, the “punk” label has lost some of its ability to describe anything at all. We spent the past couple of months going to the shows that still embody the genre’s original spirit, the ones that now…

Last week, we held the first of three Westword Music Showcase social hours. Times were had. I’ve spent the week listening to new music I discovered there, and I hope to find a bunch more at round two, which we’ll hold tonight. You’re welcome to join us from 5 p.m…

After 28 years at 7699 West 88th Avenue, Hoffbrau Colorado moved to a new 15,000 square-foot space at 9110 Wadsworth Parkway. It’s about twice as big as the old location and features an expanded stage and more ambitious concert calendar. The grand opening is tonight, May 15 with live music…

For the past 25 years, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Englewood has been owned by the Museum of Outdoor Arts and operated under a single lease, most recently controlled by Live Nation. Last year, that lease expired, and AEG Live signed on to operate the venue for the next fifteen years…

Jordan Leone just turned nineteen, but she’s already a veteran of the behind-the-scenes world of music. She was so adept as an intern for a record label in Australia that they offered her a job, but she returned to Denver to pursue a degree and a burgeoning career as DJ…

Now rolling out the sixth edition of its local music and comedy compilation, ZetaKaye House’s This Ain’t No Cowtown is more than just a labor of love — it’s like a second job. Sorting through hundreds of submissions for the 2014 edition of the compilation, ZetaKaye House’s John Baxter says…

Riot Fest has just announced its 2014 lineup, and it features Slayer, The Cure, Wu Tang Clan, Die Antwoord and more. The festival will make its second appearance in Denver (well, technically Byers, where the host May Farms is located) from September 19 to 21. A limited number of early…

As the mercury drops and a light drizzle starts to fall at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the emcee of the Spark Run can’t stop reminding us of how much fun we’re about to have. “This is not your ordinary night!” he shouts from the top of the scaffolding that overlooks…

These days, shows are pretty easy to find out about if you want to and relatively easy to get to. There is rarely true mystique surrounding a concert anymore. But over the weekend, Thug Entrancer played a show at a secret location, and it felt like something from the ’90s,…

The throngs of metal-heads at Slayer’s sold-out Fillmore appearance may have been more excited for the show than Slayer’s own front man Tom Araya. It was Slayer’s first Denver stop since the death of guitarist Jeff Hanneman and the well-publicized split with drummer Dave Lombardo, both in the last year…

It’s close to midnight on Friday night, and the crowd at the Bluebird is enraptured by the singer on stage. There’s something of Buddy Holly in him, and he’s tearing through a cover of “Valerie” that would make Amy Winehouse proud. The singer is Brent Cowles, here for the CD-release…

Planet Bluegrass is a place that holds special significance, not just to fans — who line up days ahead of time for the ranch’s annual RockyGrass festival — but to the artists who play there. Partly that’s because of its setting: Tucked beside a cliff wall and the St. Vrain…

You know gamelan music?” asks Michael Stein. “The instruments are tuned slightly differently, so that’s how they get it to shimmer. They play slightly out of time, so it has an organic delay to it. [Canadian musician] Mac DeMarco’s guitar is shitty and the neck’s really loose, so when he…

Pan Astral has been on the rise in the Denver music scene, partly thanks to their commitment to incorporating visual art with their musical talents. They have found the RiNo District to be the perfect home base for that combination. “The RiNo District is blowing up for sure, and the…