Cheyenne, Wyoming, isn’t the most ideal place to grow up as a punk — “It was an uphill battle,” says Mark Masters, who eventually moved south and with three friends formed Negative Degree, part of a new wave of hardcore bands in Denver. Masters and fellow record nerd Johnny Mather…
Jeroen Snik, better known as Icicle, is based out of London these days, but he began his musical career in Holland. He started playing piano when he was eight, then quickly moved on to a drum kit and eventually a MIDI setup for beatmaking. When Snik was fifteen, a local…
On Saturday night, the Meadowlark was once again invaded by Neon Knights, the monthly dance romper put together by DJ Shannon Kelly. The crowd in the basement venue morphed throughout the night from a snug-fitting sweat-fest of tightly packed, jittering bodies to a reasonably thinned-out space, giving room for those…
British dubstep producer Flux Pavilion (aka Joshua Steele), one of the founders of Circus Records, and his cohort Doctor P headline the Global Dub Festival at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Friday, May 18. Canadian dubstep producers Datsik and Downlink, and the electro-house duo DirtyLoud are also on the bill. General…
Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, Amos Lee, Randy Newman and Kasey Chambers are just a few of the artists who are part of the preliminary line-up of the 22nd Annual Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, which runs from Friday, August 17 to Sunday, August 19 at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons…
The Lady Wu-Tang, a group of Denver-area female MCs who formed to put on tribute shows to the Wu-Tang Clan, played its one-year anniversary show on Saturday night at City Hall. Photos from the show are below…
Anyone who didn’t snag tickets for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers show on April 19 at the 1STBANK Center will get another chance as AEG just announced a second show on Wednesday, April 18. Tickets ($49.50-$99.50) go on sale this Saturday, February 4 at 10 a.m. through TicketHorse. Regina Spektor…
Miranda Lambert, two-time Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year, will be at the 1STBANK Center on Saturday, March 17 in support of her latest effort, Four the Record, which was released last November. Chris Young and Jerrod Niemann will both open the show. Tickets, which start at $38.75,…
DESCENDENTS @ FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 1/28/12The Descendents were built with the inability to disappoint — the seminal proprietors of pop punk brought a tried-and-true energy to the Fillmore Auditorium last night, for a appropriately short, two-encore set. Even if the massive venue was far from capacity, the multi-generational blanket of…
Oh, now, this is going to be just awesome! Girl Wreck is presenting two nights with Flipper. Although a legendary punk band in its own right, many remember the Bay-area outfit best for being immortalized by Kurt Cobain on an episode of MTV’s Unplugged, when the late Nirvana frontman wore…
THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT @ OGDEN THEATRE | 1/28/12 Just in case anyone forgot how long the Reverend Horton Heat has been around, he reminded everyone during the first 45 minutes of his show the Ogden Theatre Saturday night by playing a song from each of his albums in chronological…
RJD2 @ BLUEBIRD THEAER | 1/27/12Is it just us, or does RJD2 look more like R2D2 every time we see him? Last night, when he took to the small, technology-overwhelmed stage of the Bluebird, the DJ/producer was barely recognizable behind a Daft Punk-style robot mask and the sound effects box…
ICELANTIC’S WINTER ON THE ROCKS @ RED ROCKS | 1/27/12 Under a star-speckled sky and with freezing temperatures, Atmosphere delivered a greatest hits compilation at Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the inaugural Icelantic’s Winter on the Rocks. Nostalgia aside, when he greeted everyone at the venue and opened into “God Loves…
GHOST @ MARQUIS THEATER | 1/27/12Even before Ghost took stage, people started chanting for the band, which was interesting considering this is the outfit’s first big tour. But that enthusiasm was rewarded when the strains of “Masked Ball” by Jocelyn Pook came over the P.A., with its reversed Romanian words…
So with all the hip-hop, punk rock and scary metal happenings this weekend, you hair metal maniacs probably feel a bit left out that we haven’t mentioned a word about Vince Neil playing at the Grizzly Rose tonight. Well, rest easy. We didn’t forget about you. We’ve been busy crafting…
If it’s going down in the streets, we’ve got you covered party style. Everything from weekly reggae parties, queer-centric open mike nights, an all female Wu-tang cover band and more. This week has already been a doozy, let us help you send it on home with something from our guide…
Update (2/7/12): Isaac Slade and Joe King give a track-by-track breakdown of Scars & Stories, the Fray’s new album. On the eve of releasing their third full-length album, Scars and Stories and almost exactly a year after playing at Invesco with U2, the Fray has announced plans to return to…
STEVE AOKI @ FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 1/26/12 Before Steve Aoki took the stage last night, the crowd seemed to be getting a little restless. Luckily, dude came to party. Right off the bat, he came out and ran around the stage like a mad man pouring cranberry and orange juice…
With SIA happening in Denver all this week, there’s been no shortage of shows this week. As you know, the Backbeat crew goes hard in the streets. Last night, we caught bits of Dilated Peoples, Twista, DJ Vajra and the Foodchain at Snowdown 2012, Brother Ali at the Ogden with…
Are you ready? This is a weekend to remember. Tonight for the first time ever, the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre will add to its renown by hosting the first ever wintertime concert with Icelantic’s Winter on the Rocks with Atmosphere, Common, Grieves and Budo and Get Cryphy. And that’s just…
There are plenty of songs about beer, but there aren’t many songs about good beer. So when Gene Davis of Weird Turn Prose and the Que Pastas moved to Texas, he decided to pen one about one of his favorite Colorado beers — one that he has trouble finding in…
This weekend’s Dance Card is stacked once again. As always, if you feel like dancing, there’s no shortage of places for you to get your groove on: DJ Craze and Kraddy return to the area for all you bass-lovers, and Sebastian Ingrosso, one-third of the legendary Swedish House Mafia, comprise…
