Hate it or love it, like a cockroach covered in leopard-print spandex, ’80s arena metal has crawled forth intact after surviving grunge, boy bands, ringtone rap and now Bieber. Last night, twenty-somethings who looked like they fell out of a time-traveling telephone booth from 1989 flocked to the Bluebird Theater…
Backbeat approved post-punk band Makeout Point broke up a couple months ago. A sad day for Denver music fans, but several of its members are brewing up another project: Bizarre Learning Center. So far it’s a tumblr and the promise of demos, but there’s plenty to start getting excited about…
This evening at the Fox Theatre, Ohio’s own trance-infused The Werks is throwing down its twisted, technical guitar-noodling sounds for a reasonable price, and it seemed like the perfect pairing for this most sacred of boozing holidays. The four-piece combines elements of funk, electronica, Afro-beat and even a little nod…
STEEL PANTHER with Drug Under 03.16.11 | Bluebird Theater See Steel Panther at the Bluebird slideshow Last night, Steel Panther and a few hundred of its closest friends in Denver, hopped in the Delorean with Doc and took the Bluebird Theater back to the future when spandex, hairspray and Van…
Wednesday March 16, 8 p.m. Kalyn here from Wheelchair Sports Camp writing about our very first trip to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas! Sitting here in the back of my van while the girlfriend drives us to Austin from the town of Denton, where we played two nights ago…
Psst! We just heard from a little birdy that So What! is having a reunion. What is SoWhat!, you ask? Only one of the most popular, longest-running, progressive, influential nights in town. Not to mention resilient. Let’s talk about resiliency. Think the Solution has thrived despite enduring its share of…
Immortal Dominion, the powerhouse metal quintet out of Fort Collins, has finished work on its eagerly awaited new full-length, Primortal. If the name of the album sounds familiar, it should. Primortal is the same name of the record we wrote about in April 2009. To be clear, though, this is…
File-sharing site LimeWire is currently at the frontlines of the battle over online media distribution. LimeWire already lost the suit brought against it by thirteen record companies; the site is boarded up; and now it’s negotiating damages. This is where things get interesting for the casual observer, because we’re getting…
What if, in a perfect world, the music genre you love the most was the only one in existence and lived on forever? Steel Panther imagines this to be true, and tonight the glammish four-piece brings a full-on heavy-metal throwback show to Denver. The best part? Steel Panther isn’t just…
Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark (due at the Bluebird Theater on Tuesday, March 22) is perhaps best known for its song “If You Leave,” featured in Pretty in Pink, the classic 1986 John Hughes movie. But the band first made waves in its native England with its first two albums,…
You know what was awesome about 1985? It marked the first year we ever saw a Garbage Pail Kids trading card, which helped spawn an era of disgusting children’s toys. From Madballs to Ren and Stimpy, kids in the ’80s and ’90s had plenty of gross stuff to choose from…
It’s a sad day for hip-hop. For anyone who was bumping gangsta rap in the early ’90s, the loss of Nathanial Hale, aka Nate Dogg, is profoundly sad. Largely considered the best hook executioner in the genre, the G-Funk crooner paved the way for artists like Trey Songz, Drake and…
Casselman’s Bar & Venue, a live-music venue in the Ballpark neighborhood that’s been open almost two years, is slated to reopen tomorrow, Wednesday, March 16, after getting slapped with a suspension notice for violating the Colorado liquor code. The spot, which has been closed since Saturday, will reopen just in…
A bunch of old white dudes and Darlene Love got trophies yesterday at a fancy hotel in New York. We’re referring, of course, to the inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an institution that exists to reaffirm our canonical certainties. This year’s class: Love, Tom Waits, Alice…
MIKE GORDON 03.14.11 | Ogden Theatre Last night, just a week after Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio took the same stage, bassist Mike Gordon brought the funk to the Ogden Theatre with a little help from Ian Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. Unlike Anastasio, Gordon doesn’t pepper his set list with Phish covers. Instead,…
It has been a long journey for Civil Twilight — from South Africa to Los Angeles to Nashville, the band has been towing its sweeping, piano-heavy rock compositions along for more than a decade. Even if the band’s moniker isn’t immediately familiar, its big sound, which has been featured on…
Last year the B.U.F.F. Brothers Group sold four of its bars, including the College Inn, Dirk’s, Gibby’s and Pifler’s, to the Little Pub Company. B.U.F.F. Brothers co-owner Rob Lanphier says the sale basically came down to money: Little Pub made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. The B.U.F.F. Brothers still…
Five years ago, the music made by Dr. Sunshine’s X-Ray Machine probably would have been called “post-rock,” mainly because it comprises ethereal introductions and gradual builds to a swirling intensity in sound. Even though the band has songs with titles like “Particles” and “Postcards From the Atomic Lighthouse” and there…
Last year’s The Big To-Do was Drive-By Truckers’ most hard-rocking album since 2001’s Southern Rock Opera. On To-Do, the Athens, Georgia, group told tales of four-day drinking binges, courtroom miseries and bar-room brawls. The Truckers, who formed way back in 1996, have always been considered by many to be the…
In recent years, Sic Alps has been tapped as an opening act on tours with Yo La Tengo, Pavement and Sonic Youth. But chances are if you saw these guys in Denver, it was up close and personal at a DIY space. The group’s ramshackle, lo-fi sound is akin to…
This isn’t exactly Mr. Van Driessen’s New Age Drum Circle for Men out in the woods. Oh, sure, the members of Foot Village perform in a big circle and they’re all playing drums, but there’s none of that namby-pamby, faux-civil keep-things-down-so-as-not-to-disturb-the-neighbors thing going on. Foot Village is more a raw,…
Years before Lady Gaga helped champion ambiguously oriented — and blatant — sexuality, Scissor Sisters went there without apology. Musically, the act wears its influences proudly, from disco and rock to New Orleans piano and even, once, bluegrass. The Sisters are too tricky to be straight pop, too glammy to…
