BAD LUCK CITY Kal Cahoone & the Dirty Pretty • Death Rides West 12.17.10 | Walnut Room Bad Luck City, Kal Cahoone and Death Rides West each have an affinity for varying degrees of darkness, which is evident both in all three act’s lyrics and music. So it made for…
MARK FARINA With Octopus Nebula • Falty DL • S.P.E.C.T.R.E. 12.16.10 | Gothic Theatre View Mark Farina at the Gothic slideshow Last night’s show at the Gothic Theatre signified Mark Farina’s third trip to the metro area in 2010, and the first weekend-night set of all three shows. Farina did…
CHAD PRICE With Lenny Lashley • Pete Stein 12.17.10 | 3 Kings Tavern Former punks and present cowpunks splayed open their hearts in the tradition of the great singer-songwriters last night at 3 Kings Tavern. Lenny Lashley, former Darkbuster frontman and current frontman of Lenny and the Piss Poor Boys,…
Juggalos celebrate just like the rest of us, only Insane Clown Posse Santa Clauses wield meat cleavers, just because, really. Backbeat received this holiday greeting from the folks at Pscyhopathic Records and we’re sharing it with you. This card could be a collector’s item one day. If you would like…
Peter Black never quits, thankfully. The DJ, producer, party promotor and all-around busy bee is working hard this winter through his creative house, Analog Space — which announced a partnership with Speaker Snacks, that will come to fruition in 2011. But before heading into the new year, Black has a…
It’s Friday and your mind may already be thinking about what to do tonight. To get you in the mood for unworking, you may dig this slideshow — 100 best nightlife photos of 2010 — don’t worry, it’s safe for work. Below are a few highlights…
Tonight, Re:Creation at the Gothic Theatre features San Francisco house DJ Mark Farina performing a Mushroom Jazz set, in the style of his vaunted downtempo mix series for Om Records, currently on its sixth permutation. A longtime Colorado favorite, both Farina and the series remain popular among connoisseurs of chilled-out,…
Aww yeah! Artopia 2011 is shaping up to be the party of spring. As if the bill weren’t already dope enough with Hood Internet and Signal Path, we’ve just confirmed another choice act. Fresh off a tour with Glitch Mob and Beats Antique, Prefuse 73 will be in the building…
SKRILLEX With Pillowfight 12.16.10 | Boulder Theatre Last night at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, Skrillex showed his fans exactly what creatures can lurk in the hard, dark reaches of dance music and broke the rules for a live DJ gig in surprisingly delightful ways…
Once the presents are opened, the food has been picked over and the fighting among relatives has subsided, Bar Curious will be there for you. On Christmas night, Buffalo Exchange has partnered with Beauty Bar to bring you Bar Curious, a queer-friendly dance party featuring veteran DJs Keoki and Jerry…
Though the sound of Wham’s “Last Christmas” may have you wishing it was 2011 already, there is hope. Tonight, Matt Morris — along with Jen Korte, John Common, Rob Drabkin and a handful of other smiling local faces — will be singing holiday songs at Casselman’s for the “Something in…
You may not have heard much about Selko, and there’s a good reason for that. With the exception of some occasional tweets and the placement of his ninja stickers around town, he’s kept a relatively low profile. Tomorrow night at Herman’s Hideaway (with Yo, Flaco!, the Dendrites, Gamerlife and Blazing…
Looks like Christmas has come early for John Kinsner. This afternoon, the Walnut Room’s former talent buyer, who moved to Los Angeles this past fall, accepted a position with AEG Live at its LA Live Campus as the new production manager for the Nokia Theatre…
Not a lot of holiday parties circle around events that only happen every 456 years, but tomorrow night at Meadowlark, Real is a Feeling is holding it down as your winter solstice pre-party headquarters. To honor the solstice — which is extra special because it also falls on the lunar…
Last night the first-ever Creep party at Beauty Bar — you may have read about it here on Backbeat — went down. Nightlife photographer Jonathan Shoup brings back these photos. See the full slideshow here: Creep at Beauty Bar…
Yet another great project featuring Suzi Bromfield, Girls Walk By is a guitar-pop band, yes, but in a Pixies kind of way. Three-part harmonies and surf guitar abound, but the darkness saturating the vocals and instrumentation is what gives the quartet an distinction beyond its psychadelic undertones…
In the world of rap and circumstance, there is room for pretty much everyone. Unreleased Tension, Jagwire’s latest, carves out the MC’s lane among the mediocre, if not the motivated. He raps over production that is more advanced than his flow, as is the case with “Shangri-La,” a track about…
Spoke In Wordz has completed work on the Get the Power comp he spoke about this past August. The platter — now titled Power of Wordz and slated for release on Friday, January 21 at Casselman’s — features a vibrant cast of characters from the local hip-hop scene, a veritable…
“Chillwave” is a buzzword used to describe a sound built on brezzy melodies with songs heavy on electronics. Even a short list of artists that have fallen under this umbrella, including bands like Small Black and Washed Out, reveals more diversity in approaches to songwriting than a genre title generally…
Arguably the best single night of the year for live music, New Year’s Eve can be an overwhelming thing to plan for. To help you narrow down your options, we’ve picked the ten best shows this year, plus a few extras we couldn’t ignore. Also, feel free to hype your…
The Winter Solstice is the holiday people celebrate when they don’t want to celebrate any of the major holidays. It was also a popular Viking tradition that included a number of badass-sounding celebrations like the Feast of the Dead and the lighting of Yule logs in honor of Thor…
Though Rob Halford still holds it down as the leader of Judas Priest, the enigmatic band leader has kept busy with several other music projects during his forty-plus years in music. With a vocal range that is unmatched, Halford has carried the crown as the living heavy-metal god through two…
