Gorinto Helped Unify the Denver Experimental Music Scene

When Cory Elbin started Gorinto in April 2010 at The Mercury Café, it was already an extension of his life as a cook at the Denver institution. He had also played in various experimental bands prior to that time and wanted to have an event that would incorporate the worlds…

Voivod Brought its Prog-Rock-Inspired Metal to Denver

Voivod is set to perform on Wednesday, February 25th at Summit Music Hall sharing the bill with Napalm Death, Exhumed, Phobia, Iron Reagan, Black Crown Initiate and Vimana for the Through Space and Grind Tour. Inspired in part by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, punk, 70s prog and…

Pitbull and His Pelvis Outshine Enrique Iglesias in Denver

It makes no sense to me that I love Pitbull so much — he’s this lizard-like pop star, a dude who, over the last decade, has made a name for himself by throwing gnarly verses about not-very-consensual-sounding sex acts with women into the middle of mindless, often bland club-bangers. Yet…

A Cancer Diagnosis Convinced Amy Kress to Share Her Music

Amy Kress played music secretly for years. But when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she decided it was time to share what she’d written. It was a nerve-wrecking for her to tell people about her music, let alone perform in front of others. Many of her friends didn’t even…

Meet the Couple Who Got Married Onstage at the Borgore Show

Last week, Chris Banks, a.k.a. Jackal, and Amelia Coen got married at a Borgore concert, and it was totally legal and totally planned. Banks and Coen have been together for four years, and they’ve been ready to get married for some time, but they needed one more thing before they…

Drinking the Worst Beer We Could Find With Red Fang

The members of Portland’s thunderous, riff-happy Red Fang don’t necessarily regret documenting their unquenchable thirst for really cheap beer in a series of music videos. They certainly weren’t subtle about it. In the video for “Prehistoric Dog,” for example, the band builds armor out of discarded Miller High Life and…

How Denver Almost Lost One of Its Best Songwriters in Kat Ellinger

Kathyryn Ellinger wrote the Sleepers’ excellent new album, Drive, following the most harrowing decade of her life. On it, she appears to have reached the full potential of her considerable songwriting range. Ellinger, who goes by Kat, has played piano since she was a kid and has been a part…

Highlights From the Late, Great Old Curtis Street Bar (Part Two)

Old Curtis St. Bar has given way to The Curtis Club. Before shutting its doors in 2012, Old Curtis St. Bar was a host to an eclectic schedule of shows starting around 2003, when Kosta Razatos brought live music regularly into the long-running family business. An anecdote that serves as…

How Denver’s Caramel Carmela Is Finding a National Fan Base

Sometimes it seems like it’s all about connections. After the members of Caramel Carmela linked up in 2009 and began playing together, a network of old friends proved valuable in helping the band get better gigs. “We played a bunch of our first shows with Saige, and I had gone…