Critic's Notebook

In a post announcing the closing of Quixote’s True Blue at the end of October, owner Jay Bianchi described the venue “as sort of a refuge for Deadheads…” It’s a sad day for the loners of Shakedown Street. But what was once a refuge for Deadheads will now be the refuge for bassheads: Nicole Cacciavillano and her Sub.mission Dubstep brand have purchased the venue. Starting on Tuesday, November 1, the iconic 13th Street venue will be called the Black Box, a venue devoted to Sub.mission’s aim of moving people through sound, not hype.

On Friday night, Wu-Tang Clan rappers Ghostface Killah and Raekwon headlined the Budweiser Fear Fest pop-up Halloween party. Ghostface, however, kept spreading the Halloween cheer after the show had ended. He was riding in a car with Jonny Shuman aka Jonny Denver, the talent buyer who had booked the show with Danny Sax, when the artist asked Shuman to pull over. “It was spur of the moment when he saw some guys sleeping on the street when we were coming down Arapahoe approaching 18th Street,” Shuman says. “He told me to pull over and started handing out twenty-dollar bills.”

Post-punk since the ’90s has been largely shaped by the music of two bands: Joy Division and Gang of Four. The furious energy, disciplined songwriting and angular guitar work of Gang of Four are clear and direct influences on the likes of the Faint, the Rapture and every band that…

Chance the Rapper took the opportunity to shoot a video for the song “How Great” on September 20 while passing through Denver as part of his ongoing tour. The hip-hop star used a choir of local singers, and the video was shot using nine iPhones. One of the singers involved…

Editor’s note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

Cold Crush will reopen at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, October 20. As Westword reported, the RiNo music venue and restaurant was shut down last week, labelled as a public nuisance for the unlawful discharge of a firearm. The incident referenced was a shooting on the morning of Monday, October 10,…

Editor’s note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

Hundreds of people turned out for a rally on Monday, October 17, to show support for Cold Crush, the music venue and restaurant which was the site of a fatal shooting last week. The hip-hop-focused club was shut down on Wednesday, October 12, cited as a public nuisance for the…

Khemmis vocalist and guitarist Phil Pendergast remembers the moment he realized his new band might actually amount to something. The Denver quartet was in the process of recording its debut album — 2015’s Absolution — and Pendergast and bassist Dan Beiers took a quick break for some food. “We were…

Last Sunday night, local rapper BossMan Goodie, AKA 29-year-old Tyrone Adair Jr. of Aurora, was killed in a shooting outside the hip-hop venue and nightclub Cold Crush at 2700 Larimer Street. The nightclub, which opened in May 2013 and was named Westword’s Best New Bar that year, has now been…

Starting at the age of fourteen, pianist Larry Wegner would sometimes play Glenn Miller hits with the Bob Murphy band at dances at American Legion and VFW halls in Yuma, near the eastern border or Colorado. He’d get home around 5 a.m., get some sleep and then play organ at…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz.Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

What a long, strange trip it’s been, indeed.  Quixote’s True Blue will close at the end of this month, according to a Facebook announcement that owner Jay Bianchi posted yesterday. The venue, which Bianchi writes, began twenty years ago “as a sort of refuge for Deadheads who needed a place to…

Beer and music — two human necessities made exponentially more enjoyable when paired together. We certainly don’t need an excuse to extol the virtues of booze and beats, but this weekend’s Great American Beer Festival is shining a spotlight on brewers across the country, we want to raise a toast…

Denver Taiko is celebrating its fortieth anniversary with a pair of concerts at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Denver campus. The title of the concert is Okage sama de, which translates to “Because of you.” The nonprofit organization’s membership is composed largely of Americans…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartooniest Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

A few weeks ago, we published a list of “The Ten Finest Tribute Bands in Colorado,” and this is a sequel of sorts. Every city needs its cover bands, those groups that play out-of-the-way bars on a Thursday night, or weddings and corporate events, giving the audience exactly what they want…

This weekend, Drake (aka the Canadian Crooner, the Wonder From Up Yonder, the Rihanna Whisperer) is taking over the Pepsi Center, and what better way to honor his arrival than by addressing the age-old question: Is Drake emo? Emo, of course, is a label ascribed to pop-punk bands who wax…

On September 13, Colorado singer-songwriter Silent Bear found himself singing a new song to a group of Dakota Pipeline protesters in front of the Boulder County Courthouse. “I ain’t gonna work on Kelcy’s pipeline no more,” the song begins. “They’re protectors of the water, they’re protectors of the land, they’re…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

Clarinetist Ben Goldberg, a Denver native who has been a longtime Bay Area resident, has worked in the avant-garde world heavies like John Zorn, Nels Cline and Myra Melford. He also formed the New Klezmer Trio in 1992, was part of the acoustic chamber group Tin Hat and has led…

Wheelchair Sports Camp is finally releasing its debut full-length album No Big Deal. The the album is the band’s first may come as a surprise, since WSC has long been one of the most highly regarded acts in Denver. Until now, the group’s releases have been self-recorded EPs. Wheelchair’s founder and…