Music

This morning around 9 a.m., the tour bus of Nederland-based band Elephant Revival caught fire in Hickory, North Carolina. According to 9news.com, firefighters responded to a call and found smoke coming from the bus, with an initial report that people were still on board. All five passengers got off the…

While Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Country Jam and Sonic Bloom continue through the weekend, Denver PrideFest is at Civic Center Park on Saturday and Sunday with music headliner CeCe Penniston. Also on tap this weekend are Gramatik is Red Rocks tonight , Gordon Lightfoot is at the Paramount Theatre tonight, Esme Patterson…

At this year’s Westword Music Showcase, some of Denver’s most prominent local acts will be taking the stage at Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge, located at 930 Lincoln Street. The eighteen-year-old club has hosted such groundbreaking jazz artists as Esperanza Spalding and Joe Lovano, earning it a reputation as the prime…

About a year after Split Enz formed in 1972, the band was set to tour its native New Zealand. Tim Finn, who co-fronted the band at the time with Phil Judd, asked his fifteen-year-old brother, Neil, to be the supporting act on the tour. Since Neil was playing mostly covers at…

Influential science fiction and horror filmmaker John Carpenter is currently on his first national tour as a musician. However, the Denver tour stop, scheduled for Tuesday, June 21, has been canceled. Refunds available at point of purchase. Carpenter was to perform selections from his two albums, 2015’s Lost Themes and this…

You’re heading to Las Vegas with more than 100,000 of your closest friends for the greatest EDM show on earth, Electric Daisy Carnival. We hope you packed sunscreen and water. We already know you don’t plan on wearing much — an EDC tradition. Temperatures are expected to soar this weekend, according…

Rossonian occupies a now-unusual musical space that would have been called alternative rock in the early ’90s. A decade ago its sound would have been lumped in with the term indie rock. But the Ross’ likes to refer to its particular brand of pop-and-rock as “electro-sensual rock and roll.” On…

The 2016 Westword Music Showcase is coming up fast, on Saturday, June 25! The one-day festival features national headliners on two main stages, as well as nearly 100 local bands on a dozen stages in Denver’s Golden Triangle. The local performers at the Showcase are drawn from thus year’s nominees…

Courtney Barnett, who dropped out of Project Pabst last month to be the musical guest on the season finale of Saturday Night Live , will be at the Ogden Theatre on Tuesday, November 8. Tickets ($27.50/$40) go on sale on Friday, June 17 at 10 a.m. Grammy-nominated pop star Charlie…

For the last 22 years the Westword Music Showcase has brought national and local music acts together during the summer. This year’s Showcase is on Saturday, June 25.  Coordinating over a hundred performances is tricky and takes months of planning. Ever wonder how we do it?  Westword’s music editor Katie Moulton and Showcase…

Editor’s Note: In advance of Bob Dylan’s concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre this Sunday, June 19, we are taking an in-depth look back at his short but likely formative time in Denver as a young unknown folk singer in the summer of 1960. By Timothy Fritz In the early summer…

The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver is continuing its B­-Side Music Thursdays summer concert series on the MCA rooftop for the 2016 season. Aiming to present “the best up and coming Colorado bands and side projects of well known Denver bands and musicians,” the current schedule makes good on that…

On May 26 at Denver’s Ogden Theatre, a relatively little-known band called Mudcrutch launched its first-ever full-length tour. Mudcrutch, in addition to holding the title of Worst Band Name Ever, has the distinction of being Tom Petty’s first band. This is the crew that honed its chops at Gainesville topless…

What makes a joke funny or a song sound good is subjective; in that respect, comedy and music are aligned. But what happens when comedians and musicians come together on the same bill to perform on the same stage? “A lot of times when it does happen, it doesn’t go…

The Hi-Dive Hullabaloo will return this weekend for two days of music and festivities at the South Broadway venue. The small festival began in 2010 with the simple intention of bringing together bands made up of friends who held like-minded aesthetics but rarely got to play the same bill. Tom…

Nearby lightning and waves of torrential rain pummeled downtown Louisville, on Sunday, June 12, but the storm seemed to disappear right before the show started in the basement of Dona Laurita Gallery known as Down Space. Combining the qualities of a house show and a DIY space (off-the-cuff vibe, relatively…

Like most things that occur for the band, dance-noise duo Church Fire chalks up the connection made to its new record label, Black Box Tapes,  to chance. “It was like everything that happens to us — luck and serendipity and unearned privilege,” says vocalist Shannon Webber. “Hard work is part…

At last year’s Honky Tonk Hodgepodge at Cold Beer New Mexico (aka Colfax Tavern), outside of Cimmaron, New Mexico, a local woman took offense to Bib Tucker and the Liars Club’s attire. That day, the band, which includes singer/guitarist Justin Horrigan, bassist Eric Johnston (of the Outfit), guitarist/pedal steel Tyler…

Colorado will host dozens of music festivals throughout the state over the next four months or so, many tailored to particular genres, whether it be bluegrass, folk, country, EDM or rock. Others run the gamut of styles. We’ve pared it down to ten must-see festivals (listed below in alphabetical order)…

Steely Dan returns to Red Rocks with Steve Winwood opening tonight while DeVotchKa joins the Colorado Symphony again at the venue on Thursday. Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Caravan Palace and Ben Nichols of Lucero are also on tap this week. In festival season settles in, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Country…