A fan of both Riot Fest and Denver punk band SPELLS created a petition this week to get his favorite local band to play his favorite punk-themed music festival. Bradley Ambrose, an apprentice at Boulder design studio AngryBovine, made it his personal project of the year to get SPELLS to…
“Before this, we were renting a glorified storage unit in Globeville with no heat, no bathroom and no running water,” says artist and musician Zach Reini. “After a winter there, we were done.” As he lounges on a couch in the sun-drenched front room of his multi-use venue Leisure, Reini…
The last time Steely Dan played in Colorado, in 2013, a flash flood struck parts of the Denver metropolitan area and it rained like mad on and off. Much of the crowd bailed on the show and the relatively small group remaining moved forward as it could to, as someone…
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, bringing his charisma and remarkable broad shoulders to the summer blockbuster circuit. Schwarzenegger’s impact as a constant inspiration has fallen largely under the radar. Thus, we are happy to present Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Finest Musical Moments. 5. Power Station – “We Fight For Love” (1985) If your…
This week’s best concerts include a handful of enduring musical legends, including Brian Wilson, Neil Young, Steely Dan and Elvis Costello. Elsewhere: Gin Blossoms will play in Louisville, Blitzen Trapper returns to town and more. The complete list of our picks is below. MONDAY, JULY 6 Steely Dan and Elvis…
Steely Dan and Elvis Costello & the Imposters will perform together tonight at Red Rocks. Perhaps today, the pair share a status as FM radio rock legends from another era, making them reasonable playlist companions. But they still seem to occupy very different musical worlds. Steely Dan has come to…
Rubedo means the fourth and final stage of alchemy. It signals alchemical success, creation of the philosopher’s stone or gold or both, even. As a band name, it’s a pretty bold one. And while Denver group Rubedo did not create literal gold with notes and melodies on stage at the…
In Bill Pohlad’s new film, Love & Mercy, the director explores two different eras of Brian Wilson. One is the mid-’60s Wilson (portrayed by Paul Dano), who had stopped touring with the Beach Boys to work on songs that would eventually end up on Pet Sounds. The other is the…
Winning a Best New Artist Grammy is often the kiss of death for a group that aspires toward commercial success. But that was not the fate of the Zac Brown Band, which won the prestigious award in 2010. The group has only continued to raise its profile since then, not…
The Babysitters are playing their final show this Friday, July 3, at the Walnut Room, with …and the Black Feathers and Super Phoenixes. The latter is Babysitters’ singer and primary songwriter Greg Hill’s new band. Hill has a real gift for a good bad joke and deadpan-humor observations — all of…
It’s almost July 4, so we’ve rounded up the best places to party about it. Here are the best places in the Denver area for drinking beer, listening to music or both on this most American of weekends. Zac Brown Band at Coors Field Zac Brown Band (with hometown opener…
Tech N9ne brings his Special Effects Tour 2.0 with Black Pegasus and Slo Pain to the Fillmore Auditorium on Saturday, October 24. Tickets ($34.75-$40) go on sale on Friday, July 10 at 10 a.m. Singer-songwriter JD McPherson will be at the Fox Theater on Saturday, November 14 and at the Bluebird…
When the members of the punky rock-and-roll quartet Bud Bronson & the Good Timers walk into a room, their camaraderie — which conjures up classic American-youth ensemble flicks like Bad News Bears — is obvious. The genuine kinship among them is easy to see, whether the group is on stage…
DC and Hooks (Dylan Mamid and Zach Rapp-Rovan), the duo known as Zed’s Dead, first became friends because DC needed someone to paint a wall in his garage. “He had a garage that people would hang out in and listen to music, and he wanted his wall painted,” says Rapp-Rovan…
Nearly a decade after taking over the Marquis Theater, the folks at Soda Jerk Presents have upgraded the venue by remodeling it, installing new sound and lighting systems and expanding the bar. Mike Barsch, owner of Soda Jerk Presents and the Marquis, says a big portion of the wall that…
Instant Empire (scheduled to release a new album with a show this Thursday at the Marquis) played one of the first slots at the Westword Music Showcase last weekend. Most rock bands play at night, and most people experience music that they actively seek out after the sun has already…
Celebrity culture is a bit twisted, so Ed Sheeran is, unfortunately, more famous for being Taylor Swift’s best friend then he is for his impressive singing voice. If you Google him, there will be more videos of him stumbling out of a London club then of him using his looping…
According to organizers, some 45,000 people converged in Michigan this past weekend for the jam-bands-meets-ravers annual festival known as Electric Forest. The weather was perfect, the denizens were impossibly friendly, but the logistics and other quirks sometimes wrecked the vibe. The Worst Getting in Big festivals are often a logistical…
The Seattle-based rock band Chastity Belt made its second Denver appearance at Dryer Plug Studios over the weekend. (The first was in 2013, when the group played with Pony Time at Rhinoceropolis.) This time, at least half the band members discarded their shoes while performing. The way the they interacted…
