The 10 best punk and DIY shows in Denver this March

Sat | Propagandhi at Summit Music Hall | 3/8/14 In an era where many punk bands form and release their first album less than a year after starting, Propagandhi’s development seems remarkably long. Formed in 1986, playing its first live shows in 1989, the band released its early demos a…

The 12 best EDM shows in Denver this March

THU-SUN | DENVER WINTER SHOWCASE @ BAR STANDARD & NORAD | 3/6 to 3/9 When Andy Roberts moved to Colorado a few years ago, he immediately recognized the scene here as something he wanted to be a part of, which ultimately birthed the idea for the Denver Winter Showcase. Now…

A shining hope for pop music: Hall & Oates at the 1STBANK Center

Hall & Oates @ 1STBANK Center | 3/3/14 With no opening act, Daryl Hall and John Oates took the stage with their six backing musicians. Parts of this band have been together for a long time, including sax player Charles DeChant and veteran studio and touring guitarist Paul Pesco. It…

Everything I need to know I learned from loving metal

Most people regard metal music as an anti-intellectual, chest-beating, noisy fit for cavemen. Despite this being 100 percent true, there are a few positive things that result from having an intense dedication toward one of the most juvenile forms of music out there. While listening to metal may still sentence…

The 12 best concerts in Denver this week: March 3 to March 7

Editor’s note: Hall & Oates are now going as Daryl Hall & John Oates, because apparently that’s the way you add gravitas to a catalogue that will turn your pants pastel and put shoulder pads in whatever shirt you’re wearing if you listen long enough. Here’s the thing: They needn’t…

Pentagram at Summit Music Hall, 2/28/14: Review and Photos

Pentagram @ Summit Music Hall |2/28/14 Pentagram took the stage with a spooky soundscape coming through the PA, Bobby Liebling looking like a puppet woken up from a nap and blinking. He was all but twitching to life, pulled along by invisible strings. But when Liebling took the mic, an…

What’s cooler than snow? Uh, Ice, of course!

If you let the fat cats over at Google dictate your taste in cinema, then you may have avoided the 1991 romantic classic Cool as Ice (starring Vanilla Ice) for the past two decades. Most Americans think this film is worthy of but one star, when in reality, Cool as…

The best EDM in Denver this weekend

FRI | ICHISAN at BAR STANDARD | 2/28/14 It’s not often that artists like Ichisan get a chance to play in this part of the world, so dance lovers in Denver should be stoked that he’s headed here. The Slovenian musician began his musical career on stringed instruments — specifically,…

The best concerts in Denver this weekend

FRI | PENTAGRAM at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 2/28/14 If you’ve seen Last Days Here, you’re familiar with the frustrating tale of Pentagram. Formed in Virginia in the early ’70s, the pioneering psychedelic metal band should have, by all accounts, realized massive worldwide fame. Instead, success evaded the outfit, thanks…

What we’re all listening to right now

Music is life — or at least it is for us. When we’re not writing about it, we’re thinking about it, talking about it or listening to it. These are the things that were in heavy rotation for us this week. What are you listening to? What should we be…

Best jazz shows in Denver in March

FRI & SAT | CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE TRIO at DAZZLE | 3/7-3/8 One of the best bassists in jazz today, 41-year-old Christian McBride has been playing professionally for more than half of his life. He got an early start as a teenager with Bobby Watsons’s group and then went on to…

Ronnie Weberg sees no end to Unlimited Gravity

I feel like simplicity is being strived for in the mainstream,” says Ronnie Weberg, “but we are seeing a progression into more intricate and intelligent music.” Weberg, who makes music under the name Unlimited Gravity, got his start producing hip-hop beats in high school. A shared interest in bass-driven music…

Bianca Mikahn

Surprisingly, spoken word is not often successfully combined with rap. On Nightdreams & Daymares, however, Bianca Mikahn does a flawless job of bridging the two. Pulling from deep wells of assonance, consonance and rhyme, Mikahn dances in the ebb and flow of Dile’s dreamy production, her free association finding and…

We’s Us

It’s clear that the members of We’s Us put a lot of care, attention and craft into their self-titled full-length. The evidence lies in the complex melodies, nuanced effects and layered sounds that mark each of the album’s fourteen tracks. A lengthy stretch of effects-laden guitar lines and augmented chords…