Crash

Essentially Crash’s swan song, Live — recorded at Herman’s Hideaway on St. Patrick’s Day 2013 — captures the raw, crunchy power of the band better than any studio album ever could. And that undoubtedly has to do with the fact that Crash was always best when allowed to follow its…

Guitar Wolf at Marquis Theater, 10/6/13

GUITAR WOLF @ MARQUIS THEATER | 10/06/13 After Bass Wolf more or less stumbled into place and Drum Wolf sat down behind the kit, Guitar Wolf himself strode on stage and smashed down any unnecessary walls between punk, garage rock, noise rock, R&B, the blues, soul and rockabilly song after…

Lotus at Red Rocks, 10/4/13

LOTUS @ RED ROCKS | 10/4/13 Despite predictions of snow all week, the weather stayed calm but frigid at Red Rocks as Lotus performed its show, which had been rescheduled due to the flooding a couple weeks ago. Even though it was cold, all quickly warmed up dancing to the…

The Eagles at the Pepsi Center, 10/5/13

EAGLES @ PEPSI CENTER | 10/5/13 The Eagles’ current tour is titled “The History of the Eagles,” and this performance at the Pepsi Center did a great job of living up to that title with side lessons about Linda Ronstadt’s old touring band, the country-rock stylings of Poco in the…

The best concerts to see in Denver this week

WEDS | FRANK TURNER at OGDEN THEATRE | 10/9/13 Before striking out on his own, Frank Turner spent some time in London’s Million Dead, one of the better post-hardcore bands of the early 2000s. Rather than singing with nuance, as he does now, Turner screamed and yelled in that band,…

The best concerts to see in Denver this weekend

FRI | LOTUS at RED ROCKS | 10/4/13 The jazzy electronic quintet Lotus, known for its precisely timed improvisations during live shows, is celebrating its fourteenth year as a group. From incorporating video-game music to performing David Bowie tribute shows and playing Black Sabbath covers, Lotus has figured out how…

The best EDM in Denver this weekend

FRI | MOSCA at NORAD | 10/4/13 Many DJs who start off on the drum-and-bass/jungle end of things tend to stay toward the bass-oriented end of spectrum. But while Mosca still incorporates a hefty amount of dub/dancehall/reggae into his sets, he’s primarily known for his underground house and techno sets,…

From Phish to Floyd, the ten best light shows

For many bands, the light show is almost as integral to the live act as the music, so much so, in fact, that lighting directors are often heralded as an additional member of the group. These illumination wizards have the most open and creative space to work in, and as…

Mr. T or Ice-T: Who said it?

Government shut down got you down? There, there, friend. Rest easy. Forget about the Tea Party upheaval for a minute. There’s more pressing T’s to cross right now, like seeing if you can figure out which “T” said what from the quotes below. Now this quiz isn’t as random as…

Sister Crayon prefers to color in darker shades

Sister Crayon got its start in Sacramento, California, in 2010 when Terra Lopez and Dani Fernandez met and bonded over ’90s-era hip-hop. The pair teamed up with various bandmates in the past few years and produced music that sounded like the perfect fusion of soul and trip hop — a…

Exit 2 has “Friends in Low Places”

Like any other town, Denver has its share of cover bands, and those bands often tend to get overlooked, because, well, they’re playing somebody else’s music. Thus, our latest feature, Cover Band of the Week (or, perhaps more accurately, every few weeks, because let’s be honest: There’s a finite number…

Today is the first day of the rest of Justin Furstenfeld’s life

Justin Furstenfeld, the frontman for Texas rockers Blue October, has turned a corner, both musically and in his personal life. His band’s new album, Sway, is a far cry from 2011’s angst-ridden Any Man in America, which was written while the 37-year-old singer was going through a divorce and a…

Saskatoon

The debut album from Saskatoon, which features Paul DeHaven (Paper Bird, Eye and the Arrow) and Jess Webb, has an almost utilitarian quality — and that’s not a bad thing. The tranquil sentimentality and subtle psychedelia of these stretched-out instrumentals would be a nice accompaniment to a languid yoga session…

Space in Time

There’s a bit of stylistic time travel happening on Rock and Roll, Space in Time’s newest release. The keyboards and guitar, for instance, play off one another in a clear nod to the likes of Captain Beyond and Uriah Heep. But instead of merely mining the usual classic-hard-rock territory, these…