Ten Must-See Acts of FoCoMX 2016

This weekend, beginning Friday, April 22, the annual Fort Collins Music eXperiment, or FoCoMX, will take place across numerous venues in downtown Fort Collins. You can find out more information on the event and buy tickets at the FoCoMX website as well as scope the complete lineup. While there are a plethora of fine performers and artists playing the entire event, listed below are ten acts that alone easily make FoCoMx worth attending. The shows listed are all-ages unless otherwise indicated.

Friday, April 22

WhiteCatPink
5:30 p.m.
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, Dome Theater
David Jacoby is a staple of the Fort Collins and Denver experimental music scene. Performing in a full body suit that illustrates his project, Jacoby puts out music that is an underrated mix of glam rock and synth pop. WhiteCatPink is arguably the most fascinating and unusual act of the festival.

The Outfit
8:15 p.m.
Illegal Pete's
Denver's the Outfit is simply a great power-pop band. But the band's lyrics delve much deeper than you might expect from such high-energy, catchy music; the Outfit's performances have the kind of oomph you'd expect from a punk band.

Slow Caves
10:45 p.m.
Hodi's Half Note
Fort Collins-based “synth-punk” band Slow Caves has spent the last two years honing its surf-inflected pop songs into polished gems, and the band just released its latest California-dreaming single.

Saturday, April 23

Ian Cooke
4:30 p.m.
Equinox
Ian Cooke's combination of pop and classical sensibilities has resulted in some of the most well-crafted music of recent years. It's rare to catch the songwriter at shows these days, much less in Fort Collins.

Animal/object
6 p.m.
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, Dome Theater 
Avant-garde improv band Animal/object uses largely homemade instruments to make a kind of organic and informal jazz that is never the same from show to show, but always fascinating.

Check out five more must-see bands playing the Fort Collins Music Experience.