The Nice List: Five Holiday Concerts Benefiting Great Causes

Reality check: Christmas is two weeks away. Yes, already. So while you’re scrambling to snatch up those last-minute gifts (we recommend these music books for your musician friends) and send out quirky holiday cards plastered with your poor pets wearing Santa hats and ugly sweaters, maybe take a minute for yourself to unwind, get out of the house for at least one night and enjoy a local show before staring down 2026.

We’ve got you covered there, with five Front Range gigs that are spreading the spirit, while supporting great causes, too. Cheers!

Hardcore 4 The Holidays
Aggie Theatre, 204 South College Ave., Fort Collins
Friday, December 19, 6 p.m.
Tickets are $18
Benefit shows have become increasingly common in the Front Range alternative scene, which we love to see, and Hardcore 4 The Holidays at the Aggie up in Fort Collins keeps up the annual tradition of supporting those in need this time of year.

Featuring a loaded local lineup of Old Skin, Aleister Cowboy, Pig Splitter, Smear Campaign, Yapper, Talking Point and Mood Swing Misery, this year’s edition will once again help the Family Center of Fort Collins/La Familia collect toys and other necessary items for area youth, including sealed hygiene products and gift cards for clothes and shoes (Kohl’s, Ross, TJ Maxx and Famous Footwear). Sponsored by Braeburn Records, Natural Alternatives and Music City Hot Chicken, Hardcore 4 The Holidays is truly a communal event, organized by the community, for the community.

LEGENDS Holiday Showcase
Thursday, December 19, 7 p.m.
Skylark Lounge, 140 South Broadway
Free
Denver musicians, and local legends, Joe Sampson, Will Duncan and Lilly Scott team up to throw a free shindig full of holly jolly holiday hits and surprise special guests at the Skylark.

While the setlist is sure to serve up more than a stocking’s worth of Christmas cheer, Sampson is an emotive singer-songwriter known for his hypnotic voice and intimate guitar tunes. Duncan and Scott are behind indie-electronica duo Pleasure Prince, though Duncan has been part of the local Americana scene for years, while Scott appeared on the ninth season of American Idol in 2010. They both previously played in the jazzy American group Varlet, too. So catch up with all three this Yuletide.

Longmont Hardcore Toy Drive
Bizarre Electronics Repair & Lounge, 506 11^th Ave., Longmont
Friday, December 19, 5 p.m.
Free
If you’re out in Longmont, there’s another toy drive happening at Bizarre Electronics Repair & Lounge, same day as the FoCo event. Similarly, it’s a toy drive for kids, but totally free if you bring a new sealed toy (now that’s a deal).

Organized by Lunar Lux Entertainment, the nonprofit organization behind LunaFest/Warped Wolf festival, the bill features a mix of Rocky Mountain Hardcore with Thrillrot, Feed Lot and MONKEYPAW, as well as “Meade’s finest emo band,” No Reason To Care. Festivities kick off with a jazz set! Who says hardcore isn’t for the children?

Jinx Jones’ Rockabilly Holiday Show
The Oriental Theater, 4335 West 44^th Ave.
Sunday, December 21, 7 p.m.
Tickets are $21
Rockabilly guitar virtuoso Jinx Jones returns home to host his yearly holiday show at the O, complete with regular co-performers and Fort Collins psycho-country duo Poudre Valley Playboys.

Jones has long called the Bay Area home, but he got his start in Denver, where he grew up and first played in such bands as Jinx Jones and the Jaguars and the Tel Rays. Since then, he’s shared the stage with legends Roy Buchanan and Chuck Berry, among many others, while creating a signature sound by blending jazz, blues, surf rock and Americana roots.

So this is one that’s sure to get you moving and grooving all through the night.

Sugar Britches xxxmas Special
Lost Lake, 3602 East Colfax Ave.
Sunday, December 21, 4 p.m.
Tickets are $20
Start Christmas week off right, as Sugar Britches is hosting a spicy holiday honky-tonk cabaret at Lost Lake just days before the holiday. Always a good time, the show will be filled with mistletoe medleys and more. Rounding out the program is local rockabillies Ethyl and the Regulars, Colorado singer-songwriter Aubrey Dale and cowpunk power couple White Rose Motor Oil.

Sugar Britches singer Brian Johanson recently contributed to KRFC’s NoCo Sings the Holidays – Volume One compilation with a rendition of John Prine’s “Christmas in Prison.” White Rose Motor Oil is also treating the evening as a release show for its new album, Merry Crisis. The duo will donate and match any proceeds made that night to Colorado nonprofit PorchLight, too.

While the Denver edition is mostly for mature eyes, Sugar Britches is also holding a coat and toy drive to benefit local charity Realities for Children at Magic Rat in Fort Collins on Saturday, December 20.