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Over 100 of the best Colorado bands and artists (plus a few notable out-of-towners) crowded onto fifteen stages in the Golden Triangle on June 20 for the 21st Westword Music Showcase: our annual celebration of Denver's music scene. To mark the occasion of our festival reaching drinking age, we asked our keen-eyed music writers to describe a few of their favorite sets in 21 words or fewer. Check out the first batch here — several more of our short takes are below.
-Jef Otte Plume Varia's beautiful, ambient, dramatic, ethereal sound juxtaposed with Stoney's ready-to-party atmosphere. The dark and the light, together. The Dirty Femmes delivered a rowdy set of material that included Violent Femmes songs, a Creedence tune with special guests. -Jon Solomon Packed room, new band members, old songs, -BD Church Fire exposed EDMers to the other side of electronic music. Also, girls hula hooping as Shannon Webber screamed over beats. -BD Even with a Natalie Tate's incandescent melodies, light-hearted banter, evocative, smoky vocals and smooth textures suggested a secret cabaret to soothe the soul. -Tom Murphy Eros and the Eschaton’s noisy, edgy dream pop recalled the music of Medicine — jaggedly beautiful songs of striking originality. -TM From mohawks to collared shirts, an eclectic crowd showed up to hear Reno Divorce's high energy tattoo-shop sound. -Alison Joy Subtraction tore the stage up, bringing wild and irreverent humor to new fans — what a festival is all about. -BD Cory Kendrix woke up the hot, stoned patio of Vinyl. "Wanna Be" was absolutely lit. -Lindsey Bartlett Future Single Mom was bigger than the room. Not enough people know how fucking awesome this band is...yet. -BD Mane Rok of Stay Tuned took his mic into the crowd for an amazing set hidden in the City Hall rafters. -BD Kalyn Heffernan offered to buy the crowd cocaine with her freshly awarded MasterMind money. Then Wheelchair Sports Camp blew their minds. -BD Sam Warren: Come for the siren-like, melodic thumping, stay for the air conditioning. -LB I Sank Molly Brown displayed masterfully refined math-rock with bursts of emotional intensity punctuating passages of tender, delicate melody. -TM I Sank Molly Brown’s tight set coiled around flicker-quick changes like a nerdy python. And they courteously offered everyone earplugs. -JO This four-piece edition of Sound of Ceres took already enchantingly otherworldly pop music and breathed a bit more life into it. -TM The Raven and the Writing Desk's formerly ethereal, -TM Even spitting machine-gun-quick nursery rhymes beneath a foot-tall -JO Wiredogs lets slip a slew of charismatic, SG-driven metal with all the earnestness of a door-to-door Mormon on a tirade. -JO Snake -JO Even the flinging beach balls seemed to slow in the Black Angels’ thick, methodic sludge, incanted like a wizard’s spells. -JO Wave Racer brought heavy bass mixed with jazzy, shiny, synthetic brass sounds. I got hit in the head with a beach ball. -AU Chamber music for maladapted: Only Ian Cooke’s banter between the songs of his haunting solo set could stop the weeping. -JO MisterWives: Best. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" cover. Ever. -AU While the first half of the Black Angels’ set was as heavy as it was spacious, the second half packed more vigor. -JS MisterWives: Neon. Saxophone. Had a chorus of "Woah, -Isa Jones With drums, bass and facepaint, Robert Delong used his joystick and Wii remote to show the future of EDM. -LB To the person watching the sweaty crowd for Flume from the fifth floor of the Art Apartments: You know too much. -LB
-Mary Willson
Bringing a badass, confident demeanor mixed with intricate and evolving lyrics, Koo-Qua is a leader on and off the stage.
-MW
With jams that should never end, the personality of old friends and energy that is contagious,
-MW
Lots of drunk people make me feel claustrophobic, but their graphics
-MW
Flume brought edible visuals, sparkly sound, triangles and tons of high schoolers. Would see again.
-AU
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