The Hip Snacks Is Bringing New Energy Into 2026

After nearly a year and a half between releases, the Hip Snacks decided it was time to slow things down and rethink how to roll out music.

“After eighteen months between records we wanted to be more calculated,” says Ben Suarez, who plays bass for the band. “You learn and grow after a couple years of working together, but of course, once you learn some stuff online, the entire world pivots. So that’s why we wanted to initially release four singles — one track a month before the release of the album.”

Instead of dropping its new record, Out on a Limb, all at once, the band is spacing out the material, giving listeners a chance to sit with each track before the full project arrives on April 26.

The Hip Snacks are preparing to take the new material on the road, and the upcoming show on Saturday, March 21, at Cervantes’ Other Side will give Denver fans their first real taste of what the next era of the band sounds like. “The band wanted to put out a record that is going to be in people’s faces,” Suarez explains. “And we wanted to have music corresponding with the tour that’s about to come up in a similar way to what people witnessed last year when we toured.”

That tour helped solidify the Hips Snacks as one of the rising jam acts coming out of Denver. “I am so beyond pumped,” Suarez says. “We have had these songs ready for about a year, and we have a song from the new album that we have not performed live in Colorado.”

Cervantes’, long considered one of Denver’s most important incubators for funk and jam acts, has played a major role in the band’s development. “Cervantes’ is the spot,” he says. “They took a chance on us in early 2024, and they have helped us grow in so many ways since, and playing almost four times at Cervantes’ since that first show has been great.”

For local musicians trying to carve out space in Denver’s packed jam-music landscape, venues like Cervantes’ often serve as proving grounds. Bands test new songs there, refine their live sound, and build the kind of grassroots following that fuels touring careers.

The Hip Snacks has recently permanently named Dave Hourback as its new drummer, adding another layer of rhythm to its already groove-heavy sound. And when the band hits the Cervantes’ stage, fans will also see a familiar face from the Denver scene joining them.

Percussionist Will Trask — a musician Ben Suarez calls “one of the most beneficial members to the Denver scene” — will be a major part of the live show. “We hired him for one song to record (on the upcoming album that is releasing soon) and he was prepared to play the whole album and ended up playing on eight out of ten tracks,” Suarez says. “We figured that the audience deserves to see that live.

“It’s going to be electric,” he adds. “He’s going to have his whole percussion rig and we’re going to be getting funky.”For a band that thrives on improvisation, the expanded setup opens the door for deeper grooves and longer jams something longtime fans will recognize immediately.

“If it’s ready to play live, we play it live,” Suarez says. “We don’t hold back much.”

That philosophy has always shaped how the Hip Snacks introduces new material. Songs debut in front of audiences, evolve on the road, and sometimes transform completely before making it onto a finished record.

“We’ll be playing a lot of the new material from the second side of the new album,” Suarez says, “and we have a lot of surprises for Cervantes’.”

The Hip Snacks, Saturday, March 21, Cervantes’ Other Side; tickets are available via the Cervantes’ website.