Titwrench 2015 Lineup: Look Back With Scenes From 2011 to 2013

The seventh edition of the Titwrench festival is happening this Saturday, October 3, at Dryer Plug Studios (3050 East 43rd Avenue). It starts at 10:30 a.m. with Showga (music and yoga), conducted by inimitable longtime Titwrench host Piper Rose. From noon to 2 p.m. there will be a clothing swap with music provided by Jilly.FM, and from noon to 7 p.m., there will be the Titwrench market, with 'zines, crafts, tarot and other refinements. The event is free until 3 p.m., when the focus turns to music and runs through 2 a.m.. Tacos and drinks will be available through La Sirena for the clothing swap, and food and drink will be, as usual, available throughout the night.

Tickets are available at the door for $10, and the event is all-ages. Yesterday, the musical lineup was announced:

Church Fire
Key Lady + The Front Strangers
Milch de la Måquina (Albuquerque)
Wheelchair Sports Camp
Bianca Mikahn
DemonSleeper (Oakland)
Baily Rose
Teaadora (Los Angeles)
Surf Mom
Bluebook
The Milk Blossoms
Mirror Fears
Molly Zackary
Women and Men (feat. members of Sin Desires Marie, Rabbit is a Sphere, Kal Cahoone Band, and M.Florea)
QBALA

For more information, please e-mail titwrench [at] gmail.com or visit the Titwrench Facebook event page.

What follows are several images of Titwrench 2011 through 2013. In 2014, Titwrench went on the road to Stockholm. Please note Piper Rose's various wardrobe changes even over the course of a single day. It's subtle details like that and others that have made Titwrench distinctly different from most other music festivals.

Titwrench 2011










































Titwrench 2012
























Titwrench 2013







*Author's Note on the High Plains Underground Archive: In the late 1990s, I started going to local shows on a regular basis. Growing up in the '70s and '80s, I didn't know there was such a thing as local music worth checking out. But I was drawn in after seeing a band called Rainbow Sugar (an all-female punk/hip-hop/experimental guitar rock extravaganza) opening for Sleater-Kinney's first show in Colorado at The Fox Theatre in October 1998. Next, I learned about a show at the now-defunct Rebis Galleries. From there I went to the first Monkey Mania show, and there was no looking back.

Rainbow Sugar was the first local band I photographed at Herman's Hideaway in 1999. But it was in 2005 when I got my first digital camera that my extensive photo archive started. In this series, called High Plains Underground Archive, I will share a small fraction of the tens of thousands of those photos, focusing on specific venues, bands, time periods, movements and whatever else seems to make sense. The title of this series comes from the working title of my book on the history of underground music in Denver 1975 to the present.

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