FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10
LENNY KRAVITZ @ TEMPLE BUELL Lenny Kravitz is an artist who's erroneously been dismissed over the course of his career as merely a retro mining musician who's greatest attribute is mimicking the best moments of music's past. But like Prince, one of his obvious influences from the very beginning, Kravitz has proved to be a singular talent, a multi-instrumentalist with a knack for absorbing a myriad of influences, from funk to soul to classic rock, and then presented them in a vibrant way that feels instantly familiar without seeming hackneyed. His inherent musicality is also often overshadowed by his songwriting. Black and White America, his latest effort, is a turbo-charged funk-steeped juggernaut, some of his sharpest songs to date.
WIDESPREAD PANIC @ THE FILLMORE Billed as the Wood Tour, Widespread Panic's eleven-date, four-city trek marks the band's first-ever fully acoustic tour. This will be the final set of shows before the band goes on hiatus for the remainder of 2012, following what was Panic's 25th anniversary year in 2011. After three shows in Denver at the Fillmore, the band follows up with three more shows in Aspen at the Belly Up. (FYI: The Fillmore dates are sold out.)
TAUNTAUN @ 3 KINGS TAVERN The mighty men of TaunTaun are indeed reconvening to play a show tonight, but whatever you do, don't call it a come back. "I don't want to call it a reunion," says Ian O'Dougherty, "because we never broke up. This is just for Jim." The Jim in question, of course, is Jim Norris of 3 Kings Tavern, who, as you might recall, was recently hospitalized for a spider bite that left him with a pile of hospital bills. To help ease the burden, a number of Rev's friends, including John Baxter of ZetaKaye House, have organized a series of benefits, including this one. Tauntaun tells us they have a special surprise for the show. "We've got something you're going to want to see," teases O'Dougherty (read: TaunTaun feature profile).
IN FLAMES @ SUMMIT MUSIC HALL Originally formed as a side project of Ceremonial Oath, In Flames quickly became a full-time endeavor. While retaining some of the sharp edges of its founders' death-metal leanings, the band successfully joined melodic hooks, vocal and otherwise, with nervy aggressiveness and sharp dynamic shifts. In 1995, the core members recruited Anders Fridén as lead vocalist in time to write and record the classic 1996 album, The Jester Race. In subsequent years, In Flames went through several lineup changes, including the departure of its founders, and it's since become one of the most popular and critically acclaimed metal bands around. Touring in support of its latest album, 2011's Sounds of a Playground Fading, In Flames still proves itself on stage every night, even after two decades (read: interview with Daniel Svensson of In Flames).
ACHILLE LAURO (CD RELEASE) @ HI-DIVE Achille Lauro's new full-length release came partly from a sense of smugness. According to Matt Close, the band's sample master, rhythm guitarist and lead singer, Flight or Fight came as the quartet recorded material for what was originally envisioned as the latest in a series of singles. When the group realized they had enough material for a full record, they pushed forward to complete the nine-track release, which will also be cut into vinyl as part of the release (read: full interview with Matt Close and review of Flight or Fight).
THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR @ THE LARIMER LOUNGE As a pop band, you could do a lot worse than having your first-ever show be opening for Amy Winehouse and then getting tapped to serve as the opening act for her European summer tour. But that's essentially what happened to the Asteroids Galaxy Tour after Winehouse heard the band's demo in 2009 -- an admirable feat for an act that was largely a studio project led by primary songwriter and producer Lars Iversen and singer Mette Lindberg. The outfit released some singles before getting the urge to form a live band, and the soul- and jazz-flavored pop that is the hallmark of its sound proved easily translatable to the stage. The septet is currently traveling in support of its latest album, Out of Frequency, and, thanks to the early endorsement from Winehouse, this Tour is now self-propelled.
MAYLENE & THE SONS OF DISASTER @ THE MARQUIS THEATER Although singer Dallas Taylor is no heathen, his band Maylene & the Sons of Disaster represents a rather unholy enterprise, and thank God for that. Taylor once pledged allegiance to Underoath, a Christian metal-core act with a sizable following. But he split during the 2003 Warped Tour under reportedly ugly circumstances -- and when he re-emerged the following year, it was as the frontman of a very different group. Maylene, named for '30s-vintage crime matron Maylene "Ma" Barker, finds Taylor and his cohorts in the guise of rustic ruffians armed with songs that regularly perform shotgun weddings between stoner rock and old-school metallic boogie.
BOBBY BROOM AND THE DEEP BLUE ORGAN TRIO @ DAZZLE RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE By the time he was sixteen and attending New York's High School of Music and Art, jazz guitarist Bobby Broom was already playing with Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker alumni Al Haig and Walter Bishop Jr. Broom has also played alongside jazz luminaries like Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell, Charles Earland, Kenny Garrett and Marcus Miller. Broom has released several recordings as a leader, including 2009's Bobby Broom Plays for Monk . Tonight Broom teams up with jazz organist Chris Foreman, who was influenced early on by Jack McDuff, Groove Holmes and Jimmy Smith, and drummer Greg Rockingham.
SPATULA (REUNION SHOW) @ CLIMAX LOUNGE Spatula was a band you often heard about between 2004 and 2005, if you did not actually see it. The band was musical, but more to the point, it was always a ridiculous spectacle with simple but effective props, elaborate homemade costumes, fake gore, live births, simulated environments and general, fun-loving mayhem. Everyone who saw Spatula left with a strong and fond impression, and maybe a little something on them for their trouble. After close to two years together, the band came to an end after an infamous show, outlined below, playing atop a bus during First Friday on Tennyson Street and Santa Fe Drive (read: interview with all five members of Spatula).
Also Tonight:
- Buffalo Rebellion at Appaloosa Grill
- Dyrty Byrds with Your Babies Daddy at Cervantes' Other Side
- The Farewell Drifters with the Gromit and the Maykit at Moe's Original BBQ and Bowl
- Bonnie Lowdermilk at The Rib House
- Cupid's Dead at Firehouse Tavern
- Delta Sonics at Lincoln's Roads House
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11
WIDESPREAD PANIC @ THE FILLMORE Billed as the Wood Tour, Widespread Panic's eleven-date, four-city trek marks the band's first-ever fully acoustic tour. This will be the final set of shows before the band goes on hiatus for the remainder of 2012, following what was Panic's 25th anniversary year in 2011. After three shows in Denver at the Fillmore, the band follows up with three more shows in Aspen at the Belly Up.
BEARSNAIL @ 27 SOCIAL CENTRE Kyle Harris began writing songs at the age of twelve, but it was another two decades before he decided to play them publicly. "I just never saw a reason to play any of it for people," he says. "I'd been writing songs regularly that whole time, but I never thought I'd enjoy playing them for people so much. I just thought, 'This is something I'm going to do on my own.' A kind of therapy" (read: full feature profile of Bearsnail. FYI: 27 Social Centre is located at 2727 W. 27th ave).
SNAKE RATTLE RATTLE SNAKE @ HI-DIVE The membership roster of Snake Rattle Rattle Snake includes former members of bands that left an indelible mark on the underground music scene in Colorado, acts like Space Team Electra, Red Cloud, Bad Luck City, Monofog, Hawks of Paradise and V-Tech Orchid. Rather than taking bits and pieces of any of those bands, this quintet forged something markedly different. The songs are marked by flowing, textured rhythms that trace a propulsive, dancing cadence beneath brooding atmospheres, punctuated by pointed vocals. Although easy comparisons could be made to early offerings from the Rapture, with some aesthetic nods toward LCD Soundsystem, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake is darker than all of that, while embracing how that music is written for the dance floor.
STILLBORN FAWN @ RHINOCEROPOLIS In about three to five years, the subgenre of "doom" -- and, to a lesser extent, its subset of "drone" -- may become as ubiquitous and stale as "surf garage," or whatever happens to be the flavor of the moment enjoying underground-bordering-on-mainstream popularity. But it won't be because of the guys in Stillborn Fawn (due at Rhinoceropolis on Saturday, February 11). Bringing both an edgy rawness and an experimental edge to their crushing, tortured, unrelenting flow of sludge rock, guitarist/singer Tyler Broeren and drummer Tom Johnson manage to convey the forbidding presence of black metal without the need for any affectation, visual or musical.
BENNY GREEN TRIO @ DAZZLE RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE While he's worked as a sideman with jazz legends like Betty Carter, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Watson, pianist Benny Green is more than a competent leader in his own right. It's not surprising that the fiery improviser was chosen by Oscar Peterson to be the first recipient of the City of Toronto's Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music. Since 1988, Green has released a number of solid albums, including 1991's Greens and 1992's Testifyin' on Blue Note, and last year's Source, his first trio album in a decade.
Also Tonight:
- Bizzy Bone (from Bone Thugz n' Harmony) at Herman's Hideaway
- Burn Down Valor with Forged in Steel, Morbid Sanctuary and Dekatur
- Caleb Slade with Antennas Up, Take to the Oars, Kyle James Houser at the Meadowlark
- Dick and Lois Meis at Bender's Tarvern
- Bonnie and the Beard with Days of Rae at Illegal Pete's
- 2012 Evergreen Rodeo Benefit Concert with With Strike III, Brothers of the Son at Little Bear
- Reckless Red at Lincoln's Road House
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12
CURSIVE (WITH UME) @ LARIMER LOUNGE Cursive was one of the bands that helped put Omaha, Nebraska, and Saddle Creek Records on the map. Starting in 1995, in the post-hardcore milieu that would serve as the roots of modern emo, Cursive always seemed to make music that never really fit in a specific genre outside of rock. Tim Kasher's earnest vocals, the driving but veering rhythms, the pretty but bizarre melodies and fractured songwriting that somehow ended up cohesive and catchy has made Cursive one of the most interesting pop bands in recent memory. Often sounding like it's about to come apart at the seams, the act displays a clear need to exorcise personal demons during live shows by transforming desperate melancholy into anthems of self-affirmation. Cursive may be sensitive, but its sentimentality comes with unapologetic, searingly honest self-examination.
WIDESPREAD PANIC @ THE FILLMORE Billed as the Wood Tour, Widespread Panic's eleven-date, four-city trek marks the band's first-ever fully acoustic tour. This will be the final set of shows before the band goes on hiatus for the remainder of 2012, following what was Panic's 25th anniversary year in 2011. After three shows in Denver at the Fillmore, the band follows up with three more shows in Aspen at the Belly Up.
BENNY GREEN TRIO @ DAZZLE RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE While he's worked as a sideman with jazz legends like Betty Carter, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Watson, pianist Benny Green is more than a competent leader in his own right. It's not surprising that the fiery improviser was chosen by Oscar Peterson to be the first recipient of the City of Toronto's Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music. Since 1988, Green has released a number of solid albums, including 1991's Greens and 1992's Testifyin' on Blue Note, and last year's Source, his first trio album in a decade.
Also Tonight:
- Anthony Ruptak with the Whicker and Pine, the Chrysanthehums, Poet's Row at hi-dive
- Danny Shafer and 21st Century at Oskar Blues
- Eric McFadden with Minivan Blues Band
- Queen City Jazz Band at Mercury Cafe
- The Shell Corporation with Allout Helter, the Sound Collapse, Anchor Point at 3 Kings Tavern
- The Dinosaur Squad at The Walnut Room
- Mad Dog & the Smokin' J's at Lincoln's Roadhouse
- Scotty Brown at Jake's Roadhouse
Compiled by Nick Callaio from the contributions of Team Backbeat.
Follow Backbeat on Twitter: @westword_music
