Weekend's best live bets: Tech N9ne, Eric Church, Creed, Rammstein and more

Welcome to the weekend! A wide variety of musical options await you over the next few days: Tech N9ne returns to Colorado, his home away from home, for a show at the Fillmore, Eric Church stops by Red Rocks, Creed relives the '90s at the Paramount Theatre, Fear Factory shreds the Summit Music Hall, Calling Out West celebrates the release of its new platter at the Gothic, Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots visits the Walnut Room, the Five Points Jazz Festival gets underway and Rammstein brings its incendiary live show to the Denver Coliseum. Page down to get the full rundown on the weekend's best live music bets.

TECH N9NE @ THE FILLMORE

See Also: Tech N9NE on being a major artist with a loyal fan base while remaining fiercely independent

Tech N9Ne is here so often you'd be excused for thinking he lives here. He's doesn't of course. His mail is delivered to Kansas. But that's just where the rapper hails from, really. He lives on the road. And that's precisely how he's risen up through the independent ranks to command the same level of attention and acclaim as his much higher profile counterparts. You can be sure that anything he's gained along the way, he's earned the old fashion way. With his Strange Music empire, Tech has paved his own road and amassed a legion of fans whose devotion is second only to perhaps ICP. All of that would mean nothing, however, if Tech couldn't bring it. Needless to say, he can spit with the best of them.

CALLING OUT WEST (CD RELEASE) @ GOTHIC THEATRE

See Also: Q&A with Zach Armijo of Calling Out West

Reinvention has come relatively quickly for the members of Calling Out West. In 2009, the trio of guitarist Max Comer, bassist Cody Vinton and vocalist/drummer Jake Vinton expanded the band then known as the Side Project, adding guitarist Mike Anderson and drummer Zach Armijo. Starting with 2010's eleven-song release Short Stories, the newly branded Calling Out West set about broadening its sound, shifting from more melodic balladry to heavier, guitar-laden pop rock. Tonight, the outfit celebrates the release of its new four-track EP, Apollo, recorded at the Blasting Room.

EDWARD KA-SPEL @ THE WALNUT ROOM

See Also: Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots talks about changes and Tear Garden

Since 1980, the Legendary Pink Dots have been creating some of the most inventive, darkly imaginative and emotionally stirring music around. Based originally in London, the Pink Dots relocated to the Netherlands in the mid-'80s, and its lineup has long included both English and Dutch membership. In recent years, longtime members Martijn de Kleer and Niels van Hoorn split with the band, leaving a core four-member lineup, including the band's charismatic and enigmatic frontman, Edward Ka-Spel, and Phil "The Silverman" Knight, both of whom share tonight's bill.

Check out our newly revamped concert calendar for a complete listing of all of tonight's shows. Page down for rundown of tomorrow night's best bets.

ERIC CHURCH @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATER

Nashville eats mavericks for breakfast, spitting them out compromised or undigested. Eric Church has never played by Nashville's rules, yet he appears poised on the brink of country mega-stardom. The clever iconoclast's edgy debut single, "Two Pink Lines" (off his 2006 debut, Sinners Like Me), waited out a teen pregnancy scare; later that year, Church got booted from a Rascal Flatts tour for playing too long and/or loud. The down-home rural North Carolina native was blackballed from the country touring circuit for a minute, but the rock clubs he played instead toughened his sound. This is apparent on 2009's rebellious Carolina, where Church claimed that country's still got a "Lotta Boot Left to Fill" and scored a surprise hit with pot ode "Smoke a Little Smoke." Last year's chart-topping Chief builds on that with more witty phrasing and a tight, rugged sound built to conquer country's suddenly guitar-obsessed capital.

CREED @ PARAMOUNT THEATRE

See Also: Creed's Scott Stapp on "how I used to be before the world got ahold of me."

The story of Creed begins in the mid-'90s, when the band changed its name to Creed from Naked Toddler and embarked on a career marked by hard riffs, mainstream metaphors and Vedder vocals. Not too long after winning a Grammy in 2001, the act nailed itself to a cross with an explosively bad concert in 2002 and eventually disbanded a couple years later. In 2009, the guys came back to life for a national reunion tour and a new, if overtly symbolic, album titled Full Circle. Three years later, the guys are in the midst of another resurrection that involves playing their first two albums in full across the country.

FIVE POINTS JAZZ FESTIVAL @ FIVE POINTS

This free event along Welton Street in Five Points is just another aspect of culture that Denver will forever hold true to. With six stages and over one hundred musicians on the bill this year, it is sure to be a wholesome time for all ages. Acts like Mary Louise Lee Band, Ultraphonic Jazz Band, Danny Showers Band, Jakarta, Carmen Sandim, Impromtu, just to name some, will flood your heart with rich sounds of jazz and will provide some insight on the roots in music today.

FEAR FACTORY @ SUMMIT MUSIC HALL

Few bands walk the genre tightrope better than Fear Factory. Combining death-metal intensity, industrial precision and vocals that can actually be deciphered, the act strikes chords with headbangers and the technology-obsessed alike. Fear Factory delivers blasts of percussion, traumatic riffs and pulsating electronics, with a jackhammer effect on its audiences.

Check out our newly revamped concert calendar for a complete listing of all of tonight's shows. Page down for rundown of tomorrow night's best bets.

RAMMSTEIN @ DENVER COLISEUM With flamethrowers, fire-breathing musicians and twenty-foot angel wings that shoot yet more fire, the spectacle of Rammstein's shows sometimes overshadows the German industrial group's music. But anyway you look at it, these guys will assault all of your senses.

Check out our newly revamped concert calendar for a complete listing of all of tonight's shows.

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