When half-brothers Patrick Wilson and Nicholas Blake were looking for a concept for their new club, Rock Star Lounge (940 Lincoln Street), they found inspiration in Nickelback’s “Rockstar” video. “It appeals to every single person,” Blake explains. “You’ve got construction workers, valets, policemen, supermodels and Playboy bunnies. And everybody just…

Strip clubs may be good for your health. That’s the word from Lakewood-based VCG Holdings, which owns the Diamond Cabaret, the Penthouse Club, La Bohème, the three PT’s Showclub locations and thirteen other clubs in nine more states. According to VCG president Michael Ocello, the company hired Empire Research to…

Darius Rucker might not have a whole lot of street cred these days as a country singer, but it’s still kind of a big deal if he asks to sing with your band, which is what happened to MTHDS a few years ago when it was based in Vail. The…

GOGOL BORDELLO Forro in the Dark 10.27.10 | Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO In some regards, a Gogol Bordello show is kind of like sex: It’s a sweaty and exhausting experience, one that you can’t really fully comprehend until you’re balls-deep in it. Sure, you can sneak peeks at your dad’s…

During his more than two decades of playing music, Jon Wirtz has performed with a slew of local acts, including the Sputter, LSW, Matt Morris, Angie Stevens and John Common, who encouraged the thirty-year-old pianist to finally pull the trigger on his solo piano album. Wirtz narrowed the track list…

Since moving from upstate New York to Denver in the mid-’70s, Vic Cionetti has played his share of gigs with his group. But there were years when he traded playing out for working a day job. Even after releasing Simpatico in 2000 and selling out the Gothic Theatre, he put…

With Halloween coming right up, there are plenty of ogling opportunities around town. Lotus Entertainment has parties at all four of its clubs, which kick off on Thursday, October 28, at Oak Tavern (1414 Market Street) with the Playboy Halloween Party, featuring 2007 Playboy Playmate Sara Jean Underwood. On Friday,…

THE APPLES IN STEREO With Fol Chen 10.22.10 | Bluebird Theater Apples in Stereo frontman Robert Schneider has described the band’s latest effort, Travellers in Space and Time, as “retro-futuristic super-pop,” a tag which could just as easily be applied to some of the band’s earlier material. It’s also an…

Over the past few years, quite a few acts from these parts, including Paper Bird, Young Coyotes, Nathaniel Rateliffe have recorded Daytrotter sessions. More recent sessions have included Tennis, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, who recorded tracks there last week, and Drag the River, whose session was uploaded yesterday. “There’s a…

THE NATIONAL 10.18.10 | Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO In a New York Times piece written on the National last April, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe explained how he took his bandmate Mike Mills to see the group in London. It took half a song for Mills to say it was the…

The management of the Oriental Theater (4335 West 44th Avenue) has changed hands. The owners of 3 Kings Tavern, who’d operated the historic 700-person venue for the past year, signed a deal last week with Absolutely Huge Entertainment, which will take over the place. Headed by Anna Muniz, who has…

Ft. Collins-based reedsman Andrew Vogt keeps his chops sharp by playing out three or four nights a week, whether it’s with ZARO, which he co-leads, the Subterranean Quartet, or a number of other groups he performs with. On Cats Afoot, Vogt shows he obviously knows his way around both alto…

Social Distortion With Lucero and Frank Turner Fillmore Auditorium| 10.16.10 See Social Distortion at the Fillmore photo slideshow When Social Distortion opened the second of a two-night stint at Fillmore with not one, but three songs from Mommy’s Little Monster, you’d think a crowd would have gone bat shit to…

VINEFIELD AGENCY SHOWCASE 10.16.2010 | Casselman’s Bar & Venue It’s an ambitious task fitting close to a dozen diverse acts into a five and a half-hour show, but the folks at the Vinefield Agency pulled it off as part of new company’s launch party and showcase. Local standouts like the…