Colorado Symphony Adds Show to Harry Potter Concert Series

Get excited, Gryffindors. (And you, too, Slytherins, if you can stomach excitement.) The Colorado Symphony is adding another show to its highly popular (and currently sold-out) Movie at the Symphony: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, during which the symphony will play the film’s score in its entirety. The added…

The Go-Go’s Keep Going

The Go-Go’s formed in Los Angeles in the midst of the city’s rising punk scene, three years before their debut album, 1981’s Beauty and the Beat, shot to the top of Billboard’s Top 200 on the strength of pop hits like “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat.” “When…

Creative Adult Colors Outside the Lines of Punk

Creative Adult’s early seven-inch singles were often presented as punk, but their relatively nondescript cover art gave little away about the music within. Certainly punk seemed to be at the root of it, but it was also noisier than that, more willing to color outside the lines of what punk…

Let There Be Pretty Lights

Over the last few years, Pretty Lights’ performances have been rumored as hit or miss. But kicking off his two-night run at Red Rocks (last Friday and Saturday) with unreleased music, Derek Vincent Smith was ready to show his fans a new side of his sound. Add to that a…

Band of Horses Brought Their Bright-Eyed Sincerity to the Ogden Theatre

“We’re embarrassingly big fans of Band of Horses,” laughed Ricky Young, frontman of opening act Wild Feathers. The admission drew huge cheers from The Ogden Theatre crowd, none of which seemed at all reticent to show enthusiasm for the beloved Seattle headliner of the Friday, August 13, show. While there’s…

Rocky Mountain Low Brought the Best of DIY in Denver

Over this past extended weekend, Rocky Mountain Low didn’t just showcase a slice of the real underground rock scene in Denver. It could have been just all straight ahead rock or punk or metal or a combination thereof. But what it did though, without overtly stating this as a purpose,…

Ryan Adams, Pitbull and the Best Shows in Denver This Week

Pitbull brings the Bad Man Tour to the Pepsi Center on Thursday with Prince Royce while on Tuesday it’s Digable Planets at the Gothic Theatre and Melissa Etheridge at Chautauqua Auditorium. This week’s lineup also includes Ryan Adams, Lisa Prank and Flume. See our full picks below. MONDAY, AUGUST 15 Disturbed…

Melissa Etheridge Rediscovers Her Soul

As we sit right in the middle of the silliest political silly season in living memory, L.A. rocker Melissa Etheridge, never one to keep her thoughts to herself (thankfully), is aghast at what is unfolding. Somehow, though, she finds some hope in the chaotic circus playing out in all of…

Seven Spots for Foreign Music in Denver

The most obvious way to find the different ethnicities represented in Denver’s population, from Italian to Vietnamese to Mexican, is in our wide variety of restaurants. (Westword food editor Mark Antonation has dedicated an entire series to ethnic food in Denver.) But why not treat your stomach and your ears…

Dirty Heads Make a Clean Start With Self-Titled Album

In recent years, packed local performances by bands like Soja and Iration have proven that contemporary reggae fused with indie rock into a jam band-esque package is incredibly popular in these parts. Put those bands on at Red Rocks during the summer months, and you can practically guarantee a full…

Julien Baker on God, Being Queer, Self-Love and Acceptance

Julien Baker reconciles two seemingly paradoxical parts of her life – her church and her queerness – and uses the lessons she’s learned in self-love and acceptance in her music. The twenty-year-old from Memphis was originally a member of the band Forrister, then continued creating music on her own in…

Vertex Festival Brought Colorado Cool to Buena Vista

Two years ago, local bluegrass band Trout Steak Revival shot the music video for their song “Brighter Every Day” on land nestled among the mountains in Buena Vista, Colorado. Later, they heard through the rumor mill that a music festival was being planned for the 274 acres. They couldn’t believe…

Comic: Swallow Hill Music

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

No Joke: Lisa Prank Stays True to Emotions Sans Cynicism

Better known these days under the moniker Lisa Prank, Robin Edwards has longstanding connections to Denver’s art and music communities. Edwards, a former Westword contributor, grew up in Colorado, and while still in high school, she got involved in the local underground scene. Before becoming a musician, she was a…

Could Denver Have a Better Music Scene Than L.A.?

When you live in Los Angeles, you don’t really think about music scenes anywhere else. Why would you? L.A. has it all. Sure, you might occasionally give a passing nod to cool shit going on in other places. Kudos to Seattle for that grunge run way back when. And, yeah,…

ARISE Music Festival: An Insider’s Perspective on a Weekend of Music, Art and Yoga

This past weekend, ARISE Music Festival called many like-minded, earth-conscious individuals to Sunrise Ranch for a music, art and yoga festival just outside Loveland. Ziggy Marley, Jurassic 5, Hard Working Americans, Rising Appalachia, Papadosio and Elephant Revival were among the headliners.  Opportunities for internships and volunteer shifts were available and allowed…