Many musicians are accustomed to playing for free, especially those who don’t have a large following. The joy of it, as well as the promise of exposure, often suffice as a reward. But this can cause consternation for serious or professional artists who spend hours upon hours honing their craft…
Philip Kromer/FlickrSo easy, even a monkey can do it.Social media takes the heat for a lot of things. Some people insist that it’s responsible for diluting activism and killing personal interaction. Others may recall the recent viral Craigslist post about the restaurant that blamed their slowing service on social media…
DJCHAP is off to a good start. So far, he’s earned the respect of one of his biggest musical influences, grown an online following from around the world, and just dropped an EP of fresh footwork tunes that has earned praise from influencers like XLR8R and Potholes in My Blog,…
Driving to Red Rocks is a little ridiculous. It’s a huge, unspoken part of the experience that goes directly against why the amphitheater is so great in the first place: It’s a natural venue in a picturesque part of the state, a space where you can see an amazing show…
The night before Minutemen played in Denver for the first time in 1984, at the now-defunct Rainbow Music Hall with Black Flag, the punk progenitors made up of singer and guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley endured what Watt called a “seventeen-hour hell ride” right after…
Denver rapper Tommy Brown’s latest release, Covered in Gold 24k, has caught ears in the city and outside it since its release this summer. The first video from it premiered on The Source, and we’re happy to debut the latest visual today on Backbeat. Watch below…
If there’s one band that put Colorado bluegrass on the map, it’s Hot Rize. Longtime members Pete Wernick, Nick Forster, Tim O’Brien and Charles Sawtelle met at the Denver Folklore Center in the late 1970s. They worked there in various capacities — as music instructors, instrument repairmen or at the…
Lady Casa is perhaps the country’s most famous raver, and something of a cult leader to her tens of thousands of fans. When the Miami native makes a pilgrimage to LA and hosts an event on Venice Beach the day after seeing DJ Armin van Buuren, it quickly turns into…
Live music always offers some kind of release, but Riot Fest appeared to be a particularly welcome respite for many fans. Tom Murphy It’s been almost two decades since I first saw Mineral, and the time hasn’t hurt its sound. It hasn’t helped it, either. Mineral’s brand of whiny emo…
Some unlikely VIPs rolled into the back gate of Riot Fest on Friday, driven in a chartered bus from their high school in Byers, Colorado. In addition to the easy entrance and free ride, the young music fans, all teenagers, got free passes to the entire weekend-long festival courtesy of…
As part of a recently announced batch of New Year’s Eve shows, Yonder Mountain String Band is slated to headline the Boulder Theater for four nights, starting Wednesday, December 31 through Saturday, January 3. Tickets ($35-$65/4-day pass $160) go on sale on Friday, September 26 at 10 a.m. Lucero headlines…
It’s one thing to brave I-25 traffic to get to Riot Fest, or even to make the hour-long drive from the Byers (the original site of the festival), but a lot of people made a real trip out of this year’s festival. Walking around the parking lots at Sports Authority…
“I was excited to someone in the hip-hop genre who is progressive,” explained Brittany Fitzgerald in the outdoor space behind Rhinoceropolis over the weekend. “It’s good to see somebody with a strong voice.” She was talking about Mykki Blanco, the stage name of rapper and performance artist Michael Quattlebaum Jr…
At noon on Saturday, Riot Fest officially begins for the day, and fans come streaming through the gates. Inside, carny Robert sits at his booth with his back to the entering crowd, enjoying a breakfast of pierogi and cigarettes. His feet up on a stool next to him, his plate…
Shabazz Palaces is the adventurous hip-hop outlet of former Digable Planets MC Ishmael Butler and multi-instrumentalist Tendai Mariare. Based in Seattle, the group is signed to the historically rock-centric Sub Pop label. We talked to Butler before Shabazz Palaces’ show tonight at the Fox Theatre about consumerism, the innate power…
Maybe it’s the punk rock origins of Riot Fest that brought out the funny and the ridiculous in various performers and attendees at Riot Fest. It was mostly the usual self-deprecating and/or sarcastic commentary one expects out of musicians but there were a handful of gems both inspired and just…
“Punk rockers are nice,” says Owen Clark, who, at five years old, is one of the younger attendees at Riot Fest in Denver. His mother, Tyanne Clark, says she wrestled with the decision to bring Owen and his brother, two-year-old Noah, from Colorado Springs to see the festival. “It was…
Riot Fest is bringing some loud bands along with the spirit (and hay) of May Farms to Sports Authority Field parking lot this weekend. It also comes with a carnival complete with games and rides. This could have been our only chance to ever ride a Ferris Wheel while a…
From its rough-hewn exterior, it’s hard to tell if the Aztlan Theater is still up and running. It is, technically, but the once-notable building that has been a part of the fabric of Santa Fe for decades is in dire need of some help. There’s a lot of love and…
There are some punk rock bands playing next to the football stadium this weekend. Perhaps you’ve heard. There are plenty of options for those not headed to Riot Fest, including the inaugural Cloak & Dagger fest, with an impeccable lineup full of some of dance music’s most interesting up-and-coming artists…
Failure is slated to perform at Riot Fest this Friday, September 19th. Though the band enjoyed a great deal of popularity during its first run before splitting in 1997, its influence has loomed large on a good deal of guitar rock that has come along since. If someone writes a…
While a lot of the focus during Riot Fest this weekend will be on the headliners playing the May Farms stage and the Byers General Store, the festival includes up and coming bands, local and otherwise, worthy of attention. These are generally not the bands riding in large tour buses…
