Backbeat’s goal has always been to get more people involved in the Denver music scene and to give the people who already are some things to think about or laugh about or generally just spend time with. That mission has evolved over the years as our resources have, and starting…
It’s a good one, folks: KS 107.5 FM’s Summer Jam brings hip-hop royalty to Englewood tonight, and most of the people there will probably be capping off their weekends with The Fray at Red Rocks on Sunday. There’s more: Dragondeer, subject of this week’s Backbeat feature, will release its long-awaited…
Film on the Rocks kicked off its fifteenth season on Tuesday with a screening of Caddyshack. As at all of these, a couple Colorado bands played opening sets. We won’t make you wait for a verdict: It is spectacularly awesome to have one of those spots. There are down sides…
A Colorado summer can be short, but there are plenty of ways to make it sweet, especially if you pack it with as many festivals, road trips and patios as possible. We’ve picked out ten music festivals sure to give you the flavor of the state’s musical offerings — everything…
I have an embarrassing tendency to bait people into conversations where I just talk about cool things I am doing. Surprise, right? While it likely stems from being bored with hearing of the mundane achievements of others (babies, crappy jobs, cars), there is a part of me that figures it…
Eric Halborg is best known in Denver music for his work fronting the Swayback, a hard-driving rock band that has toured the country and attained unusual success here at home. He’s got another band these days; called Dragondeer, it’s an outlet for the kinds of blues and jam bands he…
Denver’s DJ Cavem Moetevation spends plenty of time focusing on the “green” stuff. But his green stuff is not money or weed. Instead, his focus is on kale and being eco-friendly. Cavem — a former Westword MasterMind award winner — is a husband and father, a teacher, a rapper, a…
Fantasia 2014 is billing itself — at least on Facebook, anyway — as a “performance festival.” But it’s not a big, multi-stage summertime throwdown for thousands. Fantasia 2014 is an intimate experience, one that co-curators Colin Ward and Stefan Herrera hope will draw people to fest location Rhinoceropolis, especially those…
It’s Westword Music Showcase month, and today we have a schedule for you. In case this is unfamiliar territory: For the twentieth year, we’ll celebrate the wide array of Denver’s music scene with a music festival right here in the city. The thing has grown over the decades, and this…
Denver is growing so fast that two years here can feel more like ten. So Travis Egedy — better known as Pictureplane — has missed plenty since he packed up and moved to New York in 2012. Still, he’s practically a native. He spent the better part of a decade…
Note: Dragondeer will release its new EP with a show this Saturday at Lost Lake Lounge. The band will also be featured in the debut of Open Music Sessions at Denver Open Media’s studio’s on Kalamath Street this Friday. Details on that series are coming shortly, but you can RSVP…
[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his sunny outlook with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work and even buy it on his website. • BACKBEAT’S GREATEST HITS • – The fifty best rap lyrics of all time – The ten…
Ed. We got a dispatch from this weekend’s Bassnectar show by a young writer and music lover who is just over three months sober. We’ve chosen to leave her name off of it because the Internet never forgets anything. She is experiencing her first summer in the concert playground of…
Widespread Panic is slated for a three-night run at Red Rocks near the end of this month, but the band will also do a three-night Halloween run at 1STBANK Center from Friday, October 31, through Sunday, November 2. Tickets ($55.75-$61) go on sale Friday, August 8, at 10 a.m. After…
The public radio jazz station, KUVO 89.7 FM — part of Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network — has been named best “Jazz & Soul Internet Radio Stations” worldwide by The Daily Telegraph in the UK. “I stumbled upon this award-winning music station by accident recently – and have been kicking…
Going to an electronica show is a fantastic excuse to bust out a wild outfit to accentuate your dance moves, and Bassnectar, in town this weekend for their annual appearance at Red Rocks, was no different. Here are the ten best getups from the show, as found by photographer Eric…
Iain Chisholm owns the Italian restaurant Amerigo on Upper Larimer. It’s a good place to be, and recently the lines necessitated expansion. “As the neighborhood came online, we were starting to turn a lot of people away on the weekends because we didn’t have any place for them to wait…
The Pretty Reckless stopped by The Fillmore this weekend, and things got a little wild. For those who rarely go to hard rock shows, or have just forgotten the proper etiquette, a concert like this can pose a lot of questions: What should I wear? Will there be a mosh…
In 2010, just days after the earthquake in Haiti, Wheelchair Sports Camp’s Kalyn Heffernan and fellow local musician Greg Cronin decided to do something. The two hastily set up a benefit show and raised close to a thousand dollars; the funds went directly to supporting medical assistance in Haiti, and…
There are bigger concerts, sure, but for our money there is no better way to see Red Rocks than during Film on the Rocks. The series, which features Colorado bands opening for beloved movies, starts Tuesday with Ark Life, Covenhoven and Caddyshack. You can also see some masterful old-timey updates…
It’s the most wonderful time of the week. There are some excellent concerts in town on this final weekend of May, including John Prine with Emmylou Harris and Bootsy Collins in Civic Center Park for the The Kinfolks Soul Food Festival. There are some fresher faces too, like Bassnectar at…
In the early hours of Thursday, March 13, 2014, a drunk driver injured 23 people and killed two at SXSW. There has been an outpouring of national support for the victims of the incident, and today it comes from Colorado. A benefit show called SXSW Cares is being held at…
