Wayne Shorter, who headlines the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival on Friday, April 25, doesn’t have typical days. The 80-year-old saxophone legend, who was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, says it’s all an adventure. The day we speak with him, Shorter tells us he is…
Last year, Sherwood Webber of Skinless put together a festival with a meticulous curatorial eye for aggressive music and no patience for gimmickry of any kind. The result was Denver Black Sky, which we named the best metal fest last month. The Fest returns this August with two days of…
It has been rough and rocky traveling for cannabis cowboys for most of the 40 years since “Me and Paul,” the hounded-by-the-Man classic in which Willie Nelson tipped off like-minded longhairs to the presence of narcs in Laredo. “If you’re staying in a motel there,” he warned dryly, “don’t leave…
For Justin Bua, painting is about documenting moments in time that reflect an era. Hailing from New York, Bua’s work has examined the urban themes of hip-hop, jazz, break dancing, and the countless threads that continue to sew the fabric of the entire culture. Since the early ’90s, Bua has…
The bar across the street from the Pepsi Center is a menagerie. The Arcade Fire show has just ended, and I am talking to a woman named Sarah who is dressed as a blackbird. Her husband, Tom, is wearing a fire-print onesie and a furry hood with ears. He has…
Lola, the frontwoman for Lola Black, has been carrying brass knuckles since she was a teenager. So far, she hasn’t had to use them. “Sometimes coming out of a bar, I’ll put them in my back pocket, just in case,” she says. “You never know…” Since the band’s 2008 inception,…
Mark Hosler is Denver Noise Fest’s headliner for Saturday, April 25th at Rhinoceropolis. Hosler is best known as one of the founding and continuous members of legendary experimental band Negativland. That project earned a lifetime of notoriety for the 1991 release of its U2 EP. That art prank proved especially…
The Glitch Mob’s new stage setup is called the Blade, and it consists of three structures that resemble turbines. “We collaborated with Martin Phillips. He took a liking to us early on,” says bandmember Josh “Ooah” Mayer. Known for co-creating Daft Punk’s famed Pyramid for the Alive tour in 2006…
Cop Circles’s Luke Leavitt spent time living in Egypt as a kid and formed a band while attending Vassar College in New York. He moved to Denver and found a city where he could play his keytar as part of a protest and develop an intense live show. We spent…
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver asks a Colorado band or musician four questions and then draws their conversation. We call the resulting comic “4 Questions: Comic Strip Interview” because we have no use for obscurity. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work and even buy it…
For some dumb reason, everyone wants to be in a rock band. Probably because it’s a good way to avoid gazing into the inescapable black hole of painful loneliness. That and rock & roll kicks ass, and gets you chicks or dudes or money or something. The problem with rock…
Luke Leavitt is sitting in the food court at the Town Center mall in Aurora for the second time in a week. At other tables are families with strollers, couples and groups of friends enjoying the cuisine at hand. It’s mostly fast-food fare, but there is also what appears to…
In June of 2012, Preston Douglas opened the doors of NORAD Dance Bar in hopes of redirecting the ears of listeners to the underground sounds of house, deep house, and techno music. Since then, the spot has become a fixture in Denver’s growing dance and electronic scene, welcoming fans for…
The library is a building that holds thousands of books. But that doesn’t describe the institution’s role. Libraries are our memories. They are the place where all the lines eventually connect, where you can trace the progress of time in every direction. With the library’s help, you can find the…
Before the Knife’s show proper got started, a guy who was dressed like a particularly garish Russell Brand got the crowd warmed up with some calisthenics. You know, the sort of thing that’s done en masse in Japan and China. It was part impromptu dance-class primer and part yoga class,…
Pretty Lights returns to Red Rocks for a two-night stand on Friday, August 8 and Saturday, August 9 but the this time around local producer Derek Vincent Smith will have a full band on board as well as thirteen members of the Colorado Symphony. Tickets ($44.50 advance, $50 day of…
Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop doing it wrong. Send your problems to her –…
Britt ChesterBehind the “Big G Hive” created by Brown Note ProductionsBrown Note Productions, Inc. is among the best lighting companies in the country, at least according to its new trophy. The Thornton-based production company won the Parnelli Award for “Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year” for 2013. The Parnellis,…
Method Man and Redman, who were recently immortalized on the cover of High Times with their faces carved into an imaginary “Mount Kushmore,” played a sold-out show on 4/20 at Cervantes’ Masterpiece. No surprises there. Also Leftover Salmon was playing in the street right outside, with members of Little Feat…
Record Store Day is all about showing the love for your favorite bands by hitting the shops and making a purchase. Westword decided to hit the checkout lines at Wax Trax and Twist & Shout and put people on the spot. Hey, you! You just bought a bunch of stuff…
The most superfluous smoke machine in the world was employed during Wiz Khalifa’s 4/20 set at Red Rocks. Partway through the Pittsburgh rapper’s performance, someone backstage turned on the thing, and its output was immediately subsumed into the cloud of pot smoke cascading down from the stands. There’s weed at…
Even diehard rap fans will tell you: There’s something about recorded rap music that often doesn’t translate well to the stage. It makes sense for a lot of artists; for those who rely on a carefully chosen vocabulary, much of what makes an artist great can get completely lost in…
