The idea for the new palette-based stage outside at Black Shirt Brewing came from owner Chad Miller’s three-year-old son. His son, who is a musically inclined toddler, was making Miller replay music videos on Youtube for him one night. In one that was played over and over, Miller began to…
The Westword Music Showcase is just a few weeks away. Join us on Saturday, June 20, 2015, for Colorado’s largest one-day music festival. The Showcase is a celebration of our state’s vibrant music scene. Colorado is home to internationally renowned experimental bands, pioneering folk artists, Grammy winners and much, much more…
The fourth annual Mile High Festibowl took place in April across three venues in central Denver. The festival featured more than sixty bands and over twenty visual artists, and its success was remarkable for several reasons, starting with the fact that the Mouth Bomb collective behind it lost its home…
With the lights of Denver in the background and Red Rocks’ iconic natural beauty surrounding him, 31-year-old Kentuckian Matthew Shultz shook and spun and generally ran around the stage last night as his Southern alt-rock band, Cage the Elephant, entertained a sold-out young crowd. The former construction worker and plumber,…
Bassnecter took up residence at Red Rocks over the weekend, and fans of the California DJ turned out in droves, even on a rainy Friday. As photographer Brandon Marshall proved, you can’t keep a bass fan down. Below, you’ll find a few fans making the most of it. …
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an ’80s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book SAINT COLE from Fantagraphics books. Last Week’s Episode Of Rufus…
The Ogden Theatre was packed on Saturday, and everyone was anxiously waiting to marvel at the psychedelic sounds of the subdued machine known as Tame Impala. Before the five-piece band walked the stage, its roadies took to work assembling every pedal, cable, and instrument to one another while conferring an…
I remember once, an old bandmate’s boyfriend told me “a rock star plays their bass like this” (motioning to an imaginary low-slung guitar hitting around the waist) and “a real musician plays their bass like this” (plucking the strings of an invisible instrument at his chest.) He was implying that…
Last night, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra debuted its Turn Over the Keys series, wherein the ensemble serves as the backing band for a handful of local artists. The inaugural roster included Ian Cooke, Land Lines and Megan Burtt. We’ll have much more on the event in the coming days, but…
We all know that Colorado is home to many renowned bands, and the annual Westword Music Showcase celebrates our local music scene like no other. We’ve paired 100 bands alongside some pretty serious national talent (Flume, the Black Angels, MisterWives, Roadkill Ghost Choir, Robert DeLong and Wave Racer, to be…
DeVotchKa’s Tom Hagerman has been working with the Colorado Symphony, helping the group with writing the orchestrations for the music of various bands, since his own group’s first show with them in February, 2012. DeVotchKa’s lush orchestration and arrangements make them an ideal band for a symphony to collaborate with, and…
The Boulder home known as Goss House, which also functions as a music venue, studio and art gallery, is closing down. The house’s residents are being forced to leave, as the landlord elected not to renew their lease this summer. Come July, Goss House will join Astroland and Dead Leaf…
If you haven’t been to Lost Lake in a little while, it’s very different inside. Where once the black-walled room and the small stage stood is the bar with a shelved wall lit up with small lights where the bottles of alcohol sit like they would at a place that…
On Wednesday, May 27th, The Decemberists perform at Red Rocks with Spoon and Courtney Barnett. In certain circles, it’s de riguer to refer to Portland, Oregon’s the Decemberists as a pretentious hipster band. Let’s first dispense with the term “hipster.” Hasn’t it lost its currency as a criticism at this…
Sunday: A day that, especially on a late-May three-day weekend, is made for beer, friends, music and the hope that the deluge of rain will let up for one afternoon. If you didn’t spend your Sunday evening at the Larimer Lounge, surrounded by packs of Denverites, draft beers and the…
This weekend, one of Colorado’s most celebrated dance clubs will celebrate seven years of operation. In that time, Beta has won accolades both locally and nationally for its impressive roster of talent and its exceptional Funktion One sound system. The creator of that system, Tony Andrews, was in town this week…
Hey, Westword readers. You love commenting on our stories, and we love reading what you have to say — the bad and the good. Late yesterday, we changed the way you can comment online: We’re be using Facebook comments for the foreseeable future. The bad news: all of your previous comments have…
Guitarist David Torn has scored a number of films, including Traffic, The Order and Lars and the Real Girl, and has played on dozens of film scores, so it’s not surprising that much of the material on only sky, his brand-new solo album on ECM, has a cinematic quality. Torn…
Jon Spencer is prolific, taking turns in underground noise-rock and garage acts like Shithaus and Pussy Galore. He formed Jon Spencer Blues Explosion almost 25 years ago in New York City, and the trio has not lost an energetic step, as its nearly seamless set at the Bluebird Theater in…
Denver music lovers: We are excited to announce some new additions to the 2015 Westword Music Showcase lineup. Join us on Saturday, June 20 for the 21st annual Showcase featuring some of the most interesting acts working in Colorado today, including Land Lines, Rubedo, The Dirty Few, Bud Bronson &…
The Fort Collins Musicians Association (or FoCoMA) announced the winners of its 8th Peer Awards, which are determined by a vote among musicians. The list is a worthy introduction to the incredibly robust scene going on north of Denver. Many of this year’s winners are also nominees in our own…
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book SAINT COLE from Fantagraphics books. Last Week’s Episode Of Rufus…
