Concerts

This summer’s Vans Warped Tour will boast some impressive and eclectic artists to draw fans of punk, hip-hop and hardcore right alongside the inevitable Hot Topic zombies. The venerable festival, hasn’t always evolved smoothly, but this year’s Denver lineup — the last stop on the tour — is particularly impressive…

OK, so there has been somewhat more weed smoked in the vicinity of Red Rocks this season. Not inside, mind you. That would still be illegal and no one’s breaking that law — never have. But the parking lot is a different story. And we have seen some impressive displays…

Welcome back, Americans. We ardently hope you return to us full of leftover barbecue and slightly sunburned. There are a few good shows this week, starting with legendary jazz drummer Tootie Heath with his new backing band (two-thirds of the Bad Plus). They’ll play Dazzle a couple nights this week…

[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…

The Fourth of July might mean fireworks, hot dogs and apple pie to some folks, around the parts music will be a big part of that. If you’re down with a 90-minute drive, there’s the South Park Music Festival, which kicks off today and runs through Saturday while Umphrey’s McGee…

It’s summer in Colorado which means it’s time to enjoy the outdoors before winter arrives again and the beautiful green fades to a snowy white. Summer also means the Denver-area concert calendar is packed, and thankfully, you can enjoy both mother nature and music in the same place this summer…

Now that we’ve wrapped up the 2014 Westword Music Showcase and awards ceremony, we’re looking forward to spending the next twelve months getting our hands – and ears – on as much Colorado music as possible. We asked a number of local artists to talk about the peers they admire…

People in Colorado love live music. That statement can apply anywhere in the country, of course, but in Colorado, the ability to see shows in amazing indoor and outdoor venues year-round seems like just as much of a reason that folks move here as our weed, our mountains and, well,…

Jukeboxes are hard to come by in the digital age. But Devo founder Mark Mothersbaugh brought one with him when his band played in Denver last week. And it isn’t just any jukebox; it’s one made more than fifty years ago by AMI Music and filled with sixty vinyl records…

Thousands of people will descend on the tiny town(s) of South Park and Fairplay this patriotic weekend for the South Park Music Festival. Whether you’re a pro at camping music festivals or a newbie who only bought tickets because you didn’t realize South Park was a real town, there are…

[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…

We’ve just received word that the Hundred, one of Denver’s most prominent event promoters and show producers, will be hosting a one-day festival called Cloak and Dagger at City Hall and Vinyl, on Saturday, September 20. The lineup looks promising, and given that it’s spread across four stages in the…

Anyone who has ever taken in a show at Red Rocks knows that it is hard to describe. The acoustics, the crowds, the breath-taking view in every direction. Instead of describing it, our photographers have been hard at work capturing it, and the many concerts that occur there on film…

There are some excellent shows in town this week as we lead up to Fourth of July weekend, including Fitz & the Tantrums two-night stand at the Ogden Theatre, Sarah McLachlan at Red Rocks, as well as Zeds Dead and Dada Life co-headlining at Red Rocks…

Few bands that were around in 1994, at least in Denver’s punk milieu, are still around. But somehow King Rat has endured and reinvented or reinvigorated itself again and again, despite personal turmoil and the vicissitudes of public tastes in punk and music in general. And it was the reinvigorated…

The mighty King Rat turns twenty this weekend and will celebrate with a pair of unusual shows at Three Kings. If you go to nothing else this weekend, we advise you go there. But we understand if you go to Red Rocks instead for Widespread Panic’s annual weekend getaway in…

We’ve just announced the winners of this year’s Westword Music Awards. See the winners in each of our forty categories in the post that follows — the names of the artists who came out on top of the public vote are bolded and enlarged. We took a few photos of…

The votes have been tallied for this year’s Westword Music Awards, and the trophies are almost ready. We won’t blow the surprise, but suffice it to say they will not bludgeon as effectively as last year’s. Find out what they look like tonight: Thursday, June 26 at Cassleman’s. An Awards’…

It is no surprise at this point that KISS fans do not come unprepared. Still, a flock spanning three generations spent hours getting that eye-star just right before last night’s show at the Pepsi Center. Photographer Aaron Thackeray was there to commemorate their work. Here are our favorite face-painted KISS…

Bringing the bombast, drama and light show of a larger venue to Lost Lake, EMA and opening act Mas Ysa pushed enough air to test the sound system of most smaller rooms to its limits. Mas Ysa even commented that he thought he was overloading the monitor, but it didn’t…

Bob Marley wasn’t a particularly successful commercial artist during his lifetime. This week’s Backbeat feature explores how he became a household name around the world with the help of one greatest-hits compilation…