There’s an insanely eclectic array of shows this weekend. Swallow Hill is celebrating its 35th Anniversary at the Paramount Theatre with Josh Ritter, Brett Dennen and Elle King. Nas performs his classic album, Illmatic at the Paramount. There’s also the New Pornographers, Felice Brothers, the Hot Sardines, War on Drugs…
Ambassador Wolf is used to playing to an audience of massive roaring engines, with the buzz of industrial lights above them. The band, which started as an after-work ensemble for three engineering Ph.D. students, performed in the lobby of their workplace, the Powerhouse Energy Institute in Fort Collins, last weekend…
Growing up in a digital age, I learned very young that photography could be something used quite carelessly with the hopes that maybe one click out of several hundred would turn out half decent. In high school I began messing around with disposable and old 35mm cameras I would find…
The West is not a place,” Jack A. “Papa” Weil, the founder of Rockmount Ranch Wear, was fond of saying. “It’s a state of mind.” Jack A. entered that state for good in 1928, when the then-27-year-old salesman for Paris Garters drove his brand-new Chrysler Roadster across the plains from…
The road has been rough on Paws. Last week, a thief broke into the Scottish band’s van while they were stopped in Seattle and stole money and equipment, including a laptop and a hard drive containing much of the group’s early recordings and work on planned future projects. At last…
When guitarist Jeff Rady, who’s played with Strange Americans, Casey James Prestwood, Faceman and other local acts, started learning pedal steel, he noticed that a lot of the instructional videos and books out there were very antiquated. He says Winnie Winston’s or Scotty Moore’s books on pedal steel from the…
The Gypsy Jane Cannabis Carnival brought two remarkably solid days of music to the Denver Mart over the weekend. Saturday was particularly good for fans of classic hip-hop, with sets from E-40, Too Short, Warren G and your headliner, Snoop Dogg. Snoop has spent plenty of time in Colorado since…
Ralph Gean hasn’t played many shows in the last couple of years. So you might think the local rockabilly legend might be a little bit off his game. But that notion was quickly and handily dismissed over the weekend at Mutiny Information Cafe, when Gean got up in front of…
This weekend’s most unlikely show featured Vanilla Ice, who you know from “Ice Ice Baby” and reality TV, played at the Grizzly Rose, which you know for its mechanical bull and line dancing classes. After the opening band finished a set of country rock, the DJ played early nineties hits:…
[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80’s 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 YOUTH IS WASTED. Last Week’s Episode: Rufus Baxter Seeks…
Tonight, Westword, Open Media Foundation and Greater Than Collective will co-hosting a live performance by Denver’s Kitty Crimes at the Denver Open Media studios at 7th and Kalamath. It’s a continuation of our Open Music Sessions, where we will create several videos based on regular live tapings of exceptional bands…
It’s a good weekend here in Denver, with hip-hop deity KRS-One playing Cervantes’ and the criminally under-appreciated Ralph Gean playing Mutiny Information Cafe tonight. Elsewhere, the Gypsy Jane Cannabis Carnival brings E-40 and others to the Merchandise Mart. The rest of our picks are below…
Denver’s Chimney Choir will be playing at Syntax Physic Opera tonight. But playing is really an understatement. As the flyers pronounce, this is “The Launch.” See also: Denver’s Ten Best Small Venues…
Hopsin has done well in Colorado, playing to packed rooms in Denver and elsewhere for several years now. But something strange happened at his scheduled January 30 show at the Aggie Theater. He was supposed to play alongside Dizzy Wright, DJ Hoppa, and Black Pegasus. But, without explanation, he didn’t…
Wesley Davis has long been hosting his Textures series, with its focus on live ambient music. A couple of years ago, he used to host Textures in the basement of Gypsy House Café, but at the series’s new home, Mutiny Information Cafe, he doesn’t have to bring in a P.A.,…
There’s an Internet meme that tells you what band you’re probably into based on state. For Colorado, that band is Naked and Famous. In 2013 that band played at the Fillmore to a large crowd. That sort of mixture of rock and synth pop and R&B finds a different manifestation…
. In recent years, fall has come on with a vengeance: with uncharacteristically heavy rains and early snow, and winter has refused to leave. But this year it has felt more like we’ve been given a reprieve. That climate, that natural ambiance perfectly suited a place like Chautauqua Auditorium and…
Sixteen-year-old me would’ve been obsessed with Lorde. Seriously: her number one fan. I would’ve bought tickets to her 1ST Bank Center show as soon as they went on sale, gotten to the venue early, and would’ve been the girl randomly cheering from the front long before Lorde appeared on stage…
Itchy-O is a band that defies explanation: It’s a massive, noise-making horde of masked weirdos, an ecstatic jumble of influence and culture and myth. The Denver-based mobile unit is celebrating the release of its first full-length album, Burn the Navigator, on Alternative Tentacles. It headlined a show over the weekend…
Boulder-based Big Gigantic — the instrumental livetronica, hip-hop, jazz and electronic duo — took the Red Rocks stage this weekend for its third annual “Rowdy Town” show. The group collaborated with Denver-based funk band the Motet to do a full band set each night. Dominic Lalli, saxophonist of Big Gigantic…
Whenever someone mentions Ty Segall to me, I immediately feel compelled to tell the story of my friend Kevin. Years ago, at the sadly-defunct Boulder warehouse venue Astroland, a Ty Segall show got a bit insane, the band threw the drum set into the crowd, and Kevin’s head collided with…
[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80’s 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 YOUTH IS WASTED. Rufus Baxter: Part Eleven Rufus Baxter:…
