Critic's Notebook

A brief comic history of the Rossonian

“I don’t think my eyes really opened up until the first time I got shot at,” says Tim Burdick, Denver pop-punk singer turned Army ranger. Dodging bullets was the last thing on Burdick’s mind when he was a high school musician in the late ’90s, playing in the pop-punk band Suburbia’s Finest.

WTF is rock ‘N’ roll? is the latest album from Denver’s Hot Apostles. The record’s title is a fitting question for the band’s guitarist Tay Hamilton, who has been asking what constitutes rock-and-roll from a young age.

Denver has a rich tradition of metal and a thriving doom scene. Influenced by Black Sabbath and rock and roll’s slower side, doom revels in heaviness and bleak, introspective lyrics delivered mostly at a snail’s pace.

Thomas A. Blomster has been exploring other cultures’ music for decades.

Mathematician by day and rock-and-roll photographer by night John Koontz, 63, was at the Larimer Lounge catching the Hot Apostles, one of his favorite bands, the evening he died.

The Westword Music Showcase is all about trying new things — listening to new bands, exploring new venues — but it helps to know the basics before you head over: basics like where to find restrooms, water and entrances. Keep reading for ten tips on how to enjoy the best Saturday of the year.

Playing Red Rocks is a rite of passage, and the unique beauty of the venue often prompts particularly inspired performances.

Sure, Colfax Avenue boasts many of the city’s best music venues, but Broadway has its share of spots to hear live music, too. Walk down that strip and you’ll find places that host punk, metal, indie-rock, honky-tonk, jazz and pretty much everything in between.

Queer In the Headlights 2017 Pridefest Party will mark the debut of Eyebeams, a band fronted by Denver underground music staple Suzi Allegra.

It’s been five decades since guitarist Bill Frisell played his first jazz tune in public as a junior at East High School.

Tonight, Dazzle is closing its doors for the last time at 930 Lincoln Street, where the iconic jazz venue has been for nearly two decades, before moving to much bigger digs at the Baur’s building at 1512 Curtis Street.

For the last fifteen years, the Five Points Jazz Festival has celebrated the neighborhood’s rich jazz history. The neighborhood, which was once dubbed the Harlem of the West, used to be home to a number of jazz clubs. This year’s festival, which is from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., on Saturday, May 20, includes more stages and more bands than previous years. While there are dozens of stellar bands performing this year (you can see the band lineup here), these are five acts definitely worth checking out.

Porter Ray, the 29-year-old rapper, is no stranger to loss.

Khalil Arcady, who today performs under the name Sur Ellz, grew up on East Colfax Avenue in Aurora and in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, and never quite felt like he fit in.

Colorado has a bevy of great synthesizer artists, and not all of them are producing electronic dance music. We searched far and wide to create a list of synth masters, with a particular focus on people working on the fringes of club culture and pioneering new ways of using their instruments to craft music.

The history of Brazilian thrash-metal giant Sepultura is fraught with bitterness, tumult and controversy.

Peter Hook, the bass player for Joy Division and New Order, is touring with his band, the Light, to perform albums from both of his previews acts.

A short cartoon history of the Capitol Hill Tavern.

The BellRays have been forging their own path in rock-and-roll since their inception in 1990. Back then, as now, there were very few black women fronting rock bands, something lead singer Lisa Kekaula jokes she kind of likes it.

Brandon Connor, aka the rapper Young Fait, was still in the womb on the day his mother was washing dishes and dropped a plate. She bent over to pick up the broken pieces and narrowly dodged a bullet as it blasted through a window and into her refrigerator door.

Redd Kross is playing Denver for the first time in twenty years.