Swallow Hill Music, a Denver-based nonprofit that runs music education programs and organizes many concerts in the area, has just announced the resignation of its CEO. Tom Scharf, who also served as Executive Director, has served in the top role at Swallow Hill for seven years — his last day…
When it comes to playing the music industry game, sometimes it is easiest to take the industry out of the picture altogether and do it yourself. This is the ethos behind GravesEnd Records, a self-proclaimed old-school punk label started in 2009 by a musician and Colorado transplant who goes by…
If there is a strange request that a concert promoter can make of a musician, it’s a safe bet that Scott McCaughey has heard it. He co-founded the Young Fresh Fellows in 1983 and played with R.E.M. for close to twenty years. Lately, he’s been on tour with the Baseball…
After thirteen years together, the Fruit Bats played their final shows last November. At the time, frontman Eric D. Johnson didn’t have any immediate plans to write another album. He figured he’d keep composing film scores — something he’s done for the past three years — and continue to produce…
If music festivals are good for one thing it’s seeing great new bands. If they’re good for anything else it’s seeing bands you used to really like play again after a long hiatus. This year’s Riot Fest has a great crop of both new and old acts, so for anyone…
Brian Mathenge, Mu$a Bailey and Eric Cunningham opened Cold Crush at 27th and Larimer late last summer. Since then, the bar has become a staple of the neighborhood, offering an evolving selection of food, music and art. In this week’s Backbeat feature, the three look back on their first year…
1. They Come From Everywhere Phish’s following will literally follow the band anywhere. Many in attendance over the weekend at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park flew in from all over the country. Some fans drove from Massachusetts and Vermont, in some cases without tickets, hoping to score some in the parking…
At the end of the Swans’ hypnotic set last night at the Bluebird Theater, frontman Michael Gira told the crowd he’d be at the merch table in ten minutes if anyone wanted to talk or have him sign anything. He seems to do that every show. On stage, the guy…
On a recent Wednesday evening at Cold Crush, a customer sits on a high bar stool, eating a shrimp po’ boy. The bar is half filled with twenty- and thirty-somethings, talking and sipping cocktails. Original art hangs on the red-brick walls. There are about twenty people in the building, but…
Bob Dylan & His Band headline the Bellco Theatre on Saturday, November 1, and tickets ($49.50-$129.50) go on sale on Friday, September 5 at 10 a.m. Slipknot, along with opener Korn, hit the Denver Coliseum on Tuesday, November 11 as part of its Prepare for Hell tour, which kicks off…
[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. Previous episodes of Rufus: Rufus Baxter:…
It didn’t take long to run into weed at the Phish show. Within thirty minutes of going into Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Saturday, we saw concert-goers generously sharing hits on their pipes and puffs on their joints and vape pens. THC wax and shatter were also being passed around…
Editor’s note: A writer sent us this essay on her experience at one of this weekend’s Phish shows at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park — the first with recovering-addict support she’s seen since she stopped drinking six months ago. We’re publishing it anonymously to protect her privacy. When I tell people…
For the last handful of years, some rock bands of an older vintage have been brought in to Lava Room inside the Reserve Hotel and Casino. Over the weekend, it was L.A. Guns, the band that helped spawn Guns N’ Roses. When you’re thinking of going to a rock show,…
A lot can happen over the course of a decade. Even the punkest of punk bands aren’t immune to the curve balls life can throw. Toronto’s Fucked Up definitely falls into the category of “punkest of punk.” Since its inception in 2001 Fucked Up has done just about everything possible…
Hey, weed is legal in Colorado for all fun-loving adults! Phish is a band best understood while the listener is in a state of mind unlike the one required to do things like pay taxes and wear slacks. This year’s three-night stand by the Vermont band at Dick’s Sporting Goods…
The building at 1330 27th Street has been a number of different thing over the last eight decades or so: it was a manufacturing space for dozens of years, a warehouse, an artist loft, a rave spot. A drummer lived there for awhile and it’s the former home of NoDo…
Phish returns to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park this weekend for its 84th, 85th and 86th shows in Colorado. I know that thanks to the meticulous documentation available at phish.net. Also thanks to phish.net, I can tell you when the band first played in Colorado (July 28, 1988 at the Roma…
It’s Phish weekend in Denver, but there are plenty of options for those of you who practice different musical religions as well. Delightful weirdo Bob Log III plays Larimer Lounge, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott hits town and the Labor Day Experience comes to Snowmass. Our full list of picks for the…
When you purchase a ticket to any concert, you run the risk of not getting the experience you paid for. Outdoor shows get rained out. Favorite songs don’t get played. Opening bands go over their allotted time. Sometimes a musician is just having a very bad night. The one variable…
The way Sam Herring moves on stage can be frightening: One moment he’s slashing at the air with a balled-up fist, the next he’s pounding that fist into his chest with brute force. He crawls across the stage on his knees, sweating and wailing in frustration, but will look up…
The way a do-it-yourself music community/scene works is exactly like it sounds: by doing it yourself. DIY is an ethos that transcends genre. Regardless of what your music sounds like, you can create it, perform it and essentially sell it, through your own channels and own means without the hand…
