Concerts

“Just scrub the insides of your cheeks like you’re brushing your teeth for a good twenty seconds,” said a smiling volunteer, handing out cotton swabs to attendees of the recent Underground Music Showcase. That volunteer was working for the Love, Hope, Strength Foundation, a nonprofit that works to get people…

As tailgaters slowly trickled into Red Rocks around 7 p.m. Sunday night, Nathan & Stephen singer Nathan McGarvey, sporting a hot-pink bandana with black stars, looked out at the crowd — which, up front, was thick with current and former Illegal Pete’s employees—and earnestly shouted, “This is Red Rocks! Did…

Over the next three weeks, the Flobots will visit fifteen towns across Colorado, playing everything from a fundraiser to a street party, hosting workshops at museums and having a powwow and song-sharing session with the Ute tribe. The tour is the first run of a pilot program from state agencies…

Los Angeles-based songwriter Colleen Green performs at Dryer Plug Studios this Sunday, September 6, with Future Single Mom, Safe Boating is No Accident and Male Blonding. An East Coast native, Green moved to Oakland in 2008 and became part of the garage punk world in the Bay Area as a…

Jazz Aspen Snowmass: Labor Day Experience celebrates its 25th year this weekend. The music event, organized by the non-profit of the same name, takes place in Snowmass Village. As the event has evolved and streamlined over the years, the Labor Day Experience features two main acts each night, with a…

The Sunnyside Music Festival — one of only a few located in a park within Denver’s city limits — returns to Chaffee Park at 44th and Tejon Streets on Saturday, September 12. The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and features seven local artists, including standout funk act…

San Diego-based electronic band Prayers performed at Riot Fest on Friday, August 28, and proved to be one of the most electrifying acts of the entire weekend. When Rafael Reyes and Dave Parley took the stage, there was a relatively sizable crowd assembled in front of the Radicals Stage setup…

Hall & Oates is performing tonight at Red Rocks. As the most commercially successful duo in rock, Hall & Oates have been part of the mainstream musical landscape since at least the time of their second album, 1973’s Abandoned Luncheonette. And unlike much of the music of the duo’s ’70s…

Megan Burtt brought the best of the Colorado music scene in Denver to the Oriental Theater this weekend. It was a celebration and release of her latest album The Bargain. The energy was explosive as it is the final Denver show for Burtt for a year, as she continues on…

“I’ve had people tell me my music is too silly, and other people have said I’m a terminal bummer,” says the musician known as Little Fyodor. “To me it’s a mixture of both. Oscar Wilde once said, ‘Give a man a mask, and he’ll tell you the truth.’ I think…

The sun was beating down on the Riot Fest stage and GZA looked sweaty. Joined only by his DJ, the Wu-Tang rapper was just a couple of songs into his Saturday afternoon set. Between the dearth of onstage bodies and the sweltering heat, he clearly needed some help keeping up…

“This beer is for chugging or chucking,” shouts In The Whale frontman Nate Valdez, right after a shiny, labeless can is thrown past his head. The punk rock duo is on stage at Black Shirt Brewery. It’s the Saturday night release party for the band’s beer, Whales Suck, and fans…

In addition to the activity at the National Western Complex over the weekend, Riot Fest helped facilitate a series of after-shows, featuring some of the festival’s biggest names playing in venues around town. Among the most successful (and compelling) of those was Thrice’s Friday night appearance at Summit Music Hall…

On Friday night at Riot Fest, the news of Motörhead’s cancellation spread like a viral video. But it didn’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone who knew that the band had ended its set early in Salt Lake City the night before because Lemmy was having issues…

The Still Tide graced the stage of the Open Media Foundation with an ethereal performance at the Open Music Session for August 2015. Since their move to Denver from New York state in the beginning of 2015, the newly-local band is exerting a pull on audiences that’s almost, well, tidal. Alums…

If you don’t know what to expect, a GWAR show can be a little disturbing. When the on-stage choreographed violence begins, and the first spurts of fake blood and semen begin streaming into the crowd, more than a few people become varying degrees of confused and disgusted. They’re finding out…

As Anthrax was nearing the end of its Friday night performance, singer Joey Belladonna made an announcement to the crowd: Motorhead had canceled its scheduled appearance at the festival, citing the health problems of its singer, the inestimable Lemmy Kilmister. “Motorhead won’t be playing tonight,” Belladonna said. “But I want…

Sure, it’s probably smart to pace yourself when staring down the barrel of a three-day festival the goes until the wee hours. But Riot Fest gets going early and people showing up late to see System Of A Down or Ice Cube missed a lot of the fantastic day-one sets…

Riot Fest weekend is here — a huge array of punk, hip-hop and rock bands will come to the National Western Complex. Elsewhere, Pretty Lights plays Telluride, Dave Matthews Band is at Fiddler’s Green. The full list of our picks follows.  ALL WEEKEND Riot Fest$99.98/VIP $259.98 2 p.m. National Western…