The Great American Techno Festival brings John Tejada to NORAD

Born in Vienna to classical-musician parents and trained on the piano from age four, Los Angeles’s John Tejada is not your average DJ/producer. Taking his cue from Detroit techno icons Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Juan Atkins, Tejada is best known for gritty dance singles like “Sweat (on the Walls)”…

Lexigram is Lexigone. Yerkish returns!

Your eyes do not deceive you. If you’ve been seeing Yerkish popping up in your Facebook feed, rest easy: It’s not some glitch in the space time continuum. Yerkish has indeed returned, and Lexigram has Lexigone the way of the dodo. According to our pal Tim Kaminski, the whole thing…

Five best concerts this week, September 10-14

Guitars, you say? Oh, we’ve got guitars, friend. Big ones, loud ones, twangy ones, whatever your flavor, and all being played by people pushing their amps into overdrive with passion. If you feel like indulging your inner rocker this week, let’s just say you will have no problem finding places…

Lotus at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 9/8/12

LOTUS @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | 9/8/12 As its just over two-hour set came to a close, Lotus’s encore proved there is a special place in the band’s heart for Red Rocks. Following the close of “Colorado,” the second track in a three-song encore, Lotus opened into “Spiritualize,” which is…

Twin Shadow at Bluebird Theater, 9/7/12

TWIN SHADOW @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 9/7/12 Before ending the set, after a show full of enthusiastic responses from his audience, George Lewis Jr. said, “Denver, you’re amazing. Who was here last time we came?” A few people claimed to have been. He complimented the crowd on being honest because…

Savoy at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 9/7/12

SAVOY @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | 9/7/12Behind a cloud of smoke and haze, the members of Savoy took to their raised podiums in front of a frenzied Red Rocks last night behind a glowing panel of pulsing lights that simply read “SAVOY.” This build-up to the first drop was crucial,…

Denver concert calendar: Find any show in town

Got plans this weekend? Cancel them and go support live music instead. We’re here to help with our freshly updated calendar of Denver concerts. The listings are sortable by artist, venue and even price, if you like to choose bands based on cost per riff. There’s also a big list…

Ten best concerts this weekend: September 7-9

Welcome to the weekend! We know, it’s here already? Indeed. Hooray for short weeks! As always in our beloved Mile High City, the options are ripe for the picking and plentiful. We have them all listed in our massive concert calendar. If you’re feeling industrious and have some time to…

Why? at Gothic Theatre, 9/5/12

WHY? @ GOTHIC THEATRE | 9/05/12 After a great set from Why?, no one seemed to be in a hurry to leave the Gothic last night, so the band came back on stage for an encore. The rapid xylophone figure meant the band was going to play “A Sky For…

For Chris McGarry, middle America is both home and inspiration

Chris McGarry grew up near the banks of the upper Mississippi; it was in this environment that his parents first exposed him to classic country and gospel music. But like many people who grew up in the ’90s in middle America, he got into Nirvana and then dabbled in jam…

Five Iron Frenzy

Five Iron Frenzy was like an eight-year-long supernova that came, burned brightly for a few years and was then extinguished, with one final hurrah at the Fillmore in 2003. While its members splintered off into various factions, with bands that were compelling in their own right (Yellow Second, Nathan &…

Twin Shadow

George Lewis Jr. grew up in Florida but moved to Boston before forming his punk-funk cabaret outfit Mad Man Films. That band split after releasing two albums, and Lewis moved to Brooklyn, where he started writing songs on his own under the name Twin Shadow. The project’s debut album, 2010’s…

Rascal Flatts

If corporate rock of the ’70s and ’80s has a modern contemporary, it’s Rascal Flatts. While, granted, there’s far more twang accompanying this Nashville outfit’s ballads, the group trades in the kind of earnest, rubber-stamped sentimentality that once propelled bands like Toto and Journey on songs like “Without Your Love”…