Review: Converge at the Marquis, 12/8/11

CONVERGE at the MARQUIS THEATER | 12/8/11 When Converge played the opening strains of “Worms Will Feed/Rats Will Feast” last night, the place erupted, with almost everybody taking part in a massive sing-a-long, singing like the lyrics were part of their DNA, while others climbed onto the stage and launched…

Rockaway Tavern’s future up in the air

Although the Facebook page for Rockaway Tavern (2036 Broadway) says the venue’s last show was at the end of November, owner Kris Sieger insists that the venue isn’t closed (he says his former soundman had administrative control over the Facebook page). Sieger, who opened the bar in July 2010 with…

Shag reunion set for December 23 at Beauty Bar

Here’s a nice little Christmas present. Remember Shag (the club night, not the bar)? It’s returning for one night (two, if you count shhh-ag — more on that in a minute) at Beauty Bar on Friday, December 23. In the mid ’90s before Lipgloss, there was Quid, one of the…

Review: ohGr at the Bluebird, 12/07/11

OHGR AT THE BLUEBIRD | 12/07/11″Don’t do coke,” Ogre urged the audience at the Bluebird last night. “Because I sure fuckin’ did, and it nearly killed me.” This unvarnished pronouncement from ohGr’s frontman came at the end of a particularly strong and sharp performance of “Timebomb,” one of the best…

Review: Rise Against at 1STBANK, 12/6/11

RISE AGAINST at 1STBANK CENTER | 12/6/11 No matter what genre you ascribe to the band — punk, hardcore, plain vanilla rock from people who wear solid black — Rise Against has always been a bit of a chicken-or-the-angst situation. Would the live show be this good if the crowd…

R.I.P. John-Alex Mason

Terribly sad news to share in case you’re like us and somehow managed to miss this when it happened more than a month ago: On Wednesday, October 19, bluesman John Alex Mason died from complications after a routine surgery. The gifted guitarist, who was just 35 years old, is survived…

Bar Back: The Cow mooves into 753 Santa Fe Drive

After a long run as Joe’s Buffet, the building at 753 Santa Fe Drive went through a number of incarnations, including Club Mystery, Club 753 and, most recently, the Sound Kitchen. Now Marcus Giavanni has taken over the three-story, 15,000-square-foot space, which he’s dubbed The Cow — as in “cash…

True Aristocrats, December 10 at Road 34 in Fort Collins

The same people who would label True Aristocrats’ music as “prog” would probably think the same thing of Naked City or Mr. Bungle. Not that the Aristocrats (due at Road 34 in Fort Collins on Saturday, December 10) sound anything like either of those two projects, but a vibrant spirit…

Converge

The mathcore and metalcore titles attributed to Converge never quite fit. If musical precision is a requirement for the former, and heavy, breakneck-paced riffing qualifies as the latter, then Black Flag deserves the same designations. Converge was started in the early ’90s by a group of guys who didn’t really…

Cassy

At Panorama Bar in Berlin, sunrise forms the perfect backdrop for Cassy’s warm, soulful DJ sets. Those early-morning workouts run the gamut from deep and tech-house to straight techno and minimal, and they’ve made Cassy famous within international dance-music circles. She relocated to Berlin after meeting Cadenza Records boss Luciano…

Guns N’ Roses

Everyone has heard of Guns N’ Roses, and for better or worse, most people have a strong opinion of the band. But what’s often lost in the tangle of melodrama and inter-band recriminations is what made GN’R popular in the first place. Appetite for Destruction came out of L.A. at…

Freddie Gibbs and Fashawn

Freddie Gibbs, the mixtape assassin from Gary, Indiana, is on the come-up. Signed to Young Jeezy’s Corporate Thugz Entertainment imprint, “Gangsta” Gibbs has a collection of underground street gems from projects like The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs, released after he was dropped from Interscope in 2009. Most impressively, Gibbs released…