Concerts

Boulder alumnus the Samples packed the area in front of the Wolf stage with their bluesy, funky jams with heavy dance hall/world influence. They played “Did You Ever Look So Nice” and the segued into “Giants,” with Blues Traveler’s John Popper jumping in on harmonica, riffing up and down the…

My first set of the day was Nas and Damian Marley, mostly because I walked in and that was who was playing the main stage. Normally, straight-up reggae is a little boring to me, and to be sure: The reggae crowd was out…

Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, 1:30 p.m., Bison Tent Blame it on the early hour, chalk it up to the inconvenient location of the Bison Tent on the far eastern end of the complex. Maybe it boils down to the fundamental feel of the open-air stage, a forum that doesn’t exactly…

Arriving at 1 p.m., I headed for Beta Beach after orienting myself. The Manufactured Superstars were throwing down their trademark dirty disco funk, and the misting tunnels and inflatable sculpture and furniture were keeping everyone as cool as possible in the sunshine…

The Motet, noon on the Wolf Stage Two years of experience can make a difference. The organizers of the Mile High Music Festival seem to have learned from the mistakes of years’ past for the 2010 version of the mega fest. Arriving at the massive soccer complex at Dick’s Sporting…

When Rusted Root formed in Pittsburgh in 1990, it made a world-beat influenced splash with a series of releases throughout the decade. During this creative period, the band released its most commercially successful song, “Send Me On My Way.” The tune, which has been used on soundtracks for films like…

The name Keller Williams is instantly recognizable to just about every music fan, whether they are jamband aficionado or not. Combining a complex variety of guitar effects and looping pedals, Keller Williams more or less reinvented the whole modern one-man band movement of the last fifteen years. Add to that…

After a few months renovating the former Triangle Denver space at 2036 Broadway, former 15th Street Tavern owners Myke Martinez and Kris Sieger, and 3 Kings Tavern owner Jim Norris are set to celebrate the Rockaway Tavern’s grand opening on Friday, August 13. Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti will be performing…

“C” is for controversy — you know, the thing that media types presumably thrive on, the lifeblood of sites like Radar Online and TMZ. But not all media outlets set out to create controversy. Some just stumble into it. Case in point: Last month, we learned that two groups of…

Creating music that alternately recalls shades of John Mayer and Jack Johnson with a strong soul music influence, One eskimO and its song “Kandi” have slowly been infiltrating eardrums since the release of the act’s debut last fall. Starting with a casual mention of the band’s name about six months…

Our Denver Rock Atlas feature is precisely what it sounds like: a compendium of storied Denver venues, past and present, in which we pick a place and share our favorite memories of the joint. After you read our memories, please feel free to share some of your own.You haven’t forgotten…

Mainstream success hasn’t complicated Laurent Brancowitz’s approach to music. As lead guitarist and a founding member of the alt-rock quartet Phoenix, Brancowitz played a formative role in honing the band’s straightfoward sound, a mixture that blends ’80s pop cues, soul-informed guitar licks and plaintive vocals. “It’s a thing we’ve always…

It’s been a tough summer for live music. Lilith Fair was ultimately cut by more than a third. The Limp Bizkit reunion tour was canceled entirely (though no one seems too broken up about that one). And here in Denver, there will be no Monolith. Which makes Mile High Music…

Go green! In April, Eric Turner and Alfonso Natarelli took over the former Foundry space at 1109 Walnut Street in Boulder, which they’re transforming into Absinthe House. “We want it to look like an absinthe house that’s been around before the ban on absinthe ninety years ago, but with an…

It would’ve been too obvious for Aaron Collins, former frontman of the rock barbarians known as Machine Gun Blues, to do something similarly rambunctious with his new band, A. Tom Collins (due at the hi-dive on Tuesday, August 17). Fortunately, he opted to accentuate his actual musical talents with this…

Das Racist got famous by recording a song called “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” which is basically made up of the line “I’m at the Pizza Hut/I’m at the Taco Bell/I’m at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.” There’s also something in the middle there about “pizza butt,”…

As half of the Benevento-Russo Duo, Marco Benevento played bass lines with his feet and held down organ and Wurlitzer parts with separate hands. But in the trio format, he’s completely at home behind the piano, which he says is totally his ax. The forward-thinking Benevento usually makes some absorbing…

A lot has been made of the 2009 reunion of pop-punk legends Screeching Weasel — but the fact is, the band has broken up and reformed numerous times since starting in suburban Chicago in 1986. Snotty, catchy and just sloppy enough to keep it real, the group became a beloved…

For one of the most successful bands in history, Rush remains a pretty cryptic bunch. Formed in 1968, the Canadian trio of guitarist Alex Lifeson, drummer/lyricist Neil Peart (who joined in 1974) and singer/bassist/keyboardist Geddy Lee began as a Zeppelin-esque hard-rock combo before mutating into rock’s most progressive, subversive A-lister…

In 2000, Kitty Vincent and Joe Grobelny started a band with some friends after meeting through an ad at Albums on the Hill in Boulder. Facade was the name of that outfit, and its music was kind of a cross between jazz and dream pop, with Vincent’s velvety voice weaving…