Concerts

On Naima’s Grass Pajamas, Paul Riola’s Bottesini Project has assembled something of a dream lineup, including guitar legend Nels Cline of Wilco, bassist Keenan Wayne, CacheFlowe, Janet Feder and Glenn Taylor. The musicians recorded a day’s worth of improvisations, then Riola and Colin Bricker spent many additional hours in the…

The Used and the Almost played the Fillmore on Sunday. Photographer Aaron Thackeray (we call him the Awesome) was on hand. See his photos on the slideshow page…

Jolie Holland, with Matt Bauer The Walnut Room Saturday, October 10, 2009 Better Than: Walking from Market St. Station to Walnut & 31st in the cold No one shines like Brooklyn-based indie-folk goddess Jolie Holland. Just as Neil Young was the depth and edge of CSNY, Holland was the stand-out…

Yo La Tengo with Cheap Time Saturday, October 9, 1009 The Ogden Theater Better Than: Dreams of flying In concert footage, there are always people near the front, grinning like idiots and swaying back and forth. These people always look like hippies in the worst way. Meaning content to the…

Dethklok, Mastodon, Converge and High on Fire Saturday, October 10, 2009 Fillmore Auditorium Better than: Seeing the Archies, Alvin and the Chipmunks or any other cartoon rock band “There sure are a lot of nerds here for a heavy metal show,” said a friend while overlooking the sea of fist-pumping,…

Butthole Surfers, Psychic Ills, Circle Number DotFriday, October 9, 2009Ogden Theater, DenverBetter Than: The flash freezing going on outside.Circle Number Dot, who opened this show, didn’t sound like they got much more than a mere line check before hitting the stage. It was initially hard to tell if it was…

Orbit Service, the experimental/psychedelic pop outfit of Randall Frazier, will be appearing on the upcoming compilation MOM. The disc is a benefit for Beta-lactam Rings Records owner Chris McBeth’s mother, who has cancer. “[McBeth and I] have become very close friends over the past few years. His mother was recently…

The Pirate Signal, 3 the Hardway, The ReMINDers, Fresh Breath Committee, Masta Ace. Fox Theater Thursday October 8, 2009 Better than: Anything you have to wake up for on Friday that would have stopped you from being there. Approaching the Fox last night for the Fresh Breath Committee’s CD release…

Time, A Clock, Damon JeVon, Agent Strange and Doctype Thursday, October 8, 2009 hi-dive Better Than: That Alex Jones documentary on Bohemian Grove.A Clock from Fort Collins kicked off Thursday’s night show at the hi-dive, with his skilled sidekick, a DJ named Deadbeat, spinning jazz and R&B. Throughout his set,…

If you’re in need of some new music to freshen up the ol’ iPod, yet find yourself as bereft of disposable income as ever, here’s some good news: more than three dozen free albums from Rope Swing Cities, all in one place for easy perusal. The local IDM/ambient electronic netlabel…

Remember back when we didn’t really have too many high-profile bands, before the Fray and all the other members of the Neo Denver Invasion were even a gleam in their daddy’s eye? Then you probably remember Five Iron Frenzy, the ridiculously popular ska-core outfit fronted by Reese Roper whose members…

All right, break’s over, kids. Time for the big takeover. Looks like the Flobots are getting back to work — and it’s about damn time, for chrissakes. While the rest of us slept in intervals as a result of our efforts to diligently invest our time in such noble and…

Fear Before, Solar Bear, My Body Sings Electric Wednesday, October 7, 2009 The Marquis Theater Better Than: A junkyard bonfire Solar Bear began the onslaught at around 8:30, and for the rest of the evening the only respite to be found was between sets. The three bands are demonstrably different…

If you’re seeking Nirvana, you shall find it. It’s all there. From the dark, diary-style lyrics to the tortured-growl delivery to the loud-quiet-loud dynamic, you can hear the influence Kurt Cobain has had on Andy Hull as you listen to the super-serious, 22-year-old Manchester Orchestra frontman howling about such heavy…

I really wanted to play the sax when I was a kid, but ended up with the trombone, since a family friend let me borrow one. I got pretty good at it, and my folks finally bought me my own trombone — but once I was old enough to drive,…

Plenty of bands have overmined the new wave of British heavy metal and mixed it with a bit of glam rock and thrash. Sonically, Gritt Hitter (due at the hi-dive on Thursday, October 8) comes from that milieu, but instead of limiting itself to creating music in the shadow of…

If you like your militantly vegetarian metal fast, loud and brutal — splattered with specks of blood, shards of entrails and other bodily fluids — you owe it to yourself to catch Cattle Decapitation when the band stampedes into town with Soulfly and Prong. Earlier this year, after more than…

After one look at Strike Anywhere’s logo, it’s clear that this is a band with a heavily political stance. The logo, comprising three downward pointing arrows, is a nod to the Antifascist Circle, which was first designed to cover up Nazi swastikas. Strike Anywhere’s politically biting lyrics touch on such…

Like a Brillo pad stuffed with a gooey cream filling, Nebraska’s Box Elders smuggle sweet and luscious pop songs inside a raw, scratchy-as-hell shell. It’s not a new recipe, but Box Elders know how to make it their own; brothers Clayton and Jeremiah McIntyre, along with drummer/organist Dave Goldberg, ooze…

After his noise-rock band Calvin Krime broke up in the late ’90s, Sean Tillman performed as Sean Na Na before that project ultimately transformed into his current persona. Before it became something of a trend, Tillman performed profane and sexually oriented R&B as a solo act called Har Mar Superstar…

Few artists have explored the theme of paranoia as thoroughly as Time does on this latest release. In “Naked Brunch,” conspiracy-theory icon William Cooper is woven into that story about Paul McCartney being dead and Billy Shears acting as his stand-in for one of the most deft lyrical and conceptual…