Welcome to the seventeenth annual Westword Music Showcase. Seventeen years! On the one hand, that’s a long freaking time — a lifetime, in fact, for some of our performers. The members of Sauna, for example: They were born the same year that Westword launched this event: 1994. (Yeah — let…
We are sad to report that longtime participators and supporters of Denver’s DIY music community Kristi Schaefer and Ryan McRyhew are packing their bags and heading for Chicago. Known as musical collaborators Hideous Men, the couple will be moving its headquarters to the midwest next month so that Schaefer can…
Wow! We’d be lying if we said we saw this coming. While we were sleeping, evidently, the Foo Fighters have officially been elevated to bona fide arena rock status, presumably owing to the success of the new album, Wasting Light…
Pulling a page from the Peaches’ sex rap playbook, Millionaires (performing tonight at the Marquis Theater with Breathe Electric, Christian TV, Set It Off and Caramel Carmela) is two campy sisters who aim to simultaneously please and offend. Still paying tribute to the days of MySpace with a big scene…
The line for the bar at Summit Music Hall was five-deep for most of Saturday night at the very sold-out Face to Face show in LoDo. Aaron Thackeray brings back these photos: View the full Face to Face slideshow. Below are a few highlights…
ELECTRIC DAISY CARNIVAL | 06.13.11 “When the smoke machines ran out, someone — and by ‘someone,’ I mean a complete fucking idiot — blasted the room with a fire extinguisher, sending a sweet poison into the eyes and mouths of everyone.”…
Remember a few weeks ago when we mentioned that Nathaniel Rateliff was getting ready to release a 10-inch live album culled from performances captured during Daytrotter’s Barnstormer Tour and a gig at Notting Hill Arts Club in London this past February? Well, we’ve just learned that Rateliff will be issuing…
Rose Hill Drive fans bemoaning the fact that the band has been mostly dormant for the past few years, rejoice! The indefinite, self-imposed hiatus has come to an end, and your heroes have returned — with new music. The former power trio (now a quartet, with the addition of bassist…
We sincerely hope you got in some recovery time and beauty sleep last weekend and this week, because this weekend’s Dance Card is out-of-control. Between the Electric Daisy Carnival, Inception and the first Full Moon Gathering of the summer, you’ll have plenty of options for booty-shaking good times…
We just received word on the lineup and dates for this year’s FMQB Triple A Conference taking place this fall. This year’s summit is slated to kick off on Wednesday, August 10 and culiminate on Friday, August 12, with performances at the Fox Theatre by Brett Dennen, Matt Nathanson, DeVotchka,…
The summer concert season is in full-swing, and it seems that every venue in town is booked though the weekend. With seemingly endless options, we’ve put together a list of shows we think are worth checking out, starting with A Place To Bury Strangers, back in Denver at the Bluebird…
There have been a lot of projects in recent memory searching for help with funding, from bands to films to films about bands. But few have had the historical importance of Style Wars, the seminal 1982 documentary about New York’s ’80s hip-hop scene. The film is available on DVD, but…
As partners in Strong Survive Promotionz for the past five years, independent concert promoters Travis Ragan and Ivan Ovchinnikov have booked shows at a number of venues around Denver, but they’ve never gotten a cut of the bar sales. So when they found out that the Roxy Theatre, an old…
Whether you’re a fan of the whomp or not, Dubstep is here to stay. Borgore (performing this evening at the Bluebird Theater with Thorazine, ServOne and Seeda) is definitely on the newer end of movement, but the Tel Aviv-born producer and DJ has already carved out his own style within…
Remember a few months ago when we told you about the upcoming Grateful Dead online game? Well, that’s finally coming to fruition in August, but it looks like it will have a little competition from everyone’s favorite party-man Jimmy Buffett. That’s right, if there was ever a song we wanted…
No, we don’t have our guitar plugged into our Smokey Amp again. Why do you ask? Oh that. Yeah, no, we’re just screwing around with our Google Doodle in honor of Les Paul, who would’ve been 96 today. Easy, tiger. It only sounds dirty — uh, the Google Doodle, that…
An acclaimed DJ, producer and remixer, Hastings, England’s native son Danny Howells earned his bones warming up for John Digweed at the legendary Bedrock club nights during the ’90s. Howells maintained that opening gig for almost ten years and earned a dedicated British following before blowing up worldwide in 2000…
Avery Sunshine (due tonight at the Soiled Dove as part of the road to the Vail Soul Series) will bring her signature smile, style and grace to the stage this evening. A soul-stirring force, the Pennsylvania native is a whirling ball of energy and, well, sunshine, who is sure to…
Langhorne Slim (playing tonight at the Fox Theatre in Boulder with Samantha Crain and Jonah Wisneski) could easily fit under the folk or alt-country label, but the Pennsylvania native is truly a gospel singer by nature. Slim’s vocals nod to Dylan, too, but it is the soulful reverie in his…
As the Colorado Symphony Orchestra continues on without a music director, Austrian Christian Arming is slated to guest-conduct the season finale concerts this weekend. The all-Wagner greatest-hits program includes selections from Lohengrin, Flying Dutchman, Die Meistersinger, and Die Walkure, which is part of the Ring Cycle…
Last night, the Sub.Mission crew kicked off its Electronic Tuesdays series, and for the next three weeks, it will be packing the Other Side full of electronic music from nearly two dozen different DJs. Generally speaking, when you have that many artists spread over a series of dates, it’s difficult…
Although Kings of Leon practically re-institutionalized Southern rock as an aesthetic, Alberta Cross (playing tonight at the Larimer Lounge with Boys) has taken it all to the next level, both visually and sonically. The NYC-by-way-of-London quintet effectively creates its own dirty, melancholic white-man blues. Guitarist Petter Ericson Stakee’s voice bears…
