Sometimes, a band elicits such a strong emotional response following their performance at a music festival that it’s difficult to put into words. We totally get it: After your brain’s been massaged until it’s a radioactive pile of goo thanks to Deadmau5’s thunder-bass or your heart breaks from listening to…
Deadmau5’s Saturday night headlining set at Governors Ball was almost over before it even started — or at least ten minutes after it started, which would have been an even greater tragedy. The EDM giant used the festival to unveil his highly anticipated new thunder dome stage setup, but just…
Quintron and Miss Pussycat were probably kids in the 70s and witnessed/were subjected to/were fascinated with/were disturbed by some of the creepier Sid & Marty Croft shows. Like Lidsville, H.R. Pufnstuf and Far Out Space Nuts. Somehow those phantasmagoric and psychedelic TV shows were deemed worthy faire for Saturday morning…
$10 beers, $45 t-shirts and an egregious number of people having their pictures taken in front of an oversized concert poster for the show they were about to see: this was the scene inside the Pepsi Center leading up to U2’s 8 p.m. set in Denver on Saturday night. Nine…
In a recent Westword feature, Alex Warzel describes the music (and career) of Felix Fast4Ward, saying, “He’s been making his way through the Denver music scene, developing his style and skill. He teaches music production to kids through the Youth on Record organization and consistently performs around town. As Fast4Ward,…
This weekend’s best shows include the Motet at Red Rocks, Garage Fest at the hi-dive and plenty of solid country shows. The full list of our picks follows. FRIDAY, JUNE 5 The Motet$37.50/$45 6:45PM Red Rocks Amphitheatre Hi-Dive Garage Fest$10 7:30PM hi-dive Whitey Morgan & the 78’s$20-$25/VIP $75 8:00PM Summit…
Denver’s Homebody only has one EP and a live demo to its name, yet starting next week, the band will be heading on a tour that will include stops at three well-established festivals (and one DIY one), traversing the entirety of Canada and hitting every major U.S city on the…
The idea for the new palette-based stage outside at Black Shirt Brewing came from owner Chad Miller’s three-year-old son. His son, who is a musically inclined toddler, was making Miller replay music videos on Youtube for him one night. In one that was played over and over, Miller began to…
The Westword Music Showcase is just a few weeks away. Join us on Saturday, June 20, 2015, for Colorado’s largest one-day music festival. The Showcase is a celebration of our state’s vibrant music scene. Colorado is home to internationally renowned experimental bands, pioneering folk artists, Grammy winners and much, much more…
The Let A Bear Sh!t In The Woods campaign features a laundry list of celebrities, including musicians like Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis, Duff McKagan of Guns n’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, and Moby—but what exactly does the group advocate? Answer:…
Faith No More, who haven’t toured North America in close to two decades, are back with a new album and a new tour, which includes a stop at Red Rocks on Tuesday, September 8. Gogol Bordello opens. Tickets ($46.75-$52.50) go on sale on Friday, June 5 at 10 a.m. Soundgarden…
USA Today is currently polling its considerable readership to determine the best small venue in America (here defined as having a capacity under 1,000 people). The Bluebird Theater here in Denver is among a batch of ten finalists that also includes well-known rooms like the 40 Watt Club in Athens…
The fourth annual Mile High Festibowl took place in April across three venues in central Denver. The festival featured more than sixty bands and over twenty visual artists, and its success was remarkable for several reasons, starting with the fact that the Mouth Bomb collective behind it lost its home…
James Russell’s mother told him that his first invention was the “automated battleship” that he built when he was six. By the time he was thirteen, he was fixing toasters, irons and fans at a local appliance store in his home town outside Seattle. The summer before he left for…
As an endcap to the coverage of the tenth anniversary of Rhinoceropolis it is only fitting that we share some video footage of events at the venue. There are far more than fifty videos that you can find on YouTube alone that were shot at Rhinoceropolis but collected here are…
With the lights of Denver in the background and Red Rocks’ iconic natural beauty surrounding him, 31-year-old Kentuckian Matthew Shultz shook and spun and generally ran around the stage last night as his Southern alt-rock band, Cage the Elephant, entertained a sold-out young crowd. The former construction worker and plumber,…
Bassnecter took up residence at Red Rocks over the weekend, and fans of the California DJ turned out in droves, even on a rainy Friday. As photographer Brandon Marshall proved, you can’t keep a bass fan down. Below, you’ll find a few fans making the most of it. …
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an ’80s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book SAINT COLE from Fantagraphics books. Last Week’s Episode Of Rufus…
The Ogden Theatre was packed on Saturday, and everyone was anxiously waiting to marvel at the psychedelic sounds of the subdued machine known as Tame Impala. Before the five-piece band walked the stage, its roadies took to work assembling every pedal, cable, and instrument to one another while conferring an…
The Red Rocks season continues to bring big names to Colorado: Cage the Elephant, Old Crow Medicine Show and Ryan Adams this week. Elsewhere, Old 97’s plays the Gothic and Arcade Fire’s Will Butler is playing Larimer Lounge. The full list of our picks follows! MONDAY, JUNE 1 Cage the…
I remember once, an old bandmate’s boyfriend told me “a rock star plays their bass like this” (motioning to an imaginary low-slung guitar hitting around the waist) and “a real musician plays their bass like this” (plucking the strings of an invisible instrument at his chest.) He was implying that…
Last night, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra debuted its Turn Over the Keys series, wherein the ensemble serves as the backing band for a handful of local artists. The inaugural roster included Ian Cooke, Land Lines and Megan Burtt. We’ll have much more on the event in the coming days, but…
