Some people just know how to hook you, right? Say you’re browsing an online dating profile and someone catches your eye. Witty one-liners, cute smirks, maybe something cryptic like a tattoo of Josef Stalin eating a hot dog. Their linked Tumblr page shows they have an active interest in occult…
Anyone who has ever taken in a show at Red Rocks knows that it is hard to describe. The acoustics, the crowds, the breath-taking view in every direction. Instead of describing it, our photographers have been hard at work capturing it, and the many concerts that occur there on film…
There are some excellent shows in town this week as we lead up to Fourth of July weekend, including Fitz & the Tantrums two-night stand at the Ogden Theatre, Sarah McLachlan at Red Rocks, as well as Zeds Dead and Dada Life co-headlining at Red Rocks…
Few bands that were around in 1994, at least in Denver’s punk milieu, are still around. But somehow King Rat has endured and reinvented or reinvigorated itself again and again, despite personal turmoil and the vicissitudes of public tastes in punk and music in general. And it was the reinvigorated…
Perhaps you have noticed increasingly ridiculous merch options on your favorite band’s web site. In addition to the T-shirts, hoodies, posters, and brass boat necklaces (?) found in their online merch section, for example, Sigur Ros once introduced their “Vardeldur candle” for the princely sum of $23.50. The site described…
Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop doing it wrong. Send your problems to her –…
The mighty King Rat turns twenty this weekend and will celebrate with a pair of unusual shows at Three Kings. If you go to nothing else this weekend, we advise you go there. But we understand if you go to Red Rocks instead for Widespread Panic’s annual weekend getaway in…
We’ve just announced the winners of this year’s Westword Music Awards. See the winners in each of our forty categories in the post that follows — the names of the artists who came out on top of the public vote are bolded and enlarged. We took a few photos of…
The soft colors and fake palm trees of a local Peruvian spot served as ideal backdrop as we caught up with the unique band of personalities in Latin reggae band Mono Verde. For many of the band members, this quiet spot recreates a feeling of home, with its imported South…
Bruce Dickinson rules. He’s the greatest singer for one of the greatest bands of all time, Iron Maiden. But recently, he unleashed some pretty charged words in an interview with The Guardian. In addition to dropping one of the most incredible quotations ever, “fame is the excrement of creativity,” he…
The votes have been tallied for this year’s Westword Music Awards, and the trophies are almost ready. We won’t blow the surprise, but suffice it to say they will not bludgeon as effectively as last year’s. Find out what they look like tonight: Thursday, June 26 at Cassleman’s. An Awards’…
It is no surprise at this point that KISS fans do not come unprepared. Still, a flock spanning three generations spent hours getting that eye-star just right before last night’s show at the Pepsi Center. Photographer Aaron Thackeray was there to commemorate their work. Here are our favorite face-painted KISS…
Bringing the bombast, drama and light show of a larger venue to Lost Lake, EMA and opening act Mas Ysa pushed enough air to test the sound system of most smaller rooms to its limits. Mas Ysa even commented that he thought he was overloading the monitor, but it didn’t…
Denver’s hip-hop scene is ripe with talent, especially in terms of the great DJs that fans have access to. You can walk into dozens of clubs, bars, patios, pool parties or even corporate events that just happen to be hosted by one of the town’s best. The competition is stiff,…
Did you watch the most recent Wrestlemania? I didn’t. I also haven’t had a Mountain Dew in seven years. I guess this means I’m finally an real adult, which means I should do the mature thing and write a list for an audience of people who are mostly hung-over and…
Bob Marley wasn’t a particularly successful commercial artist during his lifetime. This week’s Backbeat feature explores how he became a household name around the world with the help of one greatest-hits compilation…
When Gregory Alan Isakov and Nathaniel Rateliff played The Aggie in Ft. Collins earlier this year, the audience was silent. The only time the crowd made a peep during the music was when a diabetic girl fainted in the audience. It was weird. It was beautiful. It may have been…
When Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds went into “Stagger Lee” from the 1996 album Murder Ballads, it was an iconic moment of an evening of music in which the band took the tradition of American folk mythology and breathed into it a larger-than-life electricity. Cave brought raging emotional intensity…
[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his sunny outlook with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work and even buy it on his website. • BACKBEAT’S GREATEST HITS • – The fifty best rap lyrics of all time – The ten…
At the time of his death, in May 1981, Bob Marley was 36 years old, reggae’s biggest star, and the father of at least eleven children. He was not, however, a big seller. For Dave Robinson, this presented an opportunity. Two years after Marley’s passing, Chris Blackwell, the founder of…
The twentieth annual Westword Music Showcase brought over 11,000 people to the Golden Triangle to watch more than 150 bands of every possible variety. Our writers and photographers saw excellent lunacy and affecting songs — the bands and artists of Denver have built a music scene that contains the best…
CP 208 closed out the night at Roostercat Coffee House for the Westword Music Showcase. Most of the crowd had filed out following Echo Beds’ set. Their loss. The four-piece took to the stage and sprawled out a herky- jerky, noise-jazz, No Wave-esque post-punk. Its sounds are used like a…
