There have been a lot of changes at Ultra Music Festival. The audience is over 18 now. And many of rave culture’s familiar accouterments — finger gloves, glow sticks, rage totems, etc. — have been banned under the fest’s new Prohibited Items policy. There are those of adult age who…
This week’s best concerts include Black Milks, Natalie Merchant and plenty more. The complete list of our picks follow! Ani DiFranco $35-$55 7:00PM, Mondy, Boulder Theater Generationals $13.75/$15 8:00 PM, Monday, Bluebird Theater Black Milk $13/$15 9:00 PM, Monday, Cervantes’ Other Side Foxygen $15 7:30 PM, Tuesday, Fox Theatr Robert DeLong $15 9:00 PM,…
Master jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith (who’s due tonight, March 30 and Tuesday, March 31 at Dazzle) and says the Hammond B-3 is a part of him, that it’s an extension of himself. He’s been eating and breathing the organ for the last five decades since starting to play it…
Jay Bianchi, owner of the Grateful Dead-centric bars Quixote’s True Blue and Sancho’s Broken Arrow, is resurrecting the Owsley’s Golden Road name in Boulder, seven years after opening a venue of the same in Denver. While Bianchi is currently booking shows at the Goose Bar (1301 Broadway) in Boulder as…
Downtown Miami’s 32-acre Bayfront Park is swarming with some 60,000 glistening, glittered bodies. The lights on Ultra Music Festival’s Main Stage make the Vegas strip look like the ass of a dying lightning bug. The minimally dressed millennials are dancing like they’re mad at the ground, and Snapchating every second…
Once home to O.P. Baur Confectionery Company in the late 1800s, Baur’s Ristorante and most recently, Le Grand Bistro, which closed last year, the building at 1512 Curtis Street has a long history. Now the Baur’s name is getting a reboot with Baur’s, Est. 1872 restaurant and its music venue,…
It’s a great weekend for live music in Colorado, as people continue to make their way back from SXSW. You can see the great Hurray for the Riff Raff tonight. Elsewhere: Turquoise Jeep, Cold War Kids, Arlo Guthrie and more. Our picks follow. Hurray For The Riff Raff $15/$18 9:00…
Since opening five years ago in Capitol Hill, the Denver Beauty Bar location been home various weekly dance nights, like Liplgoss and Motown Thursdays, and hosted some high profile talent like Prince Paul, Victor Duplaix, DJ Nu-Mark, the Smiths’ Andy Rourke and Love and Rockets/Bauhaus guitarist Daniel Ash . But…
This Friday, March 27th, the Japan Nite! tour comes to the Hi-Dive featuring Tsushimamire, QUORUM, The fin. and mothercoat, representing a small sliver of what underground music in the Land of the Rising Sun has to offer. Over the years, several Japanese bands have found a larger following, or in…
The Best of Denver, our annual love letter to the city, is on newsstands now. Within, you’ll find 200-some pages filled with the things that make Denver interesting, from the best handheld burrito to the best twerking workout. We found plenty to celebrate in Denver music and nightlife, too —…
After a fifteen-year run with the Jello Biafra-founded label Alternative Tentacles, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club has launched its new label, SCACUNINC, which will also release material for Auto Club projects DBUK, and Munly & the Lupercalians. “We just kind of wanted to take control,” Cessna says. “We just wanted to…
The last time Jake Gould, a.k.a. Northcote, came through town, he played a solo acoustic show at the hi-dive and, even without musical accompaniment, his songs were powerful and resonant. This time through, at the Ogden Theatre, opening for The Gaslight Anthem, he brought with him a full backup band,…
Tweedy, due March 28th at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, is a collaboration between, longtime Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy, and his son Spencer. Together, the group released the album, Sukierae, in September 2014. The album carries with it a somber tone as most of the songs address Jeff’s wife, and…
After selling out its June 6 Pepsi Center show earlier this week, U2 added a second show on Sunday, June 7 as part of its iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour 2015. Tickets ($65-$275) go on sale on Monday, March 30 at 10 a.m. Swallow Hill announced its Summer Stage Concert Series at the…
Grant Kwiecinski, also known as Griz, has made a name for himself in the electronic music world by creating self-described “future-funk,” or combining pre-produced electronic music with live jazz saxophone playing. The Detroit born, Denver-based 24-year-old DJ and producer has put out three full length albums with another one debuting…
For Eazy-E, the concept of gangster rap was fully formed in his mind. By 1986 the genre, which nobody then called “gangster rap” (“reality rap,” please) had begun to sprout in LA by way of Ice-T’s “6 ‘n the Mornin’,” which was patterned after Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D’s “P.S.K. What…
Suggestive advertising is all around us and, according to a recent study by University of Colorado Denver, increasingly forcing its way into popular music. The study, conducted by music business professor Storm Gloor, examined Top 30 Billboard songs from 1960 to 2013 and found that, while always present in some…
The 2015 Best of Denver issue is on newsstands now! In our search for the most interesting places, people and events in Denver, we often struggled to pick just one winner in each category. So we’re presenting a few runners-up here on Westword Music. It’s true. Denver has an obscenely…
Watching Ultra Music Festival’s idyllic official after-movies, you might get the impression that UMF is some kind of utopian music-based society where the young and beautiful run only in slow motion, where everyone is welcome and everything is pleasant. In some ways, this is true. You’re more likely to have…
Editor’s Note: Denver rock band In the Whale is in Austin this week for SXSW. The duo of Nate Valdez (vocals and guitar) and Eric Riley (drums and backing vocals) will be documenting their exploits and observations for Westword Music. For more shenanigans, follow In the Whale on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. For the most shenanigans, head to…
When I was thirteen, I became a man. I’m talking about having my Bar Mitzvah. Raised Jewish and middle class, it was a fairly big deal, and part of that involved planning a huge party. So, my mom dragged me to some random office (meaning some event planner’s tacky living…
Admittedly, we’re a couple of squares. We’re not party dudes, so four days of non-stop drinking isn’t really our thing. Prior to our show Friday afternoon, we kept far away from the chaos of 6th street. On the west side of Austin, we came across the Hope Outdoor Gallery and…
