Midnight – Queen City Sounds and Art

Best Shows in Denver and Beyond December 2023

The Keening performs at Decibel Metal & Beer Fest at The Summit Music Hall on Saturday, December 2, 2023, photo by Jared Gold and Angela Brown

Friday | 12.01
What: Cherished w/Pill Joy, Replica City and Flesh Tape
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Cherished headlines this show with its emotionally vibrant shoegaze. Pill Joy has the kind of sound that seems to be rooted in emo but more in line with an atmospheric lo-fi slowcore band. Replica City is a shoegaze-y post-punk band in that slowcore lane as well. Flesh Tape from Fort Collins is supposedly an emo band but its favoring of noisy atmospheres places it in a realm of music adjacent to that of all the bands on this finely assembled bill.

Friday | 12.01
What: Decibel Metal & Beer Fest w/Khemmis, Cephalic Carnage, Red Chord, KEN Mode, Morbikon and Phobocosm 2-day passes available
When: 5
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: The first night of this festival featuring some of the great extreme metal bands of today includes performances from Denver legends like doom band Khemmis and internationally renowned death metal outfit Cephalic Carnage playing a rare local show. KEN Mode from Canada brings its harrowing noise rock for its second time through Denver in 2023. In September the quartet issued its latest set of caustic, haunting and cathartic songs as the album VOID. A companion to the 2022 album NULL, the new record is all downbeats but delivered with a spirited resistance to life’s inevitable misfortunes.

Hiss Golden Messenger, photo by Graham Tolbert

Saturday | 12.02
What: Hiss Golden Messenger w/Adeem the Artist
When: 8
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Hiss Golden Messenger is a prolific and critically acclaimed indie folk band from Durham, North Carolina. Don’t worry about the genre description so much because the group’s music is ambitious in its songwriting and sonics particularly on its new album Jump For Joy (2023). In its sounds you hear as much the influence or impact of the likes of Peter Gabriel as Palace Brothers. The group is able to navigate both crafting an intimate quality to the songwriting and orchestral arrangements. Not chamber pop so much as bringing rich arrangements to bare bones songwriting so that each composition teems with life without distracting from the emotional range of the music and its pastoral yet thoughtful storytelling.

The Keening, photo by Jared Gold and Angela Brown

Saturday | 12.02
What: Decibel Metal & Beer Fest w/Agalloch, Midnight, Primitive Man, Krypts, The Keening and Mother of Graves
When: 4
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: The second night of the festival brings to you The Keening, the latest project from Rebecca Vernon who was once the lead singer of legendary cosmic/tribal doom band SubRosa from Salt Lake City. The Keening brings forward Vernon’s gift for weaving together Gothic Americana sensibilities with a detailed tapestry of atmospheric sweep and orchestral arrangements like something out of a hidden, mythical west. The new album Little Bird is a gorgeously doom-laden set of songs that would be a great soundtrack for a future film from John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser whose films Hellbender and Where the Devil Roams are right in line with the moods Vernon excels at evoking in her music. Agalloch reunited for some shows in 2023 and this is one of them. The Portland, Oregon-based band and its transcendental, folky black metal has exerted a strong influence on most of the better bands mining that sonic territory since the group’s origins in the 90s. Primitive Man will likely be the heaviest band of the whole festival with the trio’s mastery of crushing dynamics and orchestrated emotional release through colossal noise.

Rosegarden Funeral Party, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 12.02
What: Rosegarden Funeral Party w/Faces Under the Mirror and WitchHands
When: 8
Where: The Crypt
Why: Rosegarden Funeral Party from Dallas puts on one of the most impassioned performances in the realm of modern Goth and post-punk. Leah Lane isn’t just a front person with the commanding voice, her guitar work is a refreshing departure from the thin and minimalistic sound that has been plaguing much of darkwave and post-punk lately. Faces Under the Mirror is the long-running EBM project of Jayke Haven and one of the few projects in that particle style that seems to continue to innovate with emotionally vibrant songwriting. WitchHands is the excellent deathrock band from Colorado Springs.

Tuesday | 12.05
What: Blood Club w/Dustbowl Champion and Floats
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Blood Club is a darkwave band from Chicago whose lo-fi production is fairly standard for a certain stripe of post-punk these days. But its ethereal guitar work is more diverse and creative than a lot of what’s going on in various corners of current post-punk. Frontman Jess Flores was once a member of French Police who have attained a bit of a cult status these days and Blood Club is not so far removed from that sound with icy synths and spindly guitar tone but more minimal and spacious. Dustbowl Champion from Fresno, California is cut from similar cloth but as a solo project with echoing guitar, vocals and synth with a spare drum machine beat like something recorded to a cassette and transferred to an iPhone for mixing. Floats is a lo-fi punk pop band from Texas that sound like its members got into some of that 2010s garage punk and indiepop and wanted do something with the same spirit but a different sound.

Thursday | 12.07
What: Soy Celesté, Pretty. Loud, To Be Astronauts
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: It would be a mistake to genre pigeonhole Soy Celesté but based on the debut Break Out EP there’s a bit of fuzzy lo-fi pop and the kind of socially aware and confessional indie rock that one hasn’t heard much of since the 2000s. Pretty Loud appears to be the kind of pop band that is inspired by music from theater and the vaudeville chamber pop sort of thing but live seem to be fairly animated and driven by piano/keyboard melodies and vocals. To Be Astronauts has a sound reminiscent of 1990s grunge period alternative rock bands with some blues in the mix.

Saturday | 12.09
What: SORROWS, Dragon Drop and Bell Mine w/DJ set by Shhadows
When: 8
Where: Glob
Why: This is a show featuring some of the more inventive experimental pop songwriters from Denver. SORROWS is a duo comprised of vocalist Glynnis Braan and percussionist Lawrence Snell both of whom contribute electronic production to songs that are an evolution of downtempo with soaring, melancholic vocals and deep mood. Dragon Drop centers around the hyperpop and darkwave songwriting of former EVP singer/guitarist and current member of Princess Dewclaw Amanda Baker. Bell Mine is an ethereal darkwave solo project whose music seems resonant with the sound and style of artists like Laurel Halo and The Knife.

Saturday | 12.09
What: Messiahvore w/Church Fire and Moon Pussy
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Messiahvore’s eclectic heavy sound came out of its members’ collective experience with making sludge metal, doom and hard rock in the past couple of decades and more. But Messiahvore hits as more experimental, more psychedelic and with lyrics that dabble more in social commentary. And really one of the more entertaining and commanding bands in Denver’s heavy music underground. So it’s different to get to see very political, industrial darkwave dance band Church Fire on the bill with its own sense of play while delivering vital and insightful lyrics about the state of things without waxing too topical. Not to mention Moon Pussy whose irreverent humor tends to happen between songs when Crissy Cuellar gets on the mic with her self-aware dad joke routine that isn’t truly a routine because it’s always off the cuff. But the songs are some of the most cathartic, abrasive and inspiring blasts of noise rock happening anywhere right now.

Sunday | 12.10
What: The Playground Ensemble Presents: Tatsuya Nakatani
When: 6
Where: Leon Gallery
Why: Tatsuya Nakatani is a renowned avant-garde composer and percussionist originally from Japan who now makes Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico his home. This set will be one of the musician’s solo sets and an improvisation piece done in collaboration with Denver’s Playground Ensemble director and Conrad Kehn who is a bit of a figure in the local music scene in his own right with modern classical and the avant-garde in recent years and with industrial and Gothic rock in the 90s through the turn of the century.

Sunday | 12.10
What: Jarhead Fertilizer w/Phobophilic, Crownovhornz and Death Possession
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Jarhead Fertilizer is the influential grindcore band from Ocean City, Maryland and currently touring in support of the December 8, 2023 release of its latest album Carceral Warfare. Phobophilic is a deathgrind band from Fargo, North Dakota. Crownovhornz from Pennsylvania released an unusual hip-hop album called Appalachian Aesthetic in August 2023 that is a tale of life in impoverished America and about life in bars and jail. Definitely within the realm of alternative hip-hop. But who knows? Maybe they’ll be playing some death metal too since that’s a tag on the Bandcamp page for the record.

They Are Gutting a Body of Water, photo from Bandcamp

Tuesday | 12.12
What: They Are Gutting a Body of Water w/Full Body 2, The Red Scare and Empty4400
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: They Are Gutting a Body of Water brings its brand of lo-fi bedroom shoegaze jangle from Philly to Denver this night. And by shoegaze do not take that to mean conventionally pretty guitar work and maybe some melancholic vibe. It’s more the noisy, disorienting, genuinely psychedelic sound but threaded together with the kind of weirdo twee indiepop of the 90s and 2000s. Also from Philadelphia is Full Body 2 whose own shoegaze flavor is steeped in ambient breakcore soundscaping. The Red Scare from Fort Collins will provide plenty of its own hazy, distortion-sculpting post-punk. Some might call it shoegaze but those people might also think Daydream Nation is a shoegaze album. The Red Scare if it can be called post-punk is more that vein of deep, gritty, disorienting atmospheric noise with some actual song structure. Empty4400 is more on the grittier, punk/emo-rooted end of the shoegaze spectrum for this night.

Limbwrecker in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday | 12.14
What: Limbwrecker, Grief Ritual, Holographic American and ZEPHR
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: It’s good to know that mixed bills can happen and with this you get one of the great hardcore/extreme metal bands from Denver in Limbwrecker whose caustic yet playfully delivered sounds and cathartic and primal vocals is definitely for people into powerviolence. Grief Ritual’s own style of hardcore has plenty of math-y progressions that make the more cutting, atmospheric sounds and gruff and impassioned vocals hit a little harder with the realization that the songs are often a melancholic exploration of tragedy and a critique of an abusive economic and political reality experienced by all of us daily. Holographic American includes Caleb Tardio who plays keyboards in noteworthy Denver melodic death metal band NightWraith. But HoloAm has more in common with one of his older bands, the mathrock/progressive alternative rock band I Sank Molly Brown. But more noise rock, more in the vein of post-rock of the vintage one found in the American midwest in the 90s. ZEPHR is a trio also from Denver whose music has brought together elements of pop-punk but the kind that borders on emo, risking that noisy and not perfectly melodic yet compelling imperfection, and performed with a raw and heartfelt energy.

Friday | 12.15
What: Cathedral Bells, Juli a n St. Nightmare and Hex Cassette
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Cathedral Bells is a dream pop/shoegaze from Orlando, Florida whose 2023 album Everything at Once was released in May through eclectic Philadelphia-based Born Losers Records. Its sound is the kind of melodious, ethereal soundscape-y guitar pop that seems to draw on 80s synth pop and jangle-y indie rock of the 80s vintage as well circa C86 and Sarah Records. Also on this bill is one-human death/blood cult Hex Cassette and his energized, industrial/EBM dance music. Sometime during his set you will be asked to offer a blood sacrifice and he will come out into the audience and mix it up with the people that show up. But all in good fun. And this will be one of the final live shows you’ll get to see from Denver darkwave/post-punk band Julian St. Nightmare. In its short tenure as a live band, although it formed and started writing music in 2018, the quintet has developed its fusion of spidery post-punk, garage rock, surf and dark synthpop into an emotionally rich and powerful body of work and intense and electrifying live show. Listen to our interview with members of the group on the Queen City Sounds Podcast.

Friday | 12.15
What: Alexandra Kay w/Haley Mae Campbell
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Independent country artist Alexandra Kay released her debut album All I’ve Ever Known on October 26, 2023. Kay has garnered a large fanbase online with millions of followers on TikTok and hundreds of thousand followers on Instagram and nearly as many subscribers on YouTube. But none of those numbers would mean much if Kay didn’t have the talent to warrant attention. Fortunately, her new album is a showcase for Kay’s diverse songwriting style with songs that seem to have poignant personal insight and lack the posi bravado that is too common in popular music. Kay’s songs shimmer with an inner light provided in part by lap steel and the perfect blend of acoustic and electric guitar working to craft the backdrop to Kay’s vibrant vocals to cinematic effect. Her music may be rooted in country but its of the kind that has inherent appeal beyond genre and crosses well over into the realm of pop and in moments even dream pop.

Saturday | 12.16
What: Mindforce w/Destiny Bond, Moral Law and guest
When: 7
Where: D3
Why: Mindforce is the thrashcore band from Poughkeepsie, New York touring in support of its 2022 album New Lords. Destiny Bond’s particular style of hardcore seems more steeped in anarcho punk and a more experimental, noisy yet melodic sound like some DC hardcore and early emo with a touch of the kinds of punk that would have influenced or channeled into Christian Death like Adolescents. But all with a political edge and socially critical lyrics. Moral Law is a vegan, straight edge band and its own music like a very focused yet seething hardcore at times that sounds in the realm of grind.

Wednesday | 12.20
What: The Gamits w/Bandaid Brigade and despAIR Jordan
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The Gamits are Denver pop punk legends and influential in the local punk scene at least certainly among punk acts with roots going back before the 2010s and with vocalist and guitarist Chris Fogal living abroad these days this is a rare live performance. Bandaid Brigade is a band from San Diego who seem to have combined elements of pop punk, yacht rock and adult contemporary without it imploding into an ungodly mixture. The members of despAIR Jordan were and in some cases are members of formerly or current prominent bands in the Denver punk scene like SleeperHorse, Sugar Skulls and Marigolds and Pinhead Circus and currently releasing some finely crafted songs of its own in a more atmospheric post-hardcore vein.

Commerce City Rollers, photo from Bandcamp

Thursday | 12.21
What: Up Yours People, The Picture Tour and Commerce City Rollers
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Up Yours People is the latest band from Rich Groskopf. The Picture Tour will bring the rainy day shoegaze/dream pop sound to the proceedings and thus more than a touch of musical elegance to the evening. And yes Commerce City Rollers is the band that used to play the dive bars at punk shows in the late 90s with its melodic garage punk fronted by Maranda “MJ” Gaylord that had basically split for years until reuniting a bit before the pandemic and releasing a 2019 album Backstories.

Friday and Saturday | 12.22 and 12.23
What: DeVotchKa performing How it Ends (with Claire Heywood on 12.23)
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Across two nights, the legendary “gypsy punk” band DeVotchKa performs its 2004, and arguably finest, album How It Ends in its entirety including its heartbreaking title track. It was the last album the group released before garnering greater success and fame with its music featuring in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine. Its orchestral arrangements and depth of feeling and stirring melodies was a big leap forward for the band that some of us got to see play shows in dive bars like 15th St. Tavern and unglamorous opening slots. But something clicked somewhere and the ambition of the songwriting expanded greatly and now while the band isn’t necessarily even indie famous it can command a sizable audience in and well beyond Denver with shows that while somewhat choreographed still pack that emotional punch that has made it worth witnessing in person.

Saturday | 12.23
What: Church Fire, The Milk Blossoms, Curta and debthedemo
When: 8:30
Where: The Roxy on Broadway
Why: This show will put you through some moods that’ll be good for you this holiday season. Church Fire will bring the energized industrial dance synth pop and all the feels. The Milk Blossoms will perform its heart-rending, gossamer tender pop songs this time in a slightly different configuration since drummer Tyler Lindgren won’t be able to perform replaced by bassist David Samuelson behind the kit. Curta’s weirdo alternative hip-hop returns to Denver for a rare engagement from Chicago and Boulder’s debthedemo will inject some beautifully crafted ambient rap house with performance art strangeness. In most ways the local show of the week for the discerning listener.

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 12.30
What: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club w/Moon Pussy and Weathered Statues
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club headlines two nights at the Hi-Dive for the New Years Eve weekend with its energetic and brilliantly executed Vaudevillian Americana post-punk. For this first night you also get to see Moon Pussy, the arch practitioners of dangerous noise rock delivered with an irreverent humor and incredibly intensity and Weathered Statues whose particular style of post-punk is more akin to the more death rock and spidery punk sound of Xmal Deutschland and Christian Death than the synth-driven style of groups more in line with darkwave.

Sunday | 12.31
What: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club w/Palehorse/Palerider and Snakes
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: This second night of the SCAC headline run for the holiday features opening acts Palehorse/Palerider whose psychedelic, deserty post-punk doom truly creates a deep sense of space and enigmatic moods and twangy garage rock Americana of Snakes. All killer, no filler.

Best Shows in Denver March 2022

Nation of Language, photo by Robin Laananen

Wednesday | 03.09
What: Monolord w/Firebreather and The Munsens
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: Monolord formed in 2013 at a time when the whole wave of stoner rock was pretty much over and before doom metal hits its ascendency later in that decade. Its members had been part of a more boogie rock oriented band Marulk but at rehearsal had riffed in more drawn out dynamics and sustained atmospherics while incorporating those impulses into coherent songwriting. So its current sound while rooted in what is now called doom metal contains melodic elements lend its crushing rhythmic leads an accessibility that sounds more like an updated version of power metal. The group’s 2021 album Your Time to Shine is arguably its most streamlined manifestation of an aesthetic that draws on the psychedelic heaviness of Sleep and Kylesa and infuses it with its own impulse to impart a mood of catharsis and triumph to its listeners.

Friday | 03.11
What: Owosso, Moon Pussy, Church Van and Gestapo Pussy Ranch
When: 9 p.m. doors, 9:30 p.m. show
Where: Lion’s Lair
Why: Moon Pussy’s scorched earth noise rock and underpinnings in musical experimentation can be disorienting in the best way. Like Big Black with creatively expressive human drums instead of a drum machine. This will be Owosso’s first show. The group is comprised of veterans of the local punk/post-hardcore and indie rock scenes including people from Modern Goon. The group was been described as “post indie wook rock” but it’s hopefully safe to assume it’s not some ironic jam band with punk roots. Though if it is it’ll probably be alright anyway considering the band’s lineage.

Saturday | 03.12
What: Mitski w/Michelle
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Mitski released her latest album Laurel Hell in 2022 and it is arguably her most vulnerable and raw album while also her most poignantly melancholic. Few other artists have articulated the disillusionment of the current era and the perils of an over mediated culture with as much precision and resonance as Mitski over the course of her two most recent records. As a live performer Mitski always has something different in her repertoire like on her most recent tour in 2019 when she had stage sets and a costume that looked like somewhere between a workout suit and a martial arts dancer uniform.

Saturday | 03.12
What: Jen Korte & The Loss, Mike Clark & The Sugar Sounds and Heated Bones
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Jen Korte & The Loss this time out is basically her excellent experimental singer-songwriter project Lady Gang but with a full band instead of pulling off the full range of sounds herself. But it’ll still be Korte deep diving into emotionally rich explorations of hurt, resilience and the complex nuances of human experiences and relationships. Korte’s imaginative musicianship and songwriting elevates her work beyond the usual expectations one might have when one thinks of singer-songwriter. Her body of work is eclectic and runs a range of Americana, indie rock, folk and what might be described as experimental pop with loops and electronics. Many artists reach a point where they rest on their laurels and Korte hasn’t done so.

Saturday | 03.12
What: Mayhem w/Watain and Midnight
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Mayhem is indeed the legendary black metal band from Norway whose lore and history is worth looking into for the lurid details alone. It makes for a fascinating origin story. But the music and its harrowing and heavy sweeps of epic storytelling speaks for itself as does the unforgettable stage presence of frontman Attila Csihar who always brings a deep sense of theater and performance art to every one of his performances whether with Mayhem or SunnO))). The show will be worth it to see what he does alone and that chilling, sepulchral, operatic voice.

Sunday | 03.13
What: Drug Church, One Step Closer, Soul Blind and Lurk
When: 6:30 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Drug Church is a band that has managed to bridge the sonic worlds of pop punk, hardcore and noise rock with super catchy hooks and made powerful and meaningful music in the process. Currently touring in support of its forthcoming album Hygiene out March 11, 2022.

Sunday | 03.13
What: Sumac w/Blood Spore and Patrick Shiroishi
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: SUMAC formed in 2014 when Kurt Ballou of Converge connected guitarist Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, Mammifer, House of Low Culture) who had written the initial elements of songs with Baptists drummer Nick Yacyshyn to help realize Turner’s vision of crafting the heaviest music of his career then thus far. Brian Cook of Russian Circles and formerly of These Arms Are Snakes and Botch rounded out the classic and current line-up in time for the group’s debut album. The resulting four albums since (The Deal from 2015, What One Becomes in 2016, Love in Shadow out 2018 and May You Be Held released in 2020) are indeed some of the heaviest records of recent years. But as with Turner’s other projects it’s never just heavy for the sake of that quality, it’s intricate and imaginative, emotionally charged soundscapes in which the contributions of all the players seems to be highlighted. Certainly with the most recent album it’s not relentlessly crushing dynamics but a flood of textures seemingly elevated in a suspended and sustained whirlpool of sound that rushes through you and then out like experiencing a state of being. Calling it post-metal or sludge metal is one way of giving people an idea of what they’re in for but the music itself has more in common with artists like Neurosis and SunnO))) than with some other bands lumped under those genre designations. Perhaps it is conceived of as a mind-altering experience to perform and thus witness when you’re in the room with it live. The fact that SUMAC has collaborative albums with noise legend Keiji Haino who is highly selective with whom he does work speaks much to how SUMAC isn’t merely a metal or heavy band.

Turner has long been a champion of forward thinking underground music since the 90s with his label Hydra Head Records which issued releases from the likes of Boris, Big Business, Cave In, Daughters, Dälek, Jesu, Kayo Dot, Oxbow, Khanate, Harvey Milk, Xasthur and The VSS. Its roster is a kind of who’s who of heavier experimental music of its heyday. Through the label and touring Turner has had a vehicle for exploring his creative interests in music and visual art which brings an added dimension to SUMAC’s releases as well and the ethos with which the band operates. On its current tour the group will be joined by purveyors of death doom Blood Spore and Los Angeles-based avant-garde saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi. Listen to our interview with Aaron Turner on Bandcamp.

Monday | 03.14
What: Lala Lala w/Elton Aura
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Lillie West was already stretching the boundaries of music that might loosely grouped under the vague term “indie rock” earlier in her career with imaginative pop songwriting. But with her 2021 album I Want The Door To Open with Yoni Wolf as co-producer she finely tunes her soundscapes as perfect complements to her expressively ethereal vocals andan exploration of themes of where an artist fits in with a world in which they often need to make their own lives the fodder for some of their most meaningful work and how that can affect your sense of self. It’s a bit like synth pop for fans of Holly Herndon or Virginia Wing.

Monday | 03.14
What: Portrayal of Guilt w/End, Yashira and Wake
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: HQ
Why: Portrayal of Guilt might be described as a post-hardcore, grindcore adjacent noise rock band with the visceral live quality all that implies. But there is a bit of the irreverent trickster to their presentation and their 2021 album Christfucker was sent out in a jacket that displayed the letters “ST” like “Self-Titled” so that maybe the record could be stealth sold at record stores in more conservative areas of the country and as a signal to fans of the ridiculousness of actual censorship and not the myth of it perpetrated by bad faith actors. Wake from Calgary, Alberta is of like mind and its 202 album Devouring Ruin is like a psychedelic flavor of later era Napalm Death.

Tuesday | 03.15
What: Choir Boy w/Riki
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Choir Boy is a post-punk band from Salt Lake City that has garnered a bit of a cult following in recent years for its tender, synth-pop ballads about loss and desire recalling the likes of the more melancholic end of Thompson Twins and Felt. Riki sounds like she came from an alternate dimension where she had a career making sensual pop songs for David Lynch movies with her soulfully expressive voice. Elements like cool jazz saxophone and chimes that might sound cheesy and dates in the music of other people just sounds perfect for the mood Riki has evoked of late night adventures in secret Bohemian dives across two albums: her 2020 self-titled and Gold from 2021. Not many artists have a maintained a mystique to them but Niff Nawor aka Riki certain has.

Thursday | 03.17
What: Wayfarer w/Midwife and Snakes
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Denver’s Wayfarer is finally getting to celebrate the release of its 2020 album A Romance With Violence and bringing its flavor of dark Americana, at turns spaghetti western and doomy black metal, to stage bigger stages. This night the band’s guests are Midwife and her intensely evocative and poignant ambient folk and art country/dark pop supergroup Snakes.

Thursday | 03.17
What: Ellen Allien w/Mr. Frick and Mort.Domed
Where: Bar Standard
Why: Ellen Allien aka Ellen Fraatz makes a rare appearance in Denver and brings her experimental style of techno that is somewhere between minimal, IDM and acid house with an imaginative flair that can seem subtle until you listen to her work alongside other artists in similar realms of music.

Squirrel Flower, photo courtesy the artist

Thursday | 03.17
What: Squirrel Flower w/Tenci
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Ella Williams aka Squirrel Flower recently released Planet EP, the follow-up to her acclaimed 2021 sophomore album Planet (i). Her gritty yet introspective songs like “Hurt A Fly” are so honest and real about her mistakes and shortcomings you feel that deeply in your own heart. Williams really has a gift for creating strong imagery and emotional impressions and matching it with songwriting that is simultaneously forceful and vulnerable like she respects your time with the music and wants it to be a fortifying experience to give it a listen.

Friday | 03.18
What: NightWraith album release w/Space in Time, Ghosts of Glaciers and Ashes For the Mute
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Calling any band a “supergroup” is a bit of a misnomer but Denver’s NightWraith has a major pedigree of Denver metal and art rock luminaries including the following with their past and current bands in parentheses as applicable: Benjamin Pitts (To Be Eaten, The New Rome, False Cathedrals, Vimana, Black Sleep of Kali, In The Company of Serpents, Giant Eyeball and others), Igor Panasewicz (Valiomierda, Vimana, Necrosophik Abyss, Abhoria), Isidro “Spy” Soto (Ashes For The Mute, Primitive Man), Caleb Tardio (I Sank Molly Brown) and Jerry Hilger (who is just the affable guy you run into in the scene regularly and wonder when he was going to be in a band). In 2019 NightWraith put out its excellent self-titled debut but on this night the outfit celebrates the unleashing of its new record Offering (available digitally, on CD and limited edition vinyl starting March 25). The early singles highlight the way this quintet brings together melodic riffs with epic sensibilities and black metal grit for an orchestral display of a particularly glorious brand of heavy metal. There is a playfulness to the songs that also doesn’t detract from the heaviness of the riffs and the elegantly precise dynamics. Also on the bill is the psychedelic hard rock and metal of Space In Time whose own hybrid influences from the likes of Hawkwind, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep has resulted in an always surprisingly powerful performance. You also get to see the instrumental post-metal band Ghosts of Glaciers and cosmic black metal outfit Ashes For The Mute in which “Spy” will be doing double duty for the night. Clearly the best metal show of the week.

Friday | 03.18
What: Lost Walks w/Friends of Slim Cessna and f-ether
When: 7 p.m.
Where: LFX Filmworks
Why: Lost Walks released its weighty and harrowing new album Blood Lantern in December 2021. The theatrical, dark Americana of Wolf, Woman, Man, its 2017 debut album, is still at the root of this new batch of music but the band which collaborates with a regular dance troupe for its performances shed some of the folk and blues aspects of its prior musical incarnation in any obvious ways and sounds now more like Neurosis except that Dameon Merkl still sounds like the mysterious and charismatic figure you want to narrate a future documentary about H.P. Lovecraft. Also for this show you get to see members of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club bring their own imaginative and compelling style of gritty old time music and theater while f-ether performs his own highly refined and stylized techno and house-informed electronic soundscapes. Considering the venue expect more than a touch of theater to the show.

Friday | 03.18
What: Daikaiju w/TripLip and De Gringos y Gremmies
When: 8 p.m.
Where: The Squire Lounge
Why: Daikaiju is a surf rock revival band originally based out of Huntsville, Alabama but now out of Houston. But that doesn’t quite do justice to the legend of this band that you hear from anyone that has seen them from not just the kaiju (giant monsters in Japanese popular culture i.e. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, Gamera and others not so well known) aesthetic and themes but also the kabuki masks, the use of fire when they can and energetic/borderline unhinged live performances that are part of the lore of the group as well. But make no mistake, yeah, a surf rock revival band but one with chops and imagination and not the rote surf rock that has plagued the indie underground for way too long. Think more like Man Or Astro-man or The Mermen. As for TripLip, some journalist wrote this about them in 2013 and they are a much neglected local institution: “A drum and bass instrumental duo (not in the EDM sense, of course), TripLip can’t be said to fit into any particular musical subgenre. Reminiscent only of a a band these two guys have probably never heard of — Denver’s The Hellmen, because of its perfect fusion of jazz, punk, noise rock and surf with flourishes of improvisational funk — it can safely be said that TripLip isn’t following any trends, local or otherwise, because there’s nothing trendy about what the act is doing. The outfit’s solid musicianship and sonic creativity is refreshingly out of time and place, and it’s always interesting. – Tom Murphy, Westword. 11/24/2013”

Saturday | 03.19
What: Lost Walks w/Friends of Slim Cessna and Florea
When: 7 p.m.
Where: LF Filmworks
Why: See above on 3.19 but for this show the introspective and dusky folk of Florea will open the proceedings.

Saturday | 03.19
What: Circle Jerks w/Negative Approach and 7 Seconds
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Circle Jerks were one of the earliest and one of the most enduringly influential hardcore bands out of Southern California in the late 70s with former Black Flag frontman Keith Morris. Morris’ surreal and absurdly wry sense of humor and self-deprecating social commentary informed much of the band’s material which can be lost in flood of energy of the live show and Morris’ exuberant energy as a vocalist. This tour is technically the 40 year reunion tour that was supposed to happen in 2020 but everyone knows what happens there so here’s your chance to see the Jerks in high form with Morris, guitarist Greg Hetson, bassist Zander Schloss and Joey Castillo formerly of Queens of the Stone Age joining on drums. But wait, there’s more. Negative Approach is also one of the pioneering bands of hardcore having formed in Detroit and fronted by one of the most elemental vocalists of our time in John Brannon. Brutal, nihilistic and desperate in lyrics and crushing and devastating in sound. And then of course 7 Seconds from Reno, Nevada also helped to lay the foundations of hardcore beginning in 1980 with the fast and hard dynamics with a core of catchy melodicism that helped shape a body of work that in itself has inspired generations of punk bands since.

Saturday | 03.19
What: Daikiju, TripLip and f riends
When: 7:15 p.m.
Where: The Matchbox
Why: See above on 3.18 for this show in case you had to miss that performance.

Monday | 03.21
What: Daikaiju w/TripLip and Ego Death
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Final chance to catch Daikaiju with TripLip before the touring band hits the road for places out west.

Monday | March 21
What: W.I.T.C.H. w/Night Beats and Mauskovic Dance Band
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Incredibly W.I.T.C.H. is the Zamrock band formed in the 1970s meaning of course that they’re pioneers of the unique flavor of psychedelic rock that happened in Zambia during that decade before multiple forces led to the demise of the movement by the mid-1980s. Articles have written about the movement and vinyl reissues of classics by Witch and of course Ngozi Family lead to a resurgence in interest in that era of music and the reunion of Witch in 2012. Not often you get to catch legends like this in the flesh. But also on the bill is the great psychedelic garage rock band Night Beats from Seattle who were always weirder and more interesting than most of the recent wave of American psychedelia. Also opening is Mauskovic Dance Band whose blend of cumbia, Afro-Cuban rhythms and Krautrock sensibilities will fit right in with the headliners.

Tuesday | 03.22
What: Jawbox w/despAIR Jordan
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: Jawbox emerged from the vibrant late 80s and early 90s post-punk/post-hardcore DC punk scene to go on to become one of the most influential guitar bands of the 90s and beyond. Its 1991 debut album Grippe is like the missing link between Dinosaur Jr and midwest post-punk and hardcore like Articles of Faith and Naked Raygun. But the beautifully atonal and angular “Savory” from the 1994 album For Your Own Special Sweetheart, the band’s major label debut, was a surprise hit during that era before the alternative rock being championed by major labels was a watered down version of the music seemingly flooding forth in the early part of the decade. Jawbox split in 1997 and didn’t reunite except briefly in 2009 until 2019 though in 2021 founding member Bill Barbot left the group replaced by War on Women guitarist and singer Brooks Harlan. Opening the show is Denver’s despAIR Jordan whose own post-punk flavor is as informed by melodic hardcore as it is the atmospheric, melancholic variety.

Tuesday | 03.22
What: Yves Tumor
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Boulder Theater
Why: Yves Tumor is like the Prince of experimental electronic music whose exuberant stage presence is as colorful as Bowie at peak weirdness but whose sensibilities and aesthetic are very much of the present. That their music has been coming out on Warp Records is saying something about the forward thinking quality of the songcraft and for someone who many might consider a weird hip-hop artist, Tumor has cited Throbbing Gristle as a major influence.

Tuesday | 03.22
What: New Candys and Mint Field w/Wave Decay
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: New Candys from Venice, Italy released Vyvyd in 2021 and it proved to be one of the best psychedelic rock albums of the year with its hybrid of krautrock and shoegaze. Mexico City’s Mint Field brings its own ambient/shoegaze soundscapes to the show with touches of psych folk and cinematic aesthetics making what can often be abstract music that transports you to other spaces into something that feels deeply personal. Wave Decay’s soothing dream pop sound combines motorik beats with gossamer melodies.

Tuesday | 03.22
What: Indigo De Souza w/Field Medic
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Fox Theatre
Why: North Carolina-based singer and songwriter Indigo De Souza recently released her latest album Any Shape You Take on Saddle Creek in August 2021. Though its neo-soul and pop sound is somewhat stylistically different from her fantastic 2018 debut album I Love My Mom with its introspective, guitar pop songs it goes further into an approach of radical vulnerability in plumbing the depths of emotional trauma, self-doubt and the use of creativity as a path out of the darkest places of the mind. The gentle touch of the songs have an unconventional power through honoring wounded feelings with a compassionate honesty that informs the songwriting in general.

Wednesday | 03.23
What: Ed Schrader’s Music Beat w/Wombo, Apollo Shortwave and H-Lite
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Ed Schrader’s Music Beat has been a fixture of underground American art punk. Somewhere between angular post-punk, funk and jazz, the duo’s releases have been varied and always interesting with viscerally impactful and fun live shows. Its forthcoming album Nightclub Daydreaming has all the hallmarks of a great Ed Schrader offering with intricate rhythmic minimalism but decidedly moodier and more atmospheric than we’ve come to expect from the project’s rich sonic palette. Wombo’s psychedelic alternative rock with the dispassionate vocals have been one of the more consistently interesting left field bands out of the indie milieu of recent years that fans of Dry Cleaning and Ganser might appreciate. H-Lite’s electronic experiments unites minimal techno with a more playful and expansive type of glitchcore.

Wednesday | 03.23
What: Lightning Bolt w/Problems
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Saying that Lightning Bolt is a noise rock duo is a little like saying a hurricane is a storm. Doesn’t quite cover it. Though only a duo, Lightning Bolt seems to produce more sound than one might expect from just two people and its aggressive rhythms and explosive live performances are like small scale riot of their own. Which one might expect from a group from Providence, Rhode Island where some of the wildest and noisiest bands of the modern era (Mind Flayer, Arab on Radar, Six Finger Satellite and The Body to name a few) have come from over the past 30 years. Sonic Citadel, the band’s 2019 and latest album, is a masterclass of constant motion and barely controlled chaos and inspired weirdness. In place are also the usual rambunctious soundscape of intense yet modulated drums, processed vocals, distorted bass played both for rhythm and as accents in a call and response dynamic with lyrics sung with a nearly unhinged style. If you’ve never seen Lightning Bolt be prepared for pretty much anything to happen except that it’ll be more fun than you can usually have in a small rock club. Problems is the strange yet also fascinating techno house music project of Darren Keen based out of Lincoln, Nebraska whose 2020 album Ought Not Be Overthought is worth a listen for anyone interested in electronic music that doesn’t have obvious connections to what anyone else is doing yet remains accessible to most people.

Wednesday | 03.23
What: Dance With The Dead & Magic Sword w/Das Mortal
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Oriental Theater
Why: Dance With The Dead is a synthwave band currently touring on the festival circuit and in support of its new album Driven To Madness. But a major reason to go to this show is to see Boise’s Magic Sword whose own mix of fantasy and science fiction imagery and hard rock synthwave is on another level than most like-minded artists as the band members perform as space knights and other than differently colored costume lights largely anonymously. With a handful of albums out and their own comic, Magic Sword is consistently entertaining and its music though technically born out of a gimmick has an appeal far beyond that like the kind of retro science fiction action movie soundtrack for a film that has yet to be made.

Thursday | 03.24
What: Yob w/True Widow and Glacial Tomb
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: Yob guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt founded Yob in 1996 after spending some years in hardcore bands in Eugene, Oregon. The mid-90s weren’t exactly the height of the popularity for metal of any kind but in embracing the kind of heavy music that was being called “stoner rock” in the 90s but today the sludgy, sometimes psychedelic, metal might be called doom or post-metal depending on where on the stylistic spectrum the music falls. But whatever genre tags one might put on what Yob has done at this point its newer music as having emerged on both Clearing the Path to Ascend and Our Raw Heart has more than a little in common with experimental heavy artists like Neurosis and Isis (the former having been released on Neurot Recordings). Despite the sometimes cosmic bent of the lyrics and themes of mortality and struggle there is a real joy to the band’s live performances that draws you in for a shared catharsis. Denver death doom band Glacial Tomb opens the show and in the middle is True Widow from Dallas whose blend of doom and shoegaze is entrancingly melodic and moody.

Friday | 03.25
What: Gary Numan w/I Speak Machine
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Gary Numan is a pioneer of synth pop whose work with his old band Tubeway Army along with the likes of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Fad Gadget and Human League brought a sophistication of creative vision, nuanced social commentary and inventive incorporation of synthesizers into well-crafted pop songs proved influential on a generations of other artists. Numan forged a solo career for himself with 1979’s The Pleasure Principle and the hit single “Cars.” Since that time Numan has reliably experimented with technology and his own songwriting approach in ways that proved to be an influence on many of the more popular industrial bands of the 80s and 90s including Nine Inch Nails. Pick up anywhere in Numan’s recent catalog and there is worthwhile material including his 2021 album Intruder with its thoughtful commentary on climate change and its impact on the world and not just one human civilization. I Speak Machine is an electronic artist of recent years whose own synthscapes recall the era of music Numan helped to establish with horror cinema aesthetics and a live show to match. Definitely for fans of ADULT. and Xeno and Oaklander.

Saturday | 03.26
What: Quits w/Endless Nameless, Sell Farm and Pythian Whispers
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Quits is like the Hasil Adkins of post-hardcore noise rock. Endless Nameless are like the Iceburn collective of post-Canadian instrumental art shoegaze. Sell Farm is the Townes Van Zandt of doom industrial twee. Pythian Whispers is the Hüsker Dü of elevated Krautrock. These absurd characterizations are true in spirit so come on down and see for yourself. Full disclosure, the author of this bit is in Pythian Whispers.

Saturday | 03.26
What: Dust City Opera w/Split Lips
When: 9 p.m.
Where: Lion’s Lair
Why: Albuquerque’s Dust City Opera recently released its new album Alien Summer with its colorful story arc of science fiction, horror and the drama of the human experience. The sound mixes a bit of the group’s dark Americana with fuzzy rock grit to lend all of the songs more of an edge than one might assume given the band’s theatrical presentation. The new album sounds like something that could have come out of the later era indiepop bands steeped in the 90s version of that music like Beulah or Red Pony Clock but with a bit more refinement of sound.

Sunday | 03.27
What: Kat Von D w/Prayers
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Kat Von D is perhaps best known as a tattoo artist who has been in a couple of reality shows related to the profession. But in 2021 she released her debut album Love Made Me Do It and its mix of darkwave and synthpop is surprisingly accomplished. Her set alone with be worth seeing but opening is her husband Rafael Reyes’ band Prayers who garnered a good deal of attention as a “Cholo Goth” band when really Prayers is just one of the best modern electronic post-punk bands with a bit more actual edge to go along with the moody soundscapes and intense and dramatic lyrics.

The Spirit of the Beehive, photo courtesy the artists

Monday | 03.28
What: The Spirit of the Beehive w/Deeper
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Spirit of the Beehive probably seemed like a slightly weird indie rock/pop band early in its career but anyone that has been paying attention across the arc of its albums it’s like the Philadelphia-based group has been pulling back the veils of normalcy and convention with every album. Pleasure Suck and its hazy atmospherics and melodic left turns was reminiscent of something Black Moth Super Rainbow or Stargazer Lilies might do. This shifting to more experimental songwriting continued on 2018’s Hypnic Jerks with an approach to songwriting and structure reminiscent of cinema rather than simply music. With Entertainment, Death (2021), The Spirit of the Beehive is further opening its Pandora’s Box of unexpected tonal experiments, textures and raw sound composition to craft pop songs unlike much of anything anyone is making, even genius weirdos like Deerhoof. Often the songs sound like you’re stepping into a room in a horror movie funhouse and not sure where to find the exit and find you like it there. Deeper is one of Chicago’s bright post-punk stars and their album Auto Pain is something akin to music The Cure might have done if they had gone the route of angular art rock and emerged in the 2010s having been impacted by The Rapture and Women.

Monday | 03.28
What: Blunt Bangs (Athens, GA), Supreme Joy, Moodlighting and Public Opinion
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Mutiny Information Café
Why: Blunt Bangs from Athens, GA includes Reggie Youngblood formerly of buzz indie band Black Kids. But this project is like power pop with a touch of soul. The Big Star influence is obvious but the self-aware lyrics are very much in tune with the social environment of today and the cultural touchstones and lingo of the moment and a poignant portrait of the struggles young people have navigating relationships and a world that seems to make most aspects of life challenging for everyone. Blunt Bangs also includes Eli Saragoussi formerly of psychedelic garage rock phenoms Hair Cult. Also on the bill are Ryan Wong’s lo-fi post-punk band Supreme Joy and twee dream pop outfit Moodlighting who are set to release their new album Boy Wonder with a show at the Hi-Dive on May 5, 2022.

Tuesday | 03.29
What: Nation of Language w/Glove and Ducks Ltd.
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Nation of Language released its debut album Introduction, Presence in 2020 at a time when no one could or did tour but its bass-driven, moody synth pop songs were reminiscent of early OMD in a way worthy of that obvious influence. The group’s 2021 album A Way Forward was aptly named because the synthesizers came more to the front for a starker yet richer sound overall. It initially recalled Magnetic Fields’ 1995 album Get Lost and its rhythms and pacing seemed to draw on Krautrock influences like Kraftwerk, Cluster, Harmonia and Ashra. And an exploration of OMD’s 1983 artpop masterpiece Dazzle Ships. But whatever the influences or inspirations, Nation of Language has fused the avant-garde with pop in a way with modern methods that draw you in and induce a mood of looking toward a future of possibilities. Glove is a post-punk/darkwave band from Tampa, Florida, a city rightfully more well known for its influential death metal milieu. But Glove’s knack for composing songs that wed energetic rhythms with pulsing low end to melancholic mood may do something toward changing that impression. Its new album Boom Nights breaks free from the cookie cutter darkwave sound that has emerged with more lo-fi recordings. Glove’s album has not slick production so much as strong. Reminiscent of The Prids and Modern English circa Mesh & Lace. Ducks Ltd. from Toronto, Ontario released Modern Fiction on Carpark in 2021 and its ebullient jangle pop sounded like a mix of New Order, all that great 80s Kiwi rock and groups out of the C86 movement of that era. But the content of the songs were inspired by an examination of modern human civilization in decay and its impacts on our lives on a very personal level. The songwriters also took some cues from the fiction of Graham Greene whose life in MI6 and fiction were likely the model of spy fiction to follow.

Tuesday | 03.29
What: Dummy, Greet Death, Infant Island, American Culture, Dirt Sucker, Candy Apple
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: [Greet Death and Infant Island show moved to this event due to issues with Meadowlark Bar] Dummy from Los Angeles released its latest album Mandatory Enjoyment in 2021 and immediately established itself as a band to watch with its consistently fascinating soundscapes somewhere betwixt post-punk, Krautrock, indie pop and whatever avant-garde mix of all that you’d call Stereolab. Greet Death is the kind of modern shoegaze band that sounds like its members came up through post-hardcore or some kind of punk or metal as its guitar work has some nice sharp edges even as its soundscapes sound like the shattered glass of disappointed emotions. Its 2019 album New Hell is overflowing with a sublime catharsis that genre bends in ways that one doesn’t hear much in this realm of music. Unless you’re listening to Drowse or another band with seemingly similar roots and an ear for vulnerable emotional expressions put very much forward. American Culture from Denver is no stranger to these hybrid musical impulses and singer Chris Adolf has been someone who never limits himself to a narrow genre though an innovator in indiepop going back to the 90s with bands like Love Letter Band, Bad Weather California, V-Tech Orchid and the various musical incarnations of American Culture with its Cure-esque guitar soundscapes and raw yet tenderly executed vocals. Candy Apple from Denver might be considered hardcore but only if you include the influence of early Christian Death and maybe Jesus and Mary Chain.

Tuesday | 03.29
What: Video Vision w/DJ Julian Black and DJ Niq V
When: 9 p.m.
Where: HQ
Why: Video Vision is a post-punk/deathrock band from Athens, Georgia whose 2021 album Inked in Red feels both melodramatic and intimately rendered. Sounds like something plucked from the early 80s except for the synth treatments which feel very modern. The male and female vocals recall the dynamics you’d hear in a 45 Grave song but with more ethereal music, just that grit and confidence seems very much in place.

Wednesday and Thursday | 03.30 and 03.31
What: Wilderado w/flipturn
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Aggie Theatre and Bluebird Theater
Why: Though Wilderado released its self-titled debut album in October 2021, the band originally based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, now out of Los Angeles, has put in its time over the last seven years honing its songcraft and performances through regular touring. Its sounds sound like they were written with acoustic guitar in a living room contemplating a feeling or a thought that strikes you so strongly you end up writing it down or committing it to memory as best you can. But those skeletons of songs get the full-fledged manifestation across an album of lively pop songs that are stronger for having been worked out before any adornments and embellishments are added.

Wednesday | 03.30
What: Black Ends (Seattle), Sell Farm, Joseph Lamar and Fainting Dreams (members of Endless Nameless, Direct Threat and Asbestos)
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Black Ends and its “gunk pop” sounds like something you’d get if you took an experimental punk band and found a way to deconstruct the traditional sounds and structures into this melted mutant version. Meaning it’s more original than most things you’ll see actually on tour and would have found a home on Siltbreeze in the 2000s alongside Pink Reason, Eat Skull and the like. Sell Farm is a dub-industrial-indie pop band whose own sound experiments in real time pretty much place it outside all trendy styles happening right now which is always a reason to go see a band. Joseph Lamar is a glam R&B space alien whose soulful vocals can’t be constrained by convention either and his songwriting while hyper tuneful also colors outside the lines of expectation. If Fainting Dreams includes members of Endless Nameless, Direct Threat and Asbestos and still playing this show they’re probably using their considerable musical talents and chops to make something unusual and interesting as well.

Thursday | 03.31
What: Prism Bitch w/Horse Girl and Bud Bronson & The Good Timers
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Prism Bitch from Albuquerque, New Mexico fuses synth pop with garage rock in unpredictable ways while not compromising solid pop songwriting yet coming off very unfiltered and punk. Horse Girl is part inspired performance art and art pop with a show that always breaks that barrier between the spectator and performer in creative ways. Brilliant weirdos, always. Bud Bronson & The Good Timers is the best power pop band out of Denver. Full stop.

Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum, photo courtesy the artists

Thursday | 03.31
What: Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Oriental Theater
Why: Oftentimes when actors get into making music it’s either quaint, ill-considered our insufferable. But Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum which includes Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) alongside Peter Yanowitz (The Wallflowers, Morningwood) and Matt Katz-Bohen (Blondie) is shockingly good. Like a synth pop glam rock band. Its debut album THANKS FOR COMING comes off more like an art rock concept record the likes of which you’d expect more from the 1970s with strong ideas and commentary on life and society and ambitious songwriting. But with modern sensibilities like the musicians are well aware that Radiohead and Arcade Fire already happened. Its tonal exercises are poignant and evocative and the songs cinematic.