Best Shows in Denver and Beyond 12/20/19 – 12/23/19

Colorado Crew: Denvoid Pt. 2 is being released and celebrated during events this weekend

Friday | December 20

Echo Beds, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Colorado Crew Denvoid Pt. 2 book release
When: Friday, 12.20, 6-8:30 p.m.
Where: Mercury Café
Why: This event will present the follow up to Bob Rob Medina’s 2015 book Denvoid and the Cowtown Punks which documented the Denver punk and underground music scene from 1982-1987. This volume, Colorado Crew: Denvoid Pt. 2 covers the years 1988-1996 in which punk changed, the major current strands of music in Denver emerged into strong, coherent form and the early phase of artist run DIY spaces developed into the form we know now.

What: Emerald Siam w/Echo Beds and Clusterfux
When: Friday, 12.20, 8 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The musical accompaniment to Colorado Crew: Denvoid Pt. 2 mentioned above with bands whose members were part of that late 80s through mid-90s scene.

What: Panther Martin w/Wet Nights, Marti and the Dads
When: Friday, 12.20, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge

What: Reno Divorce w/Tejon Street Corner Thieves and Joy Subtraction
When: Friday, 12.20, 8 p.m.
Where: Globe Hall

What: Colorado People’s Alliance Fundraiser with Gone Full Heathen, Lost Boi, Joel Zigman and more
When: Friday, 12.20, 8 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective

Saturday | December 21

Causer, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Grimy (Bryan Wendzel) and Cabron (Bob Rob Medina)
When: Saturday, 12.21, 1 p.m.
Where: Chain Reaction Records
Why: Early afternoon show connected to the release of Colorado Crew: Denvoid Pt. 2 featuring death-grind band Grimy and author Bob Rob Medina’s San Diego-based punk outfit Cabron playing a rare show (as well as another later this night).

What: The Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meetup Presents: Synth Patrol
When: Saturday, 12.21, 1-3 p.m.
Where: Little Horse Books & Vintage
Why: Early afternoon concert featuring live vinyl sampling from Aefonic (Brian Horsfield), Cold Future (Victor John), monoscene (Christoph Scholtes) and Newecho (Mark Mosher).

What: Jon Snodgrass and Jux County
When: Saturday, 12.21, 5-8 p.m.
Where: Mutiny Information Café
Why: Another show connected to the release of Bob Rob Medina’s book Colorado Crew: Denvoid Pt. 2 including performances from longtime punk stalwart Jon Snodgrass and Jux County, one of the early cowpunk/alt-country bands from the mid-80s and who still occasionally play shows.

What: FOUR! (reunion), Cyclo-Sonic, Mind Rider (Sonny Kay), Cabron
When: Saturday, 12.21, 9 p.m.
Where: 1010 Workshop
Why: The final event related to the release of Colorado Crew: Denvoid Pt. 2 with performances from bands including people featured in the book with pop-punk legends FOUR!, garage punk band Cyclo-Sonic which includes members of The Fluid, Choosey Mothers and Rok Tots, Sonny Kay (Savalas, Angel Hair, The VSS) and Bob Rob Medina (Savalas, Cabron). Rumor has it Medina and Kay will perform a Savalas song.

What: Causer, Equine, Tears to Li6ht
When: Saturday, 12.21, 8 p.m.
Where: Glitter City
Why: Equine is an avant-garde guitar drone solo project of Kevin Richards. Causer is one of the most compelling and inventive newcomers to Denver’s noise scene with their mix of confrontational performance art and noise collage. Tears to Li6ht is a melodic ambient/experimental pop project.

What: Surfacing – Winter Solstice show: Mirror of Truth (Esmé Patterson solo project), EA$$IDE LUPITA Korryne solo, Bell Mine, Kaumaha
When: Saturday, 12.21, 8 p.m.
Where: Rhinoceropolis
Why: Titwrench festival will return in 2020 to feature some of the most interesting female, LGBTQIA and marginalized community artists. This event is a showcase for what’s to come and a fundraiser for the future festival. It’s the debut of Esmé Patterson’s experimental music project and will include a performance of Korryne of R A R E B Y R D $’ solo project EA$$IDE LUPITA.

What: Jade Cicada w/Seppa, Shield, Mad Zach, Bricksquash and Schmoop
When: Saturday, 12.21, 7 p.m.
Where: Mission Ballroom

What: Charlie Parr w/Dead Horses
When: Saturday, 12.21, 8 p.m.
Where: Bluebird Theater

What: Decemburger IV: In the Company of Serpents, Nekrofilth, Ghosts of Glaciers, The Munsens, Casket Huffer, Upon A Fields Whisper
When: Saturday, 12.21, 6 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive

Sunday | December 22

Umbras Animas, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Umbras Animas w/Lady of Sorrows, John Gross, Mismo and Pythian Whispers
When: Sunday, 12.22, 7 p.m.
Where: Rhinoceropolis
Why: Umbras Animas is bringing its latest drone and shadow pupper theater performance to Rhinoceropolis along with one of the Godfathers of Denver noise John Gross, operatic darkwave synth pop project Lady of Sorrows and soundtrack/soundscape projects Mismo and Pythian Whispers (full disclosure, Queen City Sounds and Art writer Tom Murphy’s band).

Claudzilla, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Claudzilla w/Artificial Bladder (synth pop), Preparation (ambient)
When: Sunday, 12.22, 7 p.m.
Where: Mutiny Information Café
Why: Weirdo keytar pop maven Claudzilla will perform along with likeminded weirdos Artificial Bladder and Preparation.

Monday | December 23

EVP, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Aunti Hoppa, Sur Ellz, Techno Allah and EVP
When: Monday, 12.23, 9 p.m.
Where: Rhinoceropolis
Why: A show where breakbeat dance music, hip-hop, electro soul and melodic industrial glitch meet.

Best Shows in Denver 9/5/19 – 9/11/19

Kristin Hersh band performs Tuesday, September 10 at the Hi-Dive, photo courtesy the artists

Thursday | September 5

Hot Snakes circa 2018 at the Oriental Theater, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Hot Snakes w/SPELLS
When: Thursday, 09.05, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Oriental Theater
Why: It would be too facile to cite biographical information about Hot Snakes at this point. Influential noise rock band from San Diego comprised of former/current members of Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From the Crypt, Pitchfork and Obits. Its shows are incendiary, its songs imbued with a dark yet dry sense of humor and its angular guitar rock also not short on dynamic grooves that seem too confrontational to work as unconventional dance music but don’t tell that to John Reis. The group is currently re-touring in support of its monumental 2018 album Jericho Sirens. If you go early to catch SPELLS, just think of them as an 80% version of Hot Snakes because that’s good enough. And other inside jokes that don’t work on the internet.

What: The 5.6.7.8s w/The Ghoulies and The Vanilla Milkshakes
When: Thursday, 09.05, 8 p.m.
Where: Streets Denver
Why: The 5.6.7.8s are a lively surf rock and rockabilly band from Japan who came to a larger public consciousness in the West after appearing in Kill Bill Vol. 1. The Ghoulies are a similarly-minded sorta rockabilly garage punk band and The Vanilla Milkshakes will make all the awkward jokes that desperately need to be made and break up the evening some with its well-crafted, outsider pop punk.

What: The Funs, Sweetness Itself, American Culture, Natural Violence
When: Thursday, 09.05, 8 p.m.
Where: Rhinoceropolis
Why: The Funs is a band from Illinois that combines a twee indie pop sensibility with a dream pop sound palette. Think Black Tambourine post-shoegaze. American Culture took the Dinosaur Jr and Meat Puppets thing and put it through an indie pop lens and listened to a bunch of Cure records and came up with something different but bearing the fingerprints of all of that in its sound and ethos. Natural Violence is Michael Stein’s (Homebody, School Knights) latest project. A kind of spindly, super refined post-punk pop band.

What: Mystic Wool, Arc Sol and Total Trash
When: Thursday, 09.05, 9:30 p.m.
Where: Mercury Café
Why: Arc Sol is former Silverface guitarist Michael Thompsons’s new band that somehow welds Neil Young-esque rock wih psychedelia without really sounding like he’s trying to be in the same lineage as any of that in the past decade and that’s impressive on its own. Total Trash is a Denver indie rock supergroup including former and current members of Fingers of the Sun, Fissure Mystic, Lil’ Slugger, Quantum Creep and Eyebeams. Mystic Wool’s synth compositions sound as though someone had to go on some prolonged retreat with no access to the internet and just a music player that had the Deerhunter discography, early Air albums, Candy Claws and Harmonia albums.

Saturday | September 7

Mannequin Pussy, photo courtesy Epitaph

What: TEARS to LI6HT, Hate Minor and Claudzilla
When: Saturday, 09.07, 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: This show is a fundraiser for ProgressNow Colorado’s Keep Abortion Safe initiative and it will include sets from experimental electronic artist TEARS to LI6HT, experimental noise rock duo Hate Minor and Claudzilla’s melodica Goth strangeness.

What: Mannequin Pussy w/Destroy Boys and Ellis
When: Saturday, 09.07, 8 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Mannequin Pussy’s melodic punk is anthemic, emotionally raw and affecting. Like some sort of power pop band from the 80s with the expansive songwriting style and inventive dynamics but whose lyrics are soul searching and pointed but never cruel. The group’s 2016 album Romantic was full of joyful chaos exorcising trauma and sadness with bursts of sound and energy. The new record, 2019’s Patience, is more introspective but no less imbued with the radical vulnerability and personal insight that has made its music worth a deep listen from the beginning.

What: Audio Dream Sister, Whiskey Orphans, Austin Sterling
When: Saturday, 09.07, 9 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: Audio Dream Sister hasn’t played in a million years. Meaning maybe in half a decade or more or so it seams. The sludge rock band from Denver was a staple of the heavy rock and punk scene for years and its adept songwriting and psychedelic sensibilities set it apart from the “stoner rock” set of the day.

What: De La Soul w/DJ Mick
When: Saturday, 09.07, 8 p.m.
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: De La Soul brought something a little strange to hip-hop when it came onto the scene in the 80s blending psychedelic rock aesthetics with weirdo funk and rap. It also used that perspective to examine social issues from a different angle and in its own way had as incisive a social critique as contemporaries like Public Enemy and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.

Sunday | September 8

 

Old Sport circa 2018, photo by Tom Murphy

What: King Crimson
When: Sunday, 09.08, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Paramount Theatre
Why: King Crimson was one of the earliest of the progressive/art rock bands to have emerged in the late 60s, incorporating classical music concepts and a sense of dramatic orchestration into ambitous rock songs. Its 1969 debut In the Court of the Crimson King set a creative high water mark for the progressive rock genre with imaginative lyrics and songwriting that employed musical chops with real creativity to write emotionally arresting songs like the title track and “21st Century Schizoid Man.” While guitarist Robert Fripp is the sole remaining original member he has been the musician in the band that has steered the ship consistently from the beginning through its various phases from the early sort of amalgam of folk, rock, jazz, classical and psychedelia through the experimental hard rock phase of the 2000s through to today.

What: King of Heck (NV), Endless, Nameless, Old Sport and Zephyr
When: Sunday, 09.08, 8 p.m.
Where: Rhinoceropolis
Why: King of Heck from Nevada is a “desert rock” band that sounds like it came up on a lot of Gravity Records bands, Fugazi, melodic post-hardcore and modern underground emo. Old Sport from Denver is a great blending of post-hardcore and noisy proto-alternative rock like Dinosaur Jr.

Monday | September 10

Voight, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Voight, Dancing Plague (OR), French Kettle Station and Luxury Hearse
When: Monday, 09.09, 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: A darkwave show at Seventh Circle with Denver’s shoegaze/post-punk/industrial synthesists Voight, EBM/dance Goth group Dancing Plague from Oregon, French Kettle Station and his animated 80s adult contemporary/avant-garde/New Wave music and Luxury Hearse’s beat driven ambient pop.

What: Hazel English w/Modern Leisure
When: Monday, 09.09, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Hazel English is oft compared to another Oakland, California artist Day Wave. But one might just as well compare her hazy, bright dream pop to the work of Alvvays because it has a similarly wistful and expansive quality that gives one a sense of introspective yearning. Joining her on the bill is Denver indie pop group Modern Leisure. Singer Casey Banker has been crafting some of the more thoughtful and impassioned pop songs out of Denver for more than a decade and Modern Leisure is the continuation of his legacy.

Tuesday | September 10

Silence in the Snow circa 2017, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Kristin Hersh (electric trio) w/Fred Abong
When: Tuesday, 09.10, 7 p.m.
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Kristin Hersh formed post-punk band Throwing Muses with Tanya Donelly in 1981 when both were fourteen years old. But that band went on to be one of the early alternative rock bands that helped to define the aesthetic of the UK record label 4AD with its emotionally powerful music and inventive songwriting. In that band and as a solo artist Hersh has used mythology and culture and her own struggles with mental illness to produce a body of work that is both startlingly intimate and imaginatively far reaching in scope. Her latest record, 2018’s Possible Dust Clouds draws on specific mythologies and personal history to deliver a set of songs that strikes deep emotional chords expressed with Hersh’s signature, textural voice and warmth as well as unconventional rhythms and guitar voicing. Somehow Hersh’s songs seem like manifestations of archetype and the forces of nature cooperating to speak eternal yet personal truth through her.

What: Silence in the Snow, Echo Beds, Blood Loss and Causer
When: Tuesday, 09.10, 8:30 p.m.
Where: Rhinoceropolis
Why: Oakland’s Silence in the Snow sometimes comes off like a neo-darkwave band because it is but its root is an urgent post-punk akin to the likes of Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry and Xmal Deutschland. Its new record Levitation Chamber finds the band mixing ethereal guitar with high emotive vocals and deep, irresistible rhythms.

Best Shows in Denver 7/4/19 – 7/10/19

Priests perform at Lost Lake on 7/7, photo by Drew Hagelin

Thursday | July 4

Rubedo at Tree Fort Music Fest circa 2013, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Rubedo’s Independence Day V w/Matt Embree (member RX Bandits, Dispatch and The Sound of Animals Fighting), Poor Bodhi, DJ Reubot
When: Thursday, 07.04, 7 p.m.
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: For five years now Rubedo has been doing an Independence Day show that includes friends and comrades in music and cultural resistance. This year includes Matt Embree, frontman of eclectic prog/punk/psych band Rx Bandits who is also a member of post-hardcore supergroup The Sound of Animals Fighting. Rubedo itself is no stranger to being difficult to pigeonhole. All its players have a degree of respectable musical chops and adept at mixing improvised sections in the songs based on the mood of the moment. One might call it a prog band because of the direct influence of The Mars Volta but also psychedelic rock and indirectly the musical thinking and techniques of hip-hop even though its all live instrumentation. The storytelling and themes of Rubedo songs somehow also manage to be positive and aimed toward a better future and celebrating the present without coming off as insincere.

Friday | July 5

Pictureplane circa 2015, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Pictureplane w/OptycNerd and DEBR4H
When: Friday, 07.05, 8 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Pictureplane returns to Denver where he first made waves in the underground beyond his home state of New Mexico. As one of the residents of Rhinoceropolis he was a real ambassador to experimental electronic dance bands in Denver and far beyond, evangelizing the DIY ethic and Rhinoceropolis and Monkey Mania to the places far and wide including performances in Russia. His musical style has evolved over the years and recently included more industrial textures and sounds but at his core, he’s an idiosyncratic artist who is trying to push his aesthetic in interesting directions.

Saturday | July 6

Sour Boy, Bitter Girl circa 2011, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Get Your Eyes Swoll: Last Humans, Tears to Li6ht and Gothsta
When: Saturday, 07.06, 8:30 p.m.
Where: The People’s Building
Why: This edition of GYES features dark chillwave artist Tears to Li6ht, lush Americana band Last Humans and Gothsta which is series host Claudia Woodman in her guise as a weirdo Goth pop star known for bizarre covers and even stranger originals.

What: Angry Hand of God, Never Kenezzard, Flat Earth
When: Saturday, 07.06, 9 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: A doom/stoner rock show featuring the now active again Angry Hand of God which experienced a bit of a heyday in the late 2000s before Denver metal, with a few notable exceptions, started attracting much attention outside of Colorado. Also on the bill is Never Kenezzard whose mixture of sludge rock, prog and psychedelia pushes the boundaries of heavy rock into innovative territory.

What: Short Shorts album release, Sour Boy, Bitter Girl, Safekeeper and Florea
When: Saturday, 07.06, 8 p.m.
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Short Shorts is a four-piece from Denver who will release their new EP Hang-Ups tonight. Somewhere betwixt surf rock and the kind of punk with a footing in 2010’s garage rock, Short Shorts have a sound that fans of the likes of Tacocat and Bully might enjoy. Echoes of 90s K Records bands. Also with song titles like “Jumbotron Debutate” and “Quantum Entanglement” the band’s pop songs are clearly a cut above and more thoughtful than one might expect from a band with a name like Short Shorts. On the bill are like-minded acts like the dark Americana band Florea and Sour Boy, Bitter Girl. The latter has a real knack for taking down and out sensibilities and turning them into earnest and thought-provoking pop songs with a literary flair.

What: Heart Bones feat. Har Mar Superstar and Sabrina Ellis w/Good Fuck and Mark Mallman
When: Saturday, 07.06, 8 p.m.
Where: Oriental Theater
Why: Two powerhouse performers in the same soulful synth pop band? Har Mar Superstar has long been putting on the most absurdly entertaining performances mixing soul and punk an dance music while Sabrina Ellis has been the animated and powerful frontwoman of A Giant Dog. Also, Good Fuck, the latest project from Tim Kinsella and Jenny Pulse, is like an experimental electronic German pop band but more like ADULT. than electroclash. Its 2019 self-titled album is a moody and spacious set of dark, noisy, techno industrial dance music.

Sunday | July 7

New Ben Franklins circa 2009, photo by Tom Murphy

What: Priests w/Olivia Neutron John
When: Sunday, 07.07, 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Fiercely DIY band Priests releases its what might be described as post-punk glam through its own label Sister Polygon Records. With the latter the group has helped to advocate for like-minded artists critical of the oligarchy like Downtown Boys and Snail Mail. It’s latest record is The Seduction of Kansas. Theatrical and dynamic, Priests make its flamboyantly strange aesthetic accessible. Olivia Neutron John is the dark, post-punk electroclash type of solo project of Anna Nasty whose 2019 self-titled debut is driven by brooding and stark low end and plenty of punk attitude.

What: New Ben Franklins w/The Smokestack Relics, Buck Fuffalo, Lank & The Shanks, Thomas Nap For President, The Wyatts, Schofield 45
When: Sunday, 07.07, 2 p.m.
Where: Globe Hall
Why: A bit of a country and Americana mini-festival that includes several of the local luminaries including New Ben Franklins whose flavor of that music has crossed over into post-punk and psychedelia.

What: Melissa Etheridge
When: Sunday, 07.07, 5:30 p.m.
Where: Hudson Gardens
Why: Melissa Etheridge is a cultural icon in various ways and beyond being a very public figure in the LGBTQ community going back decades. Before coming out in public in 1993, Etheridge had hit records on college and AOR radio with her 1988 self-titled debut, 1989’s Brave and Crazy and Never Enough from 1992. Etheridge came across as thoughtful, soulful, gritty and she had a kind of gravitas that relatively new artists don’t yet possess. Her songwriting held an appeal that transcended any specific considerations of sexuality and gender and her music even crossed over into the more adventurous radio stations that typically played classic rock mixed with some modern hits. Her first big hits came with “Come to My Window” and “I’m The Only One” from the 1993 album Yes I Am. In 2019 Etheridge released her latest record The Medicine Show—a strong showing of songwriting prowess and performance for an artist this far into a prolific career. It’s almost a hard rock record with Etheridge sounding more confident than ever and heartfelt odes to life and loss.

Monday | July 8

Melissa Etheridge, photo courtesy the artist

What: Melissa Etheridge
When: Monday, 07.08, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Chautauqua Auditorium
Why: See above for Melissa Etheridge. This show is in the uniquely arranged Chautauqua Auditorium which is a bit like seeing a show in a very large barn with good acoustics.

Tuesday | July 9

Bad Religion, photo by Alice Baxley

What: Bad Religion w/Dave Hause & The Mermaid
When: Tuesday, 07.09, 7 p.m.
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Bad Religion has long been reliable for having something to say in its music across its nearly forty year career and its latest album, 2019’s Age of Unreason, is no different. It’s fifteen tracks of anthemic, melodic punk against Trump and the authoritarian program worldwide in general. If any of it is heavy handed the times call for leaving no ambiguity in resisting the rise of fascism. Musically, one either likes the chances Bad Religion has taken or not but at least with its words the band has used its platform to challenging regressive political and cultural forces and to comment on the same with irreverent wit and intelligence.