Now that Fall is basically here, Denver will have more great shows than at any other time of the year. To that end, we’ll be including more shows on this list than would otherwise be advisable in a “Best Shows” type list.
Who: Throwing Snow (UK, Houndstooth/Local Action), RUMTUM, Marcelo Moxy, b2b, Rameau Control
When: Thursday, 9.21, 9 p.m.
Where: The Black Box
Why: Dirty//Clean brings some of the most interesting electronic dance oriented acts together for its events. Tonight it’s Bristol, UK’s Throwing Snow whose 2017 album Embers is filled with the kind of bright soundscaping and bass drones that have made recent offerings from likes of Weval, Demdike Stare and Clark so compelling. It’s the kind of stuff that stirs our imagination. RUMTUM’s combination of organic sounds and electronics may be the odd one out on this bill except his own form of crafting beats and atmosphere is right in line with the sort of post-IDM, deep house sort of music on hand for this show.
Who: Tyto Alba video release w/Happy Abandon, Florea and Yesol
When: Thursday, 9.21, 9 p.m.
Where: Syntax Physic Opera
Why: Tyto Alba somehow found a way to be both a great indie rock and dream pop band all at once. Its emotional flavorings are tuneful and cathartic while projecting a melancholic yet comforting aural signature that transcends mere genre. Tonight the band releases its video for “The Hunger,” created with L.A.-based filmmaker Colin Anders of Slice Cinematics. Also on the bill is Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s cinematic indie pop band Happy Abandon whose simple yet detailed and lush compositions challenge the listener to confront their personal demons with compassion rather than judgement. Their new album Facepaint has to be counted among the most rewarding listens of any album of 2017 as its rich sonic tapestries are a poignant representation of self-honesty and self-examination.
Who: Vagabon w/Nnamdi Ogbonnaya and Nina De Freitas
When: Thursday, 9.21, 8 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Laetitia Tamko’s Vagabon on her 2017 album Infinite Worlds proved that you can absolutely write a record largely by yourself, play most of the instruments on that record and sound like you had to recruit ace players in your music community to create an album with such a vast and forceful expression of engagement with the world. Tamko’s combination of driving rock and brightly ethereal tones contribute to making her music accessibly eclectic and refreshingly original. It is reminiscent to a limited extent to the music of Rainer Maria and that raw, unabashed expression of intense emotions with an edgy vulnerability.
Who: Natural Violence EP release w/Ssleeperhold, Prison Glue and Quits
When: Thursday, 9.21, 9 p.m.
Where: The Meadowlark
Why: Michael Stein is perhaps best known for his stints in garage rock band School Knights, indie pop group American Culture and experimental post-punk band Homebody. Natural Violence goes further in the exploration of electronic pop gone weird. Sort of a minimal synth project that one might compare to Fad Gadget or Sparks. But maybe even more stripped down. The group’s debut EP called SP might even make some people think of a lo-fi John Maus. But really it’s just Stein’s rich imagination finding ways of making something he hasn’t heard a million times and that’s often where the best music comes from. Also on playing is Prison Glue, the noise/performance art project of former Hot White guitarist Kevin Wesley. It’s always a different show with Wesley so expect something completely unlike anything he’s done with Prison Glue before. Quits is the latest noise rock project from former/current members of noise rock/weirdo bands like Hot White, Sparkles and Anger Throne. You’ll have to go to figure out who. Out of town guest for this show is Ssleerperhold, the minimal synth-ish solo project of BOAN’s Jose Costa.
Who: Secret Chiefs 3 w/Echo Beds
When: Friday, 9.22, 8 p.m.
Where: Downtown Artery
Why: Trey Spruance was once in art rock band Mr. Bungle with Mike Patton. Secret Chiefs 3 is more like a bizarro, psychedelic prog band whose own music reflects a playful interpretation of esoteric knowledge and musical ritual. But Secret Chiefs 3 is known to do an offbeat if somewhat faithful cover or few like John Carpenter’s theme to Halloween. Opening is Denver-based industrial punk band Echo Beds who have been branching out from its signature post-apocalyptic tribal onslaught of sound and emotions to challenging yet hypnotic soundscapes. Either way, you’ll get to see something powerful and unforgettable.
Who: 7th Circle 5-Year Anniversary Show #1: Chaff, American Psychonaut, Proto Whats?, Astral Planes, The Real Lying Rohr, Joshua + The Devil, CFX-Project, Unit-Y and Krbs (Ludlow)
When: Friday, 9.22, 4 p.m.
Where: 7th Circle Music Collective
Why: To celebrate its five years as 7th Circle Music Collective, the venue is having three days of shows featuring the bands that have made it a vibrant subscene in the larger Denver music scene. What makes 7th Circle perhaps more significant than many other venues for fostering and developing a scene is the fact that it’s a community of bands and volunteers and younger musicians can invite their friends to the show without worries of age restriction. The lineup will be eclectic and if you go you can probably expect to see one or two bands you’ve never heard of that you’ll like.
Who: Grave Moss, Sherman’s March, Demoncassttecult, Giardia
When: Friday, 9.22, 7 p.m.
Where: Flux Capacitor
Why: Grave Moss updates death rock for the current era. Vocalist Amanda Gostomski is able to project a cathartic level of transmogrified turmoil and pain that way you’d want with this music rather than yet another Andrew Eldritch clone. Demoncassettecult is sort of an industrial noise/drone solo project from Gold Trash’s Vahco Before Horses. There aren’t many shows like this in Colorado Springs but the Flux and its central location is a great place to catch some experimental music from Denver.
Who: Body Meat w/Killd By, GrassHopper and Plague Survivor
When: Friday, 9.22, 8 p.m.
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Body Meat is sort of a combination of lo-fi math rock band with jazz underpinnings and intricate rhythms. Killd By is a reflection of the restless imagination and energy of Colin Ward who employs live electronics and beats to disorient the senses and take you to places in your brain that you may not know had existed.
Who: The Blackouts, Like a Rocket (Boise), Hot Apostles and Last Rhino
When: Friday, 9.22, 8 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: Normally cover bands are kind of bland and wack but The Blackouts make its punk covers seem like originals because the members of the band play like they own it. Hot Apostles plays melodic hard rock that may be rooted in classic rock of the 70s and 80s but there is an exuberance to its performances that sets it apart from other bands mining similar territory. That and vocalist Eryn Swissdorf is a force of nature.
Who: Option 4 w/Bones and Colin/Dungeon
When: Friday, 9.22, 8 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Brennen Bryarly is one of the most important promoters of electronic dance music in Denver and beyond. And his hard work to that effect came out of his own endeavors as a maker of such music with his project Option4. This is a rare opportunity to catch Bryarly in his element and hopefully hear about the next edition of his superbly well-curated festival Cloak and Dagger.
Who: Faces of US – 5th Annual Our Neighbors, Ourselves fundraiser to support Project Worthmore, juried art gallery featuring dozens of artists, live music by Tom Hagerman Ensemble, Bluebook, DJ sets by Jonny DeStefano and Christy Thacker. VR experience by DenVR
When: Friday, 9.22, 6 p.m.
Where: McNichols Building
Why: This is a show happening at the McNichols Building to the west of Civic Center Park. It’s kind of an odd layout for a show but it works. This is a fundraiser for area refugees through Project Worthmore. As indicated above, the live music will be provided by Tom Hagerman Ensemble and Bluebook. Hagerman is perhaps best known as a member of gypsy punk/folk band DeVotchka. Bluebook is the experimental solo project of Julie Davis who uses cello, loops and beats to weave wise and wryly humorous stories. Davis has been known to play with Nathaniel Rateliff but many in Denver’s underground music scene have long since appreciated her richly imaginative work not only in Bluebook but Bela Karoli and Seven Hats.
Who: Dead Cross w/Secret Chiefs 3
When: Saturday, 9.23, 8 p.m.
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Dead Cross is a hardcore/thrash supergroup whose members include Justin Pearson and Mike Crain from Retox, Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies and Mike Patton whose improbably eclectic and storied career includes singing with Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Fantomas. Doesn’t mean the band is any good but in this case the musicians push past the usual genre boundaries because they’re all weirdos going way back. See above for Secret Chiefs 3.
Who: The Mansfields Hollywood Babylon listening party w/Dead Wave, DJ sets by The Mansfields
When: Saturday, 9.23, 8 p.m.
Where: Modbo
Why: The Mansfields are one of the most enduring bands from Colorado Springs. Sort of like a glam rock take on Generation X, the band’s melodic punk has been gracing stages along the front range since the 90s. The group is finally releasing its new album, Hollywood Babylon, with a listening party at art gallery Modbo. If you go, Modbo is down the alley and it’s a small-ish building. So it’ll be an intimate way to experience this band’s bombastic music in an intimate setting.
Who: Sleeping Lessons, RMMTS and Slynger
When: Saturday, 9.23, 9 p.m.
Where: Lion’s Lair
Why: Roommates is a Denver band that blurs the lines between the music that helped inspired it. Whether that be 90s and early 2000s math rock, punk, shoegaze and hip-hop production. Its 2017 debut full length album Victoria represents the apex of two years and more of reinvention and synthesis of the ideas of current and past bandmates. The band’s combination of elegance and raw power is pretty much impossible to pigeonhole but if you’re a fan of stuff like Milemarker, Rainer Maria and Sunny Day Real Estate you’ll find much to like here.
Who: Strange Powers and Demoncassettecult and Amanda G
When: Saturday, 9.23, 6-9 p.m.
Where: Hooked On Colfax
Why: Josh Powers is a prolific artist whose work traverses a broad range of electronic and beat-driven music. He was once a member of alternative hip-hop group Strange Us with then future Men In Burka bandmate Kamran Khan. In MIB Powers, Khan and Mario Zoots (primarily known as a visual artist and for having been a co-founder of early witch house band Modern Witch) created a fascinating synthesis of hip-hop, Middle Eastern rhythms and low-end heavy techno. Strange Powers is Josh’s long-running solo project in which he is able to explore whatever ideas strike him as interesting whether that’s his left field take on pop, experimental dance music or noise. Amanda G is the solo project of Amanda Gostomski of Princess Dewclaw, Grave Moss and Gold Trash. For Demoncassettecult see above on 9/22.
Who: 7th Circle 5-Year Anniversary Show #2: Spit Black and Dreamcast split release, Hapless, Full Bore, Screwtape, Wake the Bat and MOB
When: Saturday, 9.23, 6:30 p.m.
Where: 7th Circle Music Collective
Why: The second night of 7th Circle Music Collective’s 5-year anniversary celebration. Plenty of worthy bands including the Rage Against the Machine-esque Wake the Bat and Screwtape, easily one of Denver’s best punk bands. Nay, best bands, punk or otherwise. The group’s ferocious energy is infectious. It’s tempting to say Screwtape is hardcore but its sound palette is a bit broader even as its presentation is possessed of the aggression and directness that makes hardcore so compelling.
Who: Quantum Creep, Modern Leisure and Vatican Vamps
When: Saturday, 9.23, 8 p.m.
Where: BarFly/Alamo Drafthouse Lakewood
Why: Modern Leisure is the latest band from Casey Banker who some may know from his stints in The Don’ts and Be Carefuls and Shady Elders. With Modern Leisure it’s all his songwriting and creative vision, the result being some of his strongest songs to date. It’s indie pop but Banker’s wordsmithing has always been thoughtful and insightful. Had great Colorado indie rock bands like Lil’ Slugger, Fingers of the Sun and Supply Boy been commercially successful calling Quantum Creep a supergroup wouldn’t seem silly. But rather than try to be like any of their past bands, Quantum Creep is more like a noisy post-punk band like The Fall but without the perverse sense of obtuseness that makes Mark E. Smith’s band sometimes challenging for many people. The group’s 2016 album Friends With Death is a timeless collection of noise pop that could have come out in 1986, 1996 or today.
Who: Cloudless Rain, Winter Twig and Winter
When: Sunday, 9.24, 7 p.m.
Where: Mutiny Information Café
Why: It’s a Textures event. Which is the monthly ambient showcase that happens the final Sunday of every month at Mutiny Information Café. Cloudless Rain is Chris Mandel’s longform abstract electronic compositions. He often live broadcasts from his studio but this is a not common chance to see it live where the transporting tones will be richer and the low end more robust. Winter Twig is one of Don White’s latest projects. White has sure played in some weirdo rock bands over the years including Action Friend, New Ancient Astronauts and, recently, Ice Troll. But his exploration of electronic soundscapes with The Kappa Cell and Boy Howdy have been widely different and worthwhile.
Who: 7th Circle 5-Year Anniversary Show #3: Bourgeois Girl, Meeting House, Sliver, Zero-Form, Almataha, Jack’s Smirking Revenge, Flower Crown Me a Queen, Waifu, Tonguebite, PoRf, Henn
When: Sunday, 9.24, 1 p.m.
Where: 7th Circle Music Collective
Why: The final night of 7th Circle Music Collective’s celebration of its five years as a DIY venue. You probably can’t go wrong with showing up at any time. Sliver is a great modern grunge band that probably takes more influence from Bad Brains than Black Sabbath. Jack’s Smirking Revenge was, maybe still is, a fun folk punk act that takes aim at the silliness of the conservative and imperialist end of American culture.
Who: Adam Ant: The Anthems Tour w/Glam Skanks
When: Tuesday, 9.26, 8 p.m.
Where: Paramount Theatre
Why: Adam Ant’s music career emerged during that great period of music when punk and glam rock overlapped and influenced each other. His style, part punk, part glam, part a reinterpretation of various Native American styles, struck a chord with audiences in the UK and the US and his hits including “Antmusic,” “Desperate But Not Serious,” and “Goody Two Shoes” ensured his status as an early star of MTV. In 2017 Adam Ant is still a vital performer who has continued to refine and reinvent his music. Because he could never be tied to any particular movement and his music having aged well, Adam Ant is no simple nostalgia artist one-or-two-hit wonder.
Who: MF Ruckus comic/video premiere and tour kick-off w/Muscle Beach, Traid-Ins and Granny Tweed
When: Wednesday, 9.27, 7 p.m.
Where: Streets of London
Why: Hard rock band MF Ruckus is premiering its comic and video for The Front Lines of Good Times as part of its tour kickoff show. It’s a twelve part comic book and singles series that takes place in a dystopian future wherein the band as the principal characters find a way to keep being a band and do what they do best in the face of monumental odds against them. So yeah, except for the setting, essential just like real life. The band worked closely with comic artist Josh Finley and so far it’s the colorful, entertaining and humorous read you’d expect from a band like MF Ruckus who defy an easy rock and roll pigeonhole. Also on the bill is Muscle Beach, a group that might technically be a hardcore band but its intricate guitar work and rhythms puts it outside the usual bands of that aesthetic. Think more like Dillinger Escape Plan or Cave-In and Coalesce than the Youth Attack sound. And would you look at that, Josh Finley’s band Granny Tweed is playing too. That act is a mutant hybrid of styles in the same way that, maybe, NRBQ or the Beat Farmers might be but not really like either of those at all.
Who: Wand w/Darto and Serpentfoot
When: Wednesday, 9.27, 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Wand is an L.A.-based band that caused a bit of a stir among fans of psychedelic rock in 2015 when it released the stunning twin albums Golem and 1000 Days. If the band had roots in garage rock on any earlier releases, you couldn’t really tell on the 2015 records because they sounded like far beyond post-stoner rock psych while maintaining the kind of massive and driving sound you’d expect from a band that came more out of the music world pioneered and inhabited by the likes of Sleep and Monster Magnet. 2017’s Plum retains the heaviness but feels more like the band has taken the time to breathe in the songs instead of seeming to push things into the red for much of an album. The songs switch up the dynamics in fascinatingly disorienting ways while maintaining a groove. Something which not nearly enough so-called psych bands do. The Butthole Surfers and shoegazers like Medicine, yes. But it’s rare and thus refreshing on Plum. The lyrics still delve into unusual subjects and the surreal storytelling that has always set Wand apart from other psychedelic rock bands.
Darto, from Seattle, is also in the psych vein but with more of an emphasis on Synths. It’s 2017 album Human Giving reveals that you can have synth as a primary component of your songwriting and use it to make the same kind of hypnotic drones and melodies that disorient and transport through methods employed by bands like The Velvet Underground whose use of dissonance and non-standard tempos gave its music an otherworldly quality that has become timeless. It’s premature to say the same of Darto but its new record sure didn’t seem like the band is trying to ride someone else’s sonic coattails.
Who: Torche w/Pueblo Escobar and Throttlebomb
When: Wednesday, 9.27, 7 p.m.
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Maybe Torche is technically a “sludge rock” band but with that much energy maybe the sludgy side of that equation isn’t as emphasized. The band includes current and former members of respected doom act Floor. Torche seems more fluid and less forbidding, no knock on Floor. Also playing this show are local sludge metal style bands. Denver’s Throttlebomb has more roots in punk with members of Frontside Five and The Blackouts and former members of Low Gravity, Tard and Under the Drone. None of those names mean much if you don’t know much about Denver punk at all or before 2013. But all were noteworthy and that experience of playing music in non-glamorous dive bars and warehouses for years gives you a certain grit and credibility no matter what kind of music you’re playing even if music critics don’t give your band any sunshine. Pueblo Escobar, in addition to being one of the best band names of recent years that really only could have come from Colorado where the city of Pueblo has connotations that lack context and nuance elsewhere, is a kind of a local supergroup including members of Kingdom of Magic, Black Acid Devil, White Dynamite and Sparkles. See above for spending years playing unglamorous shows. It’s a sludge rock/noise punk band and always worthy of your time.
Who: Hundred Waters w/Lafawndah
When: Wednesday, 9.27, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Electronic pop group Hundred Waters has its roots in a childhood friendship between Trayer Tryon and Zach Tetreault who had various musical projects together dating back to at least high school. While attending University of Florida in Gainesville the two musicians met Nicole Miglis and the trio lived together through the later part of college while working, going to school and writing the music that would comprise the early material of Hundred Waters. The group’s self-titled debut LP (and the Thistle EP prior) came out on OWSLA, the label started by Sonny “Skrillex” Moore. Hundred Waters would be impossible to stamp as just an electronic pop band because its beats, electronic and acoustic, tend toward the unconventional incorporating Bossa Nova rhythms and the kind of informal rhythms that are a part of much folk music. Its soundscaping also drifts experimental with melodies and textures that suggests a more than passing familiarity with IDM and deconstructing the standard pop idiom of verse chorus verse chorus outro. Perhaps that’s why the band, with its way of using repetition as might a more overtly electronic artist might, fit in with a more experimental electronic aesthetic. But whatever the reason, Hundred Waters recently released the Communicating LP, an album of melancholic yet vibrant downtempo made soulful by Miglis’ breathy vocals and the sense that the band recorded in a wide open space to capture the natural reverb. Even if that isn’t true, the record conveys that sense more so than any of its previous releases.
Who: Alien Boy (Portland), Perfume V (Portland), Wrinkle and Gecko
When: Wednesday, 9.27, 7 p.m.
Where: 7th Circle Music Collective
Why: Kudos to Alien Boy for naming themselves after a Wipers song. And honestly, the Portland, Oregon-based band has adopted that desperate yet haunted vibe that has given every Wipers record a timeless quality that many punk records don’t much possesses. That and the thoughtful, incisive lyrics that speak to a deep rooted melancholy that comes from realization that the world probably isn’t going to be as good as it could be if we all tried a little harder. Oh, Alien Boy also clearly has a sense of humor and irony in the sincerity of its sentiments. Wrinkle is a sort of lo-fi/emo band from Denver whose noisy pop songs sound that is the essence of a feeling of trying to find something meaningful in a time when you’re told all the endless horizons Americans are raised to expect but you know it’s a lie and most of your friends are in dead end service industry jobs and while you rightfully think there has to be something better in life for everyone you’re not entirely certain there is. So you take bits from Brainiac, Pixies, Pavement and other bands that articulated that feeling so well in their respective ways and in their specific cultural contexts.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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