Category: Best Shows List

Wednesday | 10.01
What: Modest Mouse w/Built to Spill
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Coming off the heels of a summer co-headlining tour with The Flaming Lips, alternative rock icons Modest Mouse is now touring with fellow Pacific Northwestern alt-rock legends Built to Spill. Modest Mouse’s idiosyncratic melodies and emotionally charged vocals that range freely from the vulnerable to the nearly unhinged and cathartic has made the group a cult band from its early underground days to international stardom. Built To Spill came out of the psychedelic post-punk band Tree People to carve out a legacy of being steeped in both punk and psychedelic improvisation. The group’s coherent yet eclectic style has been considered shoegaze by some or more deconstructed, slackery power pop by others but all held together by singer and guitarist Doug Martsch’s introspective poetry and colorful songwriting imagination informed by the broad swath of human experience layering melancholia with joy. Both bands started in 1992 and have managed to release vibrant later career material unlike many bands over thirty years into their existence.

Wednesday | 10.01
What: Patriarchy w/Spiritual Poison and Kill You Club DJs
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Patriarchy is the Los Angeles-based electro death rock band whose edgy lyrics and just as edgy stage appearance and performance art style has garnered it a wide underground following. Fortunately the band’s songs are more than the bombastic live show with commanding vocals and refraining from the usual tropes of modern darkwave and leaning into rich tones and embracing the industrial underbelly of the music as well as glitchy witch house and ambient washes of foggy harmonic gloom. Currently on tour in support of the new album Manual For Dying.

Thursday | 10.02
What: Malena Cadiz and Anna Ash
When: 7
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: Malena Cadiz’s 2023 album Hellbent & Moonbound seems to be inspired by snapshots of experiences of life during an average week in Los Angeles and walking the neighborhood and imagining the lives of strangers based on intuitive observations and mixed with more than a touch of autobiography to breathe life into the storytelling. The songs are in the realm of Americana pop but with vibrant electronic touches that combine with spangled guitar flourishes that anchor the songwriter’s words in your mind. She is touring with Anna Ash who like Cadiz was born in Michigan but now calls the City of Angels home. Her own style seems more stepped in country but the kind that emerged from the folk pop and rock that spawned the likes of Phoebe Bridgers. Meaning some luminous moods, strong cadence and expressive vocals and stories that sound like they came out of astutely collecting anecdotes while working in the service industry and thus imbued with an undeniable authenticity.

Saturday | 10.04
What: Flutter and The CDs
When: 3
Where: Mutiny Information Cafe
Why: Flutter is a Denver-based power pop band whose 2025 EP When You Love Somebody hearkens back to late 70s power pop. Its earnest lyrics about the nuances of love and relationships and how one’s emotions can be so strong but feel so complicated paired with sparkling, jangle-y guitar melodies render the band’s songs memorable beyond any tinges of nostalgic tone. Live the group has a surprisingly passionate performance style that elevates the music even further.

Sunday | 10.05
What: Die Spitz w/Flowers For the Dead
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Austin-based Die Spitz taps into the more melodic end of 90s grunge but clearly with a foundation in pop punk energy and knack for melodic hooks. Its 2025 album Something to Consume is moody and smoldering in tone and often reminiscent of early 2000s post-hardcore emo with some edge and vulnerability mixed in with the bombast. Some nice atmospheric layers and for the song “Throw Yourself to the Sword” an obvious taste for thrash metal somewhere in the band’s DNA makes Die Spitz a band that isn’t beholden to a narrow musical traditions.

Monday | 10.06
What: French Police w/Riki
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex
Why: French Police is a Chicago-based post-punk band with a bit of a cult following for its melodic coldwave style with subdued moods and narrowly atmospheric melodies. Riki is an enigmatic synth pop artist from Los Angeles who has a bit of a following of her own among connoisseurs of darkwave for her dance music adjacent beats, vivid washes of synth and commanding vocals reminiscent of 1980s New Wave acts. With only two full length albums under her belt for the Dais imprint out in 2020 and 2021 respectively, Riki recently released a two song EP Pulser (2025) that hints at further newly developed material that may be experienced at this performance.

Monday | 10.06
What: Dark Angel w/Sacred Reich, Vio-Lence, Midnight and Interceptor
When: 5
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Dark Angel formed in the early days of Bay Area thrash and its early music was understandably compared to Slayer with the wild and menacing guitar pyrotechnics and urgent rhythms that broke and changed direction in an instant to switch up the tone of the song. Its most coherent early statement of style was the caustic and thrilling 1986 album Darkness Descends. It was the first to feature legendary drummer Gene Hoglan whose contribution to the sound and style of the better heavy metal of the era and since is undeniable as a pioneer of thrash and death metal. The group’s final album before splitting for the first time in 1992 Time Does Not Heal was primarily written by Hoglan and instead of occult themes it delved into issues mental health issues and the impact of culture, religion and failed political policy (including a complete lack thereof) on the individual and thus society generally. It was ahead of its time as a kind of masterpiece of progressive thrash. The band would not release another record until 2025’s Extinction Level Event, the first album following the death of founding guitarist Jim Durkin in 2023 to whom the record is dedicated. Also on this bill are other luminaries of 80s thrash like Sacred Reich and Vio-Lence.

Wednesday | 10.08
What: Patrick Shiroishi: Forgetting is Violent Tour w/M. Sage https://hi-dive.com/listing/patrick-shiroishi-forgetting-is-violent-tour/
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Patrick Shiroishi is a multi-instrumentalist composer based in Los Angeles who is most known for his imaginative and explorative saxophone work as a solo artist and as an inspired collaborator with projects like Fuubutsushi, We Bow to No Masters, Upsilon Acrux. This year he released his latest record Forgetting is Violent, a masterclass in using the idiom of music as abstract free jazz, field recordings and ambient composition to express ideas about colonialism and racism and its legacy for today and how both threaten human existence and yet both of which need not lead to dire inevitabilities when acknowledged and confronted with honesty and integrity. M. Sage is Matt Sage who was a pillar of the DIY music world on the front range when he was based in Fort Collins in the 2000s and 2010s before relocating to the Midwest for a spell and there further putting out cutting edge ambient and pastoral folk records on his Patient Sounds imprint. Lately, Sage has expanded his musical range further into the realm of avant-garde improvisational and electronic music.

Wednesday | 10.08
What: Oliver Hazard & The Last Revel: Head West
When: 6
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Oliver Hazard is an indie folk band from Waterville, Ohio that recently released its latest album Raindrop River on Nettwerk. The band started prior to the 2020 pandemic and thus earned its audience the hard way through extensive touring in livingrooms and small venues and now headining theaters like The Gothic. The band’s delicate melodies and uplifting, bright energy ads a lift to songs that seem honest about everyday life struggles and simple joys, about tough choices and heartache and affection and a broad spectrum of human experience.

Thursday | 10.09
What: Shonen Knife w/The Pack A.D.
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Shonen Knife is a pioneering Japanese punk band that started out in Osaka in 1981 inspired by the kind of music that influenced the Ramones like 60s girl groups and by the Ramones themselves. The trio were a rarity in Japan in the early days as an all-female group and its lyrics about food, animals and pop culture paired with infectiously upbeat melodies were all but a precursor to pop-punk and a focus on everyday joys over the horrible things we often face in the world we experience. After all, if you only focus on the negative it’s harder to get through tough times. Shonen Knife embraced by American artists and labels like K Records in Olympia, Washington and Sub Pop out of Seattle and Sonic Youth, Red Kross and Nirvana who were instrumental in getting the band a record deal with Capitol Records in 1992 for the release of its 1993 album Let’s Knife. Shonen Knife has remained a bit of a cult band since and its reliably fun music and charming and energetic live shows has justified its legendary status. The outfit’s latest album Our Best Place got a 2025 vinyl reissue available on the tour and afterward through the Good Charamel website. The album is vintage Shonen Knife with fun and sometimes surreal songs about good times, beloved food and personal empowerment.

Thursday | 10.09
What: The Chameleons w/The Veldt
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: The Chameleons are the legendary post-punk band that innovated a type of atmospheric and emotionally charged sound with two guitars playing off each other almost as one instrument. The effect and aesthetic is a sound that seems to have heavily influenced the shoegaze bands of the late 80s and early 90s by showing how effected guitars layered with synth could be a unified element in songwriting. Add Mark Burgess’ socially conscious yet deeply personal lyrics and commanding voice and you have a body of work that has aged well from the 80s and a clear inspiration for modern darkwave whether those bands know it or not. The band hadn’t released a new album since 2001 until this year with Arctic Moon, the first since the return of original guitarist Reg Smithies. The record’s songwriting reconciles the more acoustic rooted songwriting of the group’s later albums and the ambient moods of its classic 80s material for a surprisingly effective late era effort from one of the greats of 80s. Get there early to see The Veldt, one of the great, lost shoegaze and psychedelic post-punk bands of the 90s through today with a sound like a mix of R&B and dream pop.

Friday | 10.10
What: Martin Rev (and VJ Divine Enfent) w/Loveshadow (SF), Fergus Jones (DJ-Denmark,Scotland) and Kill You Club DJs
When: 7
Where: The Aztlan Theatre
Why: Martin Rev is one half of pioneering punk/post-punk/electronic band Suicide. The latter pre-dated the classic CBGB’s scene while also part of that. Its confrontational/borderline dangerous early live shows are remembered vividly by those who were there with former lead singer Alan Vega alternatively swinging a motorcycle chain during the performance to crawling over broken glass into the crowd and other refinements. Rev’s more modern solo music is an adventurous foray into noise, playful soundscapes, abstract industrial and what might be described as harsh ambient.

Friday and Saturday | 10.10 and 10.11
What: Aurora Borealis Festival
When: 4:30
Where: High Prairie Park at Painted Prairie
Why: This event promises an array of vendors and food and live music set to unique visuals inspired by the Northern Lights and taking place in the furtherst northeast reaches of Aurora, Colorado probably the final weekend of the year when it may not be too cold to hold an outdoor event. The first night of the festival is headlined by R&B pop and soul artist Kayla Marque whose songs stretch beyond the preconceived boundaries of genre with a commanding voice and charismatic stage presence. Also on that night are Destiny Shynelle, Kalpulli Mikakuikatl, Jade Oracle and DJ Polyphoni. The second night of the festival will be headlined by experimental dream pop quartet The Milk Blossoms who have been writing new music that expands what pop music can sound like with deeply poetic lyrics that invite you to feel your own emotional turmoil fully as a vehicle for personal transcendence through immersion in creative work. Earlier on that evening you can also witness Miss Flowers, Kalama Polynesian Dancers, Eye Yoob and DJ Rewild.

Saturday | 10.11
What: Bambara w/Midwife
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Brooklyn-based post-punk band Bambara released its new album Birthmarks in March and built further its reputation for transporting and moody deathrock with bluesy vocals. The combination hearkens back some of the 80s bands that combined soul and R&B with dark, experimental rock. Live the band has a bit more grit than one would expect from the the records. Midwife is the internationally renowned underground artists whose pastoral, ambient, “heaven metal” has crossed from the indie and experimental/ambient realms of music into the heavy music world for the weightiness of her lyrics and the quiet intensity of her performances. The music frankly packs an emotional gutpunch more than virtually all metal bands and that makes a massive difference.

Saturday | 10.11
What: PUP & Jeff Rosenstock and Ekko Astral
When: 6:30
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: When PUP from Toronto, Canada started out in 2010 it was part of a wave of underground bands that came up in punk, perhaps even 2000s hardcore, that seemed to figure out they could find a way to make fun, catchy songs in a pop punk vein with some integrity that realm of music had lost like its connections to punk spirit and ethos were more or less gone. So PUP and bands across North America in pockets seemed to come up with a similar idea around the same time without necessarily knowing about each other. And PUP absolutely tapped into that sound and that anthemic and heartfelt pop-punk and even emo aesthetic with lyrics that truly captured working class struggles, everyday challenges that anyone with any heart could relate to and the attainable triumphs that can sometimes seem so elusive. In 2025 PUP released its new album Who Will Look After the Dogs? On that record the group worked with Jeff Rosenstock who is co-headlining this “PUP + JEFF ROSENSTOCK PRESENT: A CATACLYSMIC RAPTURE OF FRIENDSHIPNESS” tour and of course they’ll play some or all of their collaborative material together with separate sets. Rosenstock has been in bands since the 1990s like The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the Music Industry but he has rightfully earned his plaudits for his solo albums with his incredibly catch songs with scrappy energy and tenderness and an acute awareness of the things that make life challenging for everyone.

Sunday | 10.12
What: Laether Strip w/Cervello Elettronico and eHpH
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Leæther Strip is the well-known electro-industrial/EBM band from Denmark that was part of the second wave of that music in the late 80s but which didn’t succumb to the temptation of the bland future pop trend of the late 90s and 2000s. The latest release from the project is Æppreciation VIII, a tribute album that includes versions of songs originally written by the likes of Garbage, Boy Harsher, Yaz, Robin, Ladytron and Madonna. Local opener eHpH has been on a bit of a mini-hiatus for a couple of years but has always been an example of how a project can draw from EBM and electronic-industrial and not be caught up in the tired tropes of that style of music. The band’s lyrics are often a poignant and sharply observed social commentary and the production more layered and deeply creative than that of many of their peers in the broader realm of modern industrial music.

Sunday | 11.12
What: All Time Low w/Mayday Parade, The Cab and The Paradox
When: 6
Where: Red Rocks Amphitheater
Why: Mayday Parade is in the middle of releasing a three part album in 2025 to commemorate 20 years as a band. Sweet released in April and the second installment Sad dropped October 3. The group formed in 2005 around the time when the pop punk and emo scenes nationally were basically floundering but Mayday Parade came as a result of two other bands in Tallahassee, Florida coming together. The 2007 full length A Lesson in Romantics and its mix of earnest songwriting and humor won over detractors of the band’s early efforts as the group has set itself apart from late era pop punk. Since then the group has refined its sound while maintaining a knack for tapping into the sensitive emotional core that is at the heart of its stylistic roots and finding new ways of writing about experiences that people go through no matter what age. Headlining is All Time Low who slightly predate Mayday Parade but have been in a similar musical lane in anthemic power pop and emo. In one of the opening slots is The Cab who also came up in the mid-2000s pop punk milieu and were signed to the Fueled By Ramen imprint along with All Time Low. But The Cab’s sound seemed to be more informed by 90s R&B and mainstream pop and its electronic production than most of the band’s pop punk peers and because of that its music is decidedly different from any standard issue punk.

Monday | 10.13
What: Superchunk w/Case Oats
When: 7
Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: Superchunk is one of the most well=known of the alternative rock bands of the 90s who helped ot not just define a sound with its upbeat, melodic punk at a time when punk had become mostly an underground scene. The group also helped to push other left field rock bands well past the 90s with its Merge imprint and though its own music is respectable and easily worth a listen for the wit and expert songcraft that larger effort of creating an environment in the culture for its own type of music thrive and be accepted is a massive legacy. Superchunk is now touring in support of its 2025 album Songs in the Key of Yikes, a record that not only has some of the group’s finest songwriting of recent years but a title and content that is very much a poignant summation of this moment in history and of the culmination of recent years to boot. Not enough bands have done so with such hummable conciseness. Case Oats is an Americana band based in Chicago fronted by Casey Gomez Walker that put out its debut album on August 22, 2025. Titled Last Missouri Exit it’s a reference to a sign near the Illinois border. Walker’s vocals are earnest and have enough raw vulnerability to give her performances an authenticity that lend her tales of growing up and growing beyond one’s place of upbringing a poignancy that is reminiscent of Rilo Kiley with a similar deftness in crafting turns of phrase that hit like sparks of the truth that can warm and sting at once.

Monday | 10.13
What: Acid Mothers Temple w/The Macks and Los Toms
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: You don’t go to an Acid Mothers Temple show to see the legendary, Japanese psychedelic rock expecting they’ll play your favorite song from their copious recorded catalog. You go because it’s going to be pure musical weirdness and an experience to take you out of mundane reality for several moments and right now that kind of musico-psychological transmogrification is a welcome respite from a world in unfortunate historical times. Fans of space rock, shoegaze, heavy psychedelia, freak folk, ambient and noise generally will get something positive about witnessing this band’s wild live performances.

Monday | 10.13
What: Bitchin Bajas w/Prairiewolf
When: 7
Where: Glob
Why: Bitchin Bajas is a Chicago-based psychedelic ambient and experimental synth band and a side project of Cooper Crain of Krautrock/post-rock group CAVE. This is much more chill than CAVE but the gentle, hypnotic qualities of the music is more in line with an experimental electronic band even though aspects are generated by live instruments like sax and keyboards. The new album Inland See is like a cosmic New Age jazz with pop leanings like something composed on a paradisiacal island in a more pastoral future where everyone’s basics are covered and we can all live out extended lives indulging our passions and even our whims, perchance exploring creative ideas that benefit all.

Tuesday | 10.14
What: Goya w/In the Company of Serpents and Church Fire
When: 7
Where: The Crypt
Why: Goya from Phoenix, Arizona is a fusion of doom blues and heavy psychedelia and its 2025 album In the Dawn of November was engineered by legendary grunge scene producer Jack Endino. So the crushing hits land perfectly and so do the warping melodic passages and the songs have both a bite and some swing to them that a lot of heavy bands don’t. Think equal parts TAD and Sleep. In the Company of Serpents these days has evolved well beyond the devastating heaviness of its early records into its own psychedelic, Western doom. Its new album A Crack in Everything is the band’s most personal statement yet on issues of addiction and identity with burnished guitar work and elegant yet weighty rhythms. Church Fire may seem like an odd choice for this show but its own music has a heavy impact in terms of the intensity of the music and its emotional heft. Also the band has been known on at least one occasion to play a show as a cosmic black metal band. But this night it’ll probably “just” be the politically charged, industrial synth pop that has turned the group into a bit of a cult band.

Wednesday | 10.15
What: Shiner w/No Fauna and Brass Tags
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Shiner was a respected band in the post-hardcore lane but the type that really crossed over into realms of experimental, atmospheric rock bordering on shoegaze/space rock before splitting in 2003. It was inspired by noisier shoegaze bands as well as the major noise rock bands of the 90s and space rock/hard rock crossover act Failure. The outfit is currently touring in support of its new record BELIEVEYOUME, which definitely showcases its gift for drawing upon disparate influences to produce something almost orchestral in its use mastery of evocative noise.

Wednesday | 10.15
What: I’m With Her w/Jon Muq
When: 7:30
Where: The Paramount Theatre
Why: I’m With Her is an Americana and bluegrass supergroup comprised of Sarah Watkins (Nickel Creek), Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan (Crooked Still) . Each of the singers and musicians has a renowned solo career as well as their work in their respective bands. All grew up playing music and Jarosz met Watkins when the former was a kid and came to the attention of O’Donovan as a teen. This group came together in 2014 at a workshop during the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and thus a somewhat local connection. The group has thus far only had two albums, other obligations clearly demanding of their time, including its new album Wild and Clear and Blue (2025) for which the trio is touring. The new album has a sense of wonder and seems imbued with an inner light that informs songs about reconciling the lessons of one’s past to help in getting through the tumultuous times and not losing sight of there being goals to reach for that matter even with clear and present dangers and challenges to navigate.

Wednesday | 10.15
What: Ches Smith’s Clone Row
When: 7
Where: The Federal Theater
Why: Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist and composer originally from California and now based out of New York. His career as a musician has been varied and acclaimed including playing on albums with and playing with the likes of John Zorn, Mr. Bungle, Xiu Xiu, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros Terry Riley, Marc Ribot (as a member of Ceramic Dog), Secret Chiefs 3, Nels Cline and Dave Holland. Smith’s mastery of technique is not divorced from a creativity in crafting rhythms to whatever musical style and mode or mood he finds himself contributing to or writing himself with his various collaborators. In 2025 Ches Smith offered his latest opus, Clone Row which includes performances from avant-garde guitar legend Mary Halvorson, jazz luminary Liberty Ellman and multidisciplinary sound artist Nick Dunston. It’s an album of music that moves with imaginative flow of layered rhythms and tones like if one of those more gifted 2000s math rock bands like Hella and Battles were more into fusion and free jazz. Although instrumental the songs speak musically with a cinematic quality.

Wednesday | 10.15
What: Matt Maltese w/Cornelia Murr
When: 7
Where: The Summit Music Hall
Why: For his sixth album Hers, UK singer-songwriter Matt Maltese sounds like he immersed himself in the film and music of the late 60s and through the mid-70s. Perhaps especially the albums of Jacques Brel and Scott Walker and the cinema of Jean-Luc Godard. There is a vivid yet hazy tone to his songs that suggest an introspective and reflective spirit and a timeless, classical sensibility that the aforementioned seem to exude as well. A fortunate pairing of an opener in Cornelia Murr is in store for anyone catching the show when it starts at 8. Murr’s 2025 album Run to the Center builds out her lush, experimental dream pop sound into the realms of songwriting sophistication one would expect of a creative visionary like Aldous Harding. Murr’s orchestral arrangements and literary storytelling is instantly captivating and her otherworldly energy and charisma as a live performer are undeniable.

Thursday | 10.16
What: Goon w/beaming and The Milk Blossoms
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Goon is a dream pop band from Los Angeles that over the summer released its third album aptly titled Dream 3. The songs on the record have a quality like short films based on the memories of dreams in which the strong emotions and experiences of your waking life haunt the subconscious and filter back through as strong but hazy emotional resonances. Often the songs are gorgeously ethereal and in others noisy and tense and overall the record is like a psychedelic pop affair that fans of Black Moth Super Rainbow and Spirit of the Beehive might like. Indie pop project beaming is a collaboration built around making playful and explorative pop songs with creative production choices lending the songs a unique flavor if the elements might seem familiar. The Milk Blossoms are the experimental indie rock band from Denver whose literary sensibilities and emotionally vibrant songs seem like a vivid sonic experience of stories based in memories and the feelings those memories elicit. Listening to a song by the band is akin to reading a short story so poignant and poetic it sticks with you as a true thing because they elicit such deep responses if you’re open to having them.

Sunday | 10.19
What: Patrick Wolf
When: 7:30
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Patrick Wolf is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from the UK whose musical style is refreshingly challenging to pigeonhole. He combines electronic pop with more classical sensibilities for a sound that is like an experimental, even conceptual, folk especially on his new album Crying the Neck the lyrics for which seem to tap into the lore of his home region of East Kent. Prior to the album and the 2023 EP The Night Safari, Wolf had taken a decade plus hiatus from music during which he dealt with personal misfortunes and tragedies including the death of his mother. The new album is a meditation on processing losses personal, cultural and collective socially through the use of the imagery and references of his immediate environment rich in its own traditions and unique spirit.

Monday | 10.20
What: Miki Berenyi Trio and Gina Birch & The Unreasonables
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Miki Berenyi is of course the charismatic and ironic co-singer and co-guitarist of pioneering shoegaze band Lush. The latter even in its time was innovative in its incorporation of electronic musical elements into the songwriting and sound, especially on its later records. The trio got off to what might be seen as a fragile start when KJ “Moose” McKillop was unable to do the early touring but this time around he will be able to and the trio’s new album Tripla picks up where Lush’s mid-90s dream pop leanings left off with an even more robust electronic production undergirding the expansive melodies and Berenyi’s soulfully ethereal vocals. But of equal interest is Gina Birch & The Unreasonables. Which is the latest band from Gina Birch, former bassist of legendary and influential post-punk group The Raincoats. The latter opened up what post-punk could sound like and essentially paved the way for left field rock and pop being an inspiration for the likes of Half Japanese, Beat Happening, Nirvana and Hole. In 2023 Birch released her acclaimed debut solo album I Play My Bass Loud and proved herself once again an artist with deep creative vision and a strong experimental streak utilizing dub techniques in the production and wide-ranging sonics. The 2025 album Trouble continues with boundary pushing songwriting and politically-charged lyrics.

Monday | 10.20
What: Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends w/Plastik Mystik and The Better Selfs
When: 7
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Conan Neutron and his various bands have been a wonderfully eclectic yet coherent example of doing whatever kind of music an artist might want to do whether that’s weird noise rock post-punk, mutant Americana or whatever it is The Way of the Neutron album (2025) might be dubbed with contributions from members of Melvins, Coliseum, Replicator and Trophy Wives. It sounds like a groove-driven sludge rock band with a knack for the psychedelic in a vein that doesn’t sound like the sort that got popularized in the 2010s. The Better Selfs is what happens when you collage heartfelt, Neil Young-esque Americana with equally emotionally vulnerable emo that isn’t afraid to spill over the edges with its sound and feelings in the performance of the music. Plastik Mystik is technically a garage psych band but only if that band leaned more into Kiwi Rock weirdness and the haunted dead end town desperation and edge of Wipers.

Tuesday | 10.21
What: Purity Ring w/Washed Out (DJ Set) and yuniVERSE
When: 8
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Purity Ring’s innovative approach to production and songwriting was evident with its 2012 debut album Shrines paired with an idiosyncratic live show that included unique controllers and multi-media elements. A lot of artists that use side-chaining really waste our time by merely making bad hip-hop and pop. Purity Ring uses that technique to create mind-expanding rhythms and tonal colorings. It’s difficult to know how to sum up the band’s sound because it does sound like it’s coming to us from a realm of human existence that is separate from mundane reality. Fitting for the duo’s 2025 self-titled record which is a concept album intended as a soundtrack to a fictional fantasy video game with a similar emotional and creative resonance and expansive sense of wonder. At times the album is reminiscent of the kind of glitch pop we heard from early 2010s Crystal Castles with the expert pitch shifting and rhythm splicing but pushed to another realm of production expertise.

Thursday | 10.23
What: Wednesday w/Friendship
When: 7
Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: Wednesday has been one of the bands of choice among aficionados of boundary pushing and blurring guitar rock. Its early output combined shoegaze atmospherics and tonal bending, emo-inflected math rock and arty post-punk but with a knack for memorable hooks and melodies. With 2023’s Rat Saw God the band was exploring deep into songcraft with some countrified tunes that also didn’t skimp on mood and a bit of an edge in the guitar sounds. The record also continued startlingly vulnerable lyrics and astute observations of social and interpersonal dynamics. The 2025 record Bleeds builds upon the tense but cathartic energy that made its predecessor so arresting and risks even more in the emotional openness of the songwriting. Live the band has been glorious exuberant and charming with a raw quality that invites the audience in for the collective catharsis.

Friday | 10.24
What: Peel Dream Magazine w/Wave Decay and Bellhoss
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Peel Dream Magazine is currently touring in the wake of the release of its 2025 mini album Taurus which dropped October 1. The record continues in the experimental vein of its predecessor with deep, gossamer atmospheres and left field pop songcraft with no allegiance to established styles or tradition making the album refreshingly out of frame with prevailing musical trends. Denver Krautrock-inflected shoegazers Wave Decay are also on the bill with its massive sounds and electrifying tone. Bellhoss will bring its own masterful songwriting and willingness to go off the rails sonically and emotionally in its particular style mashup of indiepop, shoegaze and emo.

Friday | 10.24
What: DJ Earl w/Entrancer and Sinistarr
When: 8
Where: Glob
Why: DJ Earl is a Chicago based house and footwork producer whose work shows how there’s really no difference between Chicago house and hip-hop production. Eclectic beats and bright electronic melodic and rhythmic layers and a sense of play that one heard in the work of J. Dilla. Entrancer is a Denver-based techno/ambient artist whose compositions for synth have been informed by 90s hip-hop and his time in Chicago experiencing that city’s electronic music firsthand as well as the experimental electronic, pop music and noise he came up with in Denver. His recent work is emotionally stirring and expertly references the sounds, emotions and spirit of his whole career as an artist at once.

Friday | 10.24
What: Between the Buried and Me at w/Hail the Sun and Delta Sleep
When: 7
Where: The Summit Music Hall
Why: Progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me were trying to figure out its place in the world of music on its 2021 album Colors II. With the 2025 album The Blue Nowhere it appears that some decisions or conclusions were made or an embrace of notions with the music seemed clear. Not that the group hasn’t incorporated elements of pop songwriting and hooks into its sound but the new album other than the masterful musicianship in a clearly progressive rock mode is basically a pop record but one that hits as introspective and expansive, one that sounds like it came out of spending time taking stock and considering what one’s life is really, deeply about and not ignoring the feelings that might crash in on you in middle age, but feeling them and giving them voice in the music.

Friday | 10.24
What: Hayden Pedigo w/Jens Kuross
When: 7
Where: Swallow Hill Daniel’s Hall
Why: Fingerstyle guitarist and left-field songwriter Hayden Pedigo is having quite a year with his new album I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away coming out on June 6. The record is a fascinating set of songs that come across as gently psychedelic and pastoral Americana folk at once and consistently too weird to fit into a narrow box of music. The textures and informal rhythms he employs in creating his melodies stands out as decidedly different but soothing to the mind. He also worked on a collaborative album In the Earth Again with fellow Oklahoma City residents, sludge metal, political doom band Chat Pile with both sets of artists fusing their aesthetics for a heavy record imbued with otherworldly elegance.

Friday – Sunday | 10.24-10.26
What: Denver Noise Fest 2025
When: F 10.24 7pm, S 10.25 12p.m and 8 p.m., Su 10.26 11 am
Where: The DMV (10.24, 10.25 8pm and 10.26) and The Aztlan Theatre (10.25 12 p.m.
Why: Denver Noise Fest returns in full with three days of boundary pushing noise art. Friday’s showcase includes Now That We’re Alone, Animal / Object, Phil Stearns, Eric Drasin, Carl Ritger, Eliza Miller and Bl_ank. Saturday afternoon’s event at the Aztlan will feature ETAM, Bat Mob, EM.BALM, Dream Cheese, Andrew Weathers and Cantare Montibus. Saturday night’s proceedings will include performances by Her Mortal Form, Many Blessings, EXREMADURA, Sick Tisk, Novasak, Page 27 and PCRV. The Sunday morning/afternoon concluding happenings is what’s called Harsh Toast that is sort of a potluck and improv noise sets. For tickets and more information please visit denvernoisefest.com.

Saturday | 10.25
What: Molly Tuttle w/Joshua Ray Walker and Cecilia Castleman
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: Molly Tuttle’s 2025 album So Long Little Miss Sunshine has been described by critics as essentially her swing to pop country. But of course the bluegrass leanings in the guitar lines keep the music from losing the essence of Tuttle’s appeal as an artist who writes with an intimate feel and a facility with portraits of everyday experiences with subtly deft turns of phrase. The new record has some exquisite moments of personal insight commenting on one’s inner life and relationships. Also the concluding track “Story of My So-Called Life” is a nice title nod to the classic TV series while embodying the overall mood and story of the show as something that resonates with one’s adult self.

Saturday | 10.25
What: The Wombats w/Only The Poets and Red Rum Club
When: 7
Where: The Summit Music Hall
Why: The Wombats are a band that hasn’t limited itself to a popular trend in style and sound from early on. Not choosing to be a pop band over being an art band that engages in sometimes dark and self-deprecating humor and eccentric songwriting. Its new album Oh! The Ocean is no exception and you have to appreciate a band that is willing to have a video like the one for “Can’t Say No” in which a man in his morning robes is chased down the street by his own car guiding itself by the rear camera with the parking sight lines in plain view. The record itself is brimming with the exuberance and expertly crafted moods and the kind of commentary on the wild, dystopian and tragically historical times we’re going through in this moment of human history.

Tuesday | 10.28
What: Viagra Boys w/Black Lips
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Viagra Boys have been the post-punk band of choice for nearly a decade with its driving, commanding and raw musical performances and lyrics that are at once smart, poetic, wickedly humorous and vulnerable. The latter one might not expect from the same band that writes pointed songs about authoritarian culture and human folly generally but on the new album Viagr Aboys (2025), with hints on earlier records, the tender side of the band is at this point undeniable. But don’t worry, Viagr Aboys is still imbued with the high concept art punk that has fueled its songwriting and performances up to now. Black Lips pre-dated Viagra Boys with their own spirited garage rock-inflected punk and were critical darlings for years with their own incorporation of experimental art concepts into its songwriting and performance style.

Friday and Saturday | 10.31 and 11.01
What: The Legendary Pink Dots w/Orbit Service, Dead Voices On Air and DJ Mudwulf (10.31), on 11.01 also Edward Ka-Spel solo set
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: The Legendary Pink Dots is a psychedelic rock/folk/electronic band that formed in 1980 and influenced generations of more left field, experimental bands of various stripes including the likes of Skinny Puppy, MGMT and Dresden Dolls, at least according the band’s Wikipedia article. But you really only have to listen to those bands after taking a sampling of the Dots’ extensive output to recognize that it’s likely true. Singer/keyboard player Edward Ka-Spel’s existential poetry and psychological/social analysis delves deep into our personal narratives and those which touch upon and are touched by others and the collective stories that course through our civilization. But Ka-Spel isn’t a mere, disinterested observer and commentator upon human doings, he comes from a place of someone who is living it and affected by things and processing his own psychological reactions to it all as well as his own place in it. The band’s records blend folk songcraft (and that music’s own spooky and atmospheric possiblities), ambient soundscapes, psychedelic rock and electro-industrial aesthetics with a keen ear for sound design. The latest album So Lonely In Heaven explores the current and future state of the panopticon of late capitalism and how it has infiltrated the most intimate spaces of our lives and consciousness and how we may not be able to disentangle ourselves from the techbro oligarchy without transforming the very nature of our socio-economic-psycho-spiritual existence. Orbit Service is Denver’s premiere ambient industrial duo which includes Randall Frazier whose music is clearly touched by the influence of the Dots but whose sound is also directly tied to noise, the broad spectrum of psychedelic rock and downtempo aesthetics. Also not short on incisive social commentary and a deep evocation of the struggle of existing as a human in a world challenging to the very notion of living a dignified life. Dead Voices On Air is the project of Mark Spybey who some may know for his pioneering work in Zoviet France. DVOA is even more abstract yet possibly even more human in the emotional resonance of the finely crafted sonics and cinematic sound design. For this show and other performances he will be joined by Nathan Jamiel of The Drood.