Music – Queen City Sounds and Art

Best Shows in Denver and Beyond May 2026

**Cabaret Voltaire performs at Summit Music Hall 5/10/26, photo from Bandcamp**

Friday | 05.01
What: TRAITRS w/Occvlts and Redwing Blackbird and KillYouClub DJs
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Toronto’s TRAITRS released their new, fourth, album Possessor on March 13, 2026. The record solidified the duo’s gift for combining icy synth melodies with emotionally-charged vocals to match lyrics that feel like they’re a declaration against a world that currently seems to pile tragedy upon oppression at an increasing pace with no seeming relief in sight. The songs come across like a resistance to a sense of inevitability and an embrace of life and humanity. Strident and melodic bass lines provide an anchoring quality along with the expertly crafted drum machine beats. Fans of Pornography period The Cure will hear plenty of resonance here. Redwing Blackbird from Denver opening also draws plenty of inspiration from The Cure in the guitar work but the electronics are a bit darker and the songwriting more pointed in its social critique.

Friday | 05.01
What: Disgustingest, Insipidus, Monkey Man and Tassles
When: 7
Where: D3
Why: Disgustingest is a brutal almost to the point of abstraction death metal band from Denver with song titles that seem to aim for the extremes of the music and to the brink of the absurd where humor meets authenticity. Insipidus is more a technical death metal band with passages of melody and feral vocals mixed in with the sonic brutality. More in the vein of Slayer and Possessed than Death but with a similar level of instrumental virtuosity. Monkey Man is also a band tha has plenty of technical ability on display in the performance but its music is more like sludge metal in the vein of a more blues-infused Melvins. Tassles won’t be metal. It’ll just have a similar level of intensity but its own music is rooted in bedroom dream pop but with robust guitar sounds and a rhythm section that elevates the already sophisticated songwriting to something raw and epic. But without sacrificing the introspective and vulnerable quality of the songs.

Friday | 05.01
What: Abrams, Colfax Speed Queen and Rugburn
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Abrams just put out its latest record Loon. The Denver band has often navigated the sonic territory of post-metal/stoner rock and grunge but this new album leans further into its atmospheric instincts almost to the point of the album being a heavy shoegaze album but with plenty of math-rock riffs and experiments in rhythm and creative time signatures. Fans of Cave In and Coalesce will find something to dig into with the new set of songs. Opening are bands on the more psychedelic end of the Denver scene with the great garage psych group Colfax Speed Queen and the more straight ahead psych rock band Rugburn.

Saturday | 05.02
What: NEPTUNE, Debaser and Nightshark
When: 8
Where: Glob
Why: NEPTUNE is the “PostPythagorean junk rock” band from Boston. Live it’s like seeing people who built their instruments out of non-musical components or modified pieces of instruments to create unique sounds and a combination of it all along with electronic components so that you will see a band unlike really anyone else out there now unless you get to see something of a vintage Einstürzende Neubauten set. Debaser is a mostly drums and also modified other instruments solo project comprised of Monkey Mania founder Josh Taylor. It comes off as something like lo-fi jazz and noise rock also unlike many other things. Nightshark is a wild free jazz punk trio that has been around for over 20 years but relatively recently got back together to occasionally play a show if it’s something that seems worth the time to bring together the elemental forces of its members.

Saturday | 05.02
What: Trauma Ray w/Glixen, Keep and Money
When: 6
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Trauma Ray is a shoegaze band from Forth Worth, Texas that put out its latest EP Carnival in February. While there is plenty of melancholic atmosphere across its five songs the EP showcases the heavier side of the band’s sound which seems to have always been a part of its songwriting particularly experienced live like the members of the band came up on Deftones and the more atmospheric emo. But it’s not a metal record and Trauma Ray gives us ample sonic introspection and gentle energies. Glixen from Phoenix is in a similar lane with the heavier shoegaze sound but its guitar style is more winding and warping like they have been inspired in part by both My Bloody Valentine and We Are Gutting a Body of Water. Keep from Virginia is also something of a shoegaze band but its guitar sonics lean post-punk and together with the vocals suggest some influence from The Chameleons and The Church. Money from Oklahoma City may be the least obviously shoegaze since its sound is more in the vein of a post-hardcore band that possibly discovered Failure and Hum in its journey of musical development.

Saturday | 05.02
What: Ritual Noize Fest: Hex Cassette (4), Whorticulture (4:40), Plack Blague (5:20), Julien-K (6:10), Aesthetic Perfection (7:15), Lords of Acid (8:45) and She Wants Revenge (10:25)
When: 3
Where: Reelworks
Why: This is a solid showcase of a certain vein of newer and classic artists in the realm of music popular in the Goth scene. Hex Cassette is an industrial dance project with a humorously confrontational performance style and genuinely well-crafted and heartfelt pop. Whorticulture is what might be described as an industrial dark pop duo from Denver in an EBM vein. Julien-K includes Ryan Shuck of Orgy fame in a different kind of industrial rock band with a touch of metal in its guitar sound. Aesthetic Perfection is more on the techno end of industrial pop with flourishes of post-punk style bass and guitar in the mix. Lords of Acid is of course the legendary band whose music has most often been, and rightfully so, associated with Goth-industrial music but is also rooted in acid house, Belgian techno and whose live shows are often the spectacle that the name suggests. The group’s influential, 1991 debut album Lust was recently repressed onto double pink vinyl. She Wants Revenge is one of the post-punk revival bands of the 2000s whose song “Tear You Apart” has become a perennial hit among Goth night DJs.

Sunday | 05.03
What: Bush w/Mammoth and James and the Cold Gun
When: 6
Where: Fillmore Auditorium
Why: When grunge and alternative rock was waning in popularity toward the mid-90s Bush released Sixteen Stone in 1994 in the wake of the death of Kurt Cobain and thus the breakup of Nirvana and helped boost alternative music into popular culture for at least a few more years. Comparisons were inevitably made with the melodic distorted guitar and vocal style. But one element that wasn’t seemingly compared was how Gavin Rossdale had songs critiquing what is now called toxic masculinity at a time when that wasn’t popular for rock bands except as made prominent earlier by Nirvana. Rossdale also had an anti-war and terrorism song in “Bomb” and he addressed issues of managing insecurity with honesty on “Little Things.” Shortly into the new century Bush split but reunited in 2010 and has been more prolific than it had been during its initial run including its 2025, and tenth, album I Beat Loneliness. The latter reflects how Bush has all along embraced sounds and styles of music outside of rock without sacrificing crafting a solid hook yet augmenting the emotional resonance of the music with production that enhances the group’s sonic palette rather than stay stuck in another time and trying to regain past glory.

Sunday | 05.03
What: Mac DeMarco and Mock Media
When: 6:30
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Mock Media opens this show with its songs that sound like a fascinating mix of power pop and The Clash. A casual listen to the title track of its forthcoming album Rat Bastard (out July 17, 2026 via Mac’s Record Label) it sounds like something of a tale of life in a small town and its social dynamics but rendered in poetic terms and like a song from a musical about that milieu and its citizens. But listen to the band’s earlier work and its style of post-punk is equal parts No Wave funk and like they were keen listeners of the ways Wire switched up its rhythms in an instant throughout a song. Of course the headliner is Mac DeMarco who is a modern indie rock legend but one whose own body of work is underrated for the sensitivity of his lyrics and the inventiveness of his songwriting and guitar work.

Monday | 05.04
What: Joyce Manor w/Militarie Gun, Teen Mortgage and Combat
When: 5:30
Where: Fillmore Auditorium
Why: Joyce Manor released its seventh studio album I Used to Go to This Bar in January 2026. As the title suggests the album reflects on changes in life, one’s habits and how that intersects with the world around you. When the group emerged in the late 2000s it was part of an underground that was rediscovering pop punk and emo and creating a new version of music influenced by the essence of both but one that didn’t lose sight of the how that style of songwriting can fully explore everyday life in a deep way and with emotional openness. As the group has progressed it has just refined its songwriting without losing the exuberance of the performances and a willingness to embrace personal growth as part of the process of writing unpretentious songs with integrity and immediacy.

The New Pornographers, photo courtesy the artists

Tuesday | 05.05
What: The New Pornographers w/Will Sheff (of Okkervill River)
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: On March 27, 2026 The New Pornographers released the new album The Former Site Of. Reviews of the album have remarked upon how it’s a much more melancholic and reflective set of songs than much of the band’s previous material. Many of the songs are driven by synths almost as much by vocals so the whole thing comes off like something futuristic tapping into some 70s psychedelic art rock as a frame of reference. The songs seem to be a catalog of examining liminal periods in once’s life either looking back or in that moment when one way of being and living has been replaced by another in a definitive way that often occurs to us after we’ve already made that crossing over but coming to terms with how and why things changed. It still has the band’s signature orchestral sophistication and emotional warmth in the songwriting but it’s also the band stretching its songwriting wings in a way that works.

Wednesday | 05.06
What: Cut Worms w/Angela Autumn
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Max Clarke worked with producer Jeff Tweedy on his latest album Transmitter (Jagjaguwar, March 13, 2026) at Wilco’s Loft studio. Whether either fact, as with the involvement of any prominent musician/producer, improves one’s music can be of dubious virtue (although not here) but Clarke’s songwriting speaks for itself. For this album Clarke examines the liminal psychological states as a working musician and someone trying to make their way in a world that can often feel tentative and where finding secure footing can feel elusive. The warm vocals and introspective power pop guitar jangle suit well this existential navigation of one’s internal world as the lens through which to come to terms with the disjointed, often overwhelming and fraught period of history we’re currently tenuously surviving.

Thursday | 05.07
What: Faetooth w/Latter and Nightosphere
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Faetooth is the “fairy doom metal” band from Los Angeles who completely meld modern classical sounds with heavy guitar moods and a touch of the ethereal. Their debut full-length Remnants of the Vessel (2022) revealed a band not stuck in neat genre category and its often delicate melodies transitioning to colossal, fiery passages has more in common with the likes of Kylesa and SubRosa than the average doom band. Its 2025 album Labyrinthine enhanced and more fully integrated the band’s musical instincts into a unified aesthetics that is expansively fiery and transporting. Nightosphere from Kansas City is like-minded but more in the slowcore and heavy shoegaze vein. Chicago’s Latter is pure catharsis as industrial noise rock with strands of cathartic emo and songs that take aim at the social and psychological forces that threaten to undermine our sense of self and our dignity.

MIke Watt and the Missing Men in 2011, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday and Friday | 05.07 and 05.08
What: Mike Watt and the Missing Men w/Slim and María de Cessna (05.07) and Büddies (Jon Snodgrass, Bill Stevenson and Jeremy Bergo) (05.08)
When: 8
Where: HQ
Why: Mike Watt and the Missingmen has been going 20 years now formed by of course the legendary Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Stooges, Dos etc), Tom Watson (Slovenly, Red Krayola and others) and Raul Morales (FYP, Killer Dreamer, Leeches et. al.). Given the C.V. of the trio the punk rock cred is there but this band completely fuses that spirit with the sophistication and open-ended structure of free jazz and the live show is always more ferocious and impressive than you might expect walking in expecting something good to begin with. On the first night of this run is Slim and María de Cessna and yes Slim of the most recent Auto Club fame. The second night is a bit of a punk super group called Büddies that includes Jon Snodgrass of Armchair Martian and Drag the River and Bill Stevenson of Descendents and Black Flag.

Tuesday | 05.12
What: Bright Eyes – 21 Years of Wide Awake & Digital Ash w/Ben Kweller
When: 5:30
Where: Red Rocks
Why: In the 2000s who knew that Bright Eyes would become one of those bands that can celebrate 21 years of albums its members wrote in their 20s. But I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005) and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (also 2005) proved that the group could break with expectation and write music in different directions and modes from records like Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002) and Fevers and Mirrors (2000) while not sacrificing the fragile and unvarnished sensitivity the band perfected for those records. Bright Eyes experimented more with what seemed like capturing off the cuff moments in the recording process and leaving in spoken word passages and on into more polished compositions while stiff offering the existential musings that seem to be improvisational free verse structures but have more in common with prose as lyrics which has been a hallmark of lead singer Connor Oberst’s style. Digital Ash in particular expands Bright Eyes’ sound palette by leaning more into the melancholic instincts of the songwriting and incorporating more ambient sounds like maybe the group had absorbed some of what The Microphones were doing. All in all, two underrated albums that will be on display for this show.

Saturday | 05.09
What: King Tuff wGabriel Bernini
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: King Tuff released his seventh album MOO on March 27, 2026. In some ways it’s a return to the raw and exuberant garage rock that garnered him a bit of a cult following in his early days. It dispenses with the refinement of songwriting and sound that was perfectly suited to his 2023 album Smalltown Stardust on which he reflected on his past and the experiences that shaped him. The new album comes off more like something from the early 70s with the rough edges left intact and passages where the music sounds like its splintering apart and the meters in the red during the recording process. Think like Free at their wildest and James Gang at their best unhinged moments, mix in some nods to T. Rex and Big Star and you have an idea what you’re in for. Which also means that live King Tuff will be back to music in which he can be completely himself on stage.

Cabaret Voltaire in Birmingham 2025, photo by Tom Murphy

Sunday | 05.10
What: Cabaret Voltaire w/I Speak Machine
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Cabaret Voltaire is one of the most influential bands in post-punk and electronic music. From its early days as noise provocateurs and tape collage composers the band progressed into innovating as pioneers of industrial music and synth pop and by the mid-80s its production style and mastery of layering sounds influenced generations of bands, directly with industrial music and electronic pop as well as various strains of electronic dance music. Its songs from the early days have aged well because it was not beholden to styles of the time and the core original trio as aiming to do something that could inspire themselves. Tragically one of the band’s founding members Richard H. Kirk passed away in 2021 as the sole remaining member at that time. In 2025 Stephen Mallinder and Chris Ware announced they would perform again to honor the group’s 50 year legacy in music. The live shows in the UK were a revelation and it was assumed that would be it but a 2026 UK run was announced and perhaps unexpectedly US dates including this one in Denver. Ware won’t be along for the North American shows but the band on hand will not disappoint.

Bandits On the Run, photo courtesy the artists

Sunday | 05.10
What: Alan Doyle w/Bandits On the Run
When: 6
Where: Boulder Theater
Why: Alan Doyle was a member of well-known Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea. When the group split in 2013 after a 20-year run Doyle continued on with an acclaimed solo career and is currently touring behind his new album Already Dancing. Along for this tour is NYC-based folk pop trio Bandits On the Run who anticipate the release of their sophomore album Rough Magic due June 12, 2026. The group live and in the studio swaps instruments changing up the dynamic and the energ of the songs. But one of the great appeals of its music is the vibrant vocal harmonies that sync well with its warm string arrangements and delicate yet energetic instrumental arrangements. On the new record the band also seems to create a sense of wonder and space through creative production and imaginative use of field recordings as well.

To Be Continued…

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E45: Keith Carne

Keith Carne is perhaps most prominently known as the drummer for indie rock trio We Are Scientists which he joined in 2013. Carne’s background in the studio with the band and in the jazz program at Rutger’s University as well as the tri-state DIY scene seems to have given him plenty of chops, the skill set and the cultivated creativity for his debut solo album Magenta Light which released on April 20, 2026. The record isn’t a giant leap sideways from his music with We Are Scientists yet it is distinctively different. The songs are often cinematic in their close attention to atmospherics, mood and pacing. You can hear the underpinnings of an organic jazz structure but Carne allows the songs to breathe and expand as they will drawing the listener in with the music’s imaginative arrangements and gentle touch. It often sounds like what would have happened had chillwave matured more into a more sophisticated dream pop (as many of those artists have). The whole set of songs feel like the perfect music to soothe the mind on a long plane flight or other journey as it explores themes of connection, mortality and existential introspection.

Listen to our interview with Keith Carne on Bandcamp and follow him at the links below.

keithcarne.com

Keith Carne on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E44: Best Local Albums of 2025

Downtown Denver by Night from Comedy Works Before the Phil Hanley Gig April 10, 2026, image by Tom Murphy

The year 2025 was abundant with compelling music from Denver and Colorado and of all the people I, Tom Murphy, talked to about local music the most avid listener was Vail from the band Monkey Man. As an active musician and someone who has hosted shows at a house venue, Vail has also explored well beyond immediate experiences as well as deep in the underground. So I asked Vail to select several and I would too and there was bound to be some overlap but I think what we were able to cover before it got too late to push the list further is a good slice of the current active underground that anyone would be able to track down and give a listen. Included below is a short playlist of what we talk about in a format that might be easiest for most people to access. A few artists either never had or pulled from Spotify, a decision which we respect. Hope you enjoy listening.

Best Shows in Denver April 2026

**Light Asylum performs at The Oriental Theater on 4/3/26 with My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Devora, Die Sexual and Heavy Halo**

Wednesday | 04.01
What: Cass McCombs and Band w/Chris Cohen
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Acclaimed and prolific singer and songwriter Cass McCombs released perhaps his most intimate personal album in 2025 titled Interior Live Oak. The record sounds like it was recorded live with a minimal band with McComb’s expressive voice centered in songs that sound like their words were earned from going through a challenging experience and coming out of the other side with some glimmer of truth or at least a perspective and anecdote worth sharing. The songs are rooted in the emotionally vibrant folk rock with a psychedelic edge that is the songwriter’s hallmark and feel like moments of solace in these particularly chaotic times.

Wednesday | 04.01
What: Mint Field and Wave Decay
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Mint Field is a dream pop/shoegaze band from Mexico City that has established itself as one of the more original voices in that broad realm of music. Its elegant compositions with an ability to veer off expected atmospheric and rhythmic lines from the chill to the urgently distorted and from a kid of downtempo pace to one more hectic has yielded a body of work that can equally be compared favorably with lush and disorienting sweeps heard in My Bloody Valentine and the otherworldly transcendent moments of a Blonde Redhead song. Wave Decay is one of Denver’s finest shoegaze/krautrock bands worthy of anyone in the world operating in those sonic realms as well.

Friday | 04.03
What: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult w/Light Asylum, Die Sexual, Devora and Heavy Halo
When: 6
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: An entire evening of dark electronic music beginning with New York City-based industrial duo Heavy Halo whose style of Gothic industrial metal bridges the gap between hard EBM and Gravity Kills. Devora is more like an electropop thing but with production that sounds like it has some influence from or roots in the moodier end of synthpop. Die Sexual is an EBM/Goth disco duo from Los Angeles whose songs sound like a darkwave version of an electroclash band like early Ladytron had they been inspired by Front Line Assembly. Of course the headliner My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult is the legendary and influential industrial EBM band with a flare for the bombastic live show and gloriously sleaze of some of its lyrics but all with a great sense of fun and a respectable body of recorded work from which the set will likely draw. Light Asylum made a name for itself in New York clubs and beyond with its riveting electronic dance music including iconic single “Dark Allies” with singer Shannon Funchess’ commanding and soulful vocal performance centering a song with multiple memorable hooks within the same piece. Live Funchess is even more magnetic and charismatic.

Sunday | 04.05
What: Marissa Nadler w/Anand Wilder (of Yeasayer)
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Marissa Nadler is an acclaimed songwriter whose work has been described as dark folk mainly because of its deep atmospheric quality and Nadler’s willingness to dive deep into sometimes challenging subject matter with a disarming sensitivity and honesty. There is a poetic quality to Nadler’s songwriting generally augmented by her mezzo-soprano voice that lends even the most melancholic moments in the songs a kind of transcendent beauty. Her most recent album New Radiations might be her most fully realized work to date with songs that will resonate with those of Julee Cruise in their soulful, cinematic otherworldliness and incredibly effective use of minimal instrumental elements to put the listener into a contemplative mindset open to feeling fully without reservations.

Wednesday | 04.08
What: QUAL w/Cursing, eHpH and DJ Katastrophy and guests
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: QUAL is the solo project of William Maybelline from Lebanon Hanover. Unlike the soundscape-y, noisy post-punk of the latter, QUAL is more in the vein of EBM rooted coldwave and industrial. The project’s 2025 album Love Zone is an extended meditation on the deleterious effects of digital culture on our lives and social relations. ehpH is Denver’s premier EBM and industrial duo with rich tonal production and a confrontational performance style more in line with classic industrial music.

Thursday | 04.09
What: Past Self, Medio Mutante, Porcelain Horses and KYC DJs
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Past Self is a Las Vegas-based band whose visual and musical aesthetic is true fusion of K-pop production and darkwave/Goth moodiness and haunted melodies. Its music videos look like a band that spends some time in urban exploration and filming spots that brimming with urban occult atmosphere. Porcelain Horses is a Denver-based darkwave band that includes Amanda Gostomski formerly of synth punk band Princess Dewclaw and death rock adjacent act Grave Moss.

Friday | 04.10
What: An evening with Weird Al Qaida w/Mermalair
When: 7
Where: Mutiny Information Cafe
Why: Weird Al Qaida bridges gaps between psychedelic folk, performance art, noise and ambient music and the show will probably combine that with poetry and theatrical weirdness. Think like a cross between a lo-fi folk Pink Floyd and Barnes & Barnes.

Friday | 04.10
What: The Picture Tour, Owosso and Part Weapon
When: 5/5:30
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: The Picture Tour has evolved out of a more garage grit infused shoegaze of its earlier incarnation into something more cinematic with songwriting seemingly inspired by late night drives in a Denver that existed until the early 2010s when there was urban decay within the city and on the edges and most spaces were not slathered over with bad modern architecture concepts and cookie cutter aesthetics. A time when you had to find your fun rather than have it marketed to you. So the songs are dark, have an edge and imbued with imagination that has been inspired in part by David Lynch films and the dream of the 90s before it died in Denver before the 2010s were over. Owosso is an amalgamation of shoegaze atmospherics and post-hardcore emotional and sonic edge.

Saturday | 04.11
What: Ultra Sunn w/The System Dreams of You and DJ Katastrophy
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Belgian EBM-post-punk duo Ultra Sunn return to North America in support of their latest album The Beast In You. The record builds on the robust synth tones and dance rhythms that feels darker and heavier than music in a similar vein often does. The new album seems to delve into themes of mental health and the struggle of processing feelings and experiences that linger with you in ways that can be challenging to shake. But the band casts that journey in almost mythological terms and pairs it with the kind of melodies and expansive, cathartic production that fans of Depeche Mode and Front 242 will likely find rewarding.

Sunday | 04.12
What: Hollow Crown Tour: ThxSoMch, MISSIO, WesGhost, Guardian, The Haunt, Oxymorons and rosecoloredworld
When: 4
Where: The Summit Music Hall
Why: Hollow Crown Tour is sort of a touring mini-music festival with eclectic lineups. On this bill there is emo rap/indie rock artist ThxSoMch whose creative music videos demonstrate an awareness of popular and internet culture and Gen Z cinema aesthetics. MISSIO is an Austin, Texas-based duo whose electronic pop borders on dark, industrial hip-hop at times and haunted indie pop in other moments in its discography. The band’s sprawling 2024 album I Am Cinco was comprised of its 2023 EPs and various singles to reflect intense peaks and valleys and emotions and musical styles best suited to express those moods whether sad, exuberant, angry and unhinged—hyper-pop, glitch, trap, dream pop and more sometimes all at once. Also on the bill is sibling duo The Haunt who are set to release their sophomore album in the fall. But the band has released the lead single “Ghost” which showcases the songwriting growth though maintaining the hard rock edge of the songs we heard from 2025 debut album New Addiction. Lead singer Anastasia Grace Haunt and guitarist/vocalist Maxamillion Haunt look like they’re going to be a Goth band (part of the appeal as a live act) but come off more ferocious like The Velveteers.

Monday | 04.13
What: Ratboys w/Vilagerrr
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Chicago’s Ratboys recently released its sixth album Singin’ to an Empty Chair. Reuniting with Chris Walla who had produced the 2023 album The Window, the band employed a left field approach in recording and performance including, according to a piece in Pitchfork, creating a Doppler shift by putting a radio on a spinning turntable. That and experimenting with altering the speed of recorded sections and recording in a cabin with high ceilings to capture the specific audio quality of such a space and its natural reverb. The resulting album is indeed one of the band’s more sonically inventive but the warmth of the songwriting remained and it is the band’s most emotionally open and creatively confessional to date. For the uninitiated Ratboys is sort of an Americana-inflected indie rock band that fans of Rilo Kiley will greatly appreciate for the similarly clever and literary lyrics and infectious energy.

Tuesday | 04.14
What: Pink Turns Blue w/Some Days Are Darker and Plague Garden
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Pink Turns Blue was founded in 1985 in Cologne, Germany and became one of the most noteworthy of the German New Wave bands of the era though its sound would now be considered post-punk with a well-developed keyboard/synth component in its core songwriting palette. The group split in 1995 but reunited in 2003 and has been releasing new material since including the 2025 album Black Swan and its melancholic and politically infused lyrics seemingly fitting for prospects of human life in the conflicted and imperiled world right now. On tour with Pink Turns Blue is NYC post-punk/darkwave trio Some Days Are Darker whose own synth infused compositions are brimming with the kind of gloomy melodies that reflect songs about heartbreak and perseverance. Opening is Denver’s great New Wave inflected post-punk band Plague Garden. Steeped in the edginess of death rock the group’s impassioned vocals, deeply atmospheric synths and beats and deep bass lines transcend expectations of genre.

Tuesday | 04.14
What: Die Krupps w/ghostbells
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Die Krupps is one of the pioneering acts of German industrial music. Formed in 1980 in Düsseldorf the group’s initial sound was more rooted in factory sounds, metallic percussion and live instruments but shifted into a more synthesizer sound with the analog percussion. The band split in 1985 but re-formed in 1989 and evolved in further incorporating metallic guitar sounds and one has to assume that Rammstein drew some inspiration from what Die Krupps was getting up to and that Die Krupps itself was getting some influence from Front 242’s songwriting and production style. After another breakup in 1997 the outfit got back together in 2005 and has been operating since. Opening the show is ghostbells from New York City. The duo released its debut EP Catacouture in February 2026 revealing its gift for blending dark synthpop-flavored darkwave, EBM and trap-beat-infused, glitch pop club music. With distinctively processed vocals think Alice Glass solo and some resonance with Boy Harsher.

Drew & Ellie Holcomb, photo courtesy the artists

Friday | 04.17
What: Drew & Ellie Holcomb
When: 7
Where: The Paramount Theatre
Why: Drew & Ellie Holcomb released their latest album Memory Bank on January 24, 2025 and the I’ll Be Home For Christmas EP on November 21. The current musical outing takes its name from a title of one of Memory Bank’s songs as Never Gonna Let You Go Tour. The record is a lively song about the travails and joys of love and being in a committed relationship. It’s earnest without being corny and the duo bring great mood and exuberance to the songs that bring to the album and its performance an unexpected gravitas at times as well as an endearing warmth even if the Holcombs’ particular style of Americana folk rock hadn’t previously been something you thought you’d be into.

Friday | 04.17
What: Monsterwatch w/Bitchflower and Blood Oath
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Monsterwatch sounds a bit like if Jay Reatard did a noise rock band so it’s still a little psychedelic but edgy and imbued with a ferocious energy. Its 2025 debut full-length album The Head is brimming with intensely headlong energy and a paradoxically economical and strategic use of space so it’s not all just constant assault to exhaust the senses. Monsterwatch knows when to let up and change directions in the sound up so it stays exciting. Blood Oath from Denver is cut from a similar cloth with its hyperkinetic noise garage sound that crosses over into a mutant punk. Bitchflower is like if a punk band absorbed influences from metal and performance art influenced post-punk with a memorable and live show that feels like it could be dangerous.

Saturday | 04.18
What: Moon Pussy album release w/Honduh Daze, Suicide Cages and Almanac Man
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Moon Pussy has long been one of the best, most unique and strange of noise rock bands out of Denver. It is celebrating the release of its new album At the Pace of Outrage at this show. The live show is often an wonderfully unhinged bit of performance art with finely accented percussion seeming to hold together the explosive yet hypnotic bass lines and gyrating guitar squall. The new album is not short on musical madness and catharsis but it is also the most focused songwriting of the band’s career thus far and sonically the most representative of its sheer, inspired mayhem as a live band. Joining them for this event are Almanac Man and their angular, DC-post-punk-inflected post-hardcore, the hybrid extreme metal and savage post-hardcore of Suicide Cages and their searingly pointed yet thoughtful lyrics and performance art, art-hardcore noise punk band Honduh Daze from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

William Basinski in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 04.18
What: William Basinski w/Paul Riedl
When: 8
Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox
Why: William Basinski is one of the most influential composers of the late 20th and early 21st century most celebrated for his 2002-3003 four-volume album/project The Disintegration Loops. His cinematic and emotionally nuanced works of ambient music and drone have an analog resonance that is often as textural as tonal and invite getting lost in the echoes and streams of thought-provoking sounds of his work. Paul Riedl is a member of extreme metal band Blood Incantation who has been known to more than dabble in making analog synth compositions of his own that are often now part of the shows of his more well-known project.

Monday | 04.20
What: SunnO))) w/Gentry Densley
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: The new SunnO))) record, self-titled and available via Sub Pop, may sound to some like the colossal, primeval, metallic ambient drones of the duo’s two most recent albums but one can hear in the lingering monoliths of distorted guitar sustain a quality that feels somehow bigger due in no small part to the recording technique involving multiple microphones, re-amping and extreme distance in setting up a stereo array. Which may be why the record comes perhaps closes to capturing a bit of how seeing the band live is a physical experience beyond standard music. Those sprawling drones aren’t for casual metal fans or for people with limited patience with flowing with the sounds to the lingering and then erupting catharsis. It’s like getting your molecules re-aligned to the tune of energies tapping into environment and subconscious experiences. Chances are you won’t experience anything quite like it outside of maybe seeing My Bloody Valentine but with none of that band’s pop hook leanings.

The Wedding Present, photo from Bandcamp

Tuesday | 04.21
What: The Wedding Present w/Mark Robinson sings Unrest
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf
Why: The Wedding Present were one of the most important bands associated with C86 in the 1980s, the “movement” captured on the compilation of the same name of guitar pop bands with a leg in power pop, post-punk, jangle rock and a vulnerable aesthetic that could nevertheless have some intensity and passion behind the performances. For this tour the group led by longtime singer and guitarist David Gedge will be celebrating the 35-year anniversary of its acclaimed 1991 album Seamonsters. The sound of the record, produced by Steve Albini, has aged well as it doesn’t sound beholden to the then burgeoning more mainstream end of alternative rock while modern ears might hear there some wall of sound adjacent to shoegaze and the indie pop and indie rock that would emerge throughout the 90s underground and not so underground in the current century. Opening the show is Mark Robinson the former lead singer and guitarist of underrated and important indie pop band Unrest whose catalog of music is the missing link between C86 and modern indie rock as we know it with a legacy of some of the most achingly beautiful and spirited pop music ever recorded.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby, photo by Scarlet Page

Tuesday | 04.21
What: Brigitte Calls Me Baby w/Skorts
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Brigitte Calls Me Baby from Chicago sounds like they grew up immersed in the post-punk jangle and poetry of the music of The Smiths as well as the Millennium era post-punk cool and urban aesthetic of The Strokes with the mastery of intricate and tasty guitar work that those comparisons imply. The group’s new album Irreversible (out March 13, 2026) makes it more clear that the group’s inspirations and influences tap into classic pop songcraft and crooning vocals so that its current sound resonates equally with early 60s rock and 80s Mancunian rock.

Wednesday | 04.22
What: Model/Actriz w/Agriculture
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: If you only listened to Model/Actriz’s two excellent album Dogsbody (2023) and Pirouette (2025) you might come away expecting a sophisticated post-punk band with some ground in noise rock and industrial. But live the group has an explosive intensity and confrontational performance style that elevates the songs to something with a palpable excitement so that the live shows border on what you might expect out of a modern hardcore act. Also on the bill is Los Angeles-based, experimental black metal band Agriculture. The latter also has two remarkable records that were released the same years with the self-titled from 2023 and 2025’s beautifully forbidding The Spiritual Sound. Agriculture’s live show though fully embodying the sounds and aesthetics of black metal also has a friendly energy and an expansive, atmospheric quality that propels it beyond expectations of genre as well. A fine pairing for one bill of disparate styles but a similar spirit.

Madeline Goldstein, photo courtesy the artist

Thursday | 04.23
What: Madeline Goldstein w/Normal Bias and The Siren Project
When: 7
Where: The Crypt
Why: Madeline Goldstein has been crafting a body of work for the past handful of years that has set a high standard for rich synth tone a finely crafted melodies. Her style is more in the darkwave vein but her music has by not transcended expectations especially with her new record Speaking to the Body where maybe the moods will be reminiscent of something from the 80s and of the more pop era of Giorgio Moroder but her songs explore human aspiration, identity and navigating a modern world where presentation and perception seem to be how one’s value is judged and the alienation that stems from that dynamic that can have impacts on one’s psyche in subtle and insidious ways. Normal Bias is a techno synthpop band from New York City that is reminiscent of an EBM Depeche Mode. The Siren Project from Denver is a long running duo whose music bridges the realms of trip-hop, darkwave and electronic dream pop.

Thursday | 04.23
What: An Evening with Maya Hawke
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Maya Hawke may be more well-known for her life in acting especially for her recurring role as Robin Buckley in seasons 3-5 of Stranger Things. But since 2020 she’s been releasing music that has been in the realm of indie pop but with an experimental bent. Her next album Maitreya Corso due out May 1, 2026 on Mom + Pop is a next step in her evolution as a songwriter and the single “Devil You Know” is like a fusion of hip-hop production and arrangements and dream pop folk rock. The album named for the future Buddha to come as well as one of the influential heroes of American literature, Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso. The album seems to thread the connections between spiritual aspiration and gritty urban aesthetics in producing creative work that can be transcendent and rooted in direct human experiences.

Friday | 04.24
What: Products Band w/Totem Pocket, Angel Band and Spirit Sedan
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Products Band from Minneapolis is a mix of angular post-punk sensibilities, jangle pop sounds and punk energy. Its 2025 album Some Sudden Weather solidified seemingly disparate musical instincts and after the group toured with Deerhoof it has worked with that band’s guitarist John Dieterich on new material that highlights the group’s eclectic and eccentric aspects while preserving its instincts for vibrant, anthemic songcraft. Opening is Denver’s psychedelic shoegaze band Totem Pocket and punk-infused indie pop group Angel Band.

Saturday | 04.25
What: Lebanon Hanover w/Soft Vein and DJ Katastrophy
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Lebanon Hanover has been a band of choice for discerning fans of modern post-punk and darkwave. It would be imprecise to lump the German band in with a lot of artists in those creative lanes because its sound is so different. Listen to its most recent album 2025’s Asylum Lullabies and one hears a truly dark and dystopian set of songs like if Siouxsie and the Banshees and early Dead Can Dance at their darkest asked themselves how do we make this even more harrowing? And yet the music has an entrancing quality that draws you into its unsettling compositions. It’s a record that is meant to reflect struggles with mental health, interpersonal issues and the dread and fear rampant in a time of genocide, war, rising fascism and environmental catastrophe closing in and it comforts in not telling you everything is okay or that it will be without actual effort to attempting to address one’s personal and the world’s maladies which can feel overwhelming but especially more so without a sense of solidarity with others.

Sunday | 04.26
What: Cannons w/Bob Moses and Oxis
When: 6/6:30
Where: Red Rocks Amphitheater
Why: Cannons from Los Angeles has gone from playing modest shows at small clubs around America and beyond in its early days after getting off the ground in 2013. Its particular style of synth-infused dream pop has had a cinematic yet intimate quality from the beginning and now with the release of its 2026 album Everyting Glows the trio sounds introspective but with a theatrical flair that is born out by footage of the live shows that have posted to the internet with the light show and sets lending the presentation the quality of a modern roller disco aesthetic that is also reminiscent of early chillwave so that the performance comes across as intimate despite the larger format stage. For this tour the band shares headlining status with Canadian electronic pop duo Bob Moses. And no there is no one in the band named Bob Moses. Rather, its fusion of deep house and synthwave gives a more compelling and current version of 2010s EDM.

Monday | 04.27
What: Grace Ives w/Whu Else
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Grace Ives came to the attention of wider audiences around the time she released her second album Janky Star (2022) and as an opening act on tour with Lykke Li. Her bedroom pop compositions didn’t sound or feel underdeveloped yet had that freshness, spontaneity and free creativity that makes music that comes out of that realm of songwriting so appealing. It doesn’t have the polish and production that seems to render a lot of mainstream music kind of boring. In 2026 Ives presents us with Girlfriend. The album thankfully has that raw authenticity that has made her songs stand out but with further creative development so that there is a fuller sound so that her finely crafted beats and orchestral melodic arrangements complement her emotionally wide-ranging vocals. Even though Ives sounds sonically larger she has honed her ability to write music that feels intimate, confessional and immediate.

Tuesday | 04.28
What: Loolowningen w/Cherry Spit and Replica City
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Loolowningen is a band from Japan that, like many bands from that country, is a bit difficult to pigeonhole. Listen to any of the recordings and be prepared to hear how it is like avant-garde punk at least in the performance and delivery, like prog/art rock, like psychedelic rock and modern classical. All at once without seeming like its trying to do too much. It sounds both maximalist and effortless in its intricate arrangements. Live the band definitely has kinetic presence and a sound like if a Chicago noise rock band had even more free jazz leanings and was way into Can. The group recently released the Mimic/Ringwanderung EP.

Thursday | 04.30
What: Cursing, Snakes of Russia, Voight and Vox Menomnic
When: 7/7:30
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Cursing is an industrial/EBM trio comprised of Devin James Fry, Ryan Halgren and Alex Anderson. The latter some may know for being deeply involved in the Freq Boutique event and for ye olde skuel as half of ManCub. This current project which released the excellent black tape album in 2025 is more in the vein of a politically infused combination of Front 242, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and the darker end of Nicolas Jaar. Informed by deep house and techno, Cursing is not the cookie cutter industrial outfit. Voight also combines techno aesthetics with post-punk but brings noisy shoegaze and a ferocious live presence to the music that has meant it never quite fits in with the darkwave/Goth scene nor with the local shoegaze/dream pop world and all the better for it.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E43: Conrad Kehn of The Playground Ensemble

The Playground Ensemble, Eight Songs For a Mad King, March 8, 2019, Mercury Cafe

The Playground Ensemble is a new music group based in Denver formed in 2006. Composed of professional musicians, composers, educators and members of the local community dedicated to presenting modern chamber music not purely as a vehicle for performing classical music of centuries past. The group cultivates local composers new, up-and-coming and more established as a means of showing how music based in classical modes can be a valid and vibrant mode of expression. Operating in a multi-disciplinary fashion often collaborating with dancers, poets, spoken word artists, visual/multi-media artists The Playground Ensemble has also brought noteworthy artists to town that might not otherwise find an avenue for live performance in Colorado. From the beginning one of the leading figures of the group has been Conrad Kehn who came to more classical composition as a regular thing later in life than some other musicians. From Gehring, Nebraska, Kehn had a bit of a background in classical music but like any young person in the late 80s and early 90s he got into alternative music and by late summer 1992 he had moved to Denver and attended Denver University.

As happens when you have an interest in music you end up meeting people and he moved in with a member of a band called Pieces of Lucy. He and the bass player moved on from the project and formed Skull Flux. The band was too Goth for the metal scene, too hard rock for the Goth scene but anyone listening in retrospect would recognize the band as death rock band ahead of its time. The group played shows with the likes of Twice Wilted, Body of Souls and 40th Day, noteworthy acts in the broad realm of alternative music. Guitarist Greg Stretton would go on to a stint in industrial dream pop downtempo band The Siren Project and bassist Steve Millin in progressive folk group The Reals. Kehn formed the short-lived more industrial group Kallisti before shifting more into avant-garde and modern classical music as an academic, a place he has contributed to greatly locally and connected to globally.

The Playground Ensemble is celebrating its 20 year anniversary with a 20 hour marathon on Saturday, March 21, 2026. In ambitious yet accessible fashion with community outreach and goals in mind the event will include a morning yoga session with music, afternoon and evening concerts feature new music (in the modern classical sense) as well as a later night experimental music event with after hours improv. Sprawling from MSU’s Kalamath Building to Stanley Marketplace to the Holiday Theater and Glob it is an event aimed at highlighting various aspects of The Playground Ensemble’s legacy and ongoing goals.

Full schedule and details below. For more information please visit www.playgroundensemble.org. Listen to our conversation with Conrad Kehn on Bandcamp.

Spontaneous Team Composition Workshop (all ages and levels welcome)
Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Kalamath Building
800 Kalamath St, Denver, CO 80204

Join Denver’s The Playground Ensemble as we celebrate our 20th season with a 20-hour MARATHON of new music.

The day opens at 7:00 AM with a yoga session and gong bath, followed by the Sound Bites breakfast meet-and-greet.

After breakfast, participants will be divided into small groups and given 90 minutes to collaboratively create a new work to be shared at the end of the session. Each group will be facilitated by Playground Ensemble teaching artists who will guide participants through the music creation process using hand gesture composition, graphic notation, structured improvisation, digital audio workstations, and musical story-telling to name a few.

Bring your own instrument and we will also provide a variety of electronic and found sound instruments to help ‘orchestrate’ and inspire creativity. The teaching artists will demonstrate how these approaches are adaptable to a wide range of educational contexts and are accessible to learners of all ability levels and musical backgrounds. The session will conclude with a performance of each group’s composition.

Afternoon at The Stanley Marketplace
2501 N. Dallas St. Aurora, Colorado 80010

Join Denver’s The Playground Ensemble as we partner with Friends of Chamber Music to celebrate our 20th season with an afternoon of music creation and community at The Stanley Marketplace. Each session highlights a different part of what makes Playground Ensemble the innovative organization that it is.

Family/Community Music-Making 1-2:30 PM: We invite families (grown-ups too!) to create their own instruments and compositions. Create your own compositions using colors and shapes and hear them played on the spot! Record your own beats at our electronic music station. Make tongue depressor kazoos, and play our collection of strange found sound instruments.

At 2 PM, Sing With Us! Meet us in the Stanley commons for a community singing of Pauline Oliveros’ Tuning Meditation. Using any vowel sound, sing a tone that you hear in your imagination. Listen for someone else’s tone and tune to its pitch as exactly as possible. Introduce new tones at will and tune to as many different voices as are present. Sing warmly.

String Quartet Concert 2:30 PM: In keeping with the spirit of Stanley Marketplace, the Playground String Quartet provides an eclectic sample of works by Latino, Indigenous, and women composers. Including works by Gabriela Ortiz, Raven Chacon, and Caroline Shaw, this program contains the breadth of both Playground’s style and their mission.

Playground at 20!
MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater
2644 W 32nd Ave, Denver, CO 80211

Hosted by MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater, this series of concerts is the heart of MARATHON.

The evening starts with Shane Courville (trumpet, electronics, composer) and Nathan Hall (piano, electronics, composer) presenting solo, duo, and improvised works on themes of freedom: freedom of nations and sovereignty, freedom to express our own identities, and the freedom of creative collaboration.

Up next join Leah and Josh for a 30-minute program of (mostly) contemporary art songs that recall childhood and gently remind us never to stop playing, even amidst the gloom and doom of life today. When you look through the kaleidoscope of your childhood, what do you see? Do the bright spots of hope, nature, and laughter stand out, or does darkness prevail?

After these two duo sets we gather for a celebratory toast to all that has been accomplished in the previous two decades while looking forward to the future.

At 8PM is the main event, The Playground @ 20!

This chamber concert features the first work we ever played, a new commission by Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez for bass flute and ‘ghost’ string quartet, and a new work by Playground Director Conrad Kehn for the entire ensemble.

The evening will also feature the Colorado premiere of Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s Ithánali, about a Chickasaw woman astronaut who is designated to be the first human to set foot on Mars, aware of the irony of her own action – colonizing Mars – and how it compares/contrasts to the historic colonization of her own tribe.

We will also highlight one of our favorite works commissioned with I’m Waiting for Your Crip Cadence, a collaborative composition by Nathan Hall and performance artist MG Bernard that creates an auditory and visual experience of what it is like to exist in a chronically sick bodymind exploring ideas of the disabled experience of non-linear time, and the doctor-patient relationship through a visceral display of how she is bound to the medical industrial complex, dependent on uncomfortable relationships of care, and indentured to pain.

Late Night GLOB

Close out MARATHON at Denver’s DIY citadel, GLOB.

This underground atmosphere set will intersperse avant DJ sets by former Playground board member DJ i.lind before our Music of The Shining, a show based on music from the Stanley Kubrick (and Stephen King) classic.

At midnight Playground composer and board member Silen Wellington will lead us in Haunting, a ritual performance. This is followed by Loretta Notareschi performing How All’s to One Thing Wrought! an improvisational work for a custom-designed virtual instrument that uses the electronic transformation of a single cello low C to express the spiritual idea of an interdependent web of all existence. Luke Wachter will perform …and we are a collection of memory for solo vibraphone and still photography which juxtaposes the impermanence of improvisation with the immutability of static images, examining how identity is constructed in the mind by collecting and reinterpreting memories and shared experiences. Ryan Fiegl winds us down with an electronic music set with reactive video as his musical alter ego Severed Shadow.

The evening closes with an open invite community-improvised drone session carrying us into the early morning.

For more information visit www.playgroundensemble.org.

This program is supported by Denver Arts & Venues through the DENVER CREATES Fund.

Best Shows in Denver and Beyond March 2026

**mclusky performs at The Marquis Theater on 3/24/26, photo by Damien Sayell**

Monday | 03.02
What: Nuovo Testamento and Dark Chisme
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Nuovo Testamento is a Los Angeles-based band that has made a reputation for itself as crafters of fine synthpop songs with some dark Italodisco flavor. Charismatic singer Chelsey Crowley’s rich vocals are reminiscent of peak 1980s Madonna. Dark Chisme from Seattle is musically adjacent but its sound more in the vein of darkwave with a touch of house in the production.

Wednesday | 03.04
What: Final Gasp w/Victim of Fire, Ukko’s Hammer and writheinfear
When: 7
Where: Bar 404
Why: Boston’s Final Gasp released its new album New Day Symptoms on Relapse on February 27, 2026. The record continues the development of the band’s sound fusing death rock and metallic hardcore. Live the group comes across as something from another era when subgenres didn’t matter so much in navigating the appeal of the music and sounds like the missing link between Christian Death and American Nightmare. Opening are some of Denver’s great hardoce bands in Victim of Fire, Ukko’s Hammer and writheinfear.

Friday | 03.06
What: American Culture w/Candy Apple, Spin Move and Blackberry Crush
When: 7/8
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: American Culture kicks off its latest tour with this show of its own current fusion of shoegaze indie pop with punk attitude. The group’s most recent album, and arguably its best, Hey Brother, It’s Been a While, bears the hallmarks of the influence/impact of 90s Britpop psychedelia and its 2020’s echo in the modern underground/indie scene and electronic production. Opening are local shoegaze acts Spin Move and Blackberry Crush and atmospheric hardcore group Candy Apple.

Blackwater Holylight, photo by Magalena Wosinska

Friday and Saturday | 03.06 and 03.07
What: Blackwater Holylight w/Som and Dreadnought (03.06) and Cronos Compulsion (03.07)
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Blackwater Holylight released its new a.lbum Not Here Not Gone in January and its blend of doom and ethereal shoegaze this time out seems to chart the group’s relocation from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles and embracing uncertainty and establishing new connections, roots and creative and personal evolution. Though heavy in a vein that fans of Slow Crush will appreciate there is a sensitive energy to the music that gives it an intimate feel throughout the album even as many of its songs soar into epic, exhilarating passages. Opening the tour is shoegaze-adjacent post-metal band Som and on the Friday show is Denver psychedelic doom group Dreadnought, on Saturday it’s experimental death metal band Cronos Compulsion.

Polly Urethane in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 03.07
What: The Liberation Series Presents: Polly Urethane, Melodies Never Lie, Entrancer and Luke Leavitt & Eden Figueroa
When: 7/8
Where: Squirm Gallery
Why: This is a show series where the proceeds go toward benefiting an organization or person currently being persecuted by corrupt American institutions and imperialism. This night you can see performance artist, songwriter and composer Polly Urethane whose shows are all different from one another but always impressive. Also ambient indie pop shoegaze solo act Melodies Never Lie, techno/ambient artist Entrancer and post-jazz/classical duo Luke Leavitt and Eden Figueroa.

Tuesday | 03.10
What: Peaches w/Cortisa Star
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Peaches has been releasing provocative music that challenges norms of a sexually repressive and misogynistic societies and cultures since the turn of the century. Her production has been an influence on various artists over that time as well and sure overtly her songs trade in immediate terms that challenge the bases of norms of subject matter and creative use of language. She hadn’t released a record since 2015’s Rub until this year’s issuing of No Lube So Rude. Peaches’ production may have been updated to reflect the evolving nature of electronic music and methods of composition but her wonderfully vibrant and colorful use of words to challenge vested authority and power structures is still just as vital as ever.

Friday | 03.13
What: Lala Lala w/Lots of Hands
When: 7/8
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Lala Lala aka Lillie West was one of the leading lights of the Chicago indie rock scene in the late 2010s and with her 2021 album I Want the Door to Open she deconstructed her own sound palette and songwriting style to include more electronic aesthetics. Subsequently the musician/songwriter underwent a kind of personal journey to Taos, New Mexico where she more or less lived off the grid and drew inspiration from the pastoral beauty and unique energy of that town. Then she found her way to Iceland and a residency at LunGa school as well as some time in the capital city of Reykjavik. Out of that leg of her journey West crafted what is essentially an ambient/instrumental album including beautifully arranged field recordings called if i were a real man i would be able to break the neck of a suffering bird (as Lillie West). Lala Lala ultimately landed back in the USA in Los Angeles and on February 27, 2026 she released her new record Heaven 2 via Sub Pop. You can hear traces of West’s creative journey and development informing the record’s evocative soundscapes and existential sentiments. The almost sound design approach to the composition of the songs with West like a figure in her own cinematic creation draws the listener directly into the moments she builds as she catalogs life in the current era of being swarmed with distractions that inspire only overstimulation and yearning for nuggets of the authentic.

Friday | 03.13
What: Witch Cat Records Anniversary: Tassles, babybaby4ever, Watch Yourself Die, The Tammy Shine and Hotel WiFi
When: 7
Where: Squirm Gallery
Why: Witch Cat Records is celebrating its five year anniversary with this show including artists both on the label and adjacent to its aesthetic embracing the uniquely creative and finely honed experimental music whether pop or otherwise. Tassles is a band that shows how lo-fi shoegaze can have a maximalist emotional resonance, babybaby4ever is like a rebirth of tonally rich synthpop in an inspired idiosyncratic vein, Watch Yourself Die is a confrontational performance art band, The Tammy Shine is the iconic lead singer of Dressy Bessy doing her own version of spirited punk-edged pop and Hotel WiFi somehow reconciles country, emo and lo-fi indie rock.

Friday | 03.13
What: Moon Pussy, Cleaner and Team Nonexistent
When: 7
Where: The Crypt
Why: Moon Pussy makes the kind of noise rock that makes you wonder why other bands don’t adopt a fully eccentric approach to lyrics and performance because they’re so compelling and unique that it’s difficult to really compare them to anyone else except to clumsily slap a genre term on them. Team Nonexistent started out as more of a Riot Grrrl-esque grunge band but now is more a raw punk thing with stirring hooks and pointed lyrics. Cleaner is a punk band with some threads of fuzzy, psychedelic 2010s garage rock.

Jeff Tweedy and band, photo by Rachel Bartz

Friday | 03.13
What: Jeff Tweedy w/Liam Kazar
When: 6:30
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: Jeff Tweedy released a thirty song opus of an album called Twilight Override in September 2025. The record showcases the songwriter’s typically thoughtful and personally insightful lyrics as well as his knack for writing paradoxically spare songs with orchestral arrangements. The gentle energy of the song reflects the guiding principle, as it were, of the release and that is how creativity is the antithesis of the pervasive destruction and darkness that is part of everyday life in America and so much of the world in this moment and if one is honest for years. The record is an attempt to stay above being overcoming by this tidal wave and show at least a little common human solidarity in songs that sound like an attempt to being drowned by personal anxieties and the ambient terribleness around us daily as they intermingle to reinforce each other in sinking every single one of us. Tweedy addresses all of this with warmth and humor and live he’ll likely have more than a handful of stories to enhance the intention of the album.

Saturday | 03.14
What: Bison Bone and Chella Negro
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Courtney Whitehead will be moving out of Denver soon and this is a farewell show for his long-running project Bison Bone. Whitehead’s style of Americana is deeply personal with vivid portraits of life that illuminate universal human experiences of working class life and its often undersung and undercelebrated joys that aren’t often the subject of the myths of the wealth-obsessed end of our culture. Joining Bison Bone for the bill is another of Denver’s Americana greats with folk-inflected, alternative country acts Chella Negro whose own lyrics aren’t short on deeply insightful and affectionate depictions of a life we all known and relate to directly but maybe don’t examine with as much clarity as Chella reveals in her lyrics.

Saturday | 03.14
What: Glueman, Rugburn and Fossil Blood
When: 8
Where: Hi=Dive
Why: Glueman is going on tour and taking its potent brand of classic hardcore-infused garage rock to various corners of the blighted American landscape. It’s most recent album III is a bit like an amalgam of 90s and 2000s Memphis garage rock and Black Flag. Rugburn is a psychedelic fuzzy punk band from Denver, not to be confused with with the funk band from elsewhere. Fossil Blood sounds like they grew up on all Black Sabbath all the time and then embraced what Ronnie James Dio did before joining that band including his time in Rainbow and his early solo career with the epic riffs and the fantastical imagery.

Saturday | 03.14
What: Max Styler w/Discip B2B Roddy Lima, Dan Molinari and GS
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Max Styler got a boost up in his career when, at 18 years old, he was signed to Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records. Since then he’s had his music out via Mad Decent, Ultra Music and other prestigious imprints in the EDM universe. His blend of tech house, bass music, trap and dubstep often seems to land in a place of almost pop accessibility in the composition. Currently he is touring ahead of his headlining spot at Coachella on April 10, 2026 and this is a chance to catch him at a mid-sized venue with the best sound in Denver especially for this style of music.

Sunday | 03.15
What: Fire in the Mountains Pop-Up: George Cessna, SHADOWROUGHT, PROGMISTRESS and Corpsewhale
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Fire in the Mountains is a festival happening in East Glacier, MT from July 23-26 that includes some of the best bands in the broader heavy music world (an exclusive reunion of the great, cosmic, tribal doom band SubRosa is part of the proceedings) but this edition includes representation of artists out of the spectrum of Gothic Americana including the reunited Sixteen Horsepower, Tarantella, Midwife and El Welk. For this show you can see George Cessna of El Welk perform a solo set as well as PROGMISTRESS of Dreadnought who will perform at the event as well.

Advance Base in 2018, photo by Tom Murphy

Sunday | 03.15
What: Advance Base w/Moontype and Pyramyd
When: 7
Where: Glob
Why: Owen Ashworth has for decades given us tender, heartfelt, emotionally unvarnished and honest pop songs in the lo-fi indie vein and his now long-running project Advance Base occasionally tours including this performance in Denver where he played in 2025. The authenticity and openness of Ashworth’s songs gives them an immediacy and relatability that is rare in a world that puts a premium on the flashy and overproduced.

Testament, photo from testamentlegions.com

Wednesday | 03.18
What: Testament w/Overkill and Destruction
When: 6
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Testament is one of the most influential and enduring of the Bay Area thrash bands from that second wave of the music. From early on the group’s storytelling and often socially aware lyrics set it apart from a lot of heavy metal of the day. While it didn’t become as famous as the likes of Metallica and Megadeth it has reliably put out worthwhile records including 2025’s Para Bellum which is the band’s first in five years. But apparently the members of Testament took it upon themselves to push their own songwriting boundaries as a band as well as that of thrash and metal generally with songs that fuse black metal, death metal, thrash and progressive chops. It’s one of their best records in a career not short on fine material. Also on the bill are thrash legends Overkill from New Jersey and German thrash luminaries Destruction.

Bill Frisell, photo from billfrisell.com

Thursday | 03.19
What: An Evening with Bill Frisell
When: 7
Where: The Federal Theatre
Why: Bill Frisell is an influential guitarist mostly known for his contributions to jazz and new music. A graduate of Denver’s East High School, Frisell made a name for himself in the NYC Downtown Scene and has worked with the likes of John Zorn. Across his career his has contributed to albums by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Earth while living in Seattle. In his long career Frisell has collaborated with artists too numerous to cite here as a band leader, a curator and a creative co-conspirator and his work has been nominated for a Grammy. But his creative approach to technical music is what has set him apart from many of his peers and there is an accessibility to even his headiest music that has garnered him a cult following.

Jesus Christ Taxi Driver, photo by Hailey Jane

Thursday | 03.19
What: Jesus Christ Taxi Driver album release w/The Thing and Honey Blazer
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Jesus Christ Taxi Driver has been establishing itself as a kinetic live act from the Front Range of Colorado since founding in 2022. Plenty of acts have done the blues rock with power pop flair and punk energy but JCTD seems to be on a mission with ambitious songwriting to match its outsized stage presence. This year the group releases its new album, a follow up to 2023’s Like My Soul, titled Taxi the Rich. The record will see a vinyl release for this show a month ahead of its release on streaming platforms. If the previous album was an audacious and raucous affair the new record has a more focused clarity without losing the raw energy that has made the band so appealing like they’re channeling a bit of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Ty Segall simultaneously.

Thursday | 03.19
What: 2charm w/Abrii and Vyblossom
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Australian electronic duo 2charm has been on its debut headlining tour of the USA including stops at SXSW in support of its new album star scum city. The record is like a fusion of club style EDM, hyperpop and more mellow glitchcore. In many ways the mood of the music is reminiscent of a more dance music manifestation of chillwave that fans of Charli XCX and Sextile may appreciate for the tonal richness and playfulness of the music.

Friday | 03.20
What: hlao, SixFM, Sun Swept and Polly Urethane
When: 7
Where: Pablo’s East Colfax
Why: A stacked lineup of local underground ambient and avant-garde electronic music including a more beat-based approach with hlao, progressive folk psychedelia ambient with Sun Swept and performance art/classical art pop/noise collage with Polly Urethane’s often confrontational performances.

The Playground Ensemble in 2019 performing Eight Songs For a Mad King, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 03.21
What: The Playground Ensemble at 20
When: 7am – 3am
Where: Various (see program below)
Why: The Playground Ensemble is celebrating its 20 years of existence with a series of events this day as outlined below. For more information click here to read our recent piece on the event and our interview with founder Conrad Kehn.

Spontaneous Team Composition Workshop (all ages and levels welcome)
Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Kalamath Building
800 Kalamath St, Denver, CO 80204

Join Denver’s The Playground Ensemble as we celebrate our 20th season with a 20-hour MARATHON of new music.

The day opens at 7:00 AM with a yoga session and gong bath, followed by the Sound Bites breakfast meet-and-greet.

Afternoon at The Stanley Marketplace
2501 N. Dallas St. Aurora, Colorado 80010

Playground at 20!
MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater
2644 W 32nd Ave, Denver, CO 80211

Hosted by MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater, this series of concerts is the heart of MARATHON.

After these two duo sets we gather for a celebratory toast to all that has been accomplished in the previous two decades while looking forward to the future.

At 8PM is the main event, The Playground @ 20!

Late Night GLOB

Close out MARATHON at Denver’s DIY citadel, GLOB.

The evening closes with an open invite community-improvised drone session carrying us into the early morning.

For more information visit http://www.playgroundensemble.org.

This program is supported by Denver Arts & Venues through the DENVER CREATES Fund.

Monday | 03.23
What: Quarters w/Porch Light and Telescreens
When: 6
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Telescreens from New York occupies a musical territory balanced between early 2000s post-punk and power pop live energy and modern electronic production. You can hear roots in the music in 90s alternative rock and maybe a touch of Walkmen and The Strokes but Telescreens aren’t going for the image of either. Its new singles “Nothing” and “Preacher” are pure expressions of breaking out of self-imposed repression and the ambient despair that is the normal reaction to modern life. Headlining the show are fellow New York City alternative rock band Quarters whose own sound on its more recent music incorporates an R&B aesthetic into its rhythm and vocals.

Tuesday | 03.24
What: mclusky w/Cherry Spit
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: mclusky established itself as one of the more unhinged post-hardcore acts out of the UK in the 90s and early 2000s with records that were partly surreal humor and partly oblique social commentary often taking the piss out of more obvious sanctimonious approaches to having something to say. The band has album titles like The Difference Between Me and You is That I’m Not on Fire and Mclusky Do Dallas. The group split originally in 2005 and reunited in 2014 for a benefit show. But then did a 20-year anniversary tour for the underrated Mclusky Do Dallas delayed to 2024. Then the band released an EP in 2023 called Unpopular Parts of a Pig followed by a full length in 2025 titled The World Is Still Here and So Are We with a subsequent 2026 EP called I Sure Am Getting Sick of This Bowling Alley. With the dire absurdity of world events mclusky is a welcome presence in modern music. Opening the show is top tier Denver post-hardcore/noise rock quarter Cherry Spit who are a pure fusion of technical death metal, noise rock, post-hardcore and shoegaze.

Friday | 03.27
What: Gov’t Mule at Mission Ballroom
When: 6:30
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Warren Haynes paid his dues as a musician throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s with stints in David Allen Coe’s band, The Nighthawks and on and off with The Allman Brothers Band which he joined in 1989. But in 1994 he formed Gov’t Mule in 1994 with Allman Brothers bandmate Allen Woody which became their focus when their more well-known project went on hiatus. With the then new band Haynes was able to channel his honed guitar work and insight into songwriting into original material with a masterful command of live improvisation so that the band has never been limited to expectations and sure there is the blues and country foundation but also the psychedelic flourishes that informed Haynes’ early influences with Hendrix and Clapton. The most recent Gov’t Mule record Peace…Like a River continues the band’s fusion of styles and influences into a sound that blurs the line between genres and seems orchestrated like a jazz record with contributions from the likes of Billy Gibbons, Ivan Neville, Ruthie Foster and Billy Bob Thornton.

Banshee Tree, photo by Christian O’Rourke

Friday | 03.27
What: Banshee Tree album release for Bad Luck w/Riley J Band
When: 7:30/8
Where: Fox Theatre
Why: Boulder-based Banshee Tree will release its sophomore album Bad Luck on April 17, 2026 but playing a hometown show ahead of the release likely featuring live versions of the songs from the forthcoming record. Banshee Tree’s eclectic mix of jazz inflected chamber pop and psychedelic folk pop is an apt vehicle for the eight songs on the record that have a gentle and contemplative quality like songs crafted late nights and honed in sessions around a campfire meant to be shared with friends. Despite this intimate aspect of the music each of the songs has an almost orchestral and expansive arrangement that flow into one another as though thematically Bad Luck is a concept album capturing a mood and state of mind wherein one examines wht to let go and what to hold onto going into a new chapter of life.

Saturday | 03.28
What: Pearly Drops
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Finish dream pop band Pearly Drops released its latest album The Voices Are Coming Back to great acclaim in 2025. The record showcases the group’s gift for freely blending elements of hyperpop, glitch and what might be described as electronic dance shoegaze. Its gauzy and luminous atmospheres and entrancing, processed vocals sound like music from an as yet unrealized, existential indie science fiction film. It is an album that is its own world and one worth getting lost within and one you’ll get to experience a bit of live.

Saturday | 03.28
What: Ashnikko w/Princess Nokia
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Ashnikko established herself as one of the stars of hyperpop in the 2020s with her eclectic sound and look inspired in part by Tokyo street fashion (think Harajuku). Her particular blend of styles including rap, electropop and glitch sounds like music for a dance club in a cosmopolitan post-oligarchic collapse near future tourist destination city. The artist’s sophomore album Smoochies (2025) free associates sounds and cultural references and phenomena past and present including a mention of Strawberry Switchblade in the song “Chichinya” perhaps invoking that band’s own unique style and place in popular music history. Live expect set and costume changes and plenty of theater worth showing up to catch for the sheer spectacle.

Monday | 03.30
What: Machine Girl w/Sextile and LustSickPuppy
When: 7
Where: The Summit Music Hall
Why: Until a handful of years ago Machine Girl was an underground phenomenon with its borderline unhinged style of breakcore. Its music is an often disorienting mashup of frenetic grindcore, drum and bass and glitch that might be compared musically favorably with Lightning Bolt with whom the now trio has toured. In that Lightning Bolt is in the vein of punk but taking that spirit and making a different kind of music than expected and delivering ferocious live performances. Sextile started out in a more shoegaze/post-punk style but in the past few years have switched more fully into a sound akin to 90s big beat with modern production methods and sensibilities while maintaining a deeply atmospheric and richly moody aspect that has emphasized more its experimental electronic inspirations.

Monday | 03.30
What: Westerman w/Otto Benson
When: 8
Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox
Why: Westerman’s ambitious 2025 album A Jackal’s Wedding was written in Athens and recorded on the island of Hydra and perhaps reflects the mythological and cultural resonances of one of the birthplaces of Western culture. More minimal and dark, yet also perhaps more minimal, than previous offerings from the songwriter the new record is also more piano and synth forward than earlier more guitar heavy albums and the effect is reminiscent of mid-90s Magnetic Fields or the more lush post-punk period of Arthur Russell. It is an album that explores becoming comfortable with uncertainty and embracing how that mindset can ease one better into an everchanging world. In surrounding himself with an unfamiliar environment in the writing and recording process it seems as though Westerman has crafted a record that makes that navigation an easier indirect experience for the listener as the album is not a departure from style so much as an adaptation and evolution.

Monday | 03.30
What: Ulrika Spacek w/Barbara and Prairie
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Ulrika Spacek was already a noteworthy, arty post-punk band in the early 2020s but with the release of its 2026 album EXPO offers a view into its more avant-garde leanings with compositions that are nearly modern classical fused with baroque pop others a kind of breakbeat post-punk yet others a processional downtempo dream pop IDM. Its simply a rich record in terms of sound and creative ambition and seeing that kind of varied experimentalism in a small room is the way to witness it.

The Belair Lip Bombs, photo from Bandcamp

Tuesday | 03.31
What: The Belair Lip Bombs, Dust and Laveda
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The Belair Lip Bombs are an Australian power pop/garage rock band that was the first Australian band to sign to Third Man Records. Its spirited energy and gift for earnest melodies garnered it early praise for 2023 debut album Lush Life. For 2025’s Again, the group sounds slightly more introspective without losing its ability to put some urgent energy behind its performances. Opening the show is dream pop group Laveda from New York whose own 2025 album Love, Darla revealed its own songwriting and style leaning into a more experimental and gritty direction more akin to NYC post-punk and No Wave.

Best Shows in Denver and Beyond February 2026

**babybaby4ever releases the new album at Hi-Dive Saturday February 6**

Clementine Was Right, photo by Tom Murphy

Monday | 02.02
What: Worst Night of the Year Fest II: Clementine Was Right, Caspar Milquetoast, Al Ameda and Small Houses
When: 7/7:30
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: At least this is in February and not January so the name of the event is by circumstance a bit of a joke this year. And given world and national events it seems unlikely as well. But music, yes, Clementine Was Right is the band that combines vivid and heartfelt poetry with emo-flavored country and atmospheric rock and live the band is truly exuberant. Caspar Milquetoast is a band that sounds like what a lot of bands were trying to do mixing psychedelia and folk rock but opting more for an indie pop sound than Laurel Canyon retro and that has meant more original songwriting.

Tuesday | 02.03
What: Hobbyist, Pet Traits and Reposer
When: 7:30
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: Chicago-based Hobbyist like many bands from the Windy City is coming at music from a different angle. This one is noise rock adjacent in terms of sensibility and yes there is guitar and bass but electronic beats and a fusion of downtempo and punk attitude. At times the band dips into a mutant kind of blues rock but its 2024 album People, Like Used CD’s sounds like edgy art pop. Think post-punk made by former theater kids who are writing music to have an emotional resonance and appeal beyond narrow genre categories. Fans of Two Ton Boa and Mecca Normal will probably find something to like here.

Thursday | 02.05
What: Buñuel w/Squid Pisser, Spiritual Poison and Almanac Man
When: 7/8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Buñuel is the San Francisco-based avant-garde noise rock/No Wave band. Fronted by Eugene S. Robinson formerly of experimental rock legends Oxbow. This newer band has a similarly menacing and intense sound that is part experiments in arrangement and rhythm that sometimes hits the ear as some kind of industrial noise rock like a sister band to Swans, Live Skull or The Jesus Lizard whose Duane Denison contributes guitar to the group’s most recent album Mansuetude. Squid Pisser is glitchy, demented grindcore from Tommy Meehand (GWAR), Michael Armendariz (Duck Duck Goose) and Seth Carolina (Starcrawler). Spiritual Poison is the “ambient” project of Primitive Man’s Ethan McCarthy and some of the best music he is making. Almanac Man are an angular noise rock band whose style of post-hardcore is rooted in both DC and West Coast punk.

Friday | 02.06
What: Weakened Friends w/Team Nonexistent and Queen Frog
When: 8/9
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Portland, Maine’s Weakened Friends released its third album Feels Like Hell in October 2025 through Don Giovanni. The trio tapped into that 90s grunge pop sound and the loud-quiet-loud sort of sound structure early on but by now has refined it into something with more nuanced emotional range. The new record seems to be informed by the existential exhaustion, exacerbated by the current social and economic climate, of feeling like maybe your closest relationship has run out of steam yet you’re not ready to let it go while taking an assessment of every aspect of it and realizing in the end that a lot of those feelings are projection and you’re really tired of yourself and how you are and the ways in which you self-sabotage. And how that reflection allows you to grow and be present for the people you care most about but maybe allowed yourself to forget along the way. Team Nonexistent is in a similar lane of music but from Denver and with a little more edge in the presentation.

Friday | 02.06
What: Judge Roughneck’s 30th Anniversary Party w/Reptiles & Samurai
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Judge Roughneck’s history reaches back to 1995 when ska was entering into its ascendance in American mainstream music but instead of being the kind that plagued the airwaves for a time with a watered down version of the music, Judge Roughneck seemed to have some authenticity and musical chops. The band’s fusion of reggae and ska with soul set it apart from many of its peers and thirty years later and with the recent tragic passing of former trombone player/back vocalist David Dinsmore, the group is still fronted by lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Byron Shaw. This show celebrates its legacy of excellence that transcended genre.

Friday | 02.06
What: Patrick Dethlefs and The Still Tide
When: 7
Where: Swallow Hill
Why: Patrick Dethlefs has been one of the more gifted songwriters out of Colorado for more than a decade and his style of folk Americana is poetic and emotionally vibrant. In 2025 he released his latest record Patty, a collection of songs that told stories of life and made sage observations about the human psyche and society that felt both like something from another, better, era and a commentary about the present times without some kind of didactic statement or grandstanding. All of which is easy and understandable to do but the lack of which lends Dethlef’s record an unspoken elegance of expression. The Still Tide might be described as a dream pop band but one that rocks a little more at times and singer/guitarist Anna Morsett is a bit of a prodigy player with songwriting that doesn’t make that obvious because it is all folded into how captivating the songs so often are.

Saturday | 02.07
What: babybaby4ever album release for 4ever is a long time w/Pleasure Prince, Xenon Thief and WNGDU DJ
When: 7/8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Over the last handful of years discerning fans of synth pop in Denver that have been fortunate enough to witness a babybaby4ever show have an artist worthy of her influences. Lily Conrad grew up in Golden, Colorado and started playing music at a young age getting into playing guitar and then cello by her middle school and teen years. In 2016 in college Conrad started making music and performed her first show as babybaby but in the past couple of years she changed the project name so that it was more findable via internet search engines. Early on playing out in and around Denver Conrad was part of the local DIY scene playing house shows and underground venues like the now defunct Posh House. Around that time she started playing keyboards in the live version of psychedelic garage rock band Rose Variety with her friend Becc Perez. The pandemic era stretched time in weird directions but since the world opened up again Conrad started playing around more often in her solo project at venues that could better represent her developing sound and its highly developed, rich synth tone and production. The show now includes props and aspects of performance art from Conrad making a babybaby4ever show memorable both visually as well as for the finely crafted songs that have the spontaneity and vulnerability of classic indiepop and the robust and enveloping melodic tonality of 80s New Wave. In 2026 babybaby4ever releases the new album 4ever is a long time via Denver-based imprint Witchcat Records. The nine songs are loosely a kind of breakup album as breakthrough. The lyrics and moods honor the heartache and the will to move forward by embracing vital experiences and the roots of who were are and what makes our lives feel vibrant.

Tuesday | 02.10
What: Midwife and Amulets w/Sunswept
When: 7:30/8
Where: Chautauqua Community House 900 Baseline
Why: Midwife brings her emotionally vibrant, ambient folk soundscapes to a rare appearance in Boulder. Opening is Amulets, the solo project of Randall Taylor who has collaborated with Midwife on both his records and her own and his compositions that combine pastoral drones and tape collage is definitely spiritual kin to Midwife’s own songwriting. Sunswept is a flute and synth-driven ambient project from Denver comprised of local improve and experimental music scene star Sarah Christensen.

Tuesday | 02.10
What: Sudan Archives w/Suhreetah
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Sudan Archives came up playing violin and while studying ethnomusicoloy at Pasadena City College she attended the legendary club night Low End Theory and wrote her own music and did some deep diving into violin players across cultures and by 2017 released her self-titled debut EP. Since then, Sudan Archives has made a name for herself a talented composer, songwriter and performer blurring the lines between R&B, classical music, experimental electronic composition and dance music. Her latest album is the sprawling and entrancing The BPM (2025).

Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy, photo by Christy Bush

Wednesday | 02.11
What: Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends Play R.E.M. w/Bob Goldthwait
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: For the past dozen years acclaimed actor Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy (Bob Mould Band, Superchunk, Sunny Day Real Estate) have been working together to play albums live by mutually loved artists like The Modern Lovers, The Smiths ad Neil Young. But the past two years the focus has been performing classic albums by college rock/early alternative rock band R.E.M.. Last year the duo performed Fables of the Reconstruction with four original members of R.E.M. joining them on stage for their two shows in Athens, Georgia, the hometown of the group. For this tour Shannon and Narducy will by joined by Jon Wurster, John Stirrat, Dag Juhlin and Vijay Tellis-Nayak in celebrating the 40th anniversary of the album Life’s Rich Pageant and of course the show will include some choice cuts from across R.E.M.’s catalog.

Palehorse/Palerider in 2017, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday | 02.12
What: Palehorse/Palerider w/Glass Human and BleakHeart
When: 7/8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: This will be a front to back show of heavier Denver bands that don’t fit comfortably in the realm of metal though they might each be considered within that lane of music. Palehorse/Palerider combines desert rock, shoegaze and tribal/pastoral rhythms and soundscapes in its evocation of emotional weight. Glass Human is able to navigate being an art rock band and heavy shoegaze with pop songcraft with surprising mastery. BleakHeart is like if a doom band discarded those trappings in favor of more existential, dark and heavy post-punk.

Friday | 02.13
What: Plastik Mystik album release w/Cherry Spit, Pale Sun and Soneffs
When: 7/8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Plastik Mystik is refreshingly difficult to pigeonhole because its sound hits the ears as some kind of amalgam of punk fury, dark post-punk sophistication and mutant garage rock left of center fractured song structures. After a handful of singles the past couple of years the group is finally releasing its debut album. The rest of the bill is filled out with some of Denver’s finest. Cherry Spit is a ferocious noise rock/post-hardcore quintet whose sound fuses angular, caustic sounds and impassioned vocals with a mathematical precision that breaks enough with being more calculated to be interesting. Pale Sun is arguably Denver metro’s greatest shoegaze band with former members of Bright Channel, Pinkku and Space Team Electra. Soneffs make music at the intersection of indie rock songcraft, psychedelia and shoegaze.

Saturday | 02.14
What: The Cowboy Confessional: Sea of Heartbreak – Real Stories, Fake Cowboys w/Christie Buchule, Erin Christian, Susan Earley, Sarah Chase Fountain and musical guests Salads & Sunbeams
When: 2
Where: Mutiny Information Cafe
Why: This will be an afternoon of confessional storytelling in the spirit of the subversion of the Valentine’s Day holiday. With musical guests, masterful pop band Salads & Sunbeams and their layering of poetry, 60s psychedelia and 90s indiepop.

Saturday | 02.14
What: Heartbreak Holiday: Gentleman Deluxe, The Schofields, Scooter James, Micah and the Mirrors & Silver West
When: 6
Where: The Federal Theatre
Why: Gentleman Deluxe is the solo Americana project of Aaron Howell, the charismatic frontman of MF Ruckus, White Fudge and various other bands over the years. This effort showcases Howell’s ability to write stripped down songs without losing the emotional sensitivity he can bring to a song that perhaps isn’t as obvious from his more bombastic bands but the sensibilities of which can be heard in his other songwriting. Also on the bill is former Tin Horn Prayer and Pinhead Circus member Scooter James with his own solo work and cosmic country artist Silver West.

Saturday | 02.14
What: DeVotchKa A Tribute to the Music of Little Miss Sunshine
When: 7
Where: The Boulder Theater
Why: DeVotchKa was already a bigger band in Denver metro around the turn of the century that worked hard to hone and refine its masterful songwriting and sound that got pigeonholed as “gypsy punk” and Americana. But the affecting lyrics and the sophistication of its songwriting with elements of jazz composition and classic pop songcraft and a little luck landed the group’s music on the soundtrack for the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine which adapted songs from the group’s albums How It Ends (2004) and Una Volta (2003). This is a rare chance to witness a great deal of that music live.

Monday | 02.16
What: Weval – Chlorophobia album tour w/CERVAL
When: 8
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Weval is an electronic duo from Amsterdam that for nearly a decade and a half have produced some of the more sonically rich dance and pop crossover music of recent years. Its fusion of deep house, techno and the kind of low end heavy electronic pop that fans of Big Black Delta, Sextile and Moderat would fully appreciate with songs that seem to fit both the dance club and indie radio formats.

Thursday-Saturday | 2.19-2.21
What: Ron Funches
When: Varies by date
Where: Comedy Works (downtown)
Why: Ron Funches launched his comedy career while working various jobs in Portland, Oregon in 2006. Since then he has been on numerous television shows including a memorable but short bit in Portlandia in 2011. His surreal and sharply observed material exposes aspects of American culture and the collective psyche with great wit and insight. His unique vocal style and renders his inspired storytelling into bypassing expectations and giving a new perspective on what you may think is already familiar. Fans of Mitch Hedberg will definitely be into what Funches has to offer.

Friday | 02.20
What: Rowboat, Loose Charm and Owosso
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: Rowboat is a band whose music has some roots in folk but Sam McNitt has refined those influences into something more moody and literary with fine sonic textures and an intense delivery that creates a fascinating contrast with the sensitivity and delicacy of the songwriting. Owosso is a band that seems to draw inspirations from angular, DC post-punk, 90s emo and noisy shoegaze. Loose Charm makes music out of another era when alt-country wasn’t watered down into indie Americana, when it had more slivers of punk and early 90s alternative rock in its spine.

Friday | 02.20
What: Atmosphere w/Sage Francis, R.A. the Rugged Man, Kool Keith and DJ Mr. Dibbs
When: 6
Where: Boulder Theater
Why: From humble origins as an alternative hip-hop group forming in 1996, Atmosphere has become one of the most popular acts out of that musical milieu. Celebrating its 30 year anniversary for this tour including a club show at Boulder Theater, Slug and Ant bring their hyper verbal, emotionally vibrant and imaginative hip-hop as well as legends of the art form including innovators like Sage Francis and Kool Keith who have both pushed the boundaries of hip-hop with experimentation in sound delivery of subject matter. Mr. Dibbs maybe became more well known in the 2000s but he was honing his skills at turntablism actively as an artist since the early 90s and has worked with Atmosphere and El-P as well as Doseone and numerous other noteworthy artist of hip-hop.

Friday | 02.20
What: Taraneh w/Tassles and Warper
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: New York’s Taraneh sounds like it draws equally from more avant-metal, post-punk, noise rock and shoegaze to make its own sound that is deeply atmospheric and edgy with soulfully delivered vocals. While sounding nothing like Kylesa and Slow Crush, fans of those bands will find something to appreciate about the way Taraneh combines heaviness, electronic music and psychedelic flourishes. Warper recently put out a new album that showcased its complete absorption of heavy 90s emo and shoegaze and fused it into its own flavor. Tassles started out as sort of a bedroom shoegaze band but as the live project has evolved into more of a band its robust guitar sound backed by live bass and the in person experience expands upon the strong songwriting of the project’s recorded releases with robust sound that doesn’t take away from songs that are like the next evolution or two beyond chillwave with meditations on life and how you have to fantasize about something that engages the mind and otherwise dissociate to get through the nightmare of life under late capitalism and how it manifests in your personal existence.

Saturday | 02.21
What: Dressy Bessy & The Tammy Shine Album Release w/Hotel Wifi and Cribbo
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Dressy Bessy doesn’t play live in its hometown in Denver often and it has become a bit of a tradition to play the Hi-Dive in February. The indiepop band includes Apples in Stereo guitarist John Hill and fronted by the charismatic Tammy Ealom who super old school Denver people may know from The 40th Day or Sissy Fuzz. But obviously Dressy Bessy eclipsed all of that with national and international fame of the kind that doesn’t fill stadiums but does allow one to have opportunities most smaller bands can only dream of. This show celebrates the release of Ealom’s debut solo album as Tammy Shine called Ok Shine Ok on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records with a special lathe cut of edition of songs from the album available from local imprint Witchcat Records. Of course the record has the charm and spirited energy that Ealom brings to Dressy Bessy if the songwriting is a little different and more spare but doesn’t spare the energy and attitude that is the singer and songwriter’s signature style. Plus, Ealom produced the album herself and it fully reflects her unique creative vision.

Sunday | 02.22
What: clipping. w/Open Mike Eagle and Cool Prongs
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: From its inception clipping. was a band that had experimental leanings baked into its beats and aesthetic. But its latest record Dead Channel Sky is the fullest development of its albums as works of science fiction as much as music but not the kind that’s instantly corny and heavy-handed. Sure the title seems like a nod from the opening lines of William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk landmark Neuromancer. But the relentless yet sparely executed beats and flow of words is like hearing something like Busdriver working with The Prodigy. But more stark and reflecting the dystopian mood of the world today. At times it feels like it makes statements on the unsustainability of striving culture and and a world seemingly on fast forward driven by the demands of late capitalism but which does nothing but wear out mere humans.

Thursday | 02.26
What: MDC w/The Elected Officials, Poison Tribe and Shit Drugs
When: 7
Where: The Federal Theatre
Why: MDC just had a provocative name with radical left perspectives in its lyrics being against racism, homophobia, the perils of imperialistic capitalism (as if there’s any other kind) and fascism. All that at time when mainstream culture seemed to reflect the insipid “Morning in America” nonsense promoted by the Ronald Reagan administration which also funded death squads in Latin America and interfered with American elections in 1984 in a way that is still buried for fear of general public upset. Fast forward some forty years and things are somehow even worse so MDC (Millions of Dead Cops or Multi Death Corporations or whatever darkly funny and irreverent name the band chooses to adopt at any given time) is more relevant than ever.

Gogol Bordello, photo courtesy the artists

Friday | 02.27
What: Gogol Bordello w/Puzzled Panther and Boris and the Joy
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: Gogol Bordello spawned in 1999 in New York City named in part from 19th century Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol. Frontman Eugene Hütz, also from Ukraine, started playing in bands in the country of his birth with an appreciation for strong lyrics and thus another reason for the literary connection. The singer/musician spent a good deal of his youth in various parts of Eastern Europe, Austria and Italy including refugee camps in the wake of the Chernobyl meltdown ultimately landing in Vermont prior to his migrating to New York where he met the future members of his band. Fortuitously, Gogol Bordello came together when NYC was experiencing an upswing in underground rock with bands of disparate styles starting in the late 90s and 2000s. With a sound that has been perhaps self-described as “gypsy punk” perhaps as a way to capitalize on Hütz’s Romani background and incorporation of Romani musical ideas into rock as well as Ukrainian and Russian punk which has its own rich history and unique development. The band’s impassioned performances and unique sound distinct from other bands from New York of the time has since garnered Gogol Bordello a bit of a cult following across the past three decades as it successfully evades easy categorization except its own style. On February 13, 2026 the band released its new album We Mean It, Man!, potentially a reference to the Sex Pistols song “God Save the Queen” as well as a statement of intent. It has all the hallmarks of the band’s infectious energy and fusion of punk, glam rock, Eastern European folk and orchestral flourishes.

Friday | 02.27
What: Clusterfux w/Prescription and Arson Charge
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Clusterfux has been around for more than 30 years as a staple of the local scene with its amalgam of skate punk and crossover. Brothers Josh and Justin Lent have been longtime supporters of local community including with their shop Chain Reaction Records. Their irreverent and intense records hasn’t exactly lost its edge and intent as evidenced by December 2025 single “American Gestapo.” Arson Charge also makes no bones with its own brand of hardcore taking aim at the dark corners of one’s psyche and American culture. Prescription is one of the old school hardcore bands from Denver’s 90s punk scene that came across as being humorous and pointedly political back then and now with its new album Lab Rats.

Hex Cassette in 2021, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 02.28
What: Hex Cassette, “Horse Girl,” Brock “‘”the Brick” Bronson and aithworker
When: 8
Where: The Crypt
Why: Hex Cassette is Denver’s premiere industrial dance/darkwave performance art act. Zachary Graves is a commanding and hyperkinetic figure whose music is well-crafted and compelling on its own but his stage banter in which he cajoles the audience in hilarious heel fashion is second to none. “Horse Girl” is not the Chicago band. It is the performance troupe/experimental pop band from Denver whose shows are all fairly unique and often involving a concept and musical elements can be drastically different from the previous show but always wortth seeing.

Brotherhood of Machines in 2016, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 02.28
What: 4digit, Virga Delta, Brotherhood of Machines (album release) and Sell Farm
When: 8/8:30
Where: DMV
Why: Brotherhood of Machines is set to release his new album for this show. The project is a unique layering of ambient methodology, environmental industrial, techno noise and cassette collage music. Virga Delta is industrial ambient glitch. Sell Farm is a ferocious amalgam of industrial rock and noise akin to Nine Inch Nails.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E42: Turning Jewels Into Water

Turning Jewels Into Water, photo by Ed Marshall

Turning Jewels Into Water is a project with composer/percussionist/turntablist Val Jeanty and percussionist/composer/electronic musician Ravish Momin. Formed around 2017 when the two met at a jam session at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, New York. Recognizing a shared affinity for crafting unique rhythms and soundscapes and compatible methods of working the two artists have since worked together to explore the ways in which new technologies can be used to blend electronic and acoustic instruments in creating music that reflects the diverse cultural heritages and musical interests in common. The name of the project is a commentary on access to natural resources and howthat has been politicized in human struggles for power especially in the capitalist era increasingly so with the rise in climate change impacts. A casual listen to any of the duo’s three albums reveals a mastery of rhythmic arrangements and patterned tones for a sound that is ambient adjacent but more akin to the kind of early industrial beat-making and culture jamming sounds heard in a band like Cabaret Voltaire but steeped in modern sensibilities and production methods.

Listen to our interview with Ravish Momin on Bandcamp and follow Turning Jewels Into Water at their website linked below. See the project live at The Bug Theater presented by Creative Music Works on Saturday, January 24, 2026. There is an artist discussion and Q&A for premium ticket holders at 6pm with the performance after (doors 7, show 7:30).

Turning Jewels Into Water website

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E41: babybaby4ever

Over the last handful of years discerning fans of synth pop in Denver that have been fortunate enough to witness a babybaby4ever show have an artist worthy of her influences. Lily Conrad grew up in Golden, Colorado and started playing music at a young age getting into playing guitar and then cello by her middle school and teen years. In 2016 in college Conrad started making music and performed her first show as babybaby but in the past couple of years she changed the project name so that it was more findable via internet search engines. Early on playing out in and around Denver Conrad was part of the local DIY scene playing house shows and underground venues like the now defunct Posh House. Around that time she started playing keyboards in the live version of psychedelic garage rock band Rose Variety with her friend Becc Perez. The pandemic era stretched time in weird directions but since the world opened up again Conrad started playing around more often in her solo project at venues that could better represent her developing sound and its highly developed, rich synth tone and production. The show now includes props and aspects of performance art from Conrad making a babybaby4ever show memorable both visually as well as for the finely crafted songs that have the spontaneity and vulnerability of classic indiepop and the robust and enveloping melodic tonality of 80s New Wave. In 2026 babybaby4ever releases the new album 4ever is a long time via Denver-based imprint Witchcat Records. The nine songs are loosely a kind of breakup album as breakthrough. The lyrics and moods honor the heartache and the will to move forward by embracing vital experiences and the roots of who were are and what makes our lives feel vibrant.

Listen to our interview with Lily Conrad of babybaby4ever on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links below. The album release show happens on Saturday, February 7, 2026 at Hi-Dive with Pleasure Prince, Xenon Thief and DJ WNGDU, doors 7pm, show 8pm, $12.

babybaby4ever on TikTok

babybaby4ever on Instagram

babybaby4ever on YouTube

Best Shows in Denver January 2026

**Cherished celebrates the release of its self-titled debut LP at Hi-Dive on 1/22/26**

Friday | 01.02
What: Angel Band w/Ryan Wong, Fishlegs, Elaine and Nimona
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Angel Band is an indie pop band that seems to have taken inspiration from jangle pop groups of the late 80s and early 90s. Like C86-affiliated groups and acts on the Sarah Records and early Slumberland imprints. There is an enthusiasm with which the music is performed but without losing a sense of delicacy and gentleness. Fishlegs is like-minded in its embrace of the kind of charming twee pop that made 90s underground music worth seeking out. Ryan Wong is of course the songwriter and producer behind his band Supreme Joy but his solo performances can wax into his equally worthy country songwriting.

Thursday | 01.08
What: Victim of Fire, Cronos Compulsion, Aleister Cowboy, Pedestal for Leviathan
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Victim of Fire is a Denver-based hardcore/black metal band that has been at the forefront of that music out of the Mile High City. Its 2025 album The Old Lie is a sharp and ferocious dissection of economic elitist lies told to working class people to get them to give up their best interests in pursuit of enriching the wealthy at the expense of everyone. Cronos Compulsion is a death-sludge metal band also from Denver whose 2025 album Lawgiver is a bracing listen and a solid example of the caustic and brutal sonic power of the art form. Fort Collins’ Aleister Cowboy released an EP of what might be described as cosmic death metal called Neolithic Blood Rites in 2025. Pedestal for Leviathan’s flavor of black metal is the more symphonic variety but don’t worry, it’s plenty brutal as well once the songs get into gear.

Friday | 01.09
What: An Evening With Black Flag
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Ever since replacing the most recent lineups of Black Flag with young musicians, Greg Ginn seems to want to bring some new blood into his venerable and influential punk band Black Flag. Did it work? You’ll have to go to find out but Ginn’s guitar work remains impressive and unique in the canon of punk and hardcore.

Precocious Neophyte, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 01.09
What: Warper, Precocious Neophyte and Blackberry Crush
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Warper released its new album Something, Sometime in October 2025 showcasing its further development from moody, atmospheric emo band into a heavier shoegaze band. The new record also showcased the band’s development as songwriters since its 2021 Lateness EP. Sure, you can hear a touch of possible influences like Hum and Sunny Day Real Estate but also newer groups like Cloakroom. Warper doesn’t shy away from demonstrating musical chops in the songs as well with evocative solos. Precocious Neophyte seems to come from similar roots but its musical instincts seem to have some noise rock and metal influences along with obvious touchstones like My Bloody Valentine with a knack for fragile melodies alongside searing guitar work and crushing heaviness. Blackberry Crush has evolved into more of a shoegaze band in the past couple of years but without sacrificing a knack for writing compelling pop hooks with some clear inspiration from 90s grunge.

Saturday | 01.10
What: The Pretty Shabbies, The Futons and Watch Yourself Die
When: 7
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: The Pretty Shabbies sound like its music is comprised of bits of 1970s jazz and funk. There’s a chance the members listened to a lot of Zappa, a bit of Jethro Tull, modern jam bands and someone in the mix probably has every Traffic record. And yet the organic free flow of the music is not without a certain appeal because it’s not like many other local bands. The Futons are sort of a psychedelic garage punk band. But Watch Yourself Die is seemingly different every time with a strong and confrontational, transgressive performance art component which is going to make it completely divergent from everything else on this bill in the best way.

Saturday | 01.10
What: Night Fishing, Nativity in Black, Tainted Blade, Halo of Lightning
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Night Fishing is a collision of fusion, psychedelic prog, surf rock and post-rock but heavy and it includes members of other much heavier and more brutal bands. This is not gentler so much as not aggressive in its sound. Nativity in Black is a Black Sabbath cover band fronted by Chella Negro. Don’t expect the poetic Americana of her other band Chella and the Charm. It’ll be legit Black Sabbath evocation. Tainted Blade is a blackened death doom band from Denver. Halo of Lightning is a “stoner-doom metal” band from Colorado.

Thursday | 01.15
What: Summer Bedhead, Circling Girl and Majona
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Summer Bedhead’s eclectic indie rock reflects the changing musical landscape of the past decade. In the band’s story songs you hear strands of the throwback to 90s rock, garage rock, dream pop and more. But it’s all channeled into the group’s own style of confessional pop songs with some bite and more than a little vulnerability. Circling Girl is a Denver-based dream pop band whose sound has some bright shimmer in the guitar melodies with vocal harmonies that are reminiscent of The Sundays, Lush in its more pop mode and a touch of Cocteau Twins. Its 2025 album Only My Veins Know is one of the better releases in the broad spectrum of shoegaze and dream pop of the past five years with its intricate and entrancing songwriting. Majona is the style of atmospheric pop that is adjacent to shoegaze but more in the realm of Mazzy Star-esque slowcore.

The Green Typewriters, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 01.16
What: Green Typewriters, Salads and Sunbeams and Teacup Gorilla
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: The Green Typewriters are the kind of psychedelic pop band that makes use of conceptual framing and aesthetics to deliver a unique style of music that blurs the line between Elephant6 indiepop including the experimental streak of that music, art rock and mystical psychedelia. Salads and Sunbeams engages in modern pop storytelling through the sonic lens of 60s and 70s psychedelic rock with poetic observations on modern life and the ways our current civilization works to erode our humanity and offering ways to reclaim it through imagination and honest feeling. Teacup Gorilla is a high concept art pop band that challenges conventional views of gender and identity in its songs and in its presentation of the music.

Sunday | 01.18
What: Kayo Dot and Abandons
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: New York-based avant-garde metal and Kayo Dot makes a rare appearance in Denver following the release of one of its most challenging and visionary records to date in 2025’s Every Rock, Every Half-Truth under Reason. The album was written against the idea of the creative act and creativity as a result of predictive modeling and its dystopian offspring, AI music and art. The songs are not in the vein of traditional metal or really something easily or at all identifiable as metal. It’s often like an organic, mutant and sprawling set of songs that at most has something in common with something like Mamaleek. But even more abstract. Abandons is not as avant in its songwriting but it is in the way the band writes music in a more improvisational mode and without seeming to try to fit in with a neat genre. Sure if you want to call them post-rock or post-metal they fit that but also noise rock and art rock and in moments with songs written with more abstract electronic ideas in mind.

Thursday | 01.22
What: Cherished album release w/Tassles, Flesh Tape and Headslug
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Ever since switching names to Cherished in 2022 and a shift in sound more toward the shoegaze end of post-punk this Denver quintet has developed a body of work that defies easy categorization. There is some noisy, punk edge underlying the sonics and performance style but the atmospheric melodies and introspective and thought-provoking lyrics set the band apart from any obvious niche aesthetics. Its 2025 self-titled album was recorded and mixed by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets who is perhaps best known for working on records by Model/Actriz, Lingua Ignota, Battles, Big|Brave and Lightning Bolt. It emphasizes the more gritty side of the band’s sound without sacrificing the deep moods Cherished manifests live. Opening the show is bedroom dream pop band Tassles, noise-rock post-punk group Flesh Tape and Headslug whose sound sits somewhere between grunge pop and shoegaze.

Friday | 01.23
What: Cthonic Deity, Street Tombs and Death Possession
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Cthonic Deity is the doom/death metal/punk band from Denver that includes Paul Riedl of Blood Incantation fame. It’s much more stripped down and brutal in its guitar attack and includes members of Scolex and Ascended Dead as well. Street Tombs from Santa Fe, New Mexico are a collision of d-beat punk and thrash-infused death metal. Death Possession play the kind of death metal that sounds like it was inspired by many sessions of taking in early Slayer, early Possessed and Xasthur in a secret club house.

Friday | 01.23
What: Gion Davis, Dollpile, Your Friend Nirantha
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: Gion Davis is a poet with the indie rock band Clementine Was Right who is releasing a new book Designated Stranger that “spans years, states, genders, and climates as it confronts the concurrent apocalypses of being trans and poor in America.” Seems appropriate for the world today. Also performing is Dollpile fka Isadora Eden, a band whose dream pop is more theatrical and atmospherically dense than the genre is often known for producing. Also Your Friend Nirantha and its endearingly earnest bedroom dream/noise pop.

Saturday | 01.24
What: Turning Jewels Into Water
When: 6PM doors for Artist Discussion and Q&A, concert 7:30PM
Where: Bug Theater
Why: Turning Jewels Into Water is a project with composer/percussionist/turntablist Val Jeanty and percussionist/composer/electronic musician Ravish Momin. Formed around 2017 when the two met at a jam session at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, New York. Recognizing a shared affinity for crafting unique rhythms and soundscapes and compatible methods of working the two artists have since worked together to explore the ways in which new technologies can be used to blend electronic and acoustic instruments in creating music that reflects the diverse cultural heritages and musical interests in common. The name of the project is a commentary on access to natural resources and howthat has been politicized in human struggles for power especially in the capitalist era increasingly so with the rise in climate change impacts. A casual listen to any of the duo’s three albums reveals a mastery of rhythmic arrangements and patterned tones for a sound that is ambient adjacent but more akin to the kind of early industrial beat-making and culture jamming sounds heard in a band like Cabaret Voltaire but steeped in modern sensibilities and production methods. For our interview with Ravish Momin please follow this link.

Saturday | 01.24
What: Vulgarian, 908, Old Skin and Cop Killer
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Denver-based, anti-capitalist, doom/sludge/crust group Vulgarian are releasing their third album Cost of a Bullet at this show. Expect caustic and brutal riffs and plenty of pointed and incisive lyrics about what a demented and corrupt civilization we’re living through right now. 908 is a grindcore/powerviolence band from Colorado Springs that includes current and former members of Aberrant, Catheter, Throcult, Upon a Field’s Whisper, Havok and Tree of Woe. Old Skin sounds like a band that came up playing stoner metal and doom but leaned into the Unsane and Cherubs end of that sound and now is almost more of a noise rock band with some sludgy grooves while still sounding incredibly menacing. Cop Killer is the hardcore band from Denver that thankfully has lyrics that are appropriate to the name of the band and a confrontational performance style worthy of the name as well.

Thursday | 01.29
What: William Elliot Whitmore and Jim Ward (Sparta)
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: William Elliot Whitmore is a singer/songwriter from Iowa who earned a reputation as one of the more skilled practitioners of folk Americana since the late 90s. With releases on Southern Records, ANTI- and Bloodshot Records Whitmore’s respectable body of work has garnered him a bit of a following and he has toured with Chris Cornell, Murder By Death, Converge and Esmé Patterson, with whom he has worked, to give a sense of his broad appeal beyond the obvious for his charismatic performances and fine songcraft. Also on this bill is Jim Ward, the frontman and guitarist of Sparta and former member of At the Drive-In performing his solo material that spans genres but all graced with his vulnerable yet passionate vocals.

Call Sign Cobra circa 2006, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 01.30
What: Call Sign Cobra w/Friends of Cesar Romero, El Welk, Total Cult
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Back in the mid-2000s Call Sign Cobra was a bit of a local supergroup that included members of now, minus the punk cognoscenti of the day, forgotten punk bands like Scott Baio Army, The Facet, Mail Order Children and Out on Bail. It’s sound was a kind of loose around the edges garage rock and what later “neo-classic rock” bands aimed for but could never quite nail in trying to sound pro. Imagine a Memphis garage rock band of the 90s, The Dirt Bombs, Teengenerate and a glam rock band mixed together and add a horns section and you have some idea of what you’re in for. It’s raucous, ridiculous and here’s a rare chance to see the band nearly twenty years after it dissolved. Also on hand will be modern garage punk luminaries Friends of Cesar Romero and Total Cult as well as noisy post-Americana group El Welk.

Saturday | 01.31
What: The Crooked Rugs, Rugburn and Chroma Lips
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The Crooked Rugs from Fort Collins live come off like a countrified psychedelic rock/shoegaze band with a deep appreciation for T. Rex. But one with a knack for memorable and transporting melodic hooks. Rugburn’s own flavor of psychedelia is more steeped in grunge and more distorted sounds in general with a bit of an edge. Denver’s Chroma Lips has more synth in the music and its motorik beats point to some inspiration from Krautrock, possibly a touch of Silver Apples and possible hints of having soaked up bits of the better end of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Black Mountain and the most inspired bits of Tame Impala but with more interesting guitar work.