Sarah Christiansen has been a fixture of Denver’s experimental music and improvisational scene since 2022. Her solo project Sunswept which finds her playing flute and synthesizer with live production and processing is a high point of any show with a unique style of ambient. The duo she’s in Snowswept with Derrick Bozich (aka Snowflyer) combines her skills for soundscaping and Bozich’s gift for spontaneous synth composition and left field electronic dance music. Her trio Field Theory is like a New Music ambient jazz combo that expands notions of what that music can look and sound like. Christiansen also organizes a monthly event called Emergent Forms that brings together musicians in the local improvisational music world and puts them into combinations to explore the possibilities of the art form. She is also a volunteer with Creative Music Works having been an early booster of the group’s activities and shows.
Originally from Saint Louis, Missouri, Christiansen moved to Colorado in 2016 and wasn’t initially involved in the music scene. But she caught some shows of local artists notably R A R E B Y R D $, the experimental hip-hop group that incorporates jazz, Latin music, ambient and neo soul. In 2022 Christiansen witnessed the early Avant Garden events hosted at Mutiny Information Cafe and run by noteworthy experimental musicians Meca’Ayo Cole, Victoria Lundy and Jennifer Bobola eventually working with Bobola in the short-lived band Fireball Rose. In December 2024, Texas-based label Aural Canyon released the debut and only Sunswept album Germinations. You can regularly see the musician/composer live at DIY spots and an occasional club show in Denver and the Colorado Front Range and her latest endeavor outside her regular efforts is a collaborative duo with singer-songwriter Ryan Wong (Supreme Joy etc.) for the first night of Ghost Canyon Fest 2026.
Listen to our interview with Sarah Christiansen on Bandcamp and follow her exploits at the links below and see Sunswept and Ryan Wong in a collaborative performance for the opening night of Ghost Canyon Fest on Thursday, August 26, 2026.
Kathryn Mohr is a songwriter, composer and visual artist based in Oakland, California. She is a relative late-comer to making music first experimenting with drawing and painting. She acquired her first guitar at age 20. Sigur Ros was the band that got her into more experimental music in her teens and the first concert she witnessed at an Outside Lands festival appearance. Mohr became aware that a guitar could be used like a synthesizer when used unconventionally as she had heard in Sigur Ros and later in Grouper. In 2018/2019 Mohr started recording on her phone but in 2020 she felt the strong urge to make an album resulting in As If. That tape opened up opportunities for her in various ways including having label backing. Around the same time the songwriter got her first synth to help realize her sonic imagination. She didn’t play her first live show until 2022 playing a local Zen center before playing the DIY venues in Oakland. That same year Mohr got connected with Madeline Johnston aka Midwife through their mutual label The Flenser. Johnston engineered the then new album Holly. The record shared a similar gentle spirit and emotional depth and delicacy that one hears from a Midwife album and like a particularly sophisticated ambient folk tape one might find randomly at a consignment shelf at a DIY space and the music sticking with you.
For Mohr’s third album, 2025’s Waiting Room, she undertook an artist residency in a small town in Iceland where she wrote and recorded the music free from the distractions of a highly mediated modern world coaxing out authentic emotions and thoughts expressed in music that is at once highly personal and otherworldly, perhaps innerworldly, in tone and mood. It’s like a lo-fi folk album but blending the aesthetics of ambient music into the songwriting for an expression style uniquely Mohr’s own. A little over a year later Mohr issued her latest album Carve. Once again the artist took herself to an environment relatively lacking in regular contact with any kind of social media, advertising, popular culture or anything like that living for awhile in a single wide in the Mojave Desert. The album has a distinctly cinematic quality and capturing the alien tranquility of such an environment but this time some of the guitar songs are grittier at times reminiscent of early PJ Harvey but more informed by her own style of psychedelic, noisy folk bordering on a left field garage rock. The album references Wallace Stenger’s classic 1971 novel of the American West, Angle of Repose and a node to the influence of literature on Mohr’s music. The album’s contrasts are some of the widest of Mohr’s output and it is at turns and often at once pastoral and contemplative, menacing and caustic, delicately gentle and tense. The layers of field recordings, synth, processed vocals in parts of the record convey a deep sense of place, psychological and physical as there is a tactile aspect to Mohr’s songwriting in every song so the album comes across as something felt and experienced and not merely heard. Written over a period of five years and recorded in a few weeks it nonetheless feels of a piece like an expertly edited film. It is Mohr’s most creatively realized work.
Listen to our interview with Kathryn Mohr on Bandcamp and follow her music and performances at the links below. You can see Mohr perform the first night of Ghost Canyon Fest 2026 on Thursday, August 27.
Ghost Canyon Fest organizers Brian Dooley, Sean Dove, Jeremy Brashaw, photo by Tom Murphy
Ghost Canyon Fest presents its fourth edition in 2026 from Thursday, August 26, 2026 through Sunday, August 30, 2026. The festival has from the beginning has showcased some of the most fascinating bands and artists operating in the broad realm of left field rock and experimental music. Noise rock, art punk, ambient, avant-folk, post-metal, art pop, psychedelic folk and more. It has been an extremely well curated festival and on a scale that intentionally makes it easy to catch all of the acts for festival goers if they have the fortitude to make it to all the performances as it isn’t multi-venue at the same time and the final night doesn’t run too late for work the next day. As usual the festival is a mix of acclaimed national acts and some of the most creatively daring bands from Colorado in the realms of music that is at the core of the festival’s curation. This year you can see Holy Sons, Kathryn Mohr Ryan Wong & Sunswept, a Wax Trax Music Panel called DIY In the Age of Slop: A Discussion, Six Organs of Admittance, Prairiewolf, Steve Von Till, Silkworm, The Gotobeds, Dust Congress, Supreme Joy, claire rousay, Daniel Higgs, Shane Parish Plays Autechre Guitar, Nora Mal, Kowloon Walled City, Moor Mother, Water Damage, ABANDONS, Blacks’ Myths, Watch Yourself Die, Arson Charge, Circling Over, Burn Barrel, Midwife, Dead Rider, Great Falls, Violenteer, Infinite Ohm and Blööd Ôath. The festival takes place at HQ, Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar, Hi-Dive, The Bug Theatre and The Skylark Lounge. For more information and the full schedule please visit ghostcanyonfest.com.
Listen to our interview with Ghost Canyon Fest organizers Sean Dove, Brian Dooley and Jeremy Brashaw on Bandcamp.
Paul Riola is a saxophonist and composer who has long been a fixture of the Denver improvisational music and ambient scene. His prolific collaborations have graced various stages throughout the city and beyond and his command of cinematic soundscaping is honed from years of working within the realm of experimental music for over 30 years. He grew up in the Denver Metro area before moving to Portland, Oregon in the early 90s for around a decade where he came into contact with Nels Cline and recorded with him as well as Jeff Parker of Tortoise. If you’ve been to a sufficient number of improvisational music shows in the Denver underground in the past 20 years and more it seems unlikely that you haven’t had a chance to witness Riola’s skill in blending in with various other instruments and specific styles to create something that while improvisational always sounds composed to strike a deep mood. His latest project is Shadow and Light, an immersive collaboration that involves music, installation art and video collage. Taking place at the Fox Theater in Aurora, Colorado on August 20, 2026 the event brings together Riola with guitarist Colin Bricker, guitarist Emmanuel Alexander, drummer Sam Kok, visual collage artist and videography Elicia James, set designer Brandon Case, Olivia Kirkpatrick for live VJ performance and video sampling along with Wesley Schwarz also with live VJ and video sampling and lighting. The unique concert experience will blur the line between various disciplines of visual art, overlapping aesthetics and methods of sound and composition to evoke an emotional resonance with all involved.
Listen to our interview with Paul Riola on Bandcamp and follow Riola at the links below. For tickets to Shadow and Light please visit the Aurora Fox Theater website.
Observation Room is a synth pop duo from New York City comprised of Marina F and Chloe Olson. From its 2025 self-titled EP the project seemed to have a knack for vivid and clear electronic production and a keen ear for layered rhythms and percussive synth tone. There is a kinetic presence to the music that became even more honed and fully-realized on the forthcoming full-length Superstructure. Inevitable comparisons might be made with the likes of Book of Love for the crisp melodic sound and expert use of space on all levels of the songwriting and production like a creative embodiment of the concept of the title as an architectural term and Marxist political concept in which the ideas at the foundation of the work manifest in its essence and expression. It works as an incredibly well-executed synth pop dance record but not one devoid of rich subject content as a commentary on the broad and ambient corrosive quality of the economic and political system dominating the world today. But in the record there are stories about looking to a future in which we all survive this time rather than be purely mired and limited by it. Fans of Tangerine Dream, Human League and Talk Talk will appreciate the attention to sonic detail and songcraft. The highly stylized album cover is reminiscent of a not-so-obvious influence on the band, Roxy Music and its own enigmatic yet striking record artwork. The album’s variety in mood and pacing also lends it a cinematic quality with linked narratives that are as personal as they are political. Superstructure will be available on vinyl, digital download and streaming via á La Carte Records on September 11, 2026.
Listen to our interview with Observation Room on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below. Observation Room is going on a short tour with dates listed below as well.
Kim Gordon and her band came on stage with little fanfare but with the expected effortless cool and poise. Everyone in the band contributed to the rich electronic soundscapes that ran throughout the show and everyone played a more standard rock instrument as well with a drummer (Madi Voigt), a bassist (Emily Retsas) and guitar duties with Gordon and Sarah Register. Immediately it felt like we were hearing something born out of the various interests and creative leanings across Gordon’s career as an artist and pushing past immediate expectations of some kind of No Wave noise rock. It was more like a thorough fusion of various styles of hip-hop, industrial aesthetics and stretching notions of what role guitar plays in songwriting. Like real time sampling in moments with rock instruments dropped into a track. The percussion was a combination of programming/sequencing and live drums played with an ear for the various beat styles that have emerged in the past two or three decades: trap, Dilla-isms, drill. The effect was cinematic and emotionally-charged with Gordon’s nearly spoken word vocals accenting the rhythm with her own lines of spare poetry as though she was replicating a production method with own performance.
Kim Gordon, photo by Sam Zalkin
The band played all of the new record, Play Me (2026) seemingly in order as well as a few songs from The Collective (2024) and No Home Record (2019). But it all felt like a vivid yet hazy dream with Gordon singing songs that felt like they were a commentary on the current era and zeitgeist in a way that was creative like stream-of-consciousness poetry or free verse and free association on a theme. The social commentary was pointed and cathartic with the production lending the music a textural and cinematic quality so the experiencing of witnessing it live had a tactile aspect that was riveting and seemingly personal because Gordon’s words framed the ideas of tech oligarch and the dream of a world after the fall of the imperial program that has been burning through the world with an accelerated spirit of consuming destruction an attainable goal. The caustic menace of “Sub Con” and “Square Jaw” got into your head like hope through validating one’s anger and desire for liberation from the various tools of late capitalist repression. Both songs and “Post Empire” were a string of songs that seemed to draw heavily on hip-hop production and sounds of the past decade and a half but with a little different sound palette and informed by Gordon’s insight into the ills of the horrific aspects of current human civilization.
Sarah Register, photo by Sam Zalkin
Hard to imagine Gordon isn’t affected deeply by this music and the words performing them on a tour and yet it has to feel good to get these thoughts and feelings out there and sharing them with people who may not be as focused in their expression when everything can feel overwhelming and you just have to show up to your job or jobs just to survive. But the show did feel like an expression of human solidarity for the collective, ambient anxiety and horror of what feels like the worst timeline of recent years. With the update of “Bye Bye” as “ByeBye25” as a kind of exclamation point on the album it was obvious that Gordon’s new album showcased her masterful wordplay perhaps influenced by the hip-hop artists that have inspired her for decades. Beginning to end the songs sounded like the chaos, fragmentation and collapse of the American experiment but also like a hope for something better to replace the old world order. It made this era feel survivable.
Kim Gordon, photo by Sam ZalkinKim Gordon, photo by Sam Zalkin
Setlist from JamBase.com
PLAY ME GIRL WITH A LOOK NO HANDS BLACK OUT DIRTY TECH NOT TODAY BUSY BEE SQUARE JAW SUBCON POST EMPIRE NAIL BITER BYE BYE Trophies It’s Dark Inside Psychedelic Orgasm Paprika Pony Cookie Butter Encore Cigarette
Experimental music festival Ghost Canyon Fest returns August 27-30Pearl & The Oysters, image from Bandcamp
Saturday | 08.01 What:Pearl & The Oysters w/Green Typewriters and Pleasure Prince When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Pearl & The Oysters is based out of Los Angeles these days via the Gainesville, Florida scene but has its origins when the duo of Juliette Pearl Davis and Joachim Polack met in high school in Paris. Polack earned a master’s degree in muscology with a focus on Brazilian popular music. And you hear that flavor in this band’s output which sounds like a retrofuturist pop band with some jazz informing its compositions and Tropicália flavor but really its own thing with some obvious heavy influence by classic 60s and 70s pop and psychedelia. But its production is lush and from record to record it would be impossible to pigeonhole an exact style including its most recent record Monkey Mind (2026). So it’s only appropriate the art pop psychedelic prog weirdos Green Typewriters and virtuosos of soulful synth pop Pleasure Prince are sharing the bill and thus no downside.
babybaby4ever, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.01 What: babybaby4ever, Sonic Chick, Mon Cher and PEPPERSACK When: 7:30 Where: Squirm Gallery Why: babybaby4ever will bring her tonally immersive indie synth pop to places well beyond Denver following this tour kick-off show and win over audiences far and wide. For the occasion you’ll get to see lo-fi synth-infused dream pop project Mon Cher, darkwave dance duo PEPPERSACK and the lo-fi, Half-Japanese-esque emo band Sonic Chick—fans of K Records bands of the 90s will definitely find much to like about the latter and its new record All Star Hits.
Let the Dead Eat the Dead, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.01 What:Let the Dead Eat the Dead, Part Weapon and The Picture Tour When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Club Why: Let the Dead Eat the Dead is the new project that rose up from the remnants of Bad Luck City. Similar dark Americana and poetry with wit, intensity and an unpretentious earnestness that one would come to expect from the musicians involved including ex-members of Random Victim, Red Cloud, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake. Part Weapon will being its fusion of noisy post-punk and industrial sounds and The Picture Tour will fill the room with deeply atmospheric, melancholic moods and late night drive intensity circa early Nicolas Winding Refn cinema.
TV Star, photo from Bandcamp
Monday | 08.03 What: TV Star w/Angel Band, Pink Lady Monster and Pulse When: 7 Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: TV Star from Seattle recently released its new album Music For Heads which can have multiple meanings but for fans of the kind of crossover of shoegaze, C86 pop and pastoral Americana its exactly in your wheelhouse. Delicate and intricate guitar melodies and layered textural sounds with winsome vocals make the band’s new record and its Unrest-esque sound a repeat listen. Opening of course are purveyors of perfect indie pop Angel Band and Pink Lady Monster, the neo-No Wave art pop geniuses from Denver.
Cat Power, photo courtesy the artist
Monday | 08.03 What:Cat Power: Anniversary of The Greatest Tour When: 6:30 Where: Chautauqua Auditorium Why: Cat Power released her album The Greatest in 2006 to great acclaim. Recorded in Memphis, TN, the album included contributions from the late, great Mabon “Teenie” Hodges renowned for his contributions as guitarist and songwriter on several of Al Green’s hits as well as other notable artists in the realm of soul and R&B. And other greats of soul music including bassist Leroy Hodges. The record contains some of Chan Marshall’s most intimate songs in a career of intimate songwriting and there is a warmth and affection in much of the searching and heartbreak and at times resolution found across the album’s twelve tracks. This is a rare opportunity to catch these songs live in a venue as uniquely beautiful and rustic as the Chautauqua Auditorium.
Melvins, photo by Chris Casella
Friday | 08.07 What:Tomahawk w/Melvins When: 6:30 Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Tomahawk is the experimental metal band comprised of Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Faith No More etc), Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard et. al.), John Stanier (Helmet) and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs among others). Considering the people in the band how metal is it and really more experimental, art rock noise rock with Patton’s versatile and powerful vocals. Opening is Melvins who reliably put on a powerful performance of heavy music of great nuance and imagination and with every tour they try to do something different and other than touring with Tomahawk in this format it would be worth showing up to find out what Melvins have in store.
The Jayhawks, photo by Steve Cohen
Saturday | 08.08 What: The Jayhawks When: 7 Where: Chautauqua Auditorium Why: The Jayhawks are unarguably one of the most influential Americana bands of the past four decades plus since forming in Minneapolis in 1984. They were early pioneers of what came to be called alternative country. Its 1992 album Hollywood Town Hall is a landmark record for the style and refreshingly out of step with the trendy sounds to emerge from early alternative rock. The group went on hiatus in 2005 while its members pursued other creative endeavors. Briefly reuniting again from 2009-2012 The Jayhawks have once again been an active band since 2014 with a new album Sanctuary Park due out August 28, 2026 with the eclectic yet coherent sound that has marked the best of The Jayhawks’ later work integrating some deeper atmospheric melodies and uplifting rhythms into the songwriting. Of all the venues along the front range Chautauqua was basically built for experiencing this kind of music.
Sugar, photo by Ryan Bakerink
Tuesday | 08.11 What:Sugar w/J. Robbins When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: After the collapse of punk legends Hüsker Dü, guitarist and singer Bob Mould released two acclaimed solo albums and came to recruit David Barbe (formerly of the great Athens, GA post-punk band Bar-B-Que Killers) and Malcolm Travis (who had been in early Boston New Wave band Human Sexual Response) to work with in the near future. The band they would dub Sugar became in its own right one of the more popular and influential of the early 90s alternativ rock bands. With a song pace that wasn’t as headlong as Mould’s previous band was known and more developed melodies the group’s debut album Copper Blue (1992) was instantly at hit with college and the nascent alternative rock radio. Mould had learned a lot from Nirvana who he influenced in terms of pop songcraft with spirited performances and he was finally able to somewhat capitalize on the sound his songwriting and guitar style had directly impacted. Sugar only released two albums and an EP before splitting in 1995 but all of those releases contain some of the finest music Mould has worked on to date. When the grop announced it was back together and playing live shows again it was arguably simultaneously one of the least expected and most anticipated reunions of recent years. And if you’ve seen Mould’s band recently you know it’s not going to be subpar.
Shonen Knife, phot by Kai Taylor
Tuesday | 08.11 What:Shonen Knife – Osaka Ramones Set & Shonen Knife Favorites Set w/Bricheros and Flight Kamikaze When: 7/7:30 Where: HQ Why: Shonen Knife is the Osaka, Japan punk band that has been running since 1981. An influence on people like Nirvana the group was invited into the international alternative music scene in an opening slot for Sonic Youth in Shonen Knife’s hometown in 1987 and then later for their first North American gig in Los Angeles shortly after. And in 1991 Shonen Knife was asked to open for Nirvana for the European leg of their tour before Nevermind signaled the commercial ascendance of alterntive rock. But all along Shonen Knife has perfected the art of blending punk spirit and power pop with infectiously catchy melodies and songs with themes of simple joys in life. In 2026 the trio re-recorded and released its 1992 classic Let’s Knife as Let’s Knife Re-Cut. For this tour the group will perform a set of its favorite Ramones songs as well as selections from its own prolific catalog of great punkified pop.
Widowspeak, photo from Bandcamp
Wednesday | 08.12 What: Widowspeak and Dead Gowns When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Since 2010 Widowspeak has created music that weaves together countrified slowcore and intimate dream pop like they came up inspired equally by Luna and Mazzy Star. The group early on was a four-piece but is now the core duo of guitarist/vocalist Molly Hamilton and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Robert Earl Thomas. The 2026 album Roses is about love in its various forms and often about the subtle kinds taken for granted and not pored over and examined and recognized as such.
Josaleigh Pollett, photo by PJ Guinto
Friday | August 14 What: Josaleigh Polett w/A Place For Owls, mlady and Vanna Blue When: 6pm Where: D3 Arts Why: Josaleigh Pollett is a singer-songwriter based out of Salt Lake City that has been developing an eclectic and inventive body of work since 2012 that could loosely be called indie pop. But from record to record, Pollett has experimented with production, songwriting and a blend of organic and electronic elements. The 2026 album If I Let It Quiet is a lushly produced, deeply evocative listen that guides the listener on an existential journey through modern anxieties and uncertainties with a gentle touch and expansive rhythms, cloaked in soothing atmospheric textures. Now available on vinyl via Audio Antihero. A Place For Owls might be described as a slowcore emo band and based in Denver. The band has previously collaborated with Pollett who also contributed to the band’s forthcoming album All Thieves Vol. 1 due out September 25, 2026.
Church Fire, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.15 What: Parlour Magic w/Church Fire and Cruel Mourning When: 7 Where: HQ Why: Parlour Magic is a synthpop project from New York City that recently released its latest, and third, album The Embassy. The music is in the vein of 1980s sophistipop with hints of R&B in the vocal delivery and layers of moody melody and cinematic production that captures a sense of isolation and yearning. Opening is industrial synthpop powerhouse now quartet Church Fire whose vibe will be much more confrontational yet inviting like they challenging the audience to join in raging against oppressive forces of the world. Denver’s Cruel Mourning recently released its new album Modern Tension that sounds like it is informed by 2010s synthwave with the pulsing rhythms but also the more synthpop end of darkwave.
Primitive Ring, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 08.15 What: Primitive Ring, Cherry Spit and Blööd Ôath When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Primitive Ring is a heavy psych band from Los Angeles that includes Charles Moothart who some may known for playing in various other bands including with Ty Segall, Moonhearts, Fuzz and Mikal Cronin. The group released its debut, self-titled full-length on May 15, 2026 and it sounds like a fine evolution beyond stoner rock and garage psych fusion but retaining the tonal richness and knack for a solid hook. Opening are two Denver bands that burst genres. Blööd Ôath is like an intentionally primitive noise rock post-punk thrash band with genuine grooves and a weirdness worthy of the Cramps. Cherry Spit is a ferocious amalgam of post-punk, post-hardcore and arty noise rock and defies easy comparisons.
zzzahara, photo by Lyndsey Byrnes
Saturday | 08.15 What:WILLIS w/zzzahara and The Flooks When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: WILLIS based out of Nashville, TN that recently released its latest EP Locals 5. Stylistically it’s reminiscent of surf-inflected indie psych from around a decade ago which means it’s probably going to have a nice summertime mood and nostalgic appeal to a lot of people evoking memories of the before times when things likely felt less complicated and at least seemingly less fraught with pressing and constant peril and chaos. We all need a break from that reality sometimes. One of the opening acts, zzzahara, put out their album Distant Lands in June 2026 and its layered, bedroom pop style truly sounds like a dream-journey of self-discovery and healing. Inspired by a dream in which the songwriter spoke to their departed brother the record is steeped in embracing authentic feelings that we often keep buried as we hurtle through our lives. It is an album about reconnecting and perhaps growing from that process. It could be described as dream pop, shoegaze, psych and all the other atmospheric guitar genre tags you want but it also sounds like it’s informed by the possibilities of production and in some ways is like a pop cognate of They Are Gutting a Body of Water.
Paul Riola and band, photo courtesy the artist
Thursday | 08.20 What: Shadow and Light When: 7/7:30 Where: The Fox Theater (Aurora) Why: Paul Riola is a saxophonist and composer who has long been a fixture of the Denver improvisational music and ambient scene. His prolific collaborations have graced various stages throughout the city and beyond and his command of cinematic soundscaping is honed from years of working within the realm of experimental music for over 30 years. He grew up in the Denver Metro area before moving to Portland, Oregon in the early 90s for around a decade where he came into contact with Nels Cline and recorded with him as well as Jeff Parker of Tortoise. If you’ve been to a sufficient number of improvisational music shows in the Denver underground in the past 20 years and more it seems unlikely that you haven’t had a chance to witness Riola’s skill in blending in with various other instruments and specific styles to create something that while improvisational always sounds composed to strike a deep mood. His latest project is Shadow and Light, an immersive collaboration that involves music, installation art and video collage. Taking place at the Fox Theater in Aurora, Colorado on August 20, 2026 the event brings together Riola with guitarist Colin Bricker, guitarist Emmanuel Alexander, drummer Sam Kok, visual collage artist and videography Elicia James, set designer Brandon Case, Olivia Kirkpatrick for live VJ performance and video sampling along with Wesley Schwarz also with live VJ and video sampling and lighting. The unique concert experience will blur the line between various disciplines of visual art, overlapping aesthetics and methods of sound and composition to evoke an emotional resonance with all involved.
Courtney Barnett, photo by Lyndsey Byrnes
Friday | 08.21 What: Courtney Barnett w/Zoh Amba When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Courtney Barnett is one of those most acclaimed songwriters of the past decade and a half with a rich and vibrant body of work including her fourth full length album Creature of Habit which dropped March 27, 2026. Written after Barnett relocated from her Melbourne, Australia to Los Angeles the record includes contributions from expert drummer and producer Stella Mozgawa who was part of Barnett’s previous two releases but also some vocals from Waxahatchee, bass from Flea and some synth from Floating Points. But the record is all Barnett’s signature clever and personally insightful lyrics and seemingly a record contemplating major changes in one’s life circumstances and reflecting on choices and embracing the change one has pursued in the end. The record feels a touch more introspective than prior albums but highlights Barnett’s ability to speak with sensitivity and poetic delicacy to the parts of our brains that are given to anxiety and insecurity and soothe that energy with emotional honesty.
Dillon Francis, photo by Broylen Bowers
Saturday | 08.22 What:Dillstradamus Tour: Dillon Francis and Flosstradamus When: 8 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Dillon Francis became one of the bigger names in 2010s EDM through not just his skill as a producer but also via his skillful use of social media and engaging with a fanbase in a way that has been entertaining for years. He has helped to popularize moombahton, the blend of house and reggaeton through high energy performances that has been part of keeping EDM a going concern in the live concert setting. For this tour Francis teams up with Flossatradamus, one of the pioneers of trap whose own career predates Francis’ by a few years. They 2010s massive heyday of EDM has died down some but Francis and Flosstradamus have been proving that the artform can still be valid and exciting in the large room format.
Only Echoes, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 08.22 What: Only Echoes album release w/Creek, Seed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch and Lovesick for Mina When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Only Echoes is a heavy post-rock/instrumental metal band from Denver. For this show the quartet is releasing its latest, third, album of contemplative, existential journeys Born Adrift on CD, blue marble vinyl, cassette, digital download and streaming. Live the frequencies will get into your body and carry you along on the epic adventure of the music.
Her New Knife, image from Bandcamp
Wednesday | 08.26 What:Her New Knife, Blackberry Crush and The Red Scare When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Her New Knife blurs any boundaries between noise rock, shoegaze and electronic music in a way that is resonant with fellow Philadelphia band They Are Gutting a Body of Water and UK duo Jockstrap. Its 2024 album chrome is lullaby is haunted and gritty and in moments is reminiscent of Dry Cleaning. Blackberry Crush is a one of the best Denver-based shoegaze outfits who learned soundscaping beyond some bands that appear to have evolved one or two steps from garage psyche. The Red Scare from Fort Collins are like-minded in the milieu of noisy, post-punk-infused shoegaze.
Tune-Yards, photo by Shervin Lainez
Friday | 08.28 What: Tune-Yards When: 7 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex Why: Tune-Yards is the Oakland-based duo that has exerted a not often obvious influence on the indue underground for production and songwriting technique by making the most of loops early on and evolved on later releases. Like a mix of R&B, live beat-making, psychedelic folk and non-Western pop. The project’s most recent EP Tell The Future With Your Body hits like an indie Grace Jones record in some ways with Merrill Garbus’s powerful vocals the usual soul standout.
Th-Su | 08.27-08.30 What: Ghost Canyon Fest When: Varies Where: HQ, Hi-Dive, The Bug Theater, The Skylark Lounge, Why: Denver’s premiere experimental music fest returns with its fourth edition including some of the most riveting and innovative artists operating in the world today with four nights and three daytime showcases at multiple venues. See the schedule below. Our guide to the festival with brief descriptions of the artists coming soon.
Th 08.27 at HQ doors 7pm Holy Sons Kathryn Mohr Ryan Wong & Sunswept Wax Trax Music Panel: DIY In the Age of Slop: A Discussion Sponsored by Smashed Plastic
F 08.28 Free In Store at Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar 4pm Six Organs of Admittance Prairiewolf
F 08.28 Hi-Dive 7pm doors Steve Von Till Silkworm The Gotobeds Dust Congress Supreme Joy
S 08.29 Bug Theate doors 12:30pm doors claire rousay Daniel Higgs Shane Parish Plays Autechre Guitar Nora Mal
S 08.29 Hi-Dive 6:30pm doors Kowloon Walled City Moor Mother Water Damage ABANDONS Blacks’ Myths Watch Yourself Die
Su 08.30 Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar free in-store, show 1:30pm Arson Charge Circling Over Burn Barrel
Su 08.30 The Skylark Lounge 4pm Midwife Dead Rider Great Falls Violenteer Infinite Ohm Blööd Ôath
Sam Zalkin is a photographer and musician from Denver. If you’re not from Denver, you might not know who he is but if you’ve been paying attention to the underground scene in the Mile High City you may have run across his photographic work documenting bands playing places like Squirm Gallery, Seventh Circle Music Collective, D3, Hi-Dive, The Marquis Theater and elsewhere. He was born in Houston, Texas but moved to Denver around age five when his father moved to town for a job at Children’s Hospital. In seventh grade Zalkin was encouraged by his school counselor to apply to go to Denver School of the Arts where he would attend through high school graduation in 2026. He was a film student who got into photography when he got access to a camera in his early-to-mid-teens and early in his tenure at DSA he met a friend who introduced him to K Records and Kill Rock Stars bands which lead him to a different world of music than what his parents were into. Zalkin wrote a piece about David Lynch for school and his teacher Amy McGrath told him her daughter was friends with someone opening for Midwife at the Bluebird Theater in 2024 and that lead Zalkin to an internship and then employment at Wax Trax records and being around the likes of the members of Pink Lady Monster, Cherry Spit and going to Squirm gallery for the first time and encountering Ryan Wong and his musical projects. Rapidly Sam became a fixture in the local scene shooting shows and bringing a uniquely creative vision to the visual presentation of the bands in post-processing and honing his photography skills. His work has graced the artwork for east coast-based experimental rock band Neptune’s album Play Some Music (2026) and he has done short documentaries on Denver musician and long-time Wax Trax employee Doug Mioducki (title Common American Crow, Mioducki has been in bands Felt Pilotes, Koala, North Americans, Sparkles, CP-208, Quits etc) as well as Squirm Gallery (titled Something Real). Now Zalkin is off to attend school at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore where he will likely further pursue his work in film and photography but he will always be a key contributor to documenting the Denver scene the past couple of years plus.
Listen to our interview with Sam Zalkin on Bandcamp and see his band Apple Blossom at D3 Arts at 3:45 on Saturday, July 25, 2026 as part of the Blucifer Fest Satellite event.
Modern Leisure is the songwriting project of singer/guitarist Casey Banker. The latter grew up in the Denver metro area and played guitar from a relatively young age before attempting college at UNC in Greeley where he ended up meeting like-minded musicians and forming his first band that played live that anyone who was part of the late 2000s Denver underground music world has heard of called The Don’ts And Be Carefuls. The group made a mark in Denver with well-developed songwriting and exuberant energy as a live band with poetic lyrics that truly channeled the experience of being young and experience all the strong feelings that come from being in your early 20s. Banker’s lyrics were clearly telling stories that felt vivid and thoughtful and the music like a post-punk band with a knack for dance rhythms and evocative melodies. The band faded out by the early 2010s and Banker joined dream pop group Shady Elders for a time until forming a project that could be a vehicle for his creative vision and Modern Leisure was formed in the mid-2010s and garnered attention for Banker’s strong songwriting and charismatic live performances. Before the end of he decade Sumner Erhard joined the band and brought his own accomplished musicianship to the band. But like many musical endeavors Modern Leisure went on hiatus with the pandemic. Banker went on to develop his DJ business as DJ Kay Bay and affiliated with the Weird Touch night when it had a residency at what is now The Roxy on Broadway. That experience gave Banker his current career as a DJ for events including weddings. But of course he had songs in the can and a new set of material he wanted to write and develop and Modern Leisure returned to life with Banker recording new songs with contributions from studio musicians and a producer Jake Supple formerly of the psychedelic rock band Plum and contributions from Will Walden of ambient/psychedelic rock band StaG. The new live edition of Modern Leisure debuted on July 2, 2026 at the Hi-Dive with a lineup that included Erhard and his Dollpile bandmate Isadora Eden proving the continued vitality of the older songs and the vibrancy of the new songs. The lead single “tied in a knot” was released on July 21, 2026 and expresses a catharsis from the oppression of the working class by the oligarchy. Expect further singles to be released throughout 2026 and a new album in 2027.
Listen to our interview with Casey Banker on Bandcamp and follow Modern Leisure at the links below. Modern Leisure will perform at Blucifer’s First Rodeo on Friday 24, 2026 at 7PM at Adrift Tiki Bar.
Blucifer Fest pre-show, photo courtesy Gillian Pasley and Mike Young
Blucifer’s First Rodeo is the debut edition of Blucifer Fest, a music festival focused on local artists, independent venues and businesses as well as DIY spaces and the active Denver house show scene. The festival runs from Thursday July 23, 2026 through Sunday July 26, 2026 beginning with the DIY venue shows, the small venues and businesses on Friday and Saturday and closing with the house shows on Sunday and ending with a few performances including bands from the fest’s primary organizers. Two of the main heads behind the festival are Gillian Pasley of the cosmic Americana band Caspar Milquetoast and Mike Young of the psychedelic country group Clementine Was Right. Both had extensive experience in the world of underground and DIY music before moving to Denver during and shortly after the lifting of the pandemic restrictions. Pasley came from the East Coast and went to college in Ohio having organized a festival while in high school and putting together shows as a student at Oberlin and playing in various bands prior to moving to Colorado in 2022. Young is from California but has spent time in Portland, Oregon, New Mexico and other parts of the country playing in bands and organizing shows himself before landing in Colorado in 2020. Both have become significant participants in the local music community in addition to writing music and performing in two of the local scenes most noteworthy bands. For the festival the two pooled resources and traded ideas and honestly planned and executed one of the most ambitious local music festivals in the modern history of Denver by incorporating the DIY music scene more completely as well as the house show scene not to mention the significant Baker district area that has been a home to a good deal of local music venues featuring underground artists for decades. The festival involves hosts of the venues and Pasley and Young aimed to help participants know how to do this sort of thing themselves and in effect become stakeholders in the event in a way that empowers them some too. Going to any or all nights of the festival and you could randomly pick one of the venues and see a band that represents well some corner of the music scene as well as catch some of the more celebrated relatively underground artists. The festival sold out more than a month before it happened indicating that the festival was a success before it even happened at least on that score but also the planning of not just the shows but the amenities and promotion of the event and how the organizers of Blucifer Fest have thought about so many aspects of the event and put together shows leading up to the show with aims of highlighting the local scene throughout the year. Other festivals take note and not just those in Denver.
Listen to our interview with Gillian Pasley and Mike Young on Bandcamp and for more information about the festival please visit bluciferfest.com. The festival runs from July 23-26, 2026 and is currently sold out but you might be able to find a ticket.
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