Queen City Sounds and Art

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.