Friday | 09.01
What: Seraphim Shock w/Faces Under the Mirror and The Siren Project hosted by Sid Pink with DJ Slave 1
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Iconic Goth-industrial band Seraphim Shock returns to the Oriental Theater for a set of its theatrical performance are rock. After many years of being not as overtly creatively active, Charles Edward has been releasing the new set of Seraphim Shock EPs as the Fairmount Chronicles. Chapter One dropped in 2020 and now Chapters Two and Three are set to release in 2023/early 2024. Opening the show are long-running EBM project Faces Under the Mirror which has been going since around the time Seraphim Shock became an active band in the early-to-mid-90s and downtempo, dream pop band The Siren Project who themselves are aiming to release a follow up to its 2016 debut Denouement. The Siren Project will include Andrew Novick of Warlock Pinchers on guest vocals for this set too. Give a listen to our interview with The Siren Project here.
Saturday | 09.02
What: Human Fluid Rot (FL), Many Blessings, Castration Pact, Whitephosphorous (TX), Sounding and John Gross
When: 7
Where: D3 Arts
Why: A night of noise running the gamut of harsh noise, power electronics, industrial soundscapes and dark ambient. Check out our interview with John Gross here and with Many Blessings here.
Saturday | 09.02
What: Synthbangers Ball Festival Droid Bishop, Elayarson, Star Farer, Patternshift, Jacket, Bob Sync and DJs Tower, Jay, Eric and Niq V
When: 4
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: This is the inaugural edition of DJ Tower’s synthwave festival Synthbanger’s Ball featuring prominent genre artist Droid Bishop based out of Los Angeles as headliner as well as local practitioners of the artform. Listen to our interview with DJ Tower here.
Saturday | 09.02
What: Billy Idol at Budweiser Events Center
When: 6:30
Where: Budweiser Events Center
Why: Billy Idol is the charismatic singer and songwriter whose career spanned early English punk through the New Wave and hard rock. With his shock of bleach blonde hair and Elvis-esque snarl paired with commanding vocals Idol first caught attention as the frontman of punk group Generation X but garnered widespread mainstream fame releasing music under his own name. Scoring a string of hits throughout the 80s holstered by iconic music videos from the early days of MTV onward Idol’s songs have somehow become closely associated with the decade with an appeal that transcends pure, generational nostalgia. Songs like “White Wedding (Part 1),” “Dancing With Myself,” “Rebel Yell,” “Eyes Without a Face,” and “Flesh For Fantasy” are staples of any 80s and New Wave playlist but whose sound has aged well because of the strength of the songwriting. Idol has continued to release music since his heyday including the 2022 EP The Cage and his live performances remain vital. He performs a headlining show this night in Loveland and the next evening for Jazz Aspen sharing the stage with Foo Fighters and Jade Jackson (linked below).
Sunday | 09.03
What: Foo Fighters w/Billy Idol and Jade Jackson
When: 3
Where: Jazz Aspen
Monday | 09.04
What: Blushing w/Wave Decay and Calamity
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Austin-based shoegaze/dream pop band Blushing returns to Denver touring behind the 2023 reissue of its first two EPs Tether/Weak out now in vinyl. Whereas the 2022 album Possessions was a collection of exuberant and spirited rock songs, the earlier material is more introspective and delicate in sound but live the band has a forcefulness that its recorded output might not lead you to expect and you can hear that behind much of the newer arc of songwriting as well. Opening are Denver dream pop band Calamity lead by Kate Hannington (who also plays guitar in psychedelic garage rock group Easy Ease) and Wave Decay, the Krautrock infused shoegaze band also from the Mile High City.
Monday | 09.04
What: Bruno Major w/Lindsey Lomis
When: 7
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Bruno Major is from England and has a degree in jazz and started his formal music career in the 2010s though a session guitarist in his mid-teens. But listen to any of his records especially 2023’s Columbo and he sounds like he came out of somehow both the same worlds that produced the great soft rock of Laurel Canyon in the 70s and Nick Drake and Fairport Convention in the UK from the same time period. Not that you’d want to make a direct correlation but there is a sophistication and depth to his songwriting and a gentleness of spirit to his particular vocal style that is as soulful as it is insightful. Many modern artists have mined that territory in the past decade and more but Major seems to have truly tapped into the creative zeitgeist of an earlier era and translated it into the sensibilities and sentiments of our current place in history with an awareness of the personal challenges people face in reaction to the collective challenges crashing into all of our lives. You get the feeling Major understands and offers some moments of solace and solidarity in his music.
Wednesday | 09.06
What: Glassing w/Deep Cross, Psychic Killers and Palehorse/Palerider
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Glassing is a black metal band from Austin, Texas whose 2021 album Twin Dream spanned the splintered emotional catharsis of the genre and its more distorted ghostly melodicism. Fans of later Daughters and maybe a touch of The Locust will appreciate Glassing’s seething, brooding soundscapes. Deep Cross also from Austin is musically somewhere betwixt ambient drone and industrial noise whose 2023 album Royal Water is as meditative as it is noisy and feral. Psychic Killers have been around awhile in the deep underground with its urgent lo-fi industrial noise. Palehorse/Palerider is Denver’s desert doom and ambient psychedelic post-rock whose own aesthetic dips into what you might expect but also an organic tribal sound.
Thursday | 09.07
What: Grandbrothers
When: 6
Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox
Why: Grandbrothers are a duo from from Düsseldorf, Germany comprised of pianist Erol Sarp and engineer/software designer Lukas Vogel who are making their debut North American live date at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox in Denver, Colorado. The project recorded its most recent album Late Reflections inside the Cologne Cathedral marking its own first time place as a site for recording an album. Sarp and Vogel wrote the music for the venue and in crafting the music doing so as though recording in the cathedral and with the actual building and setting as the studio. The electronic rhythms and elegantly arranged melodies alongside the elabroate, staccato piano work weave in and out of each song and mutually enhance a mood of something suggestive of the title and taking late night moments of clarity to express what needs to be expressed with creative intention. There are only five dates on the tour and Denver is fortunate to get one of the dates of what promises to be a special musical experience of an evening of avant-garde electronic music, prepared piano and modern classical fusion.
Saturday | 09.09
What: Unwed Sailor w/TREMOURS and Los Toms
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Unwed Sailor is a post-rock band based out of Seattle that started in 1998 whose body of work is largely without vocals but whose instrumental rock has a style of composition that is accessible in the way of a pop or rock song but communicating with pure mood and rhythm. The band’s leader and bassist Johnathan Ford was originally a member of Roadside Monument and Pedro the Lion before embarking on a path of songwriting that has meant experiments in not just instrumentation and form and lineup but also presentation from what you might expect from a post-rock band to live film scoring and a companion piece to an illustrated children’s book called The Marionette and the Music Box (2003). The latest Unwed Sailor album Mute the Charm (2023) seems to be a series of musical vignettes expressing the essence of a time and place with its ambient mood and textures and pace captured with a poetic elegance of composition.
Saturday | 09.09
What: Animal Bite w/Gutter Hair, Indecisive and Propane
When: 7
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Animal Bite is a noise rock band from Casper, Wyoming whose sound is somewhere betwixt an Amphetamine Reptile artist, an industrial rock band and a psychedelic hardcore band. But really with its own aesthetic and a ferocious live show. Gutter Hair is the kind of noise and noise rock-adjacent band that should have been on Siltbreeze. May be from Casper as well but also possibly Laramie. Either way its 2020 sprawling collection of pieces called Dead Horse Sled is the kind of abrasive, self-indulgent, lo-fi affair that fans of the aforementioned label or of acts on Holy Mountain might appreciate. Indecisive is the kind of punk band that seems to have drawn some inspiration from straightedge hardcore but also touch of Dinosaur Jr and Black Sabbath.
Saturday | 09.09
What: Golden Donna w/CXCXCX, Terravault and FOANS
When: 8
Where: Glob
Why: Joel Shanahan has released music under various monikers over the years but as Golden Donna (his 2020 album Hush is a modern underground techno classic) his experimental electronic dance music could be described as the kind of rave soundtrack to the American DIY underground with vibes adjacent to IDM and early 90s techno and minimal synth. FOANS is in a similar realm of music with his own underground dance music roots as one of the artists that was a regular on the Deep Club circuit of nearly a decade ago. CXCXCX is generally a noise artist but aspects of his own sound are beat driven and he’ll probably cater his set more in that direction for this show. Terravault utilizes analog synths and fuses it with sequenced beats and punk rock spirit. Dark, spooky techno for the whole night.
Saturday | 09.09
What: Sweeping Promises w/The Tammy Shine and Cheap Perfume
When: 8
Where: Lost Lake
Why: A time not so long ago Lawrence, Kansas was known for great, underground indie rock if you were plugged into the DIY circuit. But like all college towns phases of who is around and active changes as the demographics change. So to hear about Sweeping Promises releasing their sophomore album Good Living Is Coming For You on Feelt It and SubPop came as a bit of a surprise. The duo of Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug got their start in bands together n the late 2000s while at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas and then being involved in the Boston underground scene forming, according to Grant Sharples in a July 2023 profile on the band in Pitchfork, Sweeping Promises in 2019 after trying out different styles of music as Silkies, Dee-Parts and Mini-Dresses. In 2021 the group found a place in Lawrence near University of Kansas where Schnug has set up a studio and already recorded numerous bands. The new record is reminiscent of the kind of thing you might have heard on Kill Rock Stars or K Records in the 90s or out of Athens, GA in the 80s and 90s with punk rock spirit, pop accessibility and lo-fi charm. That Tammy Shine of Dressy Bessy fame is opening the show with her own effusive performance and Cheap Perfume with its righteous, feminist punk energy makes this a perfect lineup for a Saturday night.
Sunday | 09.10
What: Sarah Shook & The Disamers w/Porlolo and Lines of Drift
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Outlaw country, country-punk, whatever designation fits Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, Sarah Shook is one of the most distinctive voices in modern country music on the still fairly underground level where a great deal of the best of that and other musical styles are found. Shook’s voice has enough of a rough edge to be interesting but their melodic resonance serves well stories of every day life written in a way that seems so specific yet relatable in spirit and substance. Speaking of, Pololo is more an indie rock band but Erin Roberts has a gift for turning a sense of humor into music with a sharply observational and existential bent. This is a bit of a make-up show for an event that had to be canceled in May 2023.
Sunday | 09.10
What: Joy Oladokun w/Becca Mancari
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Acclaimed songwriter Joy Oladokun released her latest album Proof of Life this past April. The record solidified her reputation as an artist who is capable of unvarnished honesty and vulnerability with expression of her struggles and using that as a vehicle for emotional insight in crafting songs that are hopeful and fortifying without waxing into the performative. It is a pure fusion of folk and R&B in a fashion that hits with an immediacy and sophistication that lends its spirit of uplift an authenticity rare in mainstream pop music. Opening the show is Becca Mancari whose own 2023 album Left Hand propels their folk-rooted songwriting into new territory. Lead single “Over and Over” is a queer joy anthem featuring Julien Baker and at the heart of the song is an expansive quality that makes each song on the record feel like being able to stretch out and feel free after prolonged periods of being cramped by circumstance, by culture, by one’s surroundings. Because of that the album’s music feels like something that settles in your brain with a gentle touch that soothes out ambient anxieties.
Monday | 09.11
What: Generationals w/Ramesh
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Generationals formed in New Orleans in 2008 in the wake of the dissolution of their critically-acclaimed band The Eames Era. Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer still wanted to pursue music while the other three members of the earlier band didn’t. It was a pivotal year for America in terms of the collapse of the real estate market and the election of the nation’s first black president with all its attendant hope for change in the national culture. But in terms of underground music Generationals were part of a wave of the new indie pop when it still had a creative leg in the older incarnation of the 90s. But Generationals incorporated elements of soul and R&B as well as vintage, pre-1970s pop music. It was an aesthetic the group has been able to spin into a consistently fruitful body of work. But in 2021 the duo more or less scrapped what would have been its seventh album after some studio sessions mainly because they didn’t want to release something that they didn’t feel was up to snuff. So they went back to file sharing as well as recording and experimenting in person and taking advantage of various would-be unfortunate situations that you can read about in the bio for the album on the Bandcamp page for the same. What came about in the end is Heatherhead, arguably the group’s most fully-realized album to date with the usual sharply observed pop songs with an experimental edge and more than its fair share of amalgamating its early influences with a modern take on dance funk and electronic dance music highlights.
Tuesday | 09.12
What: Dead Boys w/Fast Eddy and Flight Kamikaze https://theorientaltheater.com/event/415754/Dead-Boys
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Dead Boys are the influential and notorious punk band from Cleveland whose legacy of rowdy shows and brilliantly nihilistic and lurid songs proved incredibly influential on American and UK punk beyond its initial 1975-1980 run. Its 1977 debut album Young, Loud and Snotty is a classic of punk with its song “Sonic Reducer” as one of the essential tracks of the genre. These days only lead guitarist Cheetah Chrome from the original lineup is in the band anymore but it is his guitar work that has endured as well as the late Stiv Bators’ sneering, acidic vocals.
Friday | 09.15
What: Plack Blague w/Public Memory, Voight and Kill You Club DJs
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Plack Blague is the now legendary industrial dance performance artist from Lincoln, Nebraska who has established itself as one of the most dynamic and visually striking artists in that realm of music now. Sure, Plack has recorded releases but the live show with Raws Schlesinger dancing and gyrating in his spiky, leather daddy outfit to heavy, relentless beats is where the real joy in a Plack Blague experience is to be found. Denver is fortunate to have had Plack Blague come through several times. But not so much with Public Memory. The latter is the project of Robert Toher who was once a member of experimental electronic pop group Eraas who once opened for TR/ST in 2013 at Larimer Lounge but when that project fizzled out he retooled his gift for soundscaping and songcraft and emerged as Public Memory the debut album for which is a modern classic of darkwave and ambient industrial pop in 2016’s Wuthering Drum. The most recent Public Memory record Elegiac Beat dropped on September 1, 2023 with a more downtempo sound but with the gritty lo-fi lost VHS science fiction cinema aesthetic still in place. Opening the show is Voight from Denver whose seamless fusion of shoegazing post-punk and industrial techno is imbued with an emotional intensity that releases in cathartic bursts throughout the set. That the lyrics often scorch the horrible bastards of society is a bonus.
Friday | 09.15
What: The Milk Blossoms, Isadora Eden and Bell Mine
When: 7 doors, 8 show
Where: The Black Buzzard
Why: The Milk Blossoms is the kind of indie pop band whose sound really isn’t in line with the more conventionally commercial form of that peddled to people through the “indie” branding in radio stations, playlists and festivals. There is something idiosyncratic and homespun and thus more original and endearing than most of the music that has been marketed to us. Fronted by Harmony Rose the delicate melodies and vulnerable and emotionally-charged music has an uncommon power because it feels raw and uncompromised. Isadora Eden’s brooding yet luminous new album forget what makes it glow swims in the same stylistic waters as Fiona Apple’s sultry pop, a noisy shoegaze band and PJ Harvey’s art rock. It’s a cathartic listen and the live band has amble amounts of that mysterious, dark energy as well. Bell Mine is a solo project whose gossamer atmospherics and textural sonic details lend it a mythological flavor that wouldn’t be out of place on a Panos Cosmatos soundtrack or touring with Laurel Halo.
Friday | 09.15
What: King Krule w/LUCY (Cooper B. Handy)
When: 8
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: Archy Marshall as King Krule is one of the few artists of recent years to have truly fused disparate styles and genres together and made something genuinely compelling, cool, inventive and creatively satisfying. You hear elements of hip-hop, post-punk, shoegaze, psychelic rock, indie pop and jazz. Listen to any of his records, his latest Space Heavy for instance, and you hear a disregard for conventional structure unless it serves the mood and message of the song. And every song feels like it was written for that specific emotional resonance with the instrumentation and production geared to enhance the effect. It’s tempting to compare King Krule to Unknown Mortal Orchestra in this way and like the latter, King Krule is a powerful live band that has this trippy and hypnotic music but delivered with a punk attitude.
Saturday | 09.16
What: Rob Zombie w/Alice Cooper, Ministry and Filter
When: 4:30
Where: Fiddler’s Green
Why: Halloween is on the horizon and with the advent of fall this is the perfect concert to usher in spooky season. Rob Zombie is of course the songwriter and musician who was the frontman of gonzo, psychedelic heavy metal band White Zombie from 1985-1998 after which time he embarked on a music career under his own name with a similar aesthetic of grindhouse meets schlocky horror and bombastic live shows. But chances are Zombie took more than a few cues from Alice Cooper, a band most closely associated with the lead singer/songwriter of the same name. Cooper combined vaudeville showmanship with campy horror cinema, hard rock and exploration of themes of struggle with personal demons and the inner contours of identity and its outer expression in conflict with restrictive social norms. Multiple songs are staples of classic rock and metal including “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Welcome to My Nightmare” and “Under My Wheels.” Cooper indisputably established himself as the “Godfather of Shock Rock” for his 1970s concerts and their over the top stage shows with costumes, simulated death and elaborate props. These days Cooper is still a commanding presence who delivers a dramatic and theatrical performance and worth catching for that alone. Ministry too is likely an obvious touchstone for Zombie when that band transitioned from haunting and intense, pioneering EBM band to dark and highly political industrial rock from the 80s through the 90s. Apparently the group has been performing some of its older material, something largely unknown after the late 80s so you may catch a mix of its broad spectrum of musical styles. Filter is an industrial rock band that formed after Richard Patrick left Nine Inch Nails as a touring guitarist in 1993. In 1995 the group had its breakthrough single with “Hey Man Nice Shot” from its debut album Short Bus. Founding member Brian Liesegang left after the release of that record but has now reunited with Patrick for the writing and recording of the 2023 Filter album The Algorithm bringing his imaginative production and performances back into the mix.
Sunday | 09.17
What: French Police w/Closed Tear and Lesser Care
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Chicago’s French Police are prominent practitioners of that more lo-fi end of the modern post-punk spectrum that embraced that thin guitar sound and minimal electronic percussion. But its thoughtful, introspective lyrics and solid, melodic bass lines and fine use of space make up for what can come across as cookie cutter, Euro-post-punk style. It’s most recent album is 2023’s appropriately titled BLEU. Closed Tear is like the Los Angeles equivalent of the French Police but with its guitar style more in the realm of shoegaze and its bass lines generally more robust. Lesser Care, though, from El Paso, Texas is consistently a powerful live band with real sonic and emotional heft and intensity behind its performances. Like a band that was inspired by picking up some Chameleons records, early 90s shoegaze and maybe came up in the local punk and/or metal scene before deciding on charting a different musical path and one that has made it one of the most interesting rock bands out of the underground now.
Sunday | 09.17
What: Atmosphere w/Danny Brown, Souls of Mischief, The Grouch & Eligh, DJ Fresh, DJ Mr. Dibbs and Breakbeat Lou
When: 5
Where: Red Rocks
Why: Atmosphere returns to Colorado to headline Red Rocks as one of the stars of hip-hop that emerged out of the 90s underground to attain mainstream success. Comprised of Slug and Ant, Atmosphere’s songs employ a cinematic musicality in which it embeds raw and vulnerable lyrics about life and the challenges and joys it can throw our way. Its prolific body of work and commanding live shows seem like creative demonstrations of exploring the human condition and embracing the flaws and virtues of existence with a solidarity of spirit and basic compassion that can be disarming and hit with an unexpected poignancy. This stacked lineup of modern hip-hop luminaries includes Souls of Mischief are legends of West Coast alternative hip-hop and inside and outside its membership in Hieroglyphics have demonstrated a deftness of lyricism embedded into jazz beats and deeply atmospheric production across its long career. Danny Brown might be too weird to fully fit into a mainstream hip-hop context but this isn’t his first time at Red Rocks either. His music is very much in the tradition of hip-hop but his unique and eccentric rapping style can sound both abrasive and playful as he modifies his delivery to suit the mood of the song and its subject matter. And his beats freely dip into jazz samples, punk, psychedelic rock and electronic music and the avant-garde to craft his own fascinating set of stories to the point that his albums seem like commentary not just on life and media but casting it as science fiction stories from a parallel society in either Utopian and/or dystopian fashion. His forthcoming album Quaranta has been in limbo for reasons you can read about on the internet but hopefully you get to see some of that live at this show but even if not, Danny Brown is one of the most entertaining rappers of his generation.
Monday | 09.18
What: Arctic Monkeys w/Fontaines D.C.
When: 6:30
Where: Red Rocks
Why: Legendary poet John Cooper Clarke said in a 2014 interview for Esquire that Arctic Monkeys were the closest we had to the Beatles at that time. He was referring to how big a splash the post-punk band from Sheffield had made even before its epochal 2013 album AM was released and broke the group to the USA with the single “Do I Wanna Know?” fairly ubiquitous on modern rock and indie rock-adjacent playlists and radio stations. The Monkeys had borrowed Clarke’s words for the song “I Wanna Be Yours” from his poem of the same name and drawing on that resonance with UK popular music and culture going back decades. The band’s body of work has shown that it has been willing to evolve its sound in interesting new directions during the course of its career including the futuristic sounds of its follow-up album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino and the darker, moodier 2022 album The Car behind which its touring now. Fortunately someone somewhere in the Arctic Monkeys camp brought on board for this tour the Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. whose own sound brings together the brooding, post-punk grittiness with a scrappy political folk spirit that should appeal to fans of the band’s peers like IDLEs and Shame.
Tuesday | 09.19
What: Strange Ranger w/Roseville and Fragrant Blossom
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: With its 2023 album Pure Music, Strange Ranger has shifted significantly from its already respectable, earlier indie rock phase. Replacing the guitar pop is a more electronic sound palate that’s moodier and more steeped in a creative use of space that has more in common with 90s electronic pop and downtempo than 2010s rock. It sounds a bit like something Matthew Vaughn would put in his next action noir film. Fragrant Blossom is something like a psychedelic, non-Western folk and jazz band from Denver.
Wednesday | 09.20
What: Nuovo Testamento w/Church Fire and Desasociado and Niq V https://theorientaltheater.com/event/421388/Nuovo-Testamento
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Nuovo Testamento is a synth pop band from Los Angeles whose vintage electronic dance sound hearkens back to an 80s aesthetic like a fusion of italo disco, Madonna, Bananarama and New Order with a commanding live show that feels like a club music performance from that era as well. The group released its new album Love Lines in March 2023. Church Fire from Denver has a similarly energetic live show but its musical roots are more in an industrial and synth pop vein of a more modern era and its politically charged lyrics very of the moment. Desasociado is a more minimal synth and coldwave style band from Denver and DJ-ing the night is Niq V who is perhaps best known for his manning the turntables and other music playing devices for Outrun and Dark Tuesdays.
Thursday | 09.21
What: The Walkmen w/Yeah Baby
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: The Walkmen were one of the big names of the New York City post-punk revival at the turn of the century forming out of the ashes of influential NYC cult band Jonathan Fire*Eater and The Recoys from Boston. The group’s 2004 album Bows + Arrows propelled The Walkmen into indie stardom and critical acclaim with singles like “The Rat” (recently performed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEg_8mpp_Kk) and “Little House of Savages.” The band’s scrappy spirit and nimbus of psychedelic melody around driving, noisy garage rock stuck a chord with audiences widely. But in 2013 The Walkmen went on indefinite hiatus until 2022 when it announced a string of shows in April 2023 and later in spring of this year a more full reunion tour.
Friday | 09.22
What: Chromeo: Funk Yourself Tour w/Coco and Breezy
When: 6pm doors/8pm show
Where: Mishawaka Amphitheatre
Why: Chromeo were early purveyors of electro-funk in the indie world in the 2000s after Dave 1 and P-Thugg took the skills they learned producing hip-hop tracks to make an adjacent kind of electronic dance music in the vein of funky synth pop but more rooted in the sounds of late 70s and early 80s disco and the compositional sensibilities of Bernie Worrell. But always in the way Chromeo presented itself and in its style of music embracing the irony of the bombast and making it both a celebration of the hedonistic aesthetic and a healthy sense of self-awareness that meant that they didn’t take themselves so seriously even as they made genuinely well-crafted dance party music. The group used to tour annually and bring some of the best more underground electronic rock and pop acts of the day regularly at large venues shining a light on those lesser known but the pandemic put the kabosh on that for a bit and now Chromeo is headling for the first time in four years and bringing the funk to the Mishawaka where it is very much needed and likely most welcome.
Saturday | 09.23
What: Danceportation: Monstercat Takeover featuring Infected Mushroom, Koven, Godlands, ShockOne, Whales and more
When: 9:30
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station
Why: Canadian electronic music label Monstercat lands at Denver’s Meow Wolf for a night of psychedelic visuals and psy trance, bass music, glitchy EDM, progressive dubstep and dark, ambient IDM. Monstercat was started by two university students in 2011 with a passion for the then ascendant broad world of EDM and its adjacent styles more in the underground. The label focused on helping artists reach their audience with having a brand known as a portal of discovery and because of that unconventional approach to doing a label Monstercat quickly became a commercially successful concern that has partnered with various festivals and sought various avenues or promotion including the now defunct Pluto TV channel. The artists for this event which begins at 10:30 pm and runs through 2 am have all had releases on Monstercat demonstrating a sampling of its range and musical identity.
Saturday | 09.23
What: David Kushner w/Chance Peña
When: 7
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: David Kushner is a young singer-songwriter whose career got a massive boost from TikTok when his single “Miserable Man” went viral in 2022 and his music started charting outside of his home country of the United States. His introspective folk style and a voice capable of conveying emotional gravitas beyond his 23 years of existence has resonated with fans and even a casual listen to his music hits you with the sophistication of its songcraft and command of atmospheric mood. For the April 2023 release of his single “Daylight” and its enigmatic/borderline science fiction-themed video Kushner created the TikTok trend “You look happier, what happened.” Also on this tour is another rising folk pop artist Chance Peña who at 22 is a bit of a music industry veteran having worked in making music for film and TV as well as contributing to the work of other artists as with John Legend’s “Conversations in the Dark” from his 2020 album Bigger Love. Peña’s latest EP Lovers to Strangers (2023) with lead single “In My Room” dropped in the summer but has major fall energy with its melancholic yet emotionally effusive and vulnerable melodies and tales of life as a thoughtful young person in this very challenging and conflicted period in our culture.
Tuesday | 09.26
What: Wilderado w/Husbands
When: 7
Where: Boulder Theater
Why: Indie folk rock group Wilderado originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma is touring ahead of a forthcoming sophomore album teased with the August release of its pastoral pop single “In Between.” Opening the show is Oklahoma City’s Husbands whose own new and appropriately titled fourth album Cuatro is due out October 13, 2023 through Thirty Tigers. The early singles including “Can’t Do Anything” have a touch of early 2010s chillwave atmospherics and post-Animal Collective, psychedelic indie pop but a fresh take on any possible influences. The new album has an undeniable post-summer reflective quality even when its melodies hit upsweeping, exuberant passages.
Tuesday | 09.26
What: Tassel w/Street Fever, Teller, Desasociado and Kill You Club DJs & DJ Precious Blood
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Depending on where you check in with Tassel from Phoenix you’ll hear a different side of the songwriting and hear beautifully stark and noisy post-punk, industrial EBM, minimal dark techno and deathrock. Also on the bill is the enigmatic and epic transformation of what electronic dance music and darkwave and minimal techno and electronic dance music are supposed to sound like with a performance that is both confrontational and mysterious. Desasociado sits in the realm of post-punk and electronic coldwave with some nods to the Russian variety of both.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday | 09.26, 09.27 and 09.28
What: The Postal Service & Death Cab for Cutie w/Warpaint
When: 6:30
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: The Postal Service was something of a supergroup that formed after Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie did guest vocals on the 2001 debut Dntel album Life Is Full of Possibilities. That record went on to be a classic of electronica and glitch and at the time Death Cab was still very much an indie band. But the song, “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan,” performed well and embraced by other artists for remixes and Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel) decided to continue with their collaborative efforts. In the process of writing and recording songs Jenny Lewis, then of Rilo Kiley, came on board to contribute vocals before becoming a full time member. The trio’s debut Give Up (2003) is a modern classic of indie rock that helped to define that sound with the “Such Great Heights” single as one of the defining songs of that period in American popular music. Then in 2005 the group went on hiatus with a 2013 reunion tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of its debut and still sole album. Fast forward another ten years and The Postal Service is on tour perhaps celebrating 20 years of its only album but this time touring with Gibbard’s also rightfully respected band Death Cab For Cutie who have somehow managed to have a long career of emotionally rich and inventive pop music that has evolved from its more tender early releases that didn’t make it as obvious how much of a sonic powerhouse the group was even then to its more experimental later albums with fully integrated electronic elements that have broadened the group’s palette of sounds and widened its range of emotional expression. For these shows you also get to see one of the more pioneering modern shoegaze/psychedelic rock bands in Warpaint who are no stranges to bursting expectations with inventive use of electronics and left field production both live and on recordings.
Wednesday | 09.27
What: Hannah Jadagu w/Miloe and Isadora Eden
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Hannah Jadagu’s 2021 debut EP for Sub Pop What Is Going On? was one of the most promising releases by a new artist in recent years with her fusion of bedroom pop and robust and sonically inventive guitar rock. But Aperture, her 2023 debut full length album also on Sub Pop, made good on that promise of lush sounds, sophisticated arrangements and lyrics that get to the core of what’s going on in the world but casts them in a way that has immediacy and intimacy that’s accessible. Live, Jadagu is a commanding yet inviting and soulful performer whose command of an orchestral array of sounds is impressive.
Thursday | 09.28
What: Everclear w/The Ataris and The Pink Spiders
When: 6
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: In the alternative rock era probably no one was assuming their careers would span three decades but in 2022 Everclear celebrated its 30 years of existence with a national tour and a reissue of its 1993 debut album World of Noise. On September 8, 2023 the group released the 17-track Live at The Whiskey A Go Go comprised of songs recorded on the 2022 tour as well as two bonus studio recordings “Year of the Tiger” and “Sing Away.” Everclear burst out of the aftermath of the implosion of grunge and the first wave of alternative rock with heartfelt and vulnerable songs with grit and a clear sense of joy for life even when the songs tackled challenging subject matter. Fortunately for lead singer and primary songwriter Art Alexakis and his bandmates the music has aged well because it never fully fit in with alternative rock trends being too punk for grunge, too hard rock for punk and not short on memorable hooks and a live show that even now comes off raw and authentic.
Friday | 09.29
What: Macula Dog w/Beau Mahadev, Docile Rottweiler, Pete Swanson (DJ) and Luke Petet
When: 9
Where: Glob
Why: Macula Dog is a New York City duo that maybe set out to write rock songs of a more left field variety but even its most accessible releases are filled with glitchy electronic mutant pop from a near future of failed states strewn with technological debris from which a diasporic human species will hobble together an existence before the next bubbling up of a coherent civilization. Or maybe it sounds like a glitchcore version of Anthony Braxton’s late 60s avant-garde albums. But Macula Dog also presents the music with self-made puppets and outfits to enhance the sense of something from a parallel universe visiting our own. Pete Swanson of Yellow Swans fame will be doing a DJ set.
Friday | 09.29
What: 28 Years of Son Volt: Songs of Trace and Doug Sahm w/Peter Bruntnell
When: 8
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Son Volt emerged out of the ashes of foundational alt-country band Uncle Tupelo in 1994 when Jay Farrar left to forge a different path while his former bandmates morphed the remains of their previous band into Wilco. Son Volt kept more closely to the roots rock and alt-country aesthetic over the course of a career of emotionally vibrant songwriting that has helped launch a musical movement beyond its modest 1980s beginnings. For this tour the group is celebrating its 1995 debut album Trace and the songwriting of Tejano luminary Doug Sahm.
Friday | 09.29
What: Granular Breath (IA), Dead Hawk (Springs), A Light Among Many and John Gross
When: 7
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Granular Breath is a drone artist from Iowa whose body of work is unsettling, deeply textural ambient music crafted from processed guitar and electronics hearkening back to a time in the 2000s when you would see a noise project perform that seemed rooted in metal but making something much more abstract yet no less intense and sonically engulfing. Also on the bill is Denver noise godfather John Gross as well as the like-minded A Light Among Many from Denver but whose soundscapes are closer to black metal and incorporate drums, vocals and Theremin and whose music has a darkly menacing quality.
Saturday | 09.30
What: The Mission UK, The Chameleons and Theatre of Hate
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Three legends of UK post-punk on one bill. The Mission UK formed after Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left Sisters of Mercy in 1985 and recruited members of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Artery, two of the great post-punk bands of the day, to join the band within a year and by late 1986 the new group had released its debut full-length God’s Own Medicine, one of the landmarks of 1980s Gothic rock followed two years later with another in 1988’s Children. The group would go on to evolve with a more dream pop sound that has persisted after the group has experienced two hiatuses and now the core and early trio of Hussey, Adams and guitarist/keyboardist Simon Hinkler have been actove since 2011 with new drummer Alex Baum since 2022. The Chameleons were one of the great post-punk bands that came out of Manchester, UK in the early 80s but its sound quickly progressed to weave earnest and impassioned vocals courtesy bassist and singer Mark Burgess with orchestral atmospherics from original guitarists Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding. The group’s songs tackled working class struggles and politics with a poetic sensibility and uncommon emotional power that helped its ethereal melodies transcend into something more elegant. Its sound seems a clear influence on the shoegaze bands of the late 80s and early 90s and long term a massive influence on modern post-punk bands whether they know it or not. For a number of years Burgess performed the band’s music as Chameleons Vox but with Reg Smithies back on board since 2021 you’ll get to see as close to the genuine article as we’re likely to witness minus Dave Fielding rejoining since founding drummer John Lever tragically passed away in 2017. Theatre of Hate bridged the gap between New Wave, post-punk and death rock in 1980 and its membership has included Billy Duffy of The Cult and Mark Thwaite who was in The Mission not to mention Craig Adams also currently in the mission. The band came out of the London street punk scene and from early on it brought in saxophone to give its dark melodicism an otherworldly yet playful element but the driving bass, gorgeously gloomy guitar work and Kirk Brandon’s unorthodox vocals has set the band apart from many of its peers.
Saturday | 09.30
What: A Lifetime of Ephemera release party w/Cyclo Sonic and Elegant Everyone and spoken word by Brian Polk and Charly Fasano
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Author and musician Brian Polk is releasing A Lifetime of Ephemera, his memoir of attending shows with ticket stubs and other memorabilia, for this show. Polk has been a fixture of Denver’s punk and literary scene for over two decades as a member of various projects including post-punk band Joy Subtraction and one of his other bands Elegant Everyone will perform this night alongside Cyclo Sonic, one of the best local punk and garage rock bands with former members of The Fluid, Frantix, Choosey Mothers and Rok Tots. Poet Charly Fasano will be on hand as well to do readings from his own body of extraordinary poetry.
Saturday | 09.30
What: BABYMETAL and Dethklok w/Jason Richardson
When: 6
Where: The Fillmore Auditorium
Why: Dethklok emerged out of the immortal ether in 2006 with an animated television program in 2006 called Metalocalypse on the Adult Swim block of Cartoon Network. The group was said to enjoy an immense popularity and whose wealth and organization was ranked as the seventh-largest economy on the planet by the conclusion of season 2. Of course it was a fictional band but it released a debut album The Dethalbum in 2007 and in 2009 following the release of Dethalbum II the group toured with Mastodon, High on Fire and Converge. But in order to do so an actual live performance a real group was in order and series co-creator Brendon Small did vocals and played guitar (and other instruments for the studio albums) while heavy metal legend Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad, Testament, Fear Factory etc.) played drums. And although Dethklok the band from the animated series was a ridiculous caricature of some melodic death metal band from Sweden with absurd lyrics and alleged lifestyles the live, actual human version of the band has proven to be surprisingly viable beyond the gimmick of being the live band version of an cartoon. Currently the group is touring in support of its 2023 album Deathalbum IV and it recently released a direct-to-video film on Blu ray and digital based on the series called Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar. Co-headlining this show is Japanese kawaii metal band BABYMETAL. It’s a gimmick but the show is dramatic and big production with screaming and dancing from the trio of frontwomen if that’s your thing.
Saturday | 09.30
What: Cut Worms w/Ryder the Eagle
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: For the last several years Max Clarke has made a name for himself under the moniker Cut Worms. His variety of countrified garage rock had built into it a clear separation from the trendy garage rock of the 2010s and his unaffected pop songcraft has always come across as earnest and direct. His earlier music drew on obvious influences out of 1960s pop rock. The 2023 self-titled album which dropped on July 21 found Clarke in a different end of that sensibility by tapping into the mood of summer nights and a time in life when summer meant fewer real life responsibilities and the potential for the kinds of adventures that seem attainable and sustainable and which endure even if they’re not so dramatic. On the record Clark further refines his ability to say just enough with economical songwriting and bring to spare sounds a touch of atmospherics to give his songs the air of the urban mythical Americana.
To Be Continued…
Queen City Sounds and Art 
You must be logged in to post a comment.