Saturday | 11.01 What: Moon Pussy w/Old Deer When: 3 Where: Mutiny Information Cafe Why: This is your last chance of 2025 to see the noise rock juggernaut trio Moon Pussy. Whereas many noise rock bands are a permutation of post-hardcore and sludge metal, Moon Pussy is genuinely strange and both humorous and ferocious which is not a combination one sees often enough. Vocalist Crissy Cuellar’s on stage banter and absurdist (in the delivery) jokes does little to mask how smart the band’s music is or its inherent sophistication of concept and execution. Old Deer brings the doom to posthardcore in its own weighty style of noise rock.
Native Daughters, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 11.01 What:Native Daughters, Abrams and BleakHeart When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Instrumental, heavy noise core outfit Native Daughters doesn’t play out often these days and usually at bigger venues. But its epic, cinematic sprawl of post-rock post-metal has evolved to a degree of highly expressive and vivid sonic storytelling without words. Abrams is the perfect amalgamation of shoegaze and atmospheric post-hardcore like Torche and Cave-In. Fantastic, melodic harmonies and transporting guitar streams in heavy momentum and luminously gritty leads. BleakHeart will likely be in its new manifestation but probably still have the gorgeously dark and orchestral fusion of dream pop and heavy post-rock.
Ada Lea, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 11.02 What:Ada Lea w/Porlolo and Autumnal When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Ada Lea released her third album when i paint my masterpiece in August 2025 and further established her status as a modern master of finger picking style with expressive and beautifully intricate guitar work paired with her delicate yet assured vocals. She is currently signed to Saddle Creek Records which is fitting since an act to which she might be favorably compared is Azure Ray. Porlolo is the indie/acoustic band from Denver whose own aesthetic is adjacent to that of the headliner but Porlolo has been around considerably longer as a live act. Erin Roberts’ existential and poignant lyrics and occasionally dryly humorous stage banter with commanding vocals is what has keep the project a local favorite. Fort Collins’ Autumnal comes out of the indie folk corner of the Colorado music universe but its songs will assuredly appeal to those with a taste for pastoral slowcore and the tenderest of indiepop.
Ryan Davis, photo by Christina Casillo
What: Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band w/Caspar Milquetoast When: 7 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Acclaimed songwriter Ryan Davis and his band released one of the secretly great albums of 2025 with Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band “New Threats from the Soul.” On the surface it’s like some indie Americana thing but not long into the first song it becomes apparent that what you’re hearing is weirder and more creative but not in expected ways. It has the dapple lap steel flourishes enhancing the melodies like you’d expect from a solid country record but there are synths in the mix and tape loops so that at times things seem otherworldly and unpredictable but in the pocket of strong songwriting. It’s a fascinating effect. Plus Will Oldham contributes vocals to the album so you know it’s definitely coming from a different kind of place. The lyrics are also like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel but sung like an artist out of the whole Laurel Canyon scene of the early 1970s.
they are gutting a body of water, photo by Kasey Agosto
Tuesday | 11.04 What:they are gutting a body of water w/Fib When: 7 Where: Marquis Theater Why: For several years Philadelphia’s they are gutting a body of water has been stirring noise and grime into drifty, warping shoegaze to create something like the equivalent of a lo-fi cassette only release by one of those weird late 2000s bands that would have belonged on Siltbreeze. Like Times New Viking or Eat Skull. But if those bands were more into Slint and Planning For Burial. Crush yet transcendent guitar tone, left field rhythmic structures or none at all and just stretches of raw sound that drops into fragmented melodies like these people listened to a lot of Canadian band Women coming up as well. The group’s new album LOTTO pushes the songwriting into even more unpredictable territory.
Martin Dupont, photo from Bandcamp
Wednesday | 11.05 What: Martin DuPont w/Church Fire and French Kettle Station When: 7 Where: HQ Why: After a nearly 25 year hiatus, French coldwave/New Wave band Martin Dupont re-emerged as a live project in 2023 and a new album of re-recordings of older songs titled Kintsugi. In 2025 a record of new material dropped called You Smile When It Hurts establishing that the members of the group were capable of crafting quality resonant songs on part with its acclaimed earlier material. Church Fire is Denver’s premiere industrial dance pop group. The impassioned performance style of the band always made it a standout but with expanded production as a trio and a dynamic light show Church Fire brings a large stage show visual impact to any venue. French Kettle Station is a one-man New Age dance project with no small amount of visceral energy of his own even when he’s triggering prepared electronic passages or performing live synth.
Packaging, photo by Andy Thomas
Thursday | 11.06 What: Packaging w/Barbara, Paw Paw and DJ Ryan Wong When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Packaging is the new group formed between Daniel Lyon of Spirit Award and Daniel “Connor” Birch of Flaural. Their debut, self-titled album dropped October 10 and no surprise, perhaps, its lush and enveloping psychedelic pop benefits from the contributions of multiple artists out of the wider indie rock realm including Luke Temple (Here We Go Magic), Ash Reiter (Sugar Candy Mountain), James Barone (Beach House), Andreas Wild (Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats), Curt Kiser (Carriers) and Andy Rauworth (Gauntlet Hair). Its luminous melodies and melancholic urgency helps to set the music apart from yet another post-2010s psychedelia project. Its songs have emotional heft and the music is entrancing and commanding.
Death to All, photo courtesy the artists
Friday | 11.07 What:Death to All playing Spiritual Healing and Symbolic w/Gorguts and Phobophilic When: 6 Where: The Gothic Theatre Why: Death to All features former members of foundational extreme metal band Death including Gene Hoglan, Steve DiGiorgio and Bobby Koelble as well as former Cynic member Max Phelps on guitar and vocals. This tour the assembled band will perform the classic albums Spiritual Healing (1990) and Symbolic (1995), both albums that represented a progression of the band in new directions that would shape where technical death metal of the future worth listening to would go. Anyone that has caught the Death to All tours in recent years can attest to how legit the presentation and musicianship has been with some of the greatest heavy music of all time getting a live performance treatment that honors the legacy of founder Chuck Schuldiner’s vision with some of the only musicians that can make it happen.
Supreme Joy, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 11.07 What:Hi-Dive 22 Year Anniversary Night 1: Nuclear Daisies, Cleaner, American Culture and Supreme Joy When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Hi-Dive has arguably emerged as the premiere small club in Denver with solid bookings every week across a fairly broad spectrum of genres, styles and subscenes. Pick any week and there is at least one show that’s worth going to but probably really a few. It has had some of the best sound in a room of its size with a skilled sound crew. This two night celebration of Hi-Dive begins with sets from garage-psych giants Cleaner, shoegaze/indie pop legends American Culture, left-field post-punk/post-garage phenoms and headlined by noisy shoegaze dance dream pop group Nuclear Daisies.
Daniel Donato, photo by Jason Stoltzfus
Friday and Saturday | 11.07 and 11.08 What: Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country Tour w/The Fretliners When: 7 Where: The Ogden Theatre Why: Daniel Donato started developing ideas for his version of “cosmic country” while playing in bands around Nashville and coming up with a fusion of country, rock and roll, the free associating improv he heard in the Grateful Dead and folk psychedelia. Think a sound and vibe more like a honky tonk end of Gram Parsons and you’ll have an idea what you’re in for. The live shows are imbued with a spirited creativity in the performance and inspired free flowing improvisation that goes beyond where most bands operating in musically adjacent territory seem to be able to conjure. The band is currently touring in support of its 2025 album Horizons.
Melodies Never Lie, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.08 What:Melodies Never Lie, Salads and Sunbeams, Mouth Cathedral at Squirm Gallery, benefit for Jeanette Vizguerra When: 7 Where: Squirm Gallery Why: Jeannette Vizguerra was detained by ICE on 3/17/25 with the aim of deporting the well-known immigration activist and remains in custody at the ICE detention center in Aurora. Her case received some press attention and despite the charges against her, Vizguerra’s situation parallels that of many others who are struggling with a broken and now very punitive system of immigration in the USA particularly with the involvement of the militarized and extremely politicized ICE organization which is an extension of the failed and catastrophic “War on Terror” that is now being used to persecute thousands in America and is essentially a private army of the most corrupt president in US history employed to terrorize people living in America. So this show is a benefit for one of the most visible people targeted by ICE and will hopefully help to create a ripple effect of resistance to the wave of fascism and tyranny plaguing not just America but the world. For more information helping Vizguerra click on the link in the band names. Melodies Never Lie is the ambient indie pop shoegaze solo project of Isaac Rivera whose roots in Denver underground pop, experimental rock and avant-electro goes back two decades. Salads and Sunbeams is the finely honed psychedelic indiepop group from Denver whose members came up in the DIY world and the underground scene developing skills and aesthetics that incorporate classic songwriting methods with modern sensibilities. Mouth Cathedral creates gorgeously transporting, ethereal dream pop.
Palehorse/Palerider in 2017, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.08 What: Hi-Dive 22 Year Anniversary Night 2: Glacial Tomb, Palehorse/Palerider, Mournful Ruin and Eagle Wing When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: This second night of the Hi-Dive anniversary celebration features music on the more heavy side. Glacial Tomb is a long-running death metal doom trio from Denver. Palehorse/Palerider makes a cinematic, unclassifiable heavy music that blends psychedelic, dark Americana and tribal post-punk. Mournful Ruin is more on the grindcore-influenced end of sludgy death metal. Eaglewing is a sort of throwback to early New Wave of British Heavy Metal sound akin to Judas Priest in moments and includes Yancy Green formerly of Aberrent and now of Roskopp.
Steven Lee Lawson, photo courtesy the artist
Saturday | 11.08 What: All Through the Night and Steven Lee Lawson When: 3 Where: Mutiny Information Cafe Why: All Through the Night is an Americana band that sounds like it makes music for a Jim Jarmusch film set in the highways and byways of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming meaning moody, emotionally immediate and drawing from eclectic roots rather than a more traditional country or rock and roll base. Steven Lee Lawson is a brilliant songwriter, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist whose music is also tending toward an Americana sensibility but he clearly draws inspiration from the likes of Harry Nilsson and 60s psychedelia.
Ax and the Hatchetmen, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 11.08 What:Ax and The Hatchetmen w/Kids That Fly When: 7 Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Chicago-based Ax and The Hatchetmen haven’t been around long enough to have played the legendary Chicago venue Lounge Ax but its brand of melodic indie rock with elements of jangle-y psychedelia wouldn’t have been out of place had the club endured through to today. Though the band has been around since 2018 its debut album So Much to Tell You debuted on October 24 via Arista Records. But the group has had EPs and singles along the way and the whole early pandemic stretched everyone’s timelines a bit so this band had time to incubate and hone its songwriting. The new record showcases how the band is able to orchestrate diverse influences into a sound that feels like a blend of power pop, turn of the century New York post-punk, soul and garage rock.
Sunday | 11.09 What: Emergence w/Voicecoil and Absynthe of Faith When: 8 Where: Club 404 Why: Emergence was one of the prominent EBM/industrial bands of the 2000s that went on hiatus toward the end of that decade. The band commanded large audiences at the time in Denver and toured nationally before splitting around 2005. In 2024 the core of the group with new collaborators reconvened to re-start Emergence with a new sound palette.
Agriculture, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 11.11 What: Agriculture w/Rhododendron and Clarion Void When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Agriculture is the black metal band from Los Angeles whose sound struck a chord among fans of noise rock for its forays into wild sonic strangeness in its songs. The group’s new record The Spiritual Sound isn’t short on classic thrash style riffs and melodic breaks yet still feral rawness in the vocals and the erupting and imploding song dynamics and escalating sense of surreal hysteria. Agriculture is currently touring in support of its excellent new album The Spiritual Sound. Presumably Rhododendron is the experimental prog noise thrash band from Portland, Oregon and Clarion Void the death/blackened doom/sludge metal band from Colorado Springs.
Boris, photo by Yoshihiro Mori
Thursday | 11.13 What: Boris w/Cloakroom When: 7 Where: The Gothic Theatre Why: Boris is celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the release of its 2005 album Pink. The sprawling epic of a record was and still is a peak for the group in its complete disregard for needing to fit in with being a metal band, a shoegaze group, a heavy psych blues outfit, a noise project or post-rock. The sounds have grit and edge while simultaneously ethereal and uplifting and dense with tone and texture that swims and hurtles in often unpredictable directions. Pink sounds like it could have come out in the late 70s, the early 90s or in any of the most recent two decades and still come off as something mind-altering in its maximalist sonics. Opening is the Indiana-based heavy shoegaze band Cloakroom whose 2025 album The Last Leg of the Human Table proved it was capable of not only searing and transporting psychedelia but also pop hooks worthy of the best indie rock bands. Something about Cloakroom’s music feels like it’s coming from a near future science fiction universe where the world is both in deep civilizational decay and an underground cultural renaissance transmitting the kind of music we want to hear.
King Princess, photo by Connor Cunningham
Thursday | 11.13 What:King Princess w/spill tab When: 7 Where: The Ogden Theatre Why: King Princess has built a body of work that uses lush production and introspective lyrics to explore the nuances of personal psychology, social dynamics and relationships with creativity and sensitivity. The latest album Girl Violence and its masterful use of saturated synths, tonal processing and layers of atmospheric noise help to place the singer’s soulful vocals in settings that immerse the listener in the emotional moment of the song. It’s a bit of a journey of a record with contributions from Joe Talbot of IDLES fame.
Underworld, photo courtesy Magnum PR
Friday | 11.14 What: Underworld When: 7 Where: The Fillmore Auditorium Why: With the 1994 release of its landmark album Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Underworld helped to usher in an era of music fusing progressive house, techno, ambient, downtempo and psychedelic electronic music that proved influential on at least a generation of like-minded artists. The record is structured to be a little like experiencing the music at a rave with expert pacing and layers of rhythm and atmosphere to craft a sustained mood of sensuous transcendence. The duo’s latest album Strawberry Hotel (2024) is decidedly less dark and brooding than the aforementioned but still brimming with mysterious moods and the completely enveloping production one would hope to get from masters of the art.
Friday | 11.14 What: Kill You Club 8 year anniversary w/Nuxx, Puerta Negra, Lazer Bullet and Severed Reality When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Kill You Club has been bringing some of the most interesting and cutting edge darkwave/Goth-adjacent bands to Denver for several years now. The kinds of artists the more traditional Goth scene seems to bypass and be unaware exists until a half decade or more later. Possibly because Brian Castillo has his finger on the pulse of what’s cool in that realm of music whether the more electronic end or the post-punk acts that are pushing the boundaries of what that music has been. Headlining this night is the edgy, synthwave punk/industrial trip hop artist Nuxx.
Felly, photo by Olof Grind
Friday | 11.14 What:Felly w/Breakup Shoes and Lady Denim When: 7 Where: Fox Theatre Why: Felly released his latest album Ambroxyde in June further solidifying his reputation as an artist who can take the gentle and delicate and turn it into something feels like it has some emotional substance even as his vocals are often bordering on the ethereal. The title track sounds like it coalesced out of the surrounding weather and that’s a feeling you get from the new album. It’s like something that feels instantly comfortable yet able to build in energy and enthusiasm without losing a sense of intimacy. It makes the music impossible to simply dismiss as another indie folk thing as the songwriting itself is more lush and sophisticated than appears on the surface.
Suzanne Ciani in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.15 What: Suzanne Ciani w/Clarice Jensen When: 7 Where: Central Presbyterian Church Why: Suzanne Ciani is an innovator in synthesizer music composition with an influential career spanning more than fifty years. Her work, musical and sound effects, has been featured on soundtracks, television and in a pinball machine game called Xenon. In the 1980s her compositions became associated with new age music and by extension modern ambient. Ciani in recent years seems to have expanded her live performance itinerary and her 2023 appearance at this same venue showcased her gift for imaginative soundscaping on a large format with an inherent sense of play in the performance and songcraft.
Broken Record, photo by Chris Carraway
Saturday | 11.15 What:Broken Record album release w/Precocious Neophyte and Safekeeper When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room Why: Broken Record is a Denver-based band that formed after singer/guitarist Lauren Beecher and bassist Corey Fruin moved to the Mile High City from Connecticut in 2017. Both had roots in the underground and DIY scene in and around New Haven and in forming Broken Record around some material Beecher had been working on what emerged was music that reflected the influence of punk and hardcore, certainly in the ethos of the group, as well as the atmospheric melodic qualities of The Cure. If you caught the band early on you might be excused to hearing in the music a touch of Hüsker Dü’s emotionally rich and fierce yet gentle aesthetic. The fledgling outfit found a home in the local hardcore scene and played early shows with the likes of then relatively newly founded bands like Destiny Bond and Ukko’s Hammer. And yet Broken Record never seemed out of place even though the catharsis of its music wasn’t formed from the same set of sounds but the emotional core of the songwriting shared a similar vulnerability and intelligence in expressing emotion with a keen sensitivity in the language of emotionally charged rock music.
The quartet released its debut full-length I Died Laughing on April 24, 2020 and of course could not tour around the record due to the global pandemic. But on that album one hears the knack for melodic jangle and shimmer embedded into earnestly energetic hooks with the expert pacing and Beecher’s warmly thoughtful vocals that strike the perfect emotional coloring for songs that are often poignantly melancholic and always deeply observant. For the 2023 album Nothing Moves Me the songwriting seemed to experiment further with tone and style incorporating delicately minimal guitar leads and triumphant choruses while seeming to be able to mine the more interesting ends of adolescent angst as a lens by which to understand the sometimes disillusioning aspects of adulthood. Like an entire record of what your teenage self might have to say about your current adult self. The 2025 album Routine and its cover of suburban American would-be normalcy takes the band’s established themes further to seemingly comment with great insight into the compromises and perils of navigating life in late capitalism and how that can cast a pall over your life if you’re not equipped to find some meaning in a socioeconomic environment seemingly designed to erode your joy and ability to live a full and dignified life. But also on the album the band seems to find the threads of psychic resistance to it all in creative acts and writing songs that feel like a shaking off of the gloom with music that feels like an expression of basic human solidarity.
The Green Typewriters, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.15 What: The Green Typewriters, Mr. Pacman and Pythian Whispers When: 7 Where: Feldman Mortuary Why: A rare show at a mortuary in Denver with psychedelic, experimental indie pop group The Green Typewriters. The band’s songs seem to stem from philosophical concepts as projected through the lens of analog human experience and emotions. Mr. Pacman is visionary blend of synthwave and punk with performance costumes like video game characters. Pythian Whispers is a psychedelic ambient cinematic noise prog band.
Saturday | 11.15 What:Cap’N Jazz w/Rainer Maria When: 7 Where: The Summit Music Hall Why: Cap’N Jazz only released one full-length album, 1995’s Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped On, and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy Toed Over – often called Shmap’n Shmazz. But that record proved to be a template for a realm of math rock, emo and indie rock in all its messy and frenetic glory and its core of earnest emotions seemingly unleashed at once across twelve songs in thirty-one minutes, ten seconds. It sure wasn’t for everyone because those more into pristine arrangements and established, classic pop/rock songwriting structure and sounds probably found it just completely amateurish—which is an essential part of its appeal for others. When the group split in 1995 its members went on to groups like The Promise Ring, American Football, Joan of Arc and Make Believe. Cap’N Jazz has reunited a few times since it first broke up but this is its first wider tour since the 90s and along for this journey is Rainer Maria whose own poetic emo/space rock sound seems to resonate with the emo and shoegaze fusion that has been bubbling in the past several years.
Brighde Chaimbeul, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 11.18 What: Brighde Chaimbeul When: 8 Where: The Bug Theatre Why: Brighde Chaimbeul is a Scottish musician who grew up in a musical family and herself learned fiddle and piano before setting out to play the smallpipes and bagpipe for which she is perhaps most well-known these days. She has worked with experimental pop artist Caroline Polacek and composer Colin Stetson and she recently released her latest album Sunwise. It is a rousing journey of a record that establishes a strong mood with drone and folk minimalism. It helps to expand the aesthetics of ambient with a profound sense of place through unconventional instrumentation for a sound one immediately associates with that broad genre of musical experience. It has a folkloric feel like the sense one gets when watching the 1970s films of John Boorman. It’s a deep record and one whose songs performed live are sure to mesmerize in this rare performance at one of Denver’s premier venues for the avant-garde as presented by Creative Music Works.
PORTUGAL. THE MAN, photo by Nathan Perkel
Tuesday and Wednesday | 11.18 and 11.19 What: PORTUGAL. THE MAN w/Ya Tseen When: 7 both nights Where: Fox Theatre (11.18) and Mission Ballroom (11.19) Why: PORTUGAL. THE MAN has offered plenty of left field indie/psychedelic/hard rock/punk over the years with a body of work that is immediately identifiable if not so easy to pigeonhole into a simple marketing category. In 2025 the band has released one of its albums in its 21 years with Shish. The record is an endearing and at turns entrancingly melodic and harrowingly intense tribute the band’s home state of Alaska and the search for meaning not just in an edge of the world place like Alaska but in the tentative state of the world in general perhaps as embodied in the challenges of living in a place that is often so isolated and laden with snow. Jack London would certainly recognize what PORTUGAL. THE MAN is putting out there on Shish.
The Beths, photo by Frances Carter
Wednesday | 11.19 What: The Beths w/Phoebe Rings When: 7 Where: The Ogden Theatre Why: The Beths are an acclaimed power pop band with a noteworthy career offering memorable songs often informed by a euphoric sense of joy in the performance even when the subject matter waxes heavy. But there’s something different about where the music is coming from partly because the group hails Auckland, New Zealand and its members have backgrounds in jazz. So the intricacy and attention to the delicacy of the performances comes off as natural and confident and fans of Kiwi rock in general and C86-era indiepop will immediately connect with its music. The band is currently touring behind its new album Straight Line Was a Lie which is rich with heartfelt lyrics, unconventional hooks and a keen ear for small sonic details that make the songs linger with you.
Diles Que No Me Maten, photo by Tom Murphy
Wednesday | 11.19 What: Diles Que No Me Maten, Pink Lady Monster and Sunswept When: 7 Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room Why: Diles Que No Me Maten from Mexico City is a band that on the surface is an odd psychedelic rock band with roots in Krautrock. But a closer listen and witnessing a live performance reveals the group seems to be coming from a background/interests in No Wave, experimental poetry and the more odd post-punk of The Fall with vocals that are part singing and part spoken word. So a good fit with Denver No Wave funk poetry weirdos Pink Lady Monster and the avant-folk psychedelia of Sunswept.
Juliet Mission in 2015, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 11.28 What:Juliet Mission, In A Darkened Room and Redwing Blackbird When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room Why: Juliet Mission is the secretly great shoegaze/alternative rock band from Denver with one of its bonafide guitar heroes Doug Seaman who among other projects was and still is in influential alternative rock band Sympathy F. Tony Morales from that group is also in Juliet Mission and its exquisite soundscapes and emotionally expansive songs are rooted in Denver’s long tradition of moody, atmospheric rock partly in helping to establish that sound inspired by late nights and the former sprawl of urban decay inviting the imagination to project one’s dreams upon forgotten and neglected spaces. Redwing Blackbird is a darkwave band more in the vein of The Cure with the sparkling guitar jangle and mastery of melodic tone.
Malkasian, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 11.29 What: Malkasian – Heavy Blues album release, Riff Dealer and A Strange Happening When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Malkasian released its latest album Heavy Blues on October 22, 2025 but you can get a copy of the vinyl at this show. The band could be described as heavy, psychedelic blues rock but it is weirder than that simple designation suggests. The vibe with its references to the occult and, um, “Long Pig,” suggest that the title of its previous album Macabre wasn’t just a throwaway descriptor. The mood is reminiscent of the 1989, spooky debut album by stoner rock pioneers Masters of Reality. A Strange Happening must be friends of someone in one of the other bands but even if not its own ambitious alternative pop songwriting and high concept storytelling in an Neil Young-esque gone indie rock vein is strong recommendation in itself.
Cloakroom is a shoegaze band from Northwest Indiana that got off the ground in 2012. The group’s association with heavy bands since its inception is fitting since it’s own crafting of atmospheric rock has built into it a physicality of tone that is as electrifying as it is weighty. In moments it’s like hearing Holy Mountain-period Sleep working with Fantastic Planet-era Failure in how the sounds can sound like they’re cutting through time and space and immersively transporting at once. This quality was in high form on the 2022 album Dissolution Wave, a concept album about saving the human race from a phenomenon that threatens to wipe out humanity’s art and abstract thought. In 2025 Cloakroom issued its latest album Last Leg of the Human Table, an effort that showcases the band proving itself capable of writing whatever style it wishes without losing its essence of creating entrancing atmospheres. It is also evidence of the band’s gift for pop songcraft and memorable melodies. For years Cloakroom has been one of the bands of choice for connoisseurs of modern shoegaze.
Listen to our interview with bassist Bobby Markos of Cloakroom on Bandcamp and follow the outfit at the links below. Cloakroom performs at the Hi-Dive on Sunday, August 24, 2025 as the headlining act of the final night of Ghost Canyon Fest.
Ghost Canyon Fest, Denver’s DIY music fest showcasing left field music of various stripes, runs August 21-24, 2025 at venues in Colorado Springs in Denver and here is our modest rundown of what’s in store each day. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit ghostcanyonfest.com.
Flowting Clowds A cause of celebration because Jeff Mueller and Sean Meadows of June of 44 fame performing the new they’ve been working on for over a decade.
Latter performs at Ghost Canyon Fest on Saturday, August 22, 2025, photo by Vanessa ValdezMSPAINT in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.01 What:MSPAINT w/American Culture, Lip Critic and Pat and the Pissers When: 7 Where: Marquis Theater Why: MSPAINT came out of the hardcore underground as a band that didn’t have a guitarist instead took the attitude and applied it to a more synth-and-bass driven post-punk. Since then the group has evolved a sharp critique of American society and culture while maintaining a compassionate stance toward human vulnerability with an analog to what Chat Pile has been putting out. Its latest release is the No Separation EP on which the group expand its more experimental soundscaping tendencies while still having an arresting and commanding delivery. American Culture has had its own evolution as a band from earlier indie-pop-turned-atmospheric post-punk band but along the way it absorbed the influence of modern hardcore, The Cure and 90s Britpop simultaneously. It has resulted in a band that is not much like anything else going either.
Down Time, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 08.01 What: Down Time, Bluebook and Fingertip 57 When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Down Time is now based out of Los Angeles but cut its teeth in the Denver indie rock scene where its sophisticated songwriting and tender melodies struck a chord locally in certain circles. Since then the group has developed its fusion of synth pop and a more baroque sound that hits as timeless and very analog in its aesthetic so that it’s songwriting has a very tangible quality in its saturated tones. Bluebook is one of the premier art pop bands in Denver fronted by the enigmatic and charismatic Julie Davis backed by former Monofog frontwoman Hailey Helmericks, gifted songwriter Jess Parsons and Still Tide’s guitar genius Anna Morsett.
Entrancer at Listening Lawn I, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.02 What: Listening Lawn V: Flyvee, Moth Sanctuary, Snowswept, Suo and Entrancer When: 5-8 Where: Carpio Sanguinette Park Why: This is an event organized by Multidim records and it’s for the experimental electronic heads who miss a time when this music had wider places to be experienced before Nü Denver came in and rapidly gentrified most corners of the metro area by the time the COVID-19 pandemic crashed into the headlong rush of all of that. This event will include notable producers and composers in the electronic realm including longtime forward thinking techno artist Entrancer. The event takes place in a park that is part ruin, part forgotten pocket of Denver and between complete corporate dominance and industrial land use. A perfect setting.
Lifeguard, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 08.02 What:Lifeguard w/Autobahn and The Red Scare When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Lifeguard is touring in support of its full-length album Ripped and Torn out now on Matador. The noisy post-punk discordant aspect of the band’s sound with the dub-like tonal ripple baked into the guitar riffs as they interact at odd angles with the rhythm might be something one has come to expect from Chicago’s rich noise rock and post-punk scene generally but Lifeguard sounds like it’s on the edge and expressing the nervous energy and fragility that seems ambient in the world at the moment.
Badvril, photo from Bandcamp
Monday | 08.04 What: Badvril, Surprise Soup, BabyBaby and Headslug When: 7:30 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Badvril is a shoegaze band from San Francisco that is touring behind its new record In Heaven. If you’re into stuff like Letting Up Despite Great Faults and Wild Nothing you’ll probably enjoy what these people are doing. BabyBaby is a standout synth pop artist whose rich electronic melodies and effervescent spirit elevate any show of which she is a part. Surprise Soup is a Denver trio that sounds like it took a bit of inspiration from math rock bands of the late 90s, Pavement and Death Cab For Cutie. Headslug can be sorta ambient or shoegaze-adjacent but also lo-fi slowcore but always surprisingly interesting.
MØAA, photo from Bandcamp
Monday | 08.04 What:MØAA w/Tassles When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: MØAA is a Seattle-based artist whose 2021 album Euphoric Recall was a crossover hit in underground shoegaze and Goth/post-punk for the moody yet tonally rich guitar work and expansive drift. The breathy vocals and sense of space on the project’s 2023 album Jaywalker paired with the electronic beats is reminiscent of mid-2000s Ladytron but with decidedly modern flavor. Denver’s Tassles is hard to pin down to anything except the music sounds like shoegaze made by someone who has spent a lot of time listening to Black Marble and corporate training video music but somehow transcending the limitations of both. The recently released Net Worth album has a breezy quality that is summery without feeling similarly insubstantial. Psychedelic warping and techno beats and hazy around the edges production make it one of the more original entries into the crowded modern shoegaze field.
Angel Band in 2025, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 08.05 What: Angel Band tour kickoff w/Sonic Chick, Fragrant Blossom and Scorplings When: 7 Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Angel Band is taking its twee jangle pop on the road and leading off with this show. Fans of Sarah Records bands and their fresh energy and borderline naive style songwriting or newer bands like Denver’s The Maybellines will find a great deal to like about Angel Band and its charismatic live show. Fragrant Blossom is more like an arty abstract jazz and New Age pop project that includes Ben Donehower aka Petite Garcon. Scorplings will bring an angular, Chicago scene style noise rock and Yo La Tengo bleeding edge pop sound to this show.
The Milk Blossoms in 2025, photo by Tom Murphy
Wednesday | 08.06 What:The Milk Blossoms When: 5-8 pm Where: Granby Ranch Why: Denver-based art pop heartbreakers The Milk Blossoms make a rare trip to the hinterlands to charm and entrance an audience for a three hour set in a beautiful outdoor setting away from the baking heat of Denver in August. Likely the group will break out some of its older material to extend the set so if you’re lucky enough to be there you’ll get to experience a full range of the band’s songwriting, all of it poignant, deeply evocative and cathartic in the way that only songs that truly tug at the heartstrings and stir the imagination simultaneously as deftly as The Milk Blossoms’ material can and always does.
Dispatch, photo by Shervin Lainez
Thursday | 08.07 What:Dispatch w/John Butler, Donavon Frankenreiter and Illiterate Light When: 6 Where: Red Rocks Why: Dispatch is mostly known as an indie and roots rock band in the past decade and a half or so that it’s been back together. But its new album Yellow Jacket hearkens more back to its early days when the group was more steeped in a reggae and ska sound blended into its more folk rock sound. Of course it’s an update and the band’s songcraft is more honed than in its earlier incarnation but the songs are still informed by a spirit of human liberation and the joy of living with the ups and downs inevitable with human existence. The new record includes an acoustic song with Ani DiFranco that sounds like a 60s folkie protest song and all the better for it. Live the band brings a passion to the performances that elevate what might be perceived as more introspective and tranquil material.
White Rose Motor Oil, photo by Tammy Shine
Friday | 08.08 What:White Rose Motor Oil, Graveyard Choir and Chella & The Charm When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: This is a stacked lineup for local Americana but one in which none of the bands are really even remotely alike. White Rose Motor Oil combines a rockabilly sound with stripped down country rock without compromising the passionate delivery. As a duo WRMO are surprisingly exuberant and warm in their performances. Graveyard Choir is a country rock group fronted by former In The Whale guitarist and singer Nate Valdez. The songwriting is more blues driven with more honky tonk bar style ragers but with more tonally expressive guitar than expected with that style of music. Chella & The Charm threads together alt-country creativity in the realm of Americana with lyrics that aren’t just sharply and sensitively observed but which offer a keen insight into social and psychological dynamics. And also performed with a commanding presence.
Sharpie Smile, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 08.08 What: Sharpie Smile, Pink Lady Monster, Chroma Lips When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Sharpie Smile from Los Angeles just put out its new album The Staircase on Drag City. The mix of minimalist left field rock and hyperpop with ambient and industrial soundscaping lends its songwriting futuristic feel like music you’d more expect on a label like Ninja Tune or Warp. Its expert use of jump cut swells and subtle pitch shifting renders the music both accessible and pleasantly disorienting. Pink Lady Monster won’t be one for small minds either with its alchemical fusion of No Wave funk, avant-garde performance pop and skronk-infused free jazz. Chroma Lips is a psychedelic garage rock band from Denver that ditched the trendy sound of the 2010s and adopted the more krautrock end of shoegaze as a driver of its sound.
Victim of Fire in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.09 What: Victim of Fire album release w/Speed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch, Spear of Cassius and Ukko’s Hammer When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Victim of Fire is celebrating the release of its new record The Old Lie with a stacked lineup of other bands within the wide realm of its own amalgam of d-beat, hardcore, black metal and crust punk. The fast-forward avalanche of both distorted and melodic guitar work and feral vocals suits well its songs about the deceptions of society and government regarding the organization of our resources toward war as part of an ongoing and age old charade of actions for the betterment of the country or our in-group. Speed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch is a death doom band from Denver who seem to have fused perfectly classic death metal with melodic thrash including song titles that fuse ideas and concepts in an over-the-top and absurdly humorous fashion but which definitely conjure an image. Spear of Cassius is more of a screamo and power violence band with vocals that sound like they’re both distended and compressed with melancholic musical passages that suggest a great nuance of emotional expression than one often comes to expect from extreme metal. Ukko’s Hammer is classic crossover hardcore with caustic urgency in the vocals and percussion that seems to persistent it feels like the world drops out carried by the sheer momentum of the rest of the music and Zach Reini’s vocals over a chasm before re-engaging.
Bad Luck City in 2015, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.09 What:Munly & The Lupercalians, Let the Dead Eat the Dead (feat. Members of Bad Luck City) and Weathered Statues When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Drummer and visual artist Andrew Warner is celebrating his birthday by playing sets with three of his bands. Munly & The Lupercalians is potent fusion of dark Americana and post-punk with folkloric lyrics. Weathered Statues is one of the few genuine death rock bands from Denver but one that utilizes soaring vocals and synths with sharp guitar work and some of the most powerful bass lines of any band in Denver or anywhere. Let the Dead Eat the Dead, though, is like a new incarnation of the great Americana band Bad Luck City. Fronted by the charismatic Dameon Merkl, BLC was clearly influenced by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but with unique and often darkly humorous lyrics and noir storytelling that made it a local favorite for years.
In the Company of Serpents, photo by Kate Rose
Saturday | 08.09 What: In the Company of Serpents w/Palehorse/Palerider, Church Fire and Cronos Compulsion When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: In the Company of Serpents has completely reconciled its musical impulses on its new record A Crack In Everything. It is one of its heaviest and most crushing records but infused with the atmospheric desert rock psychedelia that has been a part of its sound over the past decade and with lyrics that capture the emotional tenor of the moment through the expression of personal struggle. Fitting that psychedelic, experimental heavy folk outfit Palehorse/Paleride shares the bills as does politically charged industrial dance phenoms Church Fire and its live show to suit the name of the band.
Shannon Lay, photo by Kai Macknight
Thursday | 08.14 What: Shannon Lay w/Cyrena Rosati and Ryan Wong When: 7 Where: Squirm Gallery Why: Shannon Lay probably became known to underground music audiences as a member of indie rock/punk band Feels even before leaving the group in 2020 her solo work has taken on different dimension entirely. Quickly evolving from a more bedroom pop sound to experimental yet earnest folk Lay signed with SubPop for two albums. August (2019) proved that Lay had a great command of what might be called cosmic, existential indie folk with an arresting sense of intimacy. Her 2021 album Geist found Lay shedding any and all adopted styles and personae for an album that was moving and tranquil with elegantly inspired guitar work. Cyrena Rosati may now be known for her commanding bass work in Quits, Cherry Spit and Supreme Joy but before all of that she made beautiful dream-pop infused indie rock as Sweetness Itself. Who can say what this solo set will sound like but it will be worth showing up early to see. Same with Ryan Wong, frontman of Supreme Joy and member of The Fresh & Onlys. His own expertise in the realms of psychedelic and garage rock and post-punk will likely shine through on this rare solo set as well.
Entrancer, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.15 What: Entrancer, Lanx Borealis, Staggered Hooks, Quinn Boudeleaux, 4 Digit Visuals When: 8 Where: Glob Why: Entrancer has recently been mixing some older DIY, lo-fi electronic aesthetics into his masterful modern techno made with analog and digital synths. The result is audio time traveling layered together to great evocative effect like some 2020s rave music thoroughly blended with early witchhouse and 8-bit composition. Nothing like it. Lanx Borealis makes ambient music that integrates circuit bent devices and minimal synth. Staggered Hooks is Dean Inman who some may know for his involvement in the 2010s Denver rave scene but also for his fusion of hardware based dance music and noise with this project.
Wilco, photo by Peter Crosby
Saturday | 08.16 What: An Evening With Wilco When: 6:30 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Wilco helped to pioneer and influence indie rock as we know it with eclectic yet coherent musical vision ever evolving past previous limits. Partly because the songwriting has always been imaginative and daring in its sonic creativity and also due to the insightful and poignantly earnest lyrics with a literary flavor minus the pretentious baggage. For this tour the band is playing choice selections from a large swath of its impressive and consistently quality catalog. Which could be mere fan service but Wilco is a band that brings a passionate delivery with the live show and at this point a nearly orchestral sound that elevates what indie rock and Americana music can be.
King Yosef, photo by Harper King
Tuesday | 08.19 What: Youth Code w/King Yosef, Street Sects and Insula Iscariot When: 7 Where: HQ Why: Stars of modern industrial hardcore for the entire night. King Yosef will have just released his new album Spire of Fear on his own imprint BLEAKHOUSE when this show happens and it includes contributes from space rock/black metal/shoegaze legends Holy Fawn. The album recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou is an abrasive, disorienting and relentless listen with vocals that sound like they’re giving voice to the accelerated and amplified collective outrage over current world events with a direct personal resonance that may be reminiscent of Ballou’s main band Converge but with an aesthetic that more closely reflects King Yosef’s own work as a producer in the realm of electronic industrial music. A few years back Yosef worked with co-headliner Youth Code who were the industrial hardcore band of note around 10-12 years ago on a collaborative album called A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression (2021) that revealed his ability to enhance the virtues of a like-minded band in which each could complement each other perfectly. Youth Code returns with a new EP titled Yours, With Malice which showcases the duo in classic form with edgy, caustic and emotionally-charged EBM-infused hardcore. Street Sects are an Austin duo that pioneered a different edge of industrial hardcore with its fog-enshrouded yet confrontational live shows and manic energy. The music itself could be lost in the theatrical aspect of the show but listening to the records it was obvious they had incorporated elements of noise and dance music into the mix. This has become even more obvious with its “side project” Street Sex and its new album Full Color Eclipse with its fusion of industrial and synth pop like a disco darkwave with some gritty highlights. Street Sects is simultaneously releasing its new album under that name called Dry Drunk that is more in the vein of what you might expect but the sounds are often like a collection of samples assembled in a beautifully jarring fashion that also flows with pointed social commentary. The album cover looks like Charles Burns doing a tribute to Raymond Pettibon. Perfect for what you’ll hear on the record. Insula Iscariot is a death industrial act whose new album is out on Yosef’s BLEAKHOUSE imprint.
Street Sects, photo by Ismael Quintanilla IIIBlack Eyes, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday – Sunday | 08.21-08.24 What: Ghost Canyon Fest When: Varies by Night Where: What’s Left Records (8.21), The Skylark Lounge (8.22), Hi-Dive (8.23-08.24) Why: Ghost Canyon Fest is in its third year with yet another stellar lineup of bands from a broad spectrum of noise rock and experimental rock including Church Fire and Scorplings the first night and sort of pre-festival proper event at What’s Left Records in Colorado Springs, The Milk Blossoms and Pink Lady Monster with Honduh Daze at The Skylark on the second night, Flesh Tape and Flowting Clowds the afternoon of 8/23, Suicide Cages, Latter, Still House Plants and Black Eyes the third night at Hi-Dive (8/23), Moon Pussy and Dug the afternoon of 8/24 at Wax Trax, and Buildings and Cloakroom the concluding night Sunday 8/24 at the Hi-Dive. Look for our more comprehensive guide to the festival and interviews coming soon.
Horsegirl, photo by Ruby Faye
Tuesday | 08.26 What: Horsegirl w/Godcaster When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Chicago’s Horsegirl made waves when it released its debut single “Forecast” in 2019 and became a much hyped act out of the Windy City’s post-punk scene. Its minimalist guitar work and delicacy of feeling was reminiscent of the likes of a slowcore Raincoats or Young Marble Giants. The group’s new album Phonetics On and On was written when most of the trio have been students in New York and the introspection and evocation of uncertainty heard throughout the album lends it an emotional resonance that may suit young adulthood specifically but also reflects how in the current time things feel so fragile and tentative and the way you can navigate the energy with integrity is to approach things with intention and a sense of creating a normalcy rooted in exploring new expressions of confidence and a sense of play. The result is a song that is rewarding for its bold and sharply observed lyrics and paring the music to its absolute sonic essentials without skimping on a full sound.
I’m A Boy in 2008, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.29 What:I’m A Boy w/Toddy Ivy, Gata Negra and Red Tack When: 8 Where: Lost Lake Why: I’m A Boy’s original lineup of singer/guitarist Jimmi Nasi, bassist/singer Whitney Rehr and drummer John Shipe are reuniting for a show that’s a bit of a celebration of its spectacular 2012 album Sensation. The record benefits from not just masterful musicianship from its three members with no shying away from technical flourishes. But it’s not showing off for the sake of doing so, it all serves the songs which are an unusually and refreshingly insightful take on what it is to be an adult that hasn’t lost the love of art and music as a valid art form and avenue of expressing and exploring the grown up psyche and looking back and remembering what made life feel vital and bringing that energy into the present and finding that essence in the context of where you are now. Looking back it’s a classic of Denver underground rock for the sophistication of the songwriting and the sheer moxy of its performances. Many bands of that time were trying to mimic classic rock glory in a fashion that felt try-hard. I’m A Boy always seemed to live and embody the spirit of its influences by writing songs that didn’t feel derivative but also in spirit not so far removed from its roots. For this show it’s not just the band reuniting but also Rehr’s excellent garage-blues adjacent Gata Negra, Red Tack (fronted by former Baldo Rex frontman Ted Thacker) and his own take on reinventing punk rock spirit into gritty singer-songwriter style music and longtime friend of everyone involved with this show Toddy Ivy aka Toddy Walters.
Thursday | 08.03 What:Weapönizer w/Abhoria and Belhor When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Weapönizer is a band from Denver that has been obliterating the line between classic thrash and black metal with songs that seem to be tales of a near future dystopia. Think something like Venom soundtracking a film that’s a collision of Mad Max and a grimy cyberpunk universe. Abhoria from Los Angeles is of a similar vintage but with more atmosphere and groove to its blunt abrasion. The group recently added local Denver metal and grind scene veteran Ben Pitts to the lineup. Belhor is a long-running, blackened death metal band that doesn’t play live as much these days but its corrosive sound and haunting songs have an undeniable visceral impact.
The Front Bottoms, photo by Jimmy Fontaine
Friday | 08.04 What: The Front Bottoms w/Say Anything and Kevin Devine & the Goddamn Band When: 7 Where: Red Rocks Why: Depending on where you check in with New Jersey’s The Front Bottoms their brand of raw and emotional songwriting might be described as folk punk early on and an electro-acoustic form of emo later on as Brian Sella and Matthew Uychich have fully adopted a variety of sounds and styles as suited their evolving songwriting. Early material sounds like the duo listened to a lot of The Moldy Peaches, Andrew Jackson Jihad and Pat the Bunny. And yet established their own sound that brought a tender sensibility and personal insight to impassioned punk songs. For this show the group is doing something fairly unorthodox by having the album release show for You Are Who You Hang Out With, which releases this day, at Red Rocks with some like-minded friends. The latter includes Los Angeles-based emo legends Say Anything whose heartfelt anthems are a distillation and evolution of its 90s post-hardcore and pop punk influences. And yet Say Anything has never been limited to that realm of music and its songwriting reflects a focus on songwriting over style and Max Bemis’ lyics and intense live delivery comes across as the kind of honed poetry that comes from pulling directly from the essence of the emotional resonance of what inspired the outpouring of words. Its new single “Psyche” contains all of that as well as a confessional, unvarnished spoken word section like pages from an unedited diary entry and that’s what you get from the band—a direct line to some personal truth.
Say Anything, photo by Nicole MagoIlluminati Hotties, photo courtesy the artist
Saturday | 08.05 What: Boygenius w/illuminati hotties https://www.redrocksonline.com/events/boygenius-475298/ When: 7 Where: Red Rocks Why: Boygenius is the indie rock supergroup comprised of three of today’s most gifted songwriters formed by and comprised of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Their 2018 self-titled debut EP made a splash for its evocative amalgamation of the members’ unique gifts as artists and lyricists. In 2023 the group released its debut full-length, the somewhat cheekily titled The Record. Its fusion of delicate melodies and wide emotional range from the tender and introspective to the expansively cathartic, its tightly crafted, experimental atmospheric elements and rhythmic melodies proves not just that the debut Boygenius release wasn’t a fluke but that a collaborative record by three songwriters whose individual efforts are remarkable can be just as impressive. Opening the night is illuminati hotties fronted by music producer, mixer and studio engineer Sarah Tudzin. The band started out as a showcase of Tudzin’s technical skills outside of songwriting but the project’s 2018 album Kiss Yr Frenemies made it clear that her obvious talents behind a studio desk were equaled by her knack for crafting an ear worm indie rock/soft punk hook with slyly observational lyrics reminiscent of Liz Phair.
Kelly Garlick, photo courtesy the artist
Saturday | 08.05 What: Listening Lawn III: David Castillo & Silt, Snowflyer, Kelly Garlick, Entrancer, H-Lite, Combart Sport and DJ Ursa When: 5-8 pm Where: Carpio Sanguinette Park, Denver Why: Denver-based experimental electronic music label Multidim is hosting its now so far annual event showcasing some of the most forward thinking, left field artists in the Denver area including new ambient star Kelly Garlick, modular synth genius Entrancer, dance glitch IDM experimentalist H-Lite, free jazz and dub mutant David Castillo and crafter of luminous, rhythmic ambient Snowflyer.
Temple of Angels, photo from Bandcamp
Monday | 08.07 What: Temple of Angels, Polly Urethane, Cherished and H Lite When: 7 Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Temple of Angels formed in Austin in 2017 among hardcore and punk musicians Avery Burton, Patrick Todd and Cole Tucker who recruited Bre Morell as lead singer to explore more atmospheric sounds and more expansive sonics. After two EPs and a single the band released the Cocteau Twins-esque debut full-length Endless Pursuit on July 8, 2023. Joining the group or this show is modern classical/electronic pop/experimental industrial ambient-sample manipulation performance artist Polly Urethane whose shows always seem to be significantly different than the one before. As well as local shoegaze pop group Cherished who recently recorded their new record out of town and H Lite whose minimal techno glitch compositions are a playful progression beyond the usual blend of live hardware DJ sets and beatcrafting.
Gov’t Mule at Salvage Station in Asheville, NC on June 3, 2022, photo by David Simchok
Monday | 08.07 What:Gov’t Mule’s Dark Side of the Mule w/Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening When: 6 Where: Red Rocks Why: Gov’t Mule began life as a The Allman Brothers Band side project with current leader and gifted guitarist Warren Haynes and then bassist, the late Allen Woody. But even early on though the music is rooted in the kind of improvisational blues rock that the Allman Brothers made famous Mule has established itself as the kind of jam-oriented band that has taken the format and style in fascinating directions. Even if you were never into jam band music or modern blues or Southern rock in general Gov’t Mule is one of the few bands out of that milieu that has injected imaginative arrangements into the masterful musicianship to craft songs that have a widely emotional resonance and its detailed compositions aren’t merely a showcase for technical prowess, which is of course there, but making insightful commentary on life and the ways in which we make and find meaning. On the group’s new album Peace…Like A River finds Haynes and company weaving in introspective melodies and touches of a funky fluidity that truly expands the group’s already impressive songwriting range and includes guest performances from Billy Gibbons and Ivan Neville. As the name of this particular concert suggests, this is a performance of Gov’t Mule’s excellent interpretation of Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon. As well as choice cuts from across the band’s career. Jason Bonham, son of John Bonham of Led Zeppelin fame, will open the show with a selection of the songs of his father’s band.
Dear Nora, photo from Bandcamp
Thursday | 08.10 What: Dear Nora w/Elaine When: 7 Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Dear Nora is the long-running musical project of Katy Davidson. Formed in 1999 in Portland, Oregon, Dear Nora was one of the definitive bands of the turn of the century indiepop underground. With songs that offer a tender and perceptive observations of the quiet moments in life when you have time to consider what your feelings are really about beyond the immediate demands of a work world and the like, exposing a world where you have the time and emotional space to really live unburdened by the expectations of a commodified existence. In 2008 the project was sunsetted but re-emerged in 2017 for a tour and in 2018 Dear Nora started releasing new records once again the latest being 2022’s human futures. This will be a solo appearance by Davidson with local opener Elaine.
CXCXCX, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.11 What:Lower Tar (LA), K129, Precious Blood, Modern Devotion and CXCXCX When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: This will be an all techno and noise show headlined by Los Angeles based industrial techno artist Lower Tar with sets from Denver-based, beat inflected harsh noise artist CXCXCX as well as Voight’s Adam Rojo putting in a rare performance with his techno solo side project Modern Devotion.
Quits, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.11 What:Ghost Canyon Fest Night 1: Ghost Canyon Fest: GPR, Heet Deth, Quits, Moon Pussy, Shiny Around the Edges When: 7 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: The inaugural Ghost Canyon Fest kicks off with a slate of prominent bands in the noise rock and experimental rock world with the demented psychedelic noise of GPR, garage industrial psych group Heet Deth from Chicago, Denver noise rock legends Quits, Moon Pussy, the band that somehow combines sharp, absurd humor with harrowing and thrilling blasts of noisy not-punk and noisy shoegaze group Shiny Around the Edges from Loveland, Colorado.
The National, photo by Josh Goleman
Friday and Saturday | 08.11–08.12 What: The National w/The Beths When: 7 Where: The Mission Ballroom Why: The National is one of the most prominent bands out of the modern indie rock era that has somehow managed not to slide into a creatively rote niche. Its latest album First Two Pages of Frankenstein has a title that should appeal to literature nerds but it’s not merely clever rhetoric. It is an album that came together during a time of great uncertainty and personal turmoil for the band once its tour for I Am Easy to Find (2019) was canceled when the whole live music world shut down for an extended time and the aftermath of that time of imposed performance exile. Frontman and lyricist Matt Berninger, according to a January 2023 article in Clash, struggled to come up with lyrics and melodies for a ninth album and things seemed up in the air but when taking some different songwriting approaches and writing from what feels like a raw and vulnerable place the resultant record seems much more introspective and reflective than usual even for a band not short on those qualities. Like a big reassessment of life and what has helped define it for you and the foundations of your identity. The single “Eucalyptus” contains references to The Cowboy Junkies and The Afghan Whigs and searching through the things in your life that you don’t notice until you’re forced to look at them and these disparate details embodied in the things in your possession and what they represent or represented and the memories they stir and the conflicted swirl of emotions that can sink you except the song, like the rest of the album, feels like a gentle, personal reckoning and returning to find what makes life meaningful all over again on a new basis, a process which can be rough and make you feel like you’ve not found your footing but The National has give us music to perhaps ease this process with a spirit of solidarity that has in many ways always been a hallmark of its songwriting. Also, don’t miss The Beths from Auckland, New Zealand whose eclectic indie rock is in the grand tradition of Kiwi Rock in which all the bands sound different from each other and all manage to write incredibly catchy and clever music that could have come from nowhere else with an idiosyncratic style that can be easy to miss because the groups are so energetic and charming. The Beths’ fusion of fuzzy psych pop and shoegaze soundscaping at times in equal measure will take you by surprise even if you’ve seen them before.
New Standards Men, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.12 What:Ghost Canyon Fest Matinee Show: Mat Ball (BIG|BRAVE), Many Blessings, New Standards Men/Sex Funeral and ABANDONS When: 1 Where: Mutiny Information Café Why: This afternoon matinee edition of Ghost Canyon Fest includes a solo performance from Mat Ball of BIG|BRAVE, the industrial noise stylings of Ethan McCarthy for his Many Blessings project, a collaborative set from post-rock/avant-garde rock band New Standards Men and free jazz weirdos Sex Funeral and heavy post-rock group ABANDONS from Denver.
Pleasure Venom, photo by Ismael Quantinillailliq
Saturday | 08.12 What:Ghost Canyon Fest Night 2: Pleasure Venom, Rick McGuire (Pile), Big’N, Endless, Nameless, Hoaries and Almanac Man When: 7/7:30 Where: Hi-Dive Why: The second night of Ghost Canyon fest will feature sets from avant-garage post-punk group Pleasure Venom, a solo set from Rick McGuire of noisy guitar post-punkers Pile, Chicago noise rock legends Big’N performing a rare live set after recently reforming, post-hardcore/post-shoegaze/post-rock heroes Endless, Nameless, fuzzy, angular post-punk group Hoaries from Texas and Almanac Man’s amplified noisy attitude and heavy riffs.
Mary Gauthier, photo by Alexa King Stone
Saturday | 08.12 What: Mary Gauthier w/Jaimee Harris When: 8-10 Where: Swallow Hill – Daniels Hall Why: Mary Gauthier lived a whole life before launching her professional music career at age 35 in the late 90s. As an orphan Gauthier started life in challenging circumstances and struggled with alcoholism, drug addition and emotional and physical abuse, particularly as a gay woman in the 60s and 70s. But she weathered these storms and tried college as a philosophy major before going to culinary school and opened a Cajun restaurant in Boston called Dixie Kitchen after which she named her 1997 debut album. Her latest record is 2022’s Dark Enough to See the Stars and she is currently touring a series of career retrospective shows that feature her songs, steeped in folk and country styles, that seem to fuse a hardened resolve with a raw vulnerability to produce a particular resonant body of work. If Tom Waits and Bob Dylan are fans of your music you’re probably doing something right. Gauthier is also a published author whose fiction has appeared in numerous books and magazines and her memoir and statement on art and a peek into her craft of songwriting Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting appeared in 2021 to great acclaim.
BIG|BRAVE, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 08.13 What:Ghost Canyon Fest Night 3: BIG|BRAVE, Masma Dream World, Church Fire, Dug, Flooding, Only Echoes, Abandoncy When: 6:30/7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: This final night of the Ghost Canyon Fest will be an opportunity to witness the thorny and elemental grandeur of BIG|BRAVE’s soundscapes, Masma Dream World’s unique sonic vision part spiritual performance art and part ambient composition, Church Fire bringing the heavy dance beats and catharsis of political commentary, Dug’s grindy noise rock, Flooding’s dark dream pop and post-punk, the post-metal and soaring melodies of Only Echos and Abandoncy’s riotous collision of guitar splinter and broken rhythms.
Bully, photo by Sophia Matinazad
Monday | 08.14 What:Bully w/Bev Rage & The Drinks When: 7 Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Alicia Bognanno helped to usher in the modern period of the fusion of grunge and modern indie rock with her band Bully in 2013. The singer and songwriter had earned a degree in audio recording and interned with Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studios where she recorded demos before moving to Nashville to work at Battle Tapes Recording as an engineer and at the music venue The Stone Fox. The early Bully records sure sounded like what might be dismissed as “neo-grunge” but Bognanno’s songwriting shined through the superficial comparisons and live Bognanno has an authenticity and command of the stage that’s mesmerizing and from there the music seems fresh and powerful and not like a throwback. The new Bully album Lucky For You is peak songwriting for Bognanno with her signature use of sonic bombast to contrast with an unvarnished introspection and emotional honesty. Some critics have described it as darker and perhaps moodier but the record’s candid observations and confessional quality is without doubt a great degree of its appeal.
Tuesday | 08.15 What: Everything is Terrible Kidz Klub! 2023 Summer Tour When: 6 Where: Convergence Station Why: Since 2007 Everything Is Terrible! has mined the detritus of media cultural artifacts from thrift stores, garage sales and the like in the form of VHS tapes and in more recent years some streaming video for content to recontextualize clips of the most absurd and awful videos into informative and hilariously disturbing new forms. EIT helped to propel trash media culture into the mainstream of meme-making with its now nine found footage documentaries that shine a light on what our culture has produced and often decided to forget the way it does the rest of disposable media that reveals often uncomfortable truths about the submerged aspirations and dreams of our collective, modern civilization. Since 2009 the artist collective has toured with screenings of its films and have incorporated a puppet variety show and music to add just that special little layer of the surreal and weird to enhance the viewing experience of the people that show up. Perhaps the collective’s most infamous project is its goal of collecting thousands of VHS copies of the 1996 film Jerry Maguire with the goal of building a pyramid from the tapes in the desert. As of May 2023, the collection has reached 40,000+ copies and counting. In 2022 EIT released perhaps its greatest and most coherent creation to date, Kidz Klub! The film draws on the sheer dreck of the most misguided and misconceived television and home video programming made for children designed to educate and in many cases indoctrinate the nation’s youth. Even a casual viewing of the movie reveals recurring themes that edited together seem to be a continuous narrative with a touch of hypnotic reputation. For this iteration of the collective’s creative output the soundtrack pulled both from the original source material and original composition establishes the perfect air of the hyper real and otherworldly at once. In the live setting the movie is split up into roughly 5-10 minute sections interspersed with the puppet show and dance and song routines giving it the air of a psychedelic variety show in real time. It’s the kind of thing no one was asking for but which we all needed as a dose of sanity in a world in which we are increasingly bombarded with random content disconnected from the endless stream that is life itself. Listen to our interview with Commodore Gilgamesh of Everything Is Terrible! on the Queen City Sounds Podcast here.
Sir Chloe, photo by Grant Spanier
Tuesday and Wednesday | 08.15 and 08.16 What: Beck, Phoenix, Japanese Breakfast and Sir Chloe When: 5/5:45 Where: Red Rocks Why: This duo of concerts features three generations of the best alternative/indie rock bands of the past 30 years. Beck made great waves in the mid-90s as alternative rock was flaming out as a movement by not being limited to narrow genres of rock. He went beyond the more creative singer-songwriter and folk rock sound of his early music into more and more sonically adventurous records throughout the 90s and beyond establishing an idiosyncratic vision that connected with an audience that wasn’t ready to embrace a mediocre creative conformity. Phoenix from Versaille, France, launched in 1995 the same time as labelmates Air. Whereas the latter perfected atmospheric, experimental lounge pop, Phoenix went on to a career of different kind of sophisticated synth pop. Most American audiences probably first heard the group, at least those with a taste for arthouse cinema, in the soundtracks of Lost in Translation and Shallow Hal. But the group broke out of cult band status following the release of 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and undeniably appealing singles like “Lisztomania” and “1901.” 2022’s Alpha Zulu proved that Phoenix wasn’t out of ideas and had absorbed recent production ideas and utilized that in the songwriting itself. Japanese Breakfast started as a side project for Michelle Zauner then also of indie rock band Little Big League. But with the new band Zauner had the full freedom to use it as a vehicle for not only writing songs about the tragedies in her personal life but also to transform her creative expression completely and after the first album Zauner proved herself entirely capable of writing ambitious art rock as well as heartfelt synth pop as well as evocative soundtrack work. Sir Chloe is at the beginning of a similar arc of development with the 2023 release of its debut album I Am the Dog with its knowing songs exploring identity and the roots of one’s yearnings and how that can shape the course of lives in ways both unexpected and seemingly inevitable. The songs are a mixture of the ethereal and introspective and more thorny and gritty that might be favorably compared to the early albums of St. Vincent.
Shamarr Allen, photo by B Dragon
Wednesday | 08.16 What: Shamarr Allen When: 6 Where: Dazzle Why: Shamarr Allen has been a professional musician in his hometown of New Orleans since he was a teenage member of Rebirth Brass Band. Allen grew up playing trumpet in a musical family and steeped in the rich and diverse musical traditions and legacies of the city as reflected across his varied and active career. Allen has cited Willie Nelson as his favorite songwriter and Prince, Pharrell Williams, Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones as influences. Allen calls his style “bridge music” because it brings together a variety of sounds and musical leanings. He has collaborated with Harry Connick, Patti LaBelle, Lenny Kravitz, Willie Nelson and local legends Galactic. In 2009 he released his debut solo album and performed the National Anthem for President Barack Obama in New Orleans which lead to an invitation to play at the Governor’s Ball at the White House and serving as a musical/cultural ambassador for the United States to Brazil, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Congo. In 2020 Allen established Trumpet Is My Weapon, a gun exchange program following the death of a nine-year-old and the wonding of two other children in a shooting in New Orleans. In 2023 Allen released his latest album True Orleans 2 (due August 18, 2023), a sonically inventive set of songs that is at times reminiscent of a great southern hip-hop album but one informed by pop songcraft, R&B, soul and jazz and long on wit and sharp social observation.
Dead On A Sunday, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.18 What: Dead On A Sunday w/Haunt Me and Hex Cassette https://www.bluebirdtheater.net/events/detail/476291 When: 8 Where: Bluebird Theater Why: Denver-based post-punk band Dead On A Sunday is headlining this hometown show ahead of its extensive tour in September and October. As for the variety of post-punk think somewhere between darkwave and alternative hard rock depending on the song and release. But however the style might be described these people have a sense of rock theater in a way that seems taboo among local bands in general more like an L.A. band with a glam rock/art rock attitude. Haunt Me is a darkwave duo whose fog enshrouded live show does nothing to hide the joyful energy of its songwriting that seems to contrast with the melancholic subject matter of its lyrics. Hex Cassette is the one man EBM blood cult whose wickedly humorous stage presence, often cajoling and goading the audience, is all part of a delivery system for well crafted industrial dance music that he often says is about death but which is more often than not stories with actual poignancy or at least melodramatic fictionalizing of real life events to highly entertaining effect.
Sunday | 08.20 What:Jess Williamson w/Snakes and Patrick Dethlefs When: 7 Where: Globe Hall Why: Acclaimed songwriter is making an appearance in Denver in support of the July release of her new album Time Ain’t Accidental. The latter allows for subtle musical interplay to frame and accent Williamson’s expressive voice and allowing it to guide the rhythm and pace in an almost intuitive fashion as she sings vulnerable and open songs about heartbreak and personal rediscovery and self-reconciliation coming to terms with missteps and coming out of a prolonged period of isolation and stasis. While Williamson’s frustrations are on display on the album it always seems, even when painfully honest, to be rendered in terms that undisguised but gentle and never simplistic. Williamson has never been one to mince words as a songwriter but on this new record her approach seems to be one anchored even more in rich personal detail that seem immediately relatable and which resonate widely.
Vision Video, photo courtesy the artists
Tuesday | 08.22 What: Vision Video w/Urban Heat and Redwing Blackbird When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Vision Video is the unabashedly Goth and New Wave-inflected post-punk band from Athens, Georgia. They look the part. They act the part. Singer/guitarist Dusty Gannon even has a hilarious yet endearing and engaging “Goth Dad” persona in his social media presence with videos of advice and information about the subculture for younger Goths everywhere. But the songs are incredibly thoughtful, well crafted and not a cliché and the live show is impassioned and commanding. Urban Heat from Austin, Texas is also a post-punk band whose focus appears to be the more electronic end of that with soul style vocals but with a sensibility akin to that of Sisters of Mercy but more synth pop. Redwing Blackbird from Denver has similarly-minded aesthetics but with a robustly, shoegaze-inflected guitar style to bolster the electronic side of the songwriting.
W.I.T.C.H., photo by Tom Murphy
Wednesday | 08.23 What:W.I.T.C.H. w/Metius (Jacco Gardner) When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: W.I.T.C.H. is the legendary Zamrock band making its second appearance in as many years in Denver bringing its fun-loving psychedelic rock that threads seamlessly together blues and garage rock and more traditional African popular musical forms.
Troller, photo courtesy the artists
Thursday | 08.24 What:The Body w/Troller and Dead Times When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: The Body is the experimental metal duo originally from Providence, Rhode Island but now based out of the opposite end of the country in Portland, Oregon. Since 1999, Chip King and Lee Buford have pushed the boundaries of extreme music by switching up the content of the music and tweaking the subtleties of tone and rhythm all while often still sounding like one of the most monolithic and elegantly punishing bands around. The Body has also worked in collaboration with numerous bands over the last two and a half decades and one of the most fascinating of these partnerships yielded the 2021 album with BIG|BRAVE called Leaving None but Small Birds, a haunted folk album. But whatever the configuration, The Body brings the intensity and catharsis at every show. Troller from Austin, Texas lets the weightiness of its lyrics and the deep mood of its compositions provide the heaviness of the music. Before it became a trendy underground style Troller was crafting evocative darkwave songs led by melodic bass lines provided by vocalist Amber Star-Goers and enshrouded in transporting electronics from synthesist and rhythm programmer Adam Jones (also of S U R V I V E, the band that wrote the theme music for Stranger Things) and guitarist/engineer Justin Star-Goers. The sound design approach to the songwriting lends it a cinematic quality that has always set the band apart from other groups that might be put under that darkwave umbrella. In 2023 Troller released its latest opus Drain via Relapse. There are a few bands calling themselves Dead Times but this one is the melodic hardcore/noise punk band from Austin.
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 08.24 What: My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult w/ADULT. and Kanga When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult is currently touring celebrating its 36 years as a band with a set list that focuses on the group’s first decade. The band’s campy, industrial disco sleaze has always demonstrated a more fun and lighthearted side of industrial culture while offering a distinctive visual and musical style in its bombastic live shows. By the time Thrill Kill Kult appeared in The Crow (1994), the band had already been staples of the more underground end of alternative rock write large but its performance in the film was the perfect embodiment of the aesthetics of the movie. ADULT. is the great industrial post-punk duo from Detroit whose music of the past few years has really been the musical reflection of the conflicted and dystopian times we’ve been going through with a world on the brink of domination by authoritarian regimes and the already unfolding disastrous consequences of climate change with little to no vision and action by world leaders. ADULT.’s music is an act of human solidarity and a catharsis of ambient despair. KANGA is a Los Angeles-based producer whose dusky pop music is darkwave adjacent but also adjacent to a more dance beat infused chillwave and vaporwave with sultry vocals. It might be more apt to compare KANGA to the likes of Charli XCX and Jessie Ware than an artist out of the Goth world.
Oxymorrons, photo by Tommy Vo
Friday | 08.25 What: Corey Taylor w/WARGASM and Oxymorrons When: 6 Where: Fillmore Auditorium Why: Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor is headlining this show and touring in support of his 2023 album CMF2. The solo stuff is more melodic hard rock and serviceable enough for what it is proving the singer/musician is capable of more than the screamy and more extreme vocals for which he’s known in his other bands. UK-based post-hardcore/electronic duo WARGASM is one of the opening acts and its sound is like an update on 90s industrial rock but with much more interesting production akin to hyperpop club music. The other opener is Oxymorrons from NYC. Rap rock deservedly got a bad name in the 90s and 2000s and Oxymorrons’ mix of rock and roll attitude and musicianship and cloud rap style vocal production shouldn’t work but it somehow does because the performance fuses the swagger of both styles of music seamlessly and because it songs combine earworm melodies with a brashness of spirit. The band’s debut album Melanin Punk drops October 20 via Mascot Records.
Remi Wolf, photo courtesy the artist
Friday – Sunday | 08.25-08.27 What:Vortex When: Friday doors 4:30, Saturday and Sunday doors 1:30 Where: The Junkyard Why: This second annual Vortex festival at Meow Wolf will feature over this weekend performances and sets from international stars of techno, house, and various other branches of electronic music as well as indie rock and pop that may not yet be household names but are certainly rising talents. Headlining Friday night is renowned indie rock/bedroom pop phenom Remi Wolf who quickly went from high school contestant on American Idol to signee to Island Records and Virgin EMI a handful of years later and in 2023 Wolf performed at Coachella. Her funk and soul-flavored songs are a new interpretation and fusion of modern pop songcraft and classic R&B style vocals with conviction and idiosyncratic vision. That same night Denver experimental indie rock stars Kiltro will perform its own brand of Latin flavored IDM indie folk psychedelia.
Headlining Saturday and Sunday night is internationally beloved producer and musician GRiZ who incorporates live saxophone performance with electronic production fusing dubstep, his self-styled future funk and glitch. Sunday is a special showcase of his mixtape series called Chasing the Golden Era. Rumor has it these may be GRiZ’s last live sets. That same night is also a chance to catch TOKiMONSTA and her widely eclectic set of electronic dance music that runs that gamut of hip-hop, IDM, house, R&B, pop and beyond.
TOKiMONSTA, photo courtesy Meow WolfPortrayal of Guilt, photo by Addrian Jafaritabar
Saturday | 08.26 What: Portrayal of Guilt, Fearing, Spine, Gag, Edith Pike, Cloakroom, Royal Drug, Raw Breed and Candy Apple When: 5 Where: D3 Why: This mini-festival will include sets from some of the best bands out of modern hardcore and experimental music. Portrayal of Guilt has long mingled noise rock, black metal, grind and post-hardcore with live shows that are caustic and forceful. Its latest album is Devil Music which released on Run For Cover in April 2023. The darkly cast tones and harrowing lyrics have been part of Portrayal of Guilt’s aesthetic from early on but this time the music seems a tad spookier and reaching to genuinely more pained places in the psyche. Edith Pike and Raw Breed are noteworthy hardcore bands from Denver but whose music isn’t cookie cutter and more with flavors of noise rock in the mix. Same with Candy Apple whose music is like a highly energetic cross between Hüsker Dü and one of those early straight edge bands. It shouldn’t work but it does. The bands that will be very different from the rest are deathrock band Fearing and heavy shoegaze band Cloakroom but they’ll also help to give this show a nice break from all groups with a decided root in hardcore.
The Dendrites, Lateralus Photography
Saturday | 08.26 What: The Dendrites 20th Anniversary Show w/The Repercussions, Potato Pirates and Denver Vintae Reggae Society When: 7 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: The Dendrites have been arguably Denver’s most prominent ska band for decades at this point and its seven members deliver a high energy show that redeems a modern form of a style of music that nearly got ruined by some of its 90s cognates. Same with The Repercussions whose own history with the music goes back to the 90s. Potato Pirates are one of the great ska punk bands of today who went from emerging from early street punk origins into a tight and popular band. And of course a night like this wouldn’t be complete without Denver Vintage Reggae Society.
Fear in 2013, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.26 What:Fear w/CH3, Frontside Five and Sack When: 6 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Fear is one of the first wave of Los Angeles punk bands that was captured so dramatically by Penelope Spheeris’ 1981 punk documentary classic The Decline of Western Civilization. Notorious for misanthropic lyrics but really irreverent and dark yet sharply observed humor, Fear has nevertheless written some of punk’s most recognizable anthems in “Let’s Have a War,” “Beef Bologna,” “I Don’t Care About You” and “I Love Livin’ in the City” from its 1982 landmark The Record. Channel 3 were an early hardcore band also from Southern California that helped establish the sound and ethos of that early hardcore era and joined for this show by Denver street punk greats Frontside Five.
City and Colour, photo by Vanessa Heins
Tuesday | 08.29 What:City and Colour w/Jaye Jayle When: 7 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: Dallas Green performing as City and Colour is one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of the last couple of decades. But before his current arc of songwriting, Green sang and played rhythm guitar for melodic post-hardcore group Alexisonfire (which he rejoined in 2015 when that group reconvened). But it was that level of detailed songcraft and passionate vocals that he has brought to City and Colour. The songs for the project Green had been writing and honing since his mid-teens and when Sometimes released in November 2005 its vulnerable and personally insightful songs cast in a folk-adjacent style struck a chord with fans. For the next some eighteen years Green has developed his sound and used City and Colour as a vehicle for his more introspective and atmospheric musical expressions and in March 2023 he released his latest album The Love Still Held Me Near. It’s a Green’s most sonically rich and widely expressive record to date and delves into the depths of loss and how to move through low points in the heart while honoring the connections you had with people you won’t be seeing around anymore. The subject matter is weighty but the album in its delicacy of sentiments and soaring melodies embodies a perspective that embraces human imperfection and limitations without being sunk by them. Opening the show is Jaye Jayle aka Evan Patterson who releases his own more acoustic and experimental singer-songwriter-oriented material. Patterson too has had his own past in acclaimed post-hardcore music as a former member of the influential mathcore band Breather Resist and later as the more heavy noise rock group Young Widows. His recently released Don’t Let Your Love Life Get You Down is cosmically pastoral and tinged with spectral fuzz and electronic sounds like a brooding, post-punk, psychedelic country record.
Poppy, photo by Le3ay
Tuesday | 08.29 What:Poppy and Pvris w/Tommy Genesis When: 6 Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Poppy and Pvris bring their Godless/Goddess co-headlining tour to Denver. Both artists have made a career of genre-bending and breaking music that incorporates a strong visual element in both performance and in creative and innovative music videos. Poppy with a background in dance brings a real sense of choreographed movement to the stage show with music that is simultaneously a sort of hyperpop and heavy metal. Her song “Bloodmoney” garnered her a 2021 Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance, a first for a solo female artist. For this show you’ll probably get a preview of the forthcoming album Zig, due to drop on October 27, 2023. Pvris dropped its own new album Evergreen on July 14, 2023 and its lead single “Goddess” with its refreshingly racy music video is a little like a Charli XCX song gone industrial rock.
Guerilla Toss, photo by Ebru Yildiz
Wednesday | 08.30 What:Guerilla Toss w/DJ Bhodi When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Guerilla Toss is flying into Denver for this one-off “Day Zero Party” to perform two sets of its brilliantly entrancing fusion of Krautrock, psychedelia, improvisational pop and art rock. Its latest album Famously Alive (2022, Sub Pop) bubbled up out of the stasis of the early pandemic as a statement of vitality and an expression in defiance of the political and cultural impulse toward austerity. From its early days Guerilla Toss has brought a rich tapestry of colorful sonics to the music and live show and with two sets of music, who can say exactly what that will look like, for this event you’ll probably get to see a vibrant representation of what the band has done before and where it’s going next.
Enumclaw plays Globe Hall 11.3 and 11.4, photo by Colin MatsuiJeffrey Lewis, photo from artist Bandcamp
Tuesday | 11.01 What: Jeffrey Lewis w/Gila Teen and Emily Frembgen When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Jeffrey Lewis is a cartoonest best known for his long running Fuff series (formerly Guff) and one of the leading lights of what some music commentators have dubbed the “antifolk” movement of the 1990s and 2000s. What that means in practice is very lo-fi sometimes folk-punk songs that are stories from everyday life of an unvarnished honesty that fans of artists like Daniel Johnston, Wolf Colonel and Moldy Peaches will appreciate for how it makes few concessions to commercial music convention in the songwriting, the raw performances and in the released recordings. But there’s something real and emotionally resonant that feels like something that isn’t mass produced the way a lot of commercial pop and non-pop music lending the music a quality that isn’t just vital but life-giving. Similarly-minded formerly Colorado-based, experimental folk pop artist Emily Frembgen is on the bill as is the post-punk/avant-emo/heart-on-sleeve weirdo pop duo Gila Teen.
Tuesday | 11.01 What:Mercyful Fate w/Kreator and Midnight When: 6 Where: The Fillmore Auditorium Why: Mercyful Fate was a band that was part of the first wave of black metal during its initial run from 1981-1985. Fronted by King Diamond, a theatrical vocalist whose operatic vocals meshed well with the progressive, melodic guitar work and with its sinister stage presence the group exerted a massive influence on thrash and death metal on the musical level and in terms of aesthetics and the subject matter of its lyrics. Its first two albums Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath are rightfully considered genre standouts. It might be said that the outfit sounded like an evil version of Judas Priest but its songwriting was markedly different with progressive rock roots more obvious. After Mercyful Fate split in 1985 King Diamond went on to a respectable and arguably equally influential career with a band under his name. But from 1993 and onward the band has spent periods reunited, releasing new material along the way. It’s just fortunate that this show is happening on the Day of the Dead with thrash legends Kreator also sharing the stage.
Polly Urethane in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 11.01 What:Sloppy Jane w/Niis and Polly Urethane When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Sloppy Jane is a post-punk band from Los Angeles whose 2021 album Madison is an orchestral and baroque pop affair more akin to something in the realm of a 2000s chamber pop band than its earlier sound, a raw, dark punk sound. Founded by Haley Dahl at age fifteen the group’s 2015 debut EP Sure-Tuff sounds like hours of absorbing Hole, Lydia Lunch and early death rock and moving onto the realm of underrated art punk bands like Mika Miko. In the early years of the band a bassist named Phoebe Bridgers added to the mix before moving on to an acclaimed singer-songwriter career of her own and establishing Saddest Factory, the label that is home to Madison. Niis, also from Los Angeles, sounds founded on similar roots as Sloppy Jane but with a more cutting and fuzzy sound yet the same kind of emotionally stirring and ragged exuberance. Its cover of Elastica’s “Connection” from its 2020 Not Niis EP captures the unhinged spirit of the original in a more punk mode. Opening act Polly Urethane combines an elemental kind of performance art with eruptive emotional energy with the elegance of classical music sensibilities and distills it into an unforgettable live show that feels like anything could happen.
Magdalena Bay photo by Lissyelle Laricchia
Wednesday | 11.02 What: Magdalena Bay w/BAYLI When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Magdalena Bay is a synth pop duo based out of Los Angeles. Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin met while in high school as part of a music program but formed their own progressive rock band before forming the current project in 2016. With some early releases under its belt, Magalena Bay dropped its debut full length Mercurial World in October 2021 but haven’t been able to properly tour in support of the album until now. The album like the group’s website taps into some retro aesthetics and uses them in a self-aware but creative new ways. The website mercurialworld.com looks like an old Geo Cities website and all across the record one hears sampling of 8-bit sounds that give it a touch of grit while perhaps invoking the sounds of artists like Charli XCX and the original Crystal Castles. Opening act BAYLI recently released her Stories 2 EP and lead single “act up” and the attendant music video presents a complex and nuanced take on relationships and identity and the ways we interact with the world around us. Its sultry vibes and synth infused R&B sound isn’t so easily defined by narrow genre designations as its themes utilize a strong but gentle pop hook that renders it possible to accomplish in under three minutes what an entire movie can often fail to accomplish with nearly as much grace and poetry.
BAYLI, photo by Javier LuggageEnumclaw, photo by Colin Matsui
Thursday and Friday | 11.03 and 11.04 What: Illuminati Hotties w/Enumclaw and GUPPY When: 7 (11.03) and 8 (11.04) Where: Globe Hall Why: Enumclaw’s new album Save the Baby is an update on its raw and vulnerable sound somewhere on the outer fringes of an unlikely alchemy of post-punk and emo. The band has always been adept at building an inspired imperfection into its songwriting in a manner similar to what Dinosaur Jr has done since its own inception. The emotional core is what hits the hardest and the vocals are a little rough around the edges but seem to somehow fit the moment perfectly. For the new record Enumclaw has refined the raw power of Jimbo Demo and tightening the dynamics without sacrificing the unvarnished feel of the music that made it so appealing from the beginning. It’s fairly rare that someone more or less begins their music career as a recording engineer but that’s what Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties did before she got her musical project off the ground in 2017. In 2021 Illuminati Hotties released its second album Let Me Do One More and reaffirmed the project’s status as expert purveyors of punk infused pop hooks and imaginative song titles and subjects like “Threatening Each Other re: Capitalism” and “Joni LA’s No. 1 Health Goth.” Fortunately, the songwriting is fully capable of embodying the implied social critique with the meta humor one would hope to hear. GUPPY from Los Angeles somehow makes delicate guitar work and twee sensibilities come off as punk and its 2022 album Big Man Says Slappydoo has enough pop culturally aware irreverent humor to seal its punk bonafides.
Cuffed Up, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 11.04 What: Cuffed Up w/Shadow Work and Wiff When: 6/6:30 Where: HQ Why: Cuffed Up from Los Angeles came together in 2018 inspired in part by the post-punk coming out of Ireland and the UK in the 2010s. Acts like Fontaines DC, IDLES and Shame set a template of politically conscious rock music with a personal immediacy set to a headlong pace and imaginative, atmospheric guitar work and impassioned vocals. With two EPs under its belt including the 2020 self-titled and 2021’s Asymmetry, Cuffed Up is proving itself to coming to be worthy of its influences. This is a bit of a one-off show in Denver hinting that maybe Cuffed Up is working with a local producer or album mixer but whatever the reason for this jaunt from California it’s a rare opportunity to catch the band before it becomes the subject of much buzz.
Friday | 11.04 What: Os Mutantes w/Claude Fontaine https://www.bluebirdtheater.net/events/detail/435716 When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Fitting that legendary and influential Brazilian psychedelic rock and Tropicália band Os Mutantes are touring in the wake of its home country’s recent election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva aka Lula to the presidency over his fascistic opponent former president Jair Bolsonaro. The band was associated with the dissident movement in the late 1960s during the then Brazilian dictatorship so it’s playful and otherworldly music had a subversive element and a soundtrack to a countercultural moment. Its 1968 self-titled album is a bonafide classic of world psychedelic music and Os Mutantes had a bit of an international following before splitting in 1978. The band reunited in 2006 and has been touring on and off since and having released three new albums following that reconvening operations.
Townies, photo by Mike Clark
Friday | 11.04 What: Hi-Dive Anniversary Night 1: The Spits, Zebroids, Colfax Speed Queen, Townies When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: The Hi-Dive has been operating since early November 2003 and will celebrate the occasion with two nights of shows including this oe with the garage punk legends The Spits, punk rock tricksters Zebroids, psychedelic garage phenoms Colfax Speed Queen and Townies, a band of Denver expatriates to Trinidad who have an element of humor at the core of its identity of the band despite having serious rock songwriting chops and musicianship.
Of Feather and Bone, photo by Alvino Salcedo
Saturday | 11.05 What: Hi-Dive Anniversary: Warthog, Of Feather and Bone, Candy Apple and Spiritual Poison https://hi-dive.com/event/warthog-of-feather-and-bone-candy-apple-tba When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: The Hi-Dive Anniversary festivities continue for a second night with veteran, NYC thrash crossover quintet Warthog, psychedelic death metal legends Of Feather and Bone, noise rock/hardcore trip Candy Apple and Ethan McCarthy’s other noise project, the more ambient and orchestrated sound environment Spiritual Poison.
Kevin Morby, photo by Johnny Eastlund
Saturday | 11.05 What: Kevin Morby w/Coco https://www.gothictheatre.com/events/detail/?event_id=427528 When: 8 Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Kevin Morby came to prominence in experimental folk group Woods when he was living in NYC in the mid-2000s and then with his band The Babies with Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls. But once he moved to Los Angeles he firmly established his solo career with the 2013 debut album under his own name, Harlem River, a record paying homage to his former home city. Morby’s creative arrangements transcend specific music styles so that when you hear his music its the songwriting that catches your attention more so than trying to frame it into a stylistic context. Maybe its his attention to rhythm and structure with texture in the flow of melody like he listened to a lot of mid-70s Sly & The Family Stone, Devendra Banhart and the breadth of Bob Dylan’s output. His latest album This Is a Photograph is his most thematically and emotionally direct album to date and its pastoral introspection doesn’t feel like a pose or pretense but rather a vehicle at illuminating honest and deeply observant personal insights. Opening act Coco released its self-titled debut album in 2021 and the project includes Maia Friedman (of Dirty Projectors, Uni-Ika Ai), Dan Moland (Lucius, Chimney) and Oliver Hill (Pavo Pavo, Dustrider). There is a great use of space in which the group casts sultry moods and soulful soundscapes to accompany gorgeously melodic and warm yet lonely vocal harmonies. It’s the kind of slowcore pop one might expect more out of Low when that band isn’t going fully into gloriously avant-garde mode. The elegant bass lines and and a willingness to let the physicality of the performance of the music to leak into the recording gives it an immediacy and grounding that matches the tenor of the way the musicians sync so perfectly with their voices.
Cloakroom, photo by Vin Romero
Sunday | 11.06 What:Cloakroom w/Seer Believer and Cherished When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Cloakroom’s 2022 album Dissolution Wave might be seen as a Utopian concept space rock album about creating a parallel new world to process and replace the world as we know it with all its environmental degradation, political and social decay, oligarchic domination and the commodification of all levels of our lived experience. It’s like a western doom record with the core idea being a technology, the generator of the titular energy, that obliterates all existing creative work and abstract thought including all ideologies, philosophy and much of what we take for granted as the foundations of our civilization. Except there is “the Spire and Ward of Song” that filter human imaginative accomplishments so that only the best ideas and creations can get through and fuel the continuation of the world. The album also finds the band branching even further into melodic accessibility with broad vistas of dream-like pop hooks drifting in distorted haze and sheets of discordant tones. The effect is mutually complementary. It’s also among the best shoegaze albums out of the past decade and the perfect blend of dense atmospherics and transporting tonal drifts. Opening are Denver shoegaze bands Seer Believer and Cherished, the latter being a group that seems to fit in well in this realm of music as well as post-punk for its vibrantly vulnerable moods.
Patriarchy, photo courtesy the artists
Monday | 11.07 What:Patriarchy w/Street Fever and Sell Farm, Kill You Club DJs When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Patriarchy is currently touring in support of its 2022 album The Unself and proving itself purveyors of a sound that perhaps has some roots in Gothic industrial sounds and saturated synth tones and a darker form of dance music. Fronted by Actually Huizenga, the group’s aesthetic perfectly blends the hyper real, stark visual style of 80s slasher films, Giorgio Moroder’s cinematic compositions, David Lynchian noir and both ancient and modern mythology for its performance style and the content of the music. It’s a band that embraces the theater of camp and its exploration of themes about sex and power in society and personal relationships is provocative and thought-provoking while delivering a bombastic and challenging music that is also danceable and joyous in its catharsis.
Echosmith, photo by Nightdove Studio
Tuesday | 11.08 What:Echosmith w/lostboycrow and Band Of Silver When: 7 Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Echosmith is a pop band that formed in 2009 in Chico, California. The former and current quartet are siblings Sydney, Noah, Graham and Jamie Sierota (Jamie having taken a break from the band from 2016-2022). Adopting the moniker when the group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2012 (previously having performed under the name Ready Set Go!), Echosmith released its debut album Talking Dreams in 2013 which yielded the hit single “Cool Kids” about not really fitting in with the popular crowd but being comfortable with being different. Following the performance and touring cycle behind the debut album on a major label, Echosmith found itself saying yes to every opportunity to advance the band and listening to industry people in helping to further their career and that meant long term that there wasn’t enough time to write and develop new material aside from an occasional EP until the group took steps to do so in time to issue the sophomore album Lonely Generation in January 2020. With the onset of the pandemic and the enduring and continuing impacts on tour and thus supporting a new record Echosmith had time to reassess its priorities and reconnect with the ideas and inspirations that initially got the group off the ground into a serious project and during that process went with a more open approach to its songwriting as heard on new singles “Hang Around” and “Gelato” hinting at the new chapter of Echosmith’s creative development. Recently “Cool Kids” garnered some renewed interest when it was used in TikTok videos by the likes of Demi Lovato, Drew Barrymore, Lindsay Lohan, Addison Rae and Hayley Kiyoko who felt the song expressed their own feelings about looking back and seeing how far they’ve come as people. The trend of utilizing the song has garnered more than six million views to date. Echosmith in response to that did a new version of the song with a new music video with “Cool Kids (our version).”
Charles Lloyd Ocean Trio, photo by Dorothy Darr
Tuesday | 11.08 What: Charles Lloyd Ocean Trio feat. Gerald Clayton and Anthony Wilson When: 6/7 Where: MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater 2644 W. 32nd Ave, Denver, CO 80211 Why: Charles Lloyd is a tenor saxophone and flute player and one of the few remaining legends of the age of jazz in which he performed with the likes of Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy and other leading talents of west coast jazz. He also formed his classic quintet in 1966 with Jack DeJohnette, Keith Jarrett and Cecil McBee. Their 1966 live album Forest Flower is said to have built an audience among fans of rock, fans of jazz and the hippie counterculture that was on the ascent. Lloyd was also an early adopter of incorporating the music of various cultures beyond his own American context into his compositions. Lloyd is also one of the most prolific artists of his generation who has continued releasing albums through ECM and Blue Note including the 2022 twin albums Trio: Chapel and Trio: Ocean. His imaginative arrangements and creative performance style both elegant and forceful has kept his work vital and consistently worth a listen.
Tegan and Sara, photo by Pamela Littky
Tuesday | 11.08 What: Tegan and Sara w/Tomberlin When: 7 Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Tegan and Sara Quin are twin sisters who formed their pop project Tegan and Sara in 1998 in Calgary. Multi-instrumentalists, the Quin sisters first started getting a name for themselves in underground music circles more widely with the release of the 2000 album The Business of Art. Warm vocal melodies, gentle yet exuberant energy and tender, declarative, observational song have been part of the Tegan and Sara sound since early on and even though they have refined their songwriting and performances and collaborated with numerous other musicians there is a comforting consistency in knowing that a new Tegan and Sara record will have some words of condolence, of emotional clarity and an articulation of struggle and finding the right tone of humor in unexpected situations. This is also true of their new album Crybaby which released a week after the October 14, 2022 premier of their TV series High School (based on their 2019 memoir of the same name) on Amazon Freevee. Of course the live show will feature the duo’s signature, highly engaging stage banter and commentary on the state of the world and sharing the bill for this night is experimental folk pop singer-songwriter Tomberlin whose 2022 album i don’t know who needs to hear this captured a relatable impulse to restlessness and personal set of songs the speak to a yearning for connection and tranquility in a particularly troubled time in human history.
Photo by Patrick Houdek
Wednesday | 11.09 What:Meat Wave w/Moon Pussy and SPELLS When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Chicago’s Meat Wave in true tradition of that city’s underground music is difficult to define precisely. Fans of noise rock in the Amphetamine Reptile and Touch and Go vein will find much to like. There is a touch of the angular intensity of Shellac there and a melancholic desperation channeled into cathartic bursts of noise that dissolve and reform in raging passages. Its 2022 album Malign Hex not only has one of the best album titles of the year but imbued with a seething urgency balanced with a touch of near meditative atmospherics that break and dive off into unexpected directions. It sounds both conflicted and resigned and isn’t that one of the prevailing spirits of recent years with thwarted and then blunted frustrations waiting for release but let to hang and rot and transform into a mutant form of lingering neuroses that is still playing out in the culture. Meat Wave gives that decay and psychic poison a thrilling outlet. Denver pop punk band SPELLS may seem like the party group of every season but its own lyrics give form to an adult will to do something of significance only to find that the machine has you locked in for a mediocre fate so you decide to mock the situation and make the kind of music that rebels against being so unceremoniously shuffled off into the extra person column of modern civilization. Moon Pussy and its wiry and explosive dynamics takes the surreal absurdity of the life and world we have to contend with every day and transmutes it into an irresistible sonic release that every time makes you think maybe rock music isn’t dead after all.
Moore Kismet, photo by Brandon Densley
Wednesday | 11.09 What:Slander: Thrive on the Rocks w/Virtual Riot, Moore Kismet, Leotrix and Saka When: 6 Where: Red Rocks Amphitheater Why: Slander’s Thrive on the Rocks show will of course feature the well-known dubstep band. But get there early because Moore Kismet will have a set. Their 2022 album UNIVERSE is a deep dive into exploring the possibilities of modern electronic dance music production and songwriting. Where another artist might embrace a trope of the style of music, Kismet takes it somewhere else with an imaginative playfulness that draws you in with every track with its attention to every sonic detail culminating in tracks that are flowing with energy but soothing to the mind at once. Its a riveting mix that is innovative and arresting in unpredictable ways even if you’re a veteran of electronic music or don’t even really get it. With its supreme sound design and creativity UNIVERSE is worth a listen and Moore Kismet is a young artist who seems set on helping to change the world of electronic dance music for the better.
MSPaint, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 11.10 What: Militarie Gun w/MSPaint, Public Opinion and Dirt Sucker When: 7 Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Militarie Gun is set to release the deluxe edition of its 2021 album All Roads Lead To The Gun on November 18. The Los Angeles-based hardcore band has those confrontational vocals but there’s something more arty about its guitar work and rhythms more like an old DC post-hardcore band of the 80s but more rooted in modern hardcore. Regardless of its actual roots it has earned a reputation as one of the most exciting bands out of the current wave of punk and hardcore. MSPaint from Hattiesburg, Mississippi sure seems to play some hardcore shows and the intensity of its performances are in that vein in terms of energy but its own music is a fusion of that spirit and bass and synth driven post-punk with songs that capture perfectly the fractured spirit of the American culture and consciousness. Its 2020 self-titled demo is truly one of the most original sounds coming out of the milieu of hardcore and the live show is a barn burner of inspiration and enthusiasm.
Hermanos Gutiérrez, photo by Larry Nlehues
Thursday | 11.10 What: Hermanos Gutiérrez When: 7 Where: Globe Hall Why: Hermanos Gutiérrez is a two piece band comprised of brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez. It’s an instrumental project that fuses the traditions and influences of their Ecuadorian mother and Swiss father and the 2022 album El Bueno Y El Malo sounds like a hybrid of Santo & Johnny, Neil Young’s soundtrack work for Dead Man (1995) and a more modern form of pasillo. The introspective pastoral quality of the music is gorgeously tranquil but suggests long journeys and a searching spirit as each song explores nuances of mood and emotion while capturing a sense of place both physically and in the mind.
Hex Cassette, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 11.11 What: Specter Poetics (Omaha goth pop), Jeff In Leather (Omaha techno pop), Hex Cassette, Pattern Screamers (angular new wave) When: 7:30 Where: Jester’s Palace Why: Denver Blood Cult presents a night of darkwave from Nebraska but also includes a performance from Denver confrontational industrial dance legend in the making Hex Cassette. His friendly cajoling of the audience from stage paired with music that is aimed at evoking a spirit of excitement in the face of a bevy of overwhelming challenges internal and external. Pattern Screamers might be described as an art punk band based purely on its 24-Hour Write-A-Record Challenge EP and the song “Grocery Store” and “Internet.” Specter Poetics bridges the worlds of synth-infused post-punk and dark New Wave revival. Jeff In Leather is more techno dream pop dance music style.
Saturday | 11.12 What: Mister Water Wet, M. Sage, snowfloer and Aspen Colorado When: 8 Where: Glob Why: Mister Water Wet is a Kansas City-based artist whose prepared environments and ambient drones found an especially evocative form on the 2022 album Significant Soil. M. Sage spent many years helping to keep Fort Collins weird with his experimental pop bands and his own tape collage style experiments in creating unique soundtracks to spaces of his own imagining. Aspen Colorado is a side project of performance artist/experimental modern classical/industrial darkwave artist Polly Urethane. Might be the only performance of Aspen Colorado and this is your chance to catch what will likely be an interesting showing of that. Snowfloer is Derrick Bozich’s solo project and you may know him as a guitarist in Sound of Ceres and formerly of Ancient Elk and Grease Pony among other projects more in the realm of indie rock.
Holy Fawn, photo by Matt Cardinal
Sunday | 11.13 What:Holy Fawn w/SOM and Grivo When: 6:30 Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Holy Fawn from Phoenix, Arizona is a four-piece that has been exploring and evolving a sound that brings together an introspective ethereal soundscape with a heaviness of mood that reflects a depth of feeling found on all of its recorded output. From its 2015 debut EP Realms to its 2022 album Dimensional Bleed one hears in the music of Holy Fawn expansive melodies and tonal brightness paired with a textural grittiness that feels like a cathartic and transcendent journey into deep emotional spaces. In that sound one hears echoes of obvious influences in realms of shoegaze, post-rock, black metal and the more atmospheric post-hardcore and emo with lush swarms of intricate guitar and intertwining rhythms. But there is also an element of musique concrète to the songwriting bringing in field recordings and tape collages to augment a sense of layered meaning and lending Dimensional Bleed in particular a cinematic quality that can create a rippling shift of sonic focus in every moment of a song. Without attachment to a specific style of music, Holy Fawn is able to deftly navigate and even embody multiple genres at once as suggested by the title of its new record. Also on the bill are two of the other current master practitioners of heavy atmospherics. SOM whose own 2022 album The Shape of Everything is brimming with uplifting and illuminating sonics and Grivo from Austin, Texas whose album Omit (also 2022) reveals a gift for shaping transporting drifts of luminously dense melodies.
Exhumed, photo courtesy the artists
Monday | 11.14 What:Exhumed w/Escuela Grind, Vitriol, Molder When: 7 Where: HQ Why: Deathgrind legends Exhumed bring the tour in support of its new album To The Dead to Denver. Formed in 1990 when vocalist and guitarist Matt Harvey was fifteen years old, Exhumed has gone on to carve out its place in the canon of extreme metal. Its gory lyrics have always been a metaphor for consumerism and political issues and like a good horror movie provides an outlet to explore the horrible things humans do to each other in the name of a religion, a political affiliation, out of greed or any other unsavory motivation. To The Dead is another fine visceral litany of raging dismay in Exhume’s prolific catalog.
Beth Orton, photo courtesy the artist
Monday | 11.14 What: Beth Orton w/Heather Woods Broderick When: 7 Where: Oriental Theater Why: Some people may know Beth Orton for her unforgettable collaborations with legendary producer and electronic music artist William Orbit in particular “She Cries Your Name” and her contributions to Orbit’s song “Water From a Vine Leaf.” But Orton’s album under her own name have been eclectic and sonically rich including her 2022 album Weather Alive. Orton’s hushed, soulful vocals and ear for deeply evocative melodies and unconventional production has garnered her a bit of a cult following over the past three decades. But Weather Alive is a bit of an unexpected entry in her catalog as its attention to detail and the crafting of atmosphere and mood in the context of masterfully crafted songs makes it perhaps her finest offering to date.
Masma Dream World, photo courtesy the artist
Tuesday | 11.15 What: DUMA w/Masma Dream World, Knife Band and Watching People Drown When: 7 Where: The Coast Why: Masma Dream World is the solo project of multi-disciplinary artist Devi Mambouka that incorporates elements of Butoh, drone, theta frequency and ambient music. In 2020 the debut Masma Dream World album Play at Night but likely didn’t get a proper airing to a wide public because November 2020 was in one of the depths of the ongoing pandemic. The record is a mesmerizing listen that taps into parts of your brain that feel like a direct connection to the subconscious and one’s ancient ancestors. The use of percussion and unconventional tonalities and shamanic vocals creates a real moment throughout the recording as Mambouka makes sacred psychological space with the music opening a path to a mindset that exists outside the usual and unrelenting considerations of narrow materialism and demands on time at every moment from multiple sources. The music is a journey into a headspace that is always there for you to access but which can seem blocked from your conscious mind by habits of living that prioritize the needs of a corrosive economic system rather than what fortifies your life for real and that of everyone else and the rest of the world generally. It’s a therapeutic listen that exists outside the bounds of musical convention. DUMA (“Darkness” in Kikuyu) is a band that has emerged out of the underground metal scene in Nairobi, Kenya. Martin Khanja and Sam Karugu released their2020 self-titled debut during the height of the current pandemic and thus international touring has been all but impossible now. So fans had to give its harrowing and stark and frenetic soundscapes online or through purchasing a record from Nyege Nyege Tapes. The haunting and riveting soundscapes crafted by the two musicians is unlike most anything you’re likely to hear anywhere that is undeniably rooted in grindcore but also lo-fi industrial and imbued with a political awareness and existential angst that gives it a rare and very real edge.
Brothertiger, photo by Tonje Thilesen
Tuesday | 11.15 What:Brothertiger w/Neo Tokyo Philharmonic When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Oh the 2022 self-titled Brothertiger album John Jagos demonstrates what sounds like a great deal of growth as a songwriter. Certainly he has emerged from being one of the leading lights of chillwave in the late 2000s and 2010s having grown beyond the confines of that microgenre. During the early months of the pandemic Jagos acquired vintage samplers and synths manufactured by Ensoniq employed by sophisti-pop artists of the 80s influenced by the lush and dusky sounds of Roxy Music’s 1982 album Avalon. Think ABC, Level 42, Prefab Sprout and Spandau Ballet and Everything but the Girl. There’s a soulful quality to the collection of songs that hearkens back to a time when people were coping with dire international tensions and the looming threat of authoritarian domination but needing an escape into something that released some of that tension. There is a soothing quality to the album whose lyrics also seem to look to a near future where people are able to build a life and forge one without as much of the persistent oligarchic boot to the neck where anyone can take the time out to contemplate what to do with your ample leisure time. It’s not an album that ignores the current state of things but one that recognizes that sometimes we all need an interlude out of that pressure for a bit and the ability of music to provide that emotional space.
No Age at Glob on August 28, 2013, photo by Tom Murphy
Wednesday | 11.16 What:No Age w/John Wiese and New Standards Men When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: No Age is a noise rock/art punk duo based in Los Angeles, California. Drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt and guitarist/vocalist Randy Randall had been in a band called Wives from 2001-2005 that had been a staple of the underground/DIY music world at the time. But Spunt and Randall scrapped the name and took their then musical ideas and recast their efforts as No Age with their first shows under the new moniker in early 2006 with their second show at the legendary DIY space The Smell in April of that year. From the beginning there was a refreshing lack of pretension and exuberance in the sound of No Age. Like a fusion of The Ramones at its most raw and the lo-fi experimentation and tape collage aesthetic of The Microphones. Within the often grainy and charmingly unvarnished early recordings one could hear a joyfulness and embrace of lived experiences that could contain and express a broad range of emotions and ideas in a manner often spirited and tender. There was always an element of vulnerability to No Age’s version of punk that transformed the music into something immediately accessible, like an unspoken invitation into a shared experience of thoughts and feelings it’s easy to think of going through alone and in isolation. No Age as artists and as a band have always approached its music and its operation as a band with a community spirit and that underlying ethos is something one an hear and feel in all of its albums and at its live performances. The group’s 2007 debut full length compilation of its early EPs and singles Weirdo Rippers (FatCat) is a fantastic introduction to the core No Age sound with a title that captures what you’re in for hearing, that is to say exciting music for people who embrace being different from mainstream expectation. From 2008-2013 No Age was signed to SubPop which helped to push the band to wider audiences. The most recent No Age album People Helping People (Drag City, 2022) is one of its most daring to date and bringing into the mix more fully the musique concrète element heard from its beginnings with gorgeously dream-like tape collages set alongside its signature vital rock songs. It may be the most fully realized No Age album to date and sonically among its most arresting. Opening the show are instrumental noise rock mutants New Standards Men who answer the question of what one might get if weirdos who were into Ruins, Talk Talk, Patrick Shiroishi, John Zorn and Tangerine Dream might do. Also noise legend John Wiese who has long been a part of the Southern California DIY underground.
Thursday | 11.17 What: Till The Teeth w/Pythian Whispers, Laudanum Quilt and Doc Box When: 8 Where: Glob Why: Till The Teeth is a Seattle based duo of Sandesh Nagaraj and Jonathan Rodriguez. Its releases thus far suggest a compositional style that employs techniques of soundscaping one most often associates with musique concrète, ambient, noise, prepared environment and ritual drone inspired in part by non-musical experiences, ideas and concepts whether cinematic, explorations of pure imagination or simply being struck by everyday occurrences and encounters. And the local openers come from a similar approach to making sound art. Laudanum Quilt whose prolific output for the last more than half a decade has put soundtracks to imagery, stories, quasi-mythologized personal experiences and the union of urban and rural environments. This author’s own project Pythian Whispers properly became a band when friends with a mutual interest in cinema, non-conventional music and other visual arts made music together and continued evolving beyond harsh ambient noise, experimental electronic music, drone and psychedelic abstract prog into whatever realms of sound came together through spontaneous improvisation.
Thursday | 11.17 What: Dead Boys w/The Briefs, Suzi Moon and Fast Eddy When: 7 Where: Oriental Theater Why: Dead Boys are an influential early punk band from Cleveland, Ohio whose only constant member Cheetah Chrome was also in proto-punk band Rocket From the Tombs with Peter Laughner who also contributed to the early music of post-punk legends Pere Ubu. The band’s 1977 debut Young, Loud and Snotty with its ramshackle sound and raw and abrasive style proved influential on punk and glam metal going forward. The group’s volatile energy yielded one more album We Have Come For Your Children (1978) before the band broke up for what would have been good in 1980 with lead singer Stiv Bators going on to pioneer a kind of glam death rock with Lords of the New Church. With some brief reunions since then lead guitarist Cheetah Chrome put together a line up of Dead Boys in 2017 that has been touring the classic material on a semi-regular basis.
Drab Majesty in 2019, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 11.18 What:AFI w/Drab Majesty When: 7 Where: Fillmore Auditorium Why: AFI is one of the longest running bands out of the first wave of emo and one of the genre’s most inventive and stylistically versatile. Bridging the worlds of the kind of “horror punk” one associates with the sound of the Misfits, post-hardcore and gothic rock, AFI reintroduced an unabashed visual style for its live performances early on as opposed to the usual punk street clothes style favored by many if not most bands out of punk and emo. Altogether the musical and performance ideas have long helped AFI to stand out from the music scenes with which it has been most often associated. And certainly the choice of post-punk/dream pop duo Drab Majesty as an opener for this tour is an inspired one since the group’s fans seem open to AFI’s proclivity for making music with a similar appeal and presentation. Those unfamiliar with Drab Majesty, its darkly dream pop post-punk is like a more haunting take on the kind of experimental guitar rock of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and a darker and more gritty flavor of the similarly gossamer toned and emotionally charged sound one hears in Cocteau Twins.
Yumi Zouma, photo by Nick Grennon
Friday | 11.18 What: Turnover w/Yumi Zouma and Horse Jumper of Love When: 7 Where: The Summit Music Hall Why: Turnover has come a long way since its more pop punk roots as heard on its 2013 debut album Magnolia. Its 2022 release Myself in the Way comes across as a hybrid of dream pop and indie R&B with some synth pop style. Yumi Zouma is the indie pop band from Christchurch, New Zealand whose 2022 album Present Tense has a paradoxically hushed enthusiasm with delicate songs buoyed by an energetic spirit. Horsejumper of Love is a post-punk band from Boston whose albums have been lumped under the designation of slowcore. But anyone that has seen the band knows there is an understated intensity and darkness to its live performances like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the kind of brooding and visceral quality to be heard there.
The Legendary Pink Dots in 2022, photo courtesy Randall Frazier
Saturday | 11.19 What:Legendary Pink Dots w/Orbit Service and The Drood When: 5 Where: Mercury Café Why: The Legendary Pink Dots have left an indelible imprint on the worlds of psychedelic rock, post-punk, Gothic rock, the avant-garde, noise, ambient, industrial, synth pop and electronic music since its inception in1980. Fronted by Edward Ka-Spel, the Pink Dots have evolved through various lineups and shifting musical styles exploring musical and non-directly musical ideas for over four decades now leaving in the wake of that path of experimentation and rich a prolific body of work all worth a listen. From the late 80s through the early 90s there was a sea change in the band’s music as its membership expanded and its songwriting style shifted toward the kinds of lush atmospherics and dreamlike melodies and textures of 1990’s Crushed Velvet Apocalypse and even more fully on the 1991 album The Maria Dimension. That era of the band reached wider audiences and established The Legendary Pink Dots as a cult band with a wide international following from the alternative rock era to this day. Its enigmatic yet colorful and highly emotionally charged story songs provide a kind of parallel narrative to established cultural paradigms, sagely commenting on the prevailing culture in which we all live and which we all navigate and offering insight into civilizational themes and expressing deeply personal reactions to and thoughts on he lived human experience. The group’s highly imaginative and creative music never abstracts feelings but finds a way to make the complicated and difficult explicable. The live shows are a cathartic celebration of life and dreaming and seeking and finding deeper meaning set to sonically rich and transporting soundscapes. In 2022 the Pink Dots released its latest album The Museum of Human Happiness on Metropolis Records and following that, welcomed long time booster, publicist, tour manager and friend Randall Frazier of Denver space rock/ambient band Orbit Service into the current lineup alongside Ka-Spel, long time multi-instrumentalist Erik Drost and live engineer/producer Joep Hendrikx. Opening this show will be Frazier’s psychedelic ambient group Orbit Service and psychedelic, art rock, post-punk mystics The Drood.
Cheap Perfume performs on November 30 at Hi-Dive, photo circa 2016 by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.19 What:Riot Grrrl Party feat. Cheap Perfume, Tammy Shine When: 6 Where: Mercury Café Why: This is an event hosted by Gogo Germaine whose book Glory Guitars recently released to critical acclaim as the highly entertaining and touching memoir of a teenage punk. This event in addition to performances by the powerful, feminist punk band Cheap Perfume and the solo project of Dressy Bessy frontwoman Tammy Ealom as Tammy Shine there will be live burlesque with Becky Taha’Blu, Paloma Nectar, Siouxsie Cupcakes and Siren Sixxkiller, then readings by Gogo Germaine and Hillary Leftwich with Molina Speaks perhaps MCing the evening.
Sunday | 11.20 What: Primo Premier Wrestling’s Emergence w/Wrestling Fiend: Arlo White and musical guest An Hobbes When: 5:45/6 Where: The Roxy Theatre Why: Arlo White has been involved in various ends of Denver music and art for decades with punk and art rock/concept bands like Dead Bubbles, Sparkle Jetts, The Buckingham Squares and others. He has also curated unique shows in a house space hosting the likes of Mercury Rev and Ken Stringfellow. Now White has assembled a performance as Wrestling Fiend. A lifelong fan of the gloriously absurd and dramatic art of professional wrestling and its stories and bombastic events, White reconnected with professional wrestling during the pandemic and found in it a path out of the stasis and despair of the current era. With his production company/media outlet Hypnotic Turtle he has teamed up with Colorado’s longest running independent wrestling promotion company Primos Premier Pro Wrestling. The show will feature pro wrestling, live painting and a musical performance from philosophical nerdcore rapper An Hobbes.
TITUS, photo courtesy the artist
Sunday | 11.20 What: Arrows In Action w/TITUS and Lady Denim When: 6:30 Where: Marquis Theater Why: TITUS has found a way to combine hip-hop and pop punk in a way that draws upon the virtues of both forms of music to make something that might not work with another person’s songwriting. His infectious guitar hooks and emotionally raw and vulnerable lyrics that resonate with the heart on sleeve style of the best pop punk and emo bands of the turn of the century while also informed by the instinct for authenticity that is the backbone of any hip-hop worth your time. The result is a refreshingly sincere body of work thus far including his singles “Love Myself” and “SiCK ABOuT U” that seem to eschew bravado and embrace a sensitive spirit. Opening on this tour with Gainesville, Florida-based Arrows in Action and its likeminded fusion of pop rock and even more tender than usual emo seems like a solid pairing.
Black Flag in 2019, photo by Tom Murphy
Monday | 11.21 What: Black Flag, TSOL, The Dickies, Total Chaos. https://theorientaltheater.com/event/396181/So-Cal-Punk-Invasion-Tour When: 6 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: This tour includes some of the most influential bands out of the Southern California punk underground of the late 70s and early 80s with godfathers of hardcore, Black Flag whose current shows manage to remind one of the brilliantly creative guitar work and rhythms that long time band leader Greg Ginn helped to usher in to a punk world that was increasingly becoming more conformist. TSOL too switched up its own sounds across decades rather than stay stuck in a musical rut and at times embracing a dark, moody post-punk sound alongside its searing hardcore style. The Dickies are one of the longest continually running punk bands in existence starting in the banner year for punk of 1977 and with songs informed by a healthy and irreverent sense of humor while early on helping to establish a style of music that would become pop punk.
The Garden, photo by Ashley Clue
Monday | 11.21 What:The Garden w/Machine Girl When: 7 Where: The Summit Music Hall Why: The Garden is a band formed by twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears and true to its name suggesting growth and evolution the group defies easy categorization. Sure you can see one of their exuberant live shows and hear the influence of pop punk, Green Day in particular, but its visual style is reminiscent of somehow both Suicidal Tendencies and that band’s own embrace of graffiti aesthetics and the kind of theatrical glam of Slipknot or more unlikely but possible Malfunktion, particularly on the singles for its 2022 album Horseshit on Route 66. But the music seems to dip into the realm of electronic music and art rock but thread that into its punk sensibilities completely for a sound that fits in with a modern disregard for narrow genre in songwriting. Which makes opener Machine Girl and its own industrial dance/glitchcore music and borderline unhinged performances seem like a natural choice and one for which its fans have been prepared with The Garden’s own evolution in daring new directions.
Oruã, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 11.22 What:Oruã, Laminate, Horse Bitch and Totem Pocket When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Oruã is a band from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that has for more than half a decade been crafting a particularly sonically dense blend of Krautrock, free jazz and Tropicalía. Its 2021 album Íngreme made more clear an incorporation of ideas from library music and indiepop. Also on the bill are Irish noise rock group Laminate, quirky, Denver-based pop punk indie folk mutants Horse Bitch and hazily atmospheric shoegaze group Totem Pocket.
Reverb and the Verse, photo by Tom Murphy
Wednesday | 11.23 What: Reverb and the Verse When: 6-10 Where: Bonacquisti Wine Company Why: Reverb and the Verse has been a staple of the more experimental edge of Denver hip-hop since the late 90s with its vital mix of socially and politically astute lyrics and masterful electronic soundscapes. Its 2022 album BLACKWALL is its final intended album and a barn burner of a record that fuses industrial beats with passionate vocals and expert production that gives the record the feel of something from the future commenting poignantly about the deeply conflicted and imperiled time in which we find ourselves. Think Moby and Nine Inch Nails collaborating with Chuck D for an album to be released on Warp Records.
Secret Shame, photo courtesy the artists
Friday | 11.25 What:Secret Shame w/Verhoffst, Voight and ilind When: 9 Where: The Crypt ($10) Why: Secret Shame formed in Asheville, North Carolina in 2018. Its members came from the local punk scene and the music they made together was, summed up by a quote found on one or more of its online accounts, “too punk for Goth and too Goth for punk.” But however its sound might be best described its style of dark post-punk struck an immediate chord with people that got to see the fledgling band and even the debut basement demo from 2016 revealed a band that was tapping into emotional spaces resonant with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Xmal Deutschland. Its songwriting quickly developed into the songs that would comprise its energetic self-titled 2017 EP and the 2019 full-length debut album Dark Synthetics. In that vital mix of death rock and synth-infused post-punk one could hear an emotional vulnerability that told stories of struggle and abuse sometimes couched in terms of cosmic horror. And yet there was a core of honest feeling that bled through the metaphors and abstraction. For the 2022 album Autonomy, singer Lena had been working from a place of wanting to not obscure her lived experience and emotional truth and one hears that reflected directly in the music too. It’s still beautifully moody and moving but less haze and more direct tonal expression. Also in the new set of music are more conventionally accessible melodies without sacrificing the grit and darkness that has made the group’s songwriting so compelling since its inception. Autonomy is an album by a band that has come into its own while also a demonstration of an evolution from where it’s been and hinting at further exploration of where the music can go when you feel like you can craft your art from a deeply personal place without needing to couch it in the stylistic terms of anyone else or their narrow expectations. Opening is noise sculptor Verhoffs, techno DJ and avant-garde electronic music composer ilind and industrial post-punk shoegaze techno aspirers Voight. Listen to our interview with Secret Shame here.
Emerald Siam, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 11.25 What:Emerald Siam, Jacket of Spiders, Juliet Mission and Shadows Tranquil When: 7 Where: Enigma Bazaar Why: Four of Denver’s best live rock bands on one bill doesn’t often happen but the day after Thanksgiving if you choose to show up to Enigma Bazaar you can witness the dark yet triumphant and emotionally expansive music of Emerald Siam, the blues edged, gritty art rock of Jacket of Spiders, Julie Mission’s perfection of transforming brooding shoegaze sounds into expressions of pure joy and Shadows Tranquil’s synthesis of math-y emo, shoegaze inflected metal and psyche cleansing, atmospheric post-punk. Sometimes for an all local bill you have to think maybe one or two of the bands are merely okay or there’s a clear headliner. But not for this show.
beabadoobee, photo by Erika Kamano
Saturday | 11.26 What:beabadoobee w/Lowertown When: 7 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: Lowertown is an avant-pop duo based out of Atlanta. Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg met in math class in high school and bonded over a mutual and deep appreciation for jazz. Weinberg was a classical pianist with aims of going to the conservatory and Osby was a fledgling yet prolific poet. Before graduating in 2021 the two released the Honeycomb, Bedbug EP (2020) and the critically acclaimed The Gaping Mouth EP after high school in September 2021 having been picked up by the Dirty Hit imprint. Those EPs revealed a great deal of creative sophistication and development with songs that tapped into electronic music aesthetics, pop, angular post-punk, jazz and folk for a sound that feels intuitive in a way that speaks directly to the lived emotional experience in a way vulnerable and knowing and comfortable in not being so certain. The 2022 debut album I Love To Lie retains all the insightful introspection but the songwriting seems more straightforward and accessible and its content is the most clearly political and incisively observant. “Bucktooth” in particular addresses gun violence, political extremism and the seemingly everyday crisis mode that pervades not just American culture but the state of much of the world. It’s an album written from the perspective of youth and informed by an underlying hopefulness in the face of the dire possibilities and likelihoods and its catharsis of that anxiety is heartfelt and immediately striking. Filipino-British artist Beatrice Kristi Laus performs as beabdoobee and though only 22 has garnered a solid cult following for her early EPs released in 2018. Her breathy, expressive vocals are a compelling contrast with her expert crafting of lively, fuzzy guitar work and a seeming gift for delivering music with a raw spirit and a keen ear for creative melodies. Initially maybe her music seems completely beholden to 90s rock, especially on 2022 album Beatopia, but the sensibility has a touch of meta quality like Laus is soundtracking a 90s coming of age movie she has in her head infused with nosalgia, which fits in with the songwriter’s citing movie soundtracks as an influence on her own work and a desire to make music for films.
Seraphim Shock in 2017, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.26 What:Seraphim Shock 25th Anniversary w/Dead on a Sunday, Whorticulture and DJ Celebrytie and hosted by Sid Pink When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Seraphim Shock has been spinning its tales of the dark side of American society informed by themes of the occult, Satanism, hedonism and resistance to a puritanical culture that often causes the trauma and neuroses that drive dysfunction. Seraphim Shock’s music is an expression of solidarity with living with that legacy and purging it. It’s debut full length album Red Silk Vow released in 1997 to great local fanfare in the local Goth scene with shows in which lead singer Charles Edward garbed as a Victorian Vampire, top hat and all, orchestrated a stage show with bandmates in corpse paint style. Whether one was fully into the music or not the spectacle was undeniably compelling to the point where it helped to elevate the music in its Goth-industrial style. As the years went on the band’s style adopted a more glam metal sound and Edward more like a sinister yet benevolent professional wrestler look but more sculpted and more like a Goth super hero. This show celebrates the release of that first album and ushers in the next chapter of the band with its impending release of the second volume of The Fairmount Chronicles which launched in 2020. These days the stage show is back to being as theatrical as the early days with Edward exuding the undeniable charisma and commanding presence that has been a feature of the live show for decades. Also here for the proceedings is the classic Seraphim Shock MC, the sarcastic and sardonic MC Sid Pink so maybe we’ll also see a return of his irreverent game show, Think Pink.
SRSQ, photo by Nedda Afsari
Monday | 11.28 What:SRSQ w/Causer and Polly Urethane When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: SRSQ (pronounced “seer-skew”) is the solo project of former Them Are Us Too singer Kennedy Ashlyn. Her operatic vocals brought a good deal of emotional weight to the gorgeously ethereal guitar work of the late Cash Askew for a powerfully evocative combination. Her 2018 album Unreality was a tender and engulfing meditation on loss and grief cast in lush and hazy synths and soaring vocals. Her new album Ever Crashing is a statement of rediscovery of a firm sense of self with the usual elegantly evocative synth but including an expanded sound palette of guitar, string arrangements, live drums and other percussion alongside Ashlyn’s singularly expressive voice. People that got to see SRSQ during her time touring in the wake of the release of Unreality know that Ashlyn’s native charisma and emotional vibrance as a performer is undeniable.
Rosegarden Funeral Party in February 2020, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 11.29 What: Rosegarden Funeral Party w/Vio\ator and Faces Under the Mirror When: 7 Where: HQ Why: Rosegarden Funeral Party from Dallas, Texas has been blurring the line between shoegaze and post-punk since its inception. Frontperson/guitarist Leah Lane strikes a commanding figure while delivering impassioned vocals and atmospheric guitar wizardry while drummer Dylan Stamas triggers samples and orchestrates the sweeping rhythms with bassist Michael Doty, synthesist Michael Ortega layering the music with vividly cinematic melody. Lane helped to write and produce and perform on (as well as doing the artwork for) Vio\ator’s 2021 album Solitude and the broodily icy tones and gritty synth and bass driven music is the sound of an autumn spent in isolation. Faces Under The Mirror from Denver has been crafting some of the better EBM around since 1994 without much recognition beyond the Mile High City but whose moody yet energetic music is imbued with a sense of joy in the live setting.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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