Tag: Pale Sun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday | 05.11
What: José González w/Abby Sage
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: José González has gained a global audience for his unique, finger-picking style pastoral folk whether under his own name, with his band Junip or in various collaborations. There is something cosmic about the sound of his songs that have a depth of atmosphere as well as an intimate quality that has meant his music fits in well with the various electronic music producers and DJs with whom he has worked. His new album Against the Dying of the Light, a clear nod to Dylan Thomas’ famous poem, his first in five years is brimming with the delicate and introspective melodies but in employing those elements González has produced a set of songs against the flood of darkness in the current world’s political and too often cultural climate.

Monday | 05.11
What: Easy Honey w/Galentines and Brink
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Easy Honey is a band from Charleston, South Carolina that has been touring regularly throughout the United States for at least the last few years. Its sound is like a collage of folk, psychedelic surf rock and indie pop in the classic southeastern USA mode. The group’s songs have a vibrant yet gentle quality that sets it apart from many of other bands aiming at a similar fusion of sounds. The latest EP Plaid (out April 30, 2026) was written and recorded over three days in remote Marble, Colorado between the rain forest climate of Grand Mesa and Aspen. Even though the location suggests a touch of rustic luxury the EP sounds focused and exuberant.

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

Tuesday | 05.12
What: Afghan Whigs w/Mercury Rev
When: 6:30
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Before alternative rock was a thing Afghan Whigs formed in 1986 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Combining shambolic garage rock with R&B and soul, Afghan Whigs fit in with the popular musical movements of the 90s and the group released most of its albums from 1990’s Up in It through 2017’s In Spades were released by Sub Pop. Frontman Greg Dulli was and is a charismatic figure with a commanding voice that centers the music with direct emotional connection and literary lyrics. Now the band is celebrating its 40 years as a band with a run with Mercury Rev. The latter formed in 1989 and includes former Flaming Lips member Jonathan Donohue who was in Mercury Rev before that stint and after but his sense of visionary psychedelic music shared with guitarist Grasshopper has evolved from the noisy, beautifully disorienting music of its early days through the cosmic and ambitious, conceptual psychedelic dream pop of its later records and as a live band absolutely hypnotic and otherworldly in a manner that invites the audience into a different psychological space than the one in which they entered the show.

Tuesday | 05.12
What: New Candys w/The Savage Blush and Moonpool
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Venetian psychedelic New Candys started out in fairly familiar territory with fuzzy, psychedelic rock but all along the band’s Krautrock inspirations have been an element that has elevated the outfit outside of the standard psych rock of the past 20 years. Its 2025 album The Uncanny Extravaganza in particular showcased an extensive and fully integrated use of synthesizers as a psychedelic sound.

Wednesday | 05.13
What: Dry Cleaning w/Hotline TNT
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex
Why: Dry Cleaning from South London is generally described as a post-punk band but ever since the 2021 release of its debut full-length New Long Leg the group has evolved its sound and songwriting with every album. Even singer Florence Shaw’s spoken word poetry/story style delivery has come to include more actual singing most fully present in the band’s new album Secret Love (2026). The unconventional subject matter and the creative social approach to social commentary has been a feature of the band’s output but on the new record those themes seem more direct without seeming didactic. The album was produced by Cate Le Bon and features Chicago music luminaries like Jeff Tweedy and Bruce Lamont and sounds like where No Wave might have gone had it embraced art rock like Roxy Music.

Wednesday | 05.13
What: Gelli Haha w/Big Sis at Lost Lake
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Angel Abaya’s creative and visual transformation to Gelli Haha seems to have been complete by the time of the release of her 2025 album Switcheroo (we see what she did there, actually clever). Under her birth name the songwriting was strong though more in the realm of indie rock. As Gelli Haha we get a wonderfully surreal synth pop with the knack for pop hooks intact but rather than beautifully introspective music that gift for finding creative melodies is channeled into synth pop that sounds like something from an 80s dance club that took over from the disco era but as interpreted by a being from another part of the universe with a humorous curiosity about the absurdity of human pop culture. The Gelli Haha material is whimsical yet sincere and artistically playful but not quirky. For the live show expect a great sense of theater with costumes and colorful props fitting the album’s wonderfully unusual cover art.

Wednesday | 05.13
What: Chet Faker w/Ideas By Ab
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Nicholas James Murphy took up the stage name Chet Faker in homage to jazz great Chet Baker because fans showed up to his gigs expecting a different Nick Murphy. And Murphy tried to retire the moniker in 2016 but returned to using it during the first year or the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe initially it felt inauthentic to use a stage name but in some ways the “faker” part is an ironic contrast because Murphy’s songs feel so vulnerable and genuine. His 2026 album A Love For Strangers in particular seems to come from the perspective of someone who is coming back into themselves and assessing his own limitations and failings that can be swept aside when you’re headlong into a career or another endeavor when your focus is on doing what is immediately before you and you don’t have the time or perspective to really deep dive into who you are and what you’re about much less who you want to be and what you want your life to prioritize. On the new record it sounds like Murphy has grappled with those issues and put some of what he feels he’s learned into resonant pop songs.

Wednesday | 05.13
What: Snail Mail w/Sharp Pins and Armlock
When: 7
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Lindsey Jordan distinguished herself as a noteworthy and creative songwriter with her 2018 debut album Lush which released when she was 18 years old. Jordan’s personal insight on into her next album Valentine (2021) was expressed in dramatic and colorful fashion with her guitar work expanding into the realm of shoegaze without losing a knack for anthemic melodies and combining introspection with a scrappy energy. The new Snail Mail record Ricochet is a further development of Jordan’s songwriting. The nervy energy that informed the first two records is processed differently and you can hear Jordan taking the time to focus on the feelings that course through us and experience them as they are and not build them up as some kind of end all be all of life because you’re sure going to feel strongly and poignantly about something over the course of your life and part of the human experience as part of a greater continuum of existence. With help from Aron Kobayashi Ritch of Momma, Jordan gives the new songs a vibrant focus.

Thursday | 05.14
What: Broncho: A Decade of Double Vanity
When: 7
Where: Fox Theatre
Why: Broncho has come some distance since the exuberant, psychedelic garage rock of its debut album Can’t Get Past the Lips. It’s most recent album Natural Pleasure (2025) found the band leaning completely into a more experimental, almost ambient shoegaze pop sound and introspective moods. But for this tour the band revisits its edgy, fuzzed out 2016 album Double Vanity. That record and the more recent material reflect more fully the influence of 1960s girl groups and perhaps how those bands and the grittier garage rock of the 60s influenced Jesus and Mary Chain. But has its own flavor of those inspirations and fans of Jay Reatard will appreciate this era of Broncho.

Th | 05.14
What: Kevin Morby w/Liam Kazar
When: 7
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Kevin Morby will release his eighth album Little Wide Open the day after this Denver date so it’s safe to say you’ll hear plenty of material from the new record at this performance and may be able to pick up a copy at the merch booth as well. The advance tracks like “Die Young,” “Javelin” and “Badlands” are in the realm of the pastoral indie folk for which Morby has long established himself as a master practitioner of the craft of songwriting. But the production feels more open, more direct and with more forward momentum. There is plenty of introspection in terms of Morby’s ability to reflect on where he’s been been as a vehicle for the stories he tells that seem to look to a future worth looking forward to rather than be mired by the weight of the past. There is a little lighter feel to the new set of songs without sacrificing Morby’s poignant powers of observation.

Friday | 05.15
What: Wave Decay, Amlamas and Supreme Joy
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Wave Decay will be playing some new music at this performance. For those not in the know, Wave Decay combines the rhythms of Krautrock, deep atmospherics of a better shoegaze band and some warping psychedelic edges with supreme tone and enough weirdness to keep it interesting. Supreme Joy is always a surprisingly powerful live band and its music somewhere between high concept post-punk, arty garage rock and Beat poetry.

Friday | 05.15
What: American Football w/Mei Semones
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: American Football came out of the 90s as one of the most influential of the then crop of emo math rock bands before splitting in 2000. Singer and bassist Mike Kinsella had already left his mark on music with the legendary early emo band Cap’n Jazz and later with Joan of Arc. But American Football’s sound bordered at times on slowcore but with more unconventional and precise rhythms to give the sometimes pastoral, post-rock-esque instrumental side of the music a more solid if informal framing. The music has an impressionistic quality that allows for its often weighty material to have a more emotionally gentle initial impact. The group’s 1999 debut album is a classic of its realm of music and when American Football returned in 2014 it has put out a few albums of a quietly incandescent beauty including the newly released LP4 (all the albums being essentially self-titled) which expands on the sound palette and ambition of soundscaping without losing the intimate quality of the band’s earlier releases.

Friday | 05.15
What: Soundtrack Roulette, a live music fundraiser for Creative Music Works
When: 6:30
Where: Mighty Fine Productions
Why: This is a live music fundraiser for Creative Music Works. Some of Colorado’s stars of improvisational music will score soundtracks to film clips chosen by audience members spinning a wheel and the musicians won’t know what they’re in for. Performers include Sarah Christensen, Greg Harris, Mark Harris, Farrell Lowe, Kent McLagan, Eric Moon, Paul Riola, Matt Smiley, Glenn Nitta, Wade Sander, Joshua Trinidad and Gregory Walker. For more information click the link above. Suggested donation is $75 but any donation level is accepted for entry.

Saturday | 05.16
What: Primitive Man and Ukko’s Hammer
When: 8
Where: Drop to Pop Sidewalk
Why: Get there early before the authorities are called to shut down the sheer sonic assault of the heaviest band in the world Primitive Man unleashes its unique brand of noise doom. Ukko’s Hammer won’t exactly be low on volume but its frenetic hardcore will be in line with the shows Drop to Pop has been hosting on the sidewalk since 2025.

Saturday | 05.16
What: The Darts w/Service, Tuff Bluff and 5150
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Seattle’s The Darts released its latest album Halloween Love Songs on March 3, 2026. The record was in part inspired b the idea that the world needed more Halloween songs tan just “Monster Mash” and other songs decades old. The garage punk quartet injects some psychedelia into its sound with some appropriate spooky keyboard work but all building to the kind of spirited songs for which the group has established itself as a noteworthy band that fit in well with the Alternative Tentacles (the legendary imprint that released its previous album Boomerang in 2024) roster of bands that are decidedly different from any narrow genre considerations.

Saturday and Sunday | 05.16 and 05.17
What: Windy & Carl w/ Prymek & Sage and New Standards Men (5.16) and w/C. Ritger & Weathers (05.17) (both nights sold out)
When: 5/6 and 6/7
Where: The Hayloft in Longmont (5.16) and The Bug Theater (5.17)
Why: Since 1993 Windy & Carl have created a unique body of work in the broad spectrum of ambient music, space rock, drone and dream pop. Gently meditative, the guitar, bass, vocals and various other sound-making methods of the duo sounds like they’re tapping into the subconscious and dream states to make the kind of music that is instantly transporting with tones, abstract melodies and textures that facilitate the mind entering states conducive to expansive imagining. Pick up any of their records and you’ll hear music akin to the likes of Seefeel, Flying Saucer Attack and Jessamine and an obvious influence on later psychedelic ambient acts like Growing, The Sight Below and possibly even Yellow Swans.

Monday | 05.18
What: Telehealth w/Chroma Lips and Video Daze
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Seattle-based post-punk/New Wave band Telehealth just released their new album Green World Image and sure it sounds steeped in early 80s New Wave and the sort of synth punk The Epoxies were trading in a couple of dates ago but the ironic, current cultural references come off as both ironic and nihilistic. Can one fight the overwhelming overreach of technocratic oligarchs who have seemingly bought the arms of government or is needing the collapse to happen necessary and will it be in time to avert the complete and utter destruction of democracy and thus a means of reigning in and offering/instituting mitigating measures and solutions to climate disaster? Who can say, really, and Telehealth’s music seems to come out of that spirit with some fairly acerbic satire. Denver’s Chroma Lips will be one of the opening acts and bringing to the show no small measure of its own inspired garage krautrock synth psych. The band’s bombast is genuine but its satire if there is any is more a sendup of the need for narrow genres and its blurring the lines between the aforementioned and shoegaze means it transcends easy classification with its own sound.

Tuesday | 05.19
What: Just Mustard w/Miss Grit
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Just Mustard is a post-punk/dark shoegaze band from Ireland. From its 2018 debut Wednesday onward one could hear in its haunted and noisy soundscapes the influence of Cranes and electronic music in the breakbeats and the way the band almost writes soundtrack music in its songs. The group’s 2025 album We Were Just Here leans further into the sculpted noise in place of conventional guitar sound at times with the vocals carrying most of the melody. Miss Grit is an electronic/rock artist from New York who caught the ear of Mute Records which released her debut album Follow the Cyborn in 2023. Referencing the 1997 cult film Perfect Blue directed by Satoshi Kon the album is perfectly executed cinematic pop reminiscent of late 2000s St. Vincent and a artful evocation of modern alienation and our dependence on technocratic conveniences. Miss Grit’s new album Under My Umbrella (2026) is like both downtempo and noir in tone fitting a record that sounds like an extended inquiry into one’s own inner processes and coming to terms with sides of one’s personality that are easily avoided for their discomfort level if you have distractions to keep your mind focused on an immediate task at hand. More orchestral than the debut album it also shows how Margaret Sohn aka Miss Grit is masterful in her melding of traditional instruments and electronic composition.

Tuesday | 05.19
What: Ike Dweck w/Anna Hamilton
When: 7
Where: Globe Hll
Why: Ike Dweck has only really been active in releasing music for a few years but the Brooklyn-born and NYC based artist has garnered a sizable following on Spotify and TikTok, His earnest vocals and vulnerable lyrics imbue his folk and pop inflected songs with an immediacy and intimacy even in their most expansive moments. Dweck’s songs have from early on had orchestral arrangements with strings and piano to expand on songs that may have begun as written on acoustic guitar but which suggested a bigger sonic vision for their possibilities, an energy he brings to the performance of the music.

Thursday | 05.21
What: Ray Bull w/Babehoven
When: 7
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Aaron Graham and Tucker Elkins of Ray Bull met while students at Cooper Union both of visual art, Graham more on still images and Elkins on film. But both began leaning more toward making music though early on the duo made use of their art background as a vehicle for presenting the storytelling of their songs. On May 8, 2026 Ray Bull released its latest album Please Stop Laughing. It’s songs have a sonically rich sophistication like a modern day analog to Harry Nilsson (also born in Brooklyn) had he come up after the advent of The Strokes and MGMT. Graham and Elkins seem to have a similar attention to songwriting details that delicacy of execution that not nearly enough artists do and that lends their songwriting an unexpected depth.

Saturday | 05.23
What: Wheelchair Sports Camp w/Jello Biafra, Dressy Bessy, BRÜHA and RAYANN!
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex
Why: Wheel Chair Sports Camp is celebrating the release of its first full album that isn’t a soundtrack since 2016. The record titled oh imperfecta is being issued by the legendary Alternative Tentacles imprint. The music this time around is vastly different from earlier releases in some key ways. It still has elements of jazz and Joshua Trinidad contributes a bit to the album, it still has fantastic production and of course Kalyn Heffernan’s wordplay and gift for incisive and emotionally electrifying rhetoric has never been stronger. It hits like a punk record while still very hip-hop. It’s both more stripped down and lean and larger in sound than before. It is simply one of the most on point releases out this year thus far in its social commentary and righteous sense of outrage tempered by compassion and a sense of humor. For this show you’ll also get to see A.T. head Jello Biafra himself and who can say what kind of performance that will be except interesting. Dressy Bessy will bring the indie pop fire to the proceedings, BRÜHA will offer a fusion of psychedelic jazz, surf rock and Latin rock amd RAYANN! opens the proceedings with tender, beat-driven bedroom dream pop.

Saturday | 05.23
What: Jaguar Stevens album release w/Bitchflower and Chroma Lips
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: Jaguar Stevens is release its second album Dead Miner’s Daughter, its first since the 2021 album. The group started when two high school English teachers needed an outlet for the kinds of anxieties that come from being an educator in recent years, and ever really, and the resulting band has been a mix of indie rock and something a little darker with a little more bite. Caleb Wolhust’s crooning vocals on the recordings sounds like he grew up listening to Bowie and Nick Cave but live the band is a bit more combustible. The debut album is earnest if lo-fi but the new record sounds more polished and while still earnest it still has a raw edge like a punk band with some more songwriting refinement. Opening the show is psychedelic krautrock band Chroma Lips and the unhinged punk/psychedelic thrash group Bitchflower.

Tuesday | 05.26
What: Hemlocke Springs w/THE GIRL!
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Hemlocke Springs went viral on TikTok with her song “Girlfriend” in 2022. The bedroom pop song and its music video looked and sounded like something anyone could create with some creativity could make but of course a deeper listen reveals that the songwriter had a gift for crafting lo-fi pop songs with an eccentric quality that immediately set it apart from most other bedroom pop of that time and even now. Hemlock Springs aka Isimeme “Naomi” Udu has since released several singles revealing further dimensions of her imaginative and inventive songwriting and production. Then in February 2026 she released her debut full-length The Apple Tree Under the Sea and proved she has much more to offer with songs that are vulnerable but imbued with a scrappy confidence. The music videos showcase Udu’s sense of humor and charming self-deprecation and incredible diversity as a vocalist. Stylistically one can hear traces of the K-pop that influenced part of her sound but also classic synth pop and fans of glitch pop artists of the 2010s will find a great deal to appreciate about the way Hemlocke Springs melds dream-like melodicism with glitchy energy. And the songwriter’s attention to arrangement, pacing and mood is top notch. Plus her lyrics aren’t just surreal and playful, she puts plenty of meaningful and insightful sentiments into the words she puts out there.

Friday and Saturday | 05.29 and 05.30
What: Dengue Fever (05.29 w/Bluebook, 05.30 at Global Sounds w/The Wailers, Ritmo Cascabel, Tropical Kaoba, Los Mocochetes and Beasts of No Nation)
When: 7 (05.29) and 12-6 (05.30)
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex (05.29) and Old Town Square in Fort Collins (05.30)
Why: Dengue Fever started out as sort of a cover band of artists out of the popular music era of Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s before the advent of the auto-genocidal Khmer Rouge regime during which many of those artists died or simply disappeared. The psychedelic pop and rock of that time and place, though, had and still has a unique appeal because it thoroughly merged western popular music with traditional Cambodian music in exciting ways full of energy and charm. The band formed in 2001 and early on recruited charismatic singer Chhom Nimol who was born in Cambodia and could sing in Khmer (a feature of much of the band’s repertoire). Since then the group has toured extensively throughout the US and internationally including in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and released several albums. The group is playing select shows this spring and summer including a free to the public appearance at Global Sound in Fort Collins and the night before at Meow Wolf.

Friday – Sunday | 05.29-05.31
What: Denver Noise Fest 2026
When: 6 (05.29-05.30) and 12-5 (05.31)
Where: The DMV
Why: Denver Noise Fest returns with an impressive lineup as follows. Vasectomy Party (FL), Anime Love Hotel, Bryan Day (CA), Coffin Corner, Instagon, (AZ) Zilmrah (NY), ihavetokeepwashingthisstupidbodytillidie, Dead Hawk, Isaac Linder, Male Model (FL), CUT (CA), Bigawatt (NM). Joltthrower (AZ), Bob Bellerue (NY), Fail (FL), Disturbing Taxidermy, Filidh. Most of this stuff you have to witness in person for the full impact of the artistry, appeal and sheer diversity of these artists as curated for this event. The best thing about a noise festival and most noise shows is that the artists and the style are conducive to short sets and focused concept. Bob Bellerue is a legendary artist in the international noise scene whose range as a sound artist, visual and sound curator, educator, composer and event organizer is vast across decades. Bigawatt is Marisa Demarco from New Mexico and her work bridges the gap between experimental post-punk and noise and she has also been a force for creative works in the American Southwest and beyond as an artist, a broadcaster and educator. Isaac Linder has long been a part of the Denver and Colorado experimental music scene in noise, ambient, experimental electronic dance music and the avant-garde and his show for this event will have him performing his interpretation of Robert Ashley’s 1964 composition “The Wolfman.” This entry will be updated with set times when and if available.

Saturday | 05.30
What: Deth Rali album release at The Crypt w/babybaby4ever, Sell Farm, Papersack and DJ Lisafrank666
When: 8
Where: The Crypt
Why: Denver darkwave synthpop band Deth Rali will celebrate the release of its new album The Fall of Neon at this show. The group, now a trio, is the vehicle for the songwriting of Jay Maike who some may remember for his pre-COVID psych pop group King Eddie. Deth Rali is different. Maike seems to have taken on the challenge of writing conceptual albums with deep storytelling and a strong visual aesthetic around each of the three Deth Rali records. The 2024 album Ruby’s Castle Island was like a commentary on authoritarianism written as a glam synth pop album set in a fantastical setting with intentional or otherwise creative nods to the Gormenghast Trilogy with a science fiction flavor and nostalgic portraits of collective cultural memories that Americans who have been alive since maybe even the 1950s can access with ease. It sounded like something from another era and reminiscent of the better of Montreal records. The new album is still imbued with a sense of play but it is decidedly darker yet with a hopeful melodic sensibility like a dream pop band that came up through the chillwave era. The themes are personal while also sharp observations on the times we’re living through but written as entrancing songs rich in tone and hazy atmospheres as a vehicle for getting through challenging times. Opening the show are some Denver notables including the IDM/industrial punk artist Sell Farm and visionary synth pop performance artist babybaby4ever.

Saturday and Sunday | 05.30 and 05.31
What: Playground Ensemble: Sculpting Sound
When: 3 and 6 pm (05.30) and 2pm (05.31)
Where: Leon Gallery
Why: Playground Ensemble puts on unique musical events throughout the year combining pedagogy, craft and creativity. This one features sonic artworks by local visual and installation artists paired with an orchestra for a series of new musical compositions made in part by homemade and modified instruments.

Sunday | 05.31
What: Animals in Exile w/Pale Sun, The Picture Tour and Owosso
When: 4pm doors, 5pm show
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Animals in Exile started as a project of Redding Bacon in 2015 writing and recording songs in his basement in a mode somewhere between shoegaze and psychedelic rock with a leg in more experimental rock of past decades. But the current band solidified as a four-piece live band in 2025 ahead of the release of the self-titled full-length in August of that year. The newer songs have a weightiness and grit hinted at on earlier releases. Maybe part of that comes out of how its members weathered some serious struggles to be there. Guitarist Jim McTurnan had been a veteran of the Denver music scene in bands Cat-A-Tac and Soft Skulls where he honed his skills as a creator of atmospheric yet robust guitar sounds but found himself afflicted with multiple sclerosis and a rare neurological condition called Stiff Person Syndrome (and fortunate enough to live near a hospital where one of the country’s premier doctors treating that condition practices), bassist Colby Rogers finds himself able to play after a life-threatening injury left him without feeling in his right hand and drummer Eric Marshall was ready to quit music completely. But the new record is definitely one for fans of the Jonestown Massacre and the more rock end of Catherine Wheel. But then on this same bill you can catch other Denver heavy hitters in the broad realm of shoegaze. Pale Sun includes former members of Bright Channel (arguably Denver’s best ever shoegaze band), Space Team Electra (an argument could be made for that group being the greatest shoegaze group from the Mile High City) and Pinkku (one of the great space rock bands from the city) and few can match them for tone and mood. The Picture Tour creates the perfect fusion of spooky garage rock and shoegaze-adjacent post-punk. Owosso is like a melding of noise rock and shoegaze sonics for a sound that comes off like a DC post-punk band of the 80s mixed with Sonic Youth. Sometimes an all local band bill can be a mixed bag in a negative way but this is the opposite of that.

Sunday | 05.31
What: Daisy the Great
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Daisy the Great is folk-adjacent indie pop band from Brooklyn led by Kelley Dugan and Mina Walker. Their debut single “The Record Player Song” (2017) garnered a wider than expected following for a new band. The vocal harmonies and unconventional percussion with the intro before getting into the song proper set Daisy the Great apart from a lot of the music in the broad indie music world of that time when garage rock and “psych” rock was in vogue. It had more in common with the likes of Tune Yards. The outfit’s latest album is 2025’s The Rubber Teeth Talk and the fantastic vocals harmonies are still in place and somehow both refined and raw. But the music benefits from an expanded lineup allowing for Dugan and Walker to cut loose a little more so that the songs seem to veer off center at the perfect moments without losing momentum and melody.