Best Shows in Denver and Beyond June 2025

O.M.D. performs at The Paramount Theatre on June 5, 2025, photo by Ed Miles
Peach Pit, photo courtesy the artists

Sunday | 06.01
What: Peach Pit w/Briston Maroney and BNNY
When: 6
Where: Red Rocks Amphitheater
Why: Peach Pit started off at an unusual time in pop and rock music. The mid-2010s indie world was dominated by surf rock, psych and some reinterpretation of classic rock sounds. Fortunately, the quartet from Vancouver, British Columbia seemed to have focused more on songwriting craft rather than trying to play a style or fit in with a trend. The result has albums that have interesting arrangements and reveal a real ear for creating a mood and telling stories of romance, breakups and all the heartache and mixed emotions involved. The group recently released the “expansion pack” (kudos on the nerdy gamer lingo) version of its 2024 Magpie and includes alternate versions of eight songs, a cover and new material. Better than half a chance you’ll get to see some of that live. And the openers for this show are worth showing up to catch. Briston Maroney just released his latest and third album Jimmy on May 2, 2025. Even early in his career, Maroney had a knack for imbuing his songwriting and performances with an honesty and vulnerability that transcended any stylistic affectations he picked up from influences. On the new record Maroney delivers some heavy lines but in the context of songs with an upward emotional swing that doesn’t downplay the melancholic moods and the raw places in his heart that inspired the lyrics. BNNY might for those familiar with the music and songwriting is best experienced in a small club because the delicacy and intimacy of the music feels like something a handful of people would connect with more immediately than a large audience. But Jessica Viscius’ songs also have a cinematic quality that will fit perfectly fine on a bill with other artists who don’t hesitate to present music with an emotional openness and an inviting spirit.

E.T., photo from Bandcamp

Sunday | 06.01
What: E.T. (Minneapolis synth punk), Redder Moon (KC darkwave) and Church Fire
When: 7:30
Where: D3 Arts
Why: Egalitarianism Today (E.T.) might be described as an anarcho-darkwave band. From Minneapolis, the duo’s pulsing rhythm and driving beats are represented well on its new album Full Anarchism. Think something musically like Lords of Acid but with lyrics that delve into science fiction concepts, radical left political rhetoric and the dire consequences of destructive worldviews rather than hedonism. Church Fire is thus of course the perfect band to share the bill with its own righteous industrial dance music. Church Fire expertly weaves in humor and fun into its performances while so many of its songs are heartbreaking in their evocation of collective agony. Kansas City’s Redder Moon is more of a post-punk band but one with the synth augmenting its gorgeously melancholic songwriting.

Wednesday | 06.04
What: Lords of Acid w/Little Miss Nasty
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Lords of Acid is the Belgian industrial dance band that has combined campy, sexually explicit lyrics with undeniably well-crafted dance club music. Its 1991 debut album Lust is a classic of both dance music and EBM. The live show is also not short on theater and bombast with long-time band leader Praga Khan hyping the crowd with his own enthusiasm and on stage antics. The band seems on the verge of releasing a new record and this may be the opportunity to catch it live in full effect.

Ava Maybee, photo by Whitney Otte

Wednesday | 06.04
What: Ava Maybee w/Annika Rose and Emi Grace
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Ava Maybee is touring behind her debut EP Orange Drive. Although the daughter of Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame, Ava Maybee’s music isn’t much like what her dad is known for being a part of making. Hers is a vibrant alt-pop informed by vivid everyday observations and colorful splashes of melody. That and her uniquely commanding vocals. There is some light vocal processing on the EP but you can tell there is power and conviction behind what you’re hearing and the variety in the songwriting is evidence that Maybee isn’t stuck in one flavor of music.

Ringo Deathstarr, photo by Tom Murphy

Wednesday | 06.04
What: Ringo Deathstarr w/American Culture
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Ringo Deathstarr is a shoegaze band from Austin, Texas who despite a humorous name and recorded material that is reminiscent of classic shoegaze band is as a live act a force to be reckoned with. The enveloping atmospheric elements have a visceral presence in person and the songwriting isn’t finely honed with an ear for using the more psychedelic side of the style in a manner that reveals the band isn’t just using neat effects, they know how to use the often unpredictable sonic shapes to great effect. Opening is Denver’s American Culture whose own shoegaze turn has also been one more in the direction of the earlier, weirder Britpop but steeped in punk and indiepop.

OMD, photo by Ed Miles

Thursday | 06.05
What: OMD
When: 7
Where: The Paramount Theatre
Why: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark aka OMD were one of the pioneers of synth pop as we know it though clearly in the realm of post-punk as also influenced deeply by Kraftwerk. Its first five albums are practically a blueprint for synth-infused New Wave and one that has aged exceptionally well because the songwriting wasn’t tied to the aesthetics of a movement and the subject matter of the music was as personal and emotional as it was conceptual. As a live band OMD also came off like a punk band with a lot of power and charisma that gave a dimensionality to the music that sticks with you once you’ve seen the band in person. This quality persisted up to the current time and in 2023 OMD surprised many with the release of Bauhaus Staircase, an album worthy of its early era with richly composed songs and synth work and song ideas that comment on human civilization in this moment with an insight not common enough in popular music.

Pig Destroyer, photo from Bandcamp

Thursday | 06.05
What: Pig Destroyer w/Cephalic Carnage, Author & Punisher and Sex Prisoner
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Pig Destroyer is the influential grindcore band from Alexandria, Virginia whose 2004 album Terrifyer got the 20 year anniversary treatment last year as a reminder that the band was not just of that moment in grindcore but ahead of its time. Sharing the bill is legendary Denver death metal jazz weirdos Cephalic Carnage, industrial avant-metal project Author & Punisher and Tucson-based deathgrind group Sex Prisoner.

Daikaiju, photo from band’s Facebook

Friday | 06.06
What: Daikaiju vs. TripLip, Smokey Mirror and Black Yeti
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Daikaiju is the long-running, mutant surf punk band originally from Huntsville, Alabama but now based out of Houston. The group wears masks kabuki style and its live shows are joyful and highly energetic and theatrical and usually with an outdoor component involving fire. In general it could be gimmicky and silly but Daikaiju makes it feel like getting to see something special. TripLip is a math-y punk thrash band from Denver. All instrumental with bass and drums but coming off with a full wall of sound and surprisingly visceral and riveting.

Wombo, photo courtesy the artists

Saturday | 06.07
What: Wombo w/Mainland Break and Spliff Tank
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Wombo is the psychedelic post-punk/art pop band from Louisville, Kentucky that has been evolving a sound that is part introspective delicacy, playful menace and the kind of angular rhythms one might expect out of a DC post-hardcore band. Think a 2000s indiepop group that got into darker and more challenging music. The band is currently touring ahead of the release of its new album Danger in Fives due out on August 5, 2025 via Fire Talk Records.

Blondshell, photo by Daniel Topete

Sunday | 06.08
What: Blondshell w/Jahnah Camille
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Anyone that caught Blondshell on her 2022 tour prior to the release of her debut album witnessed a songwriter and performer that had uncommon self-possession and a willingness to incorporate movements in the live show that were like acrobatics in slow motion but without missing a beat or a line. Since then Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum aka Blondshell has released two albums of vulnerable and commanding indie rock imbued with great personal insight a musical edge that adds a touch of scrappy spirit to finely crafted melodies. The latest Blondshell album If You Asked For a Picture is brimming with the kind of emotional honesty one would hope for in any pop music worth listening to and Teitelbaum’s absurdist and self-aware sense of humor that has made much of her music as endearing as it is heartfelt. Also on this tour is Birmingham, Alabama-based singer and songwriter Jahnah Camille who is about to release her new EP My sunny oath! Camille’s music is swimming in the granular atmospherics that blur the line between early 90s alternative rock and the more ambitious, shoegaze adjacent modern indie rock. Camille’s vocals ground the emotional resonance of the music with a sense of intimacy. The layered guitars utilize the mix of acoustic and electric to great effect lending Camille’s songs a wide range of sounds. The songwriter’s lyrics are both thoughtfully poetic and filled with a heartache that she has clearly explored to its inner depths and outer edges and articulated the nuances and complexities of truly feeling for another person.

Jahnah Camille, photo by Elizabeth Marsh
Panchiko, photo by Adam Alonzo

Tuesday | 06.10
What: Panchiko w/Alison’s Halo
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: The myth of Panchiko could be more interesting than its actual music and it’s a story worth delving into of a band whose late 90s and early 2000s music was rediscovered on poorly preserved CDs but garnering a cult following before discovering they could return and be much more successful than its first go round. Since reuniting the dream pop/psychedelic band has released two full length albums including 2025’s Ginkgo. Sharing the bill is Alison’s Halo who also started in the early 90s as part of that first or second wave of dream pop before splitting in 1998 only to reconvene in 2009. Musically it appears to have melded the lingering melodicism of Slowdive and its more gritty early music with the ethereal vocal style and rhythmic dive of Lush but of course transmogrified into its own heady soundscapes.

David J, photo courtesy the artist

Tuesday | 06.10
What: David J spoken word w/The Milk Blossoms and Gogo Germaine + Shon Cobbs
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: David J is of course the artist known best for being a member of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. This year he is releasing a new album The Mother Tree alongside a book of poetry titled Rhapsody, Threnody & Prayer. The album is spoken word and spare yet musical accompaniment, evocative and music of introspective moods to match the tenor of David J’s reflective rhetoric in tribute to his mother. Opening the show is Glory Guitars (2022) author Gogo Germaine with music by former Plume Varia guitarist/synth player Shon Cobbs and the emotionally charged poetry of the music of Denver indiepop band The Milk Blossoms.

PINES, photo courtesy the artists

Wednesday | 06.11
What: PINES at Meow Wolf w/Sugar Nova (ft. Luke Miller of Lotus)
When: 8
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex
Why: Australian electronic duo PINES returns to Denver for it’s second visit to the Mile High City in support of its new EP SUN which released on April 15, 2025. The new songs are a further evolution of the project’s uplifting fusion of EDM and glitch pop. Listening one gets the sense that PINES are soundtracking a movie in their own heads taking place in a realm of perpetual summer nights and the psychological and emotional space to truly delve into feelings and embrace the broad range of the human experience without getting stuck in the lowest lows or the highest highs because none of that is sustainable. The music should also resonate with fans of early 2010s chillwave.

Julia Wolf, photo courtesy the artist

Thursday | 06.12
What: Julia Wolf w/Worry Club and Ellis
When: 6
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Julia Wolf appears to have been processing hard lessons of being in the music business lately and the demands and compromises required of you if you’re going to be the kind of artist that can sustain a career. The cover of her new album Pressure (May 23, 2025) shows Wolf leaning backward and held up by hooks or some other device like she’s a suspension artist. The music is still well within the realm of the intimate, raw and often experimental pop that has garnered Wolf a respectable following but this new record is much more noisy and gritty with Wolf’s expressive vocals awash in crafted beats like a an amalgamation of industrial music, trap and glitchcore but with an undeniable pop accessibility.

Glass Human, photo from Bandcamp

Friday | 06.13
What: Glass Human w/The Milk Blossoms and Fainting Dreams
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Glass Human is issuing its latest release on vinyl, The Hive. The record showcases the band’s atmospheric, jazz-tinged art rock and gift for layering rhythms and moods for an effect like a prog album cast in an almost downtempo mode. But the 4-song EP dives deep into utilizing noise and the kind of soundscaping that doesn’t fit into a narrow genre yet expresses perfectly the sense of a world and a psyche swimming through the nascent disorder of the current era and embracing the vital strands of meaning that remain. The Milk Blossoms too have an undercurrent of experimental structures and unconventional, often intuitive modes of expression held together by Harmony Rose’s gift for impressionistic and emotional, poetic storytelling. Fainting Dreams is at this point a wonderfully stark yet atmospheric fusion of stark post-hardcore and emotionally-charged black metal.

Sunflower Bean, photo by Lulu Syracuse

Saturday | 06.14
What: Sunflower Bean w/Gift and Dry Ice
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Sunflower Bean released its latest album Mortal Primetime in April 2025. Perhaps more than its previous releases the new album makes obvious the trio’s talent for songwriting and crafting melodic hooks. The band had already proven itself capable of experimenting to great effect in genre and song structure and in writing solid pop songs. There is just a creative clarity in the new set of songs that serves the elegance and emotional nuance of the words and the delicacy of much of the music that pairs well with when the band gets into much more gritty sonics. Overall the record has an analog quality like some long lost-70s rock record without having immediately obvious touchstones. And live the group has always had a visceral presence that makes even its most tender songs resonate with an uncommon intensity.

Yelawolf and J. Michael Phillips, photo by Edward Crowe

Saturday | 06.14
What: Yelawolf and Three 6 Mafia
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Yelawolf is a rapper originally from Alabama who has spent the last 20 years exploring his musical curiosities mainly in the realm of hip-hop but in recent years also in Sometimes Y, his rock band with Shooter Jennings. There was some speculation he would stop making hip hop but in 2024 he released his latest album War Story. True to form the record is stylistically diverse with live instrumentation and atmospheric and moody beat-making to frame his stories of American life in a fashion opposite of the portrait of luxury and the good life common in the songs of more mainstream hip-hop artists. Yelawolf also recently collaborated with J. Michael Phillips on a new album Whiskey & Roses that drops July 11, 2025. It’s mix of soulful and atmospheric country with hip-hop style beats and production in a way that draws on the strength of both styles of music. Co-headlining this show are southern hip-hop legends Three 6 Mafia, pioneers of horrorcore and an influence on Yelawolf. Their own inventive beats and energetic and creative vocal delivery has yielded a career of music that feels like it’s ahead of its time while awash in contemporary cultural resonance.

Broncho, photo courtesy the artists

Tuesday | 06.17
What: Broncho
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Broncho originally came out of Norman, Oklahoma when former Starlight Mints member Ryan Lindsey launched the group shortly after his old band dissolved. Since then Broncho has been fairly prolific and seeming to pursue a unique musical vision with each album. The earlier records were in the lane of garage rock psychedelia but not in the cookie cutter fashion that plagued the 2010s. Always weirder and more interesting and genuinely transporting. The band’s new record Natural Pleasure (2025) is steeped as well in a vintage, analog sound and mood like something that picked up where girl groups left off in the 60s but not where The Ramones took that inspiration, more resonant with what Cindy Lee did on 2024’s sprawling epic Diamond Jubilee. So more haunted and imbued with what some might call intentional imperfections but really lending the melodies character and a quality that doesn’t feel like an obvious imitation of something else.

Meltt, photo by Zachary Vague

Wednesday | 06.18
What: The Blue Stones w/Meltt
When: 7
Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: The Blue Stones are a blues rock duo from Windsor, Ontario, Canada currently touring in support of its 2025 album Metro. A fuzz-drenched affair with at least some rhythms that set the band apart from the standard issue blues rock bands that operate in every city of size in North America. Opening the show is Meltt from the western end of Canada in Vancouver. Its own sound has some similar roots as The Blue Stones but Meltt clearly combines an electronic music aesthetic into its psychedelic sound. There is a tranquility at the heart of Meltt’s songwriting that puts a focus on reflective moods in crafting uplifting and soothing melodies that transport the listening supported by rhythms that draw upon downtempo dance music. The effect is a lush fusion of dream pop and chillwave.

Mr. Pacman in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 06.20
What: Magic Cyclops, Jocko Homo, Mr. Pacman and Little Fyodor
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Magic Cyclops aka Scott Fuller is celebrating 25 years as a performance project that is part comedy, part synth music of various stripes and all absurd. Along for the proceedings are Devo tribute band Jocko Homo, the surreal and inspired synth punk band Mr. Pacman and avant-garde punk pop artist Little Fyodor and maybe he’ll have his full band with him for this show as well. Maximum weirdness for the month in Denver.

Salin, photo courtesy the artist

Friday | 06.20
What: Salin w/Tyler Adams Organ Trio
When: 7
Where: Cervantes’ Other Side
Why: Salin is a drummer, producer and composer who was born in Thailand but based in Montréal. The Juno-nominated artist has built a body of work that sounds like a fusion of psychedelic Afrobeat, summery downtempo, funk and cosmic jazz with sounds and ideas from indigenous Thai musical traditions. Her live performances reveal a musician who brings undeniably positive energy to the shows and great nuance of polyrhythms while making musically sophisticated songwriting accessible. There’s something uplifting and soothing to Salin’s work solo and with her ensembles. Fans of Kamasi Washington will find some resonance here in terms of the richness of tones and sheer ability to communicate complex emotions through the music alone.

Perfume Genius, photo by Cody Critcheloe

Saturday | 06.21
What: Perfume Genius w/Ulrika’s Bedroom
When: 8
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Over the past decade and a half Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius has well established himself as a writer of sophisticated and emotionally vibrant pop songs imbued with an orchestral sensibility. Hadreas combines in his songwriting a vulnerability and confidence that is immediately captivating. On stage the artist has a theatrical flair worthy of 1970s glam rock legends. The new Perfume Genius album Glory is fascinatingly raw, intimate and tender and expansively atmospheric in just the right measure throughout. Like an indie folk album but resonating with cinematic production and rich emotional coloring. Will guest vocalist Aldous Harding tour just to perform “No Front Teeth” and bring with her that special, experimental pop weirdness? Likely not, but either way this is a chance to see Perfume Genius touring in support of what is arguably his best record to date.

EMF, photo courtesy the artists

Saturday | 06.21
What: EMF and Spacehog w/Ecce Shnak
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: EMF will forever be linked to their 1990 breakout single “Unbelievable” which was ubiquitous on college and then pop radio in the US in 1991 after emerging on UK charts the year of its release. The song got a further boost when the band put out ots debut album Schubert Dip in 1991 as well. But the band was never able to fully capture the excitement that the debut single seemed to instill on first hearing it and by the late 90s EMF had split. With some reunion gigs in the 2000s EMF returned to being active in time to release its first album in 27 years with Go Go Sapiens and returned to atmospheric rock informed by dance music roots but with a clear ear for modern production and with songwriting instincts that have evolved and whose early aesthetics have aged well. Spacehog co-headlins this bill. The band consists of four men from England who were living in New York City when the group formed in 1994 and as wouldn’t be so strange for those heady times had a major label deal yielding its 1995 debut album Resident Alien. Its hit single “In the Meantime” sounded like an anticipation of the full incorporation of electronic production in the context of a rock song albeit one that sounded like it was inspired by 70s glam rock akin to Bowie and like a bridge between Brit Pop and later era grunge without coming off as trying hard to fit into a trendy style. While the cultural and musical milieu that had early nurtured Spacehog was done by the late 90s at least the band didn’t sound like the watered down version of alternative rock that plagued the middle of the 90s and to a certain extent to today.

Spacehog, photo courtesy the artists
Moon Pussy in 2024, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 06.21
What: Bull Market, Moon Pussy, Blood Oath and The New Creep
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Bull Market from Billings, Montana sounds a lot like it listened to a lot of Failure but even more Harry Pussy and Melvins. Its edgy, blunt noise rock indulges in fuzzy drones and Coachwhips-esque splintery minimalism and experimental flourish. Moon Pussy is the kind of angular noise rock band whose gnarly punk discharge will tear your face-off but whose stage banter in its sincere awkwardness will make you laugh and somewhere in that mix of ideas the group has genuinely compelling and innovative music of its own. The New Creep is an industrial noise rock post-punk band from Denver.

eHpH in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 06.27
What: eHpH album release w/Cruel Morning, Unnatural Element and Modern Devotion
When: 8
Where: Bar404
Why: Denver EBM/industrial band eHpH returns with a surprise new record called CORRUPTION AND FEAR with front to back wonderfully scathing songs against the oligarchy, fascism and the anti-woke agenda. The duo has always had superb production but for this album it has taken everything to new heights with impassioned performances and heady beats. Opening the show is the dark techno project of Voight guitarist Adam Rojo.

Rubedo at We Labs with Ikey Owens (3rd from left), November 15, 2013. Photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 06.27
What: Rubedo, RAREBYRD$ and Redamancy
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Rubedo is a psychedelic prog and pop band from Denver. The trio is comprised of childhood friends Kyle Kramer, Alex Trujillo and Gregg Ziemba whose roots in the influence of alternative rock and art rock bands like The Mars Volta has meant Rubedo would never be trend hoppers and with an interest in concepts of alchemy and how that can inform how music can be made and functions, Rubedo has had a different kind of journey through, around and out of the Denver music scene. In the early 2010s they met R. Isaiah “Ikey” Owens, keyboard player for The Mars Volta and Jack White’s band and became friends and collaborators as he produced the albums Massa Confusa (2012) and Love Is The Answer (2013). Owens became a mentor to the band influencing their ethos, their already strong work ethic as artists and their drive to continue to put out worthwhile releases. Even with the tragic passing of Owens in 2014, Rubedo has continued their friend’s commitment to community and cultivating artistic vision. For a handful of years they were involved in running the influential DIY space Unit E which has since morphed into a record label that focuses on quality local releases including their 2025 album Citrinitas which started brewing in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and was written and recorded across sessions at R.A.R.E. Records in Winchester, TN (co-owned by Michael McDonald) with Michael Lee, Tayler Martin, Jeremy Mason and Charlie Powell. Additional engineering at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado with Andrew Berlin, mixed by Matt Embree (Rx Bandits) at ICS in Long Beach, CA and mastering by Tyler Lindgren (The Milk Blossoms). It’s a record that reflects the band’s community and connections local and beyond and the album is co-release with Mash Down Babylon, Embree’s label. The album is typically both a touching and personal set of songs and those that are an incisive and poetic commentary on the times in which we find ourselves ravaged by the psychopathy of oligarchs, fascists and the ways in which we’re encouraged to isolate ourselves when the opposite is what is needed.

Anthony Ruptak, photo from Bandcamp

Saturday | 06.28
What: Anthony Ruptak w/Porlolo and The Trujillo Company
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Anthony Ruptak is a veteran singer-songwriter from Denver who has run the gamut of hosting shows, playing numerous others, recording and releasing albums of great poetry and personal insight. His latest, released tonight for this show, is Tourist. The title perhaps refers to Ruptak’s having felt like a tourist in many situations socially but from listening to the songs also psychologically and how one can often suffer from impostor syndrome when you’re an artist or any sort of sensitive person who has to try to navigate situations and fractured egos that aren’t your own. It balances dissonance and melody in a way that both enhance the effect of the other. Pololo is the project lead by Erin Roberts that has been going on for around 20 years but you don’t get to see Porlolo all that often and every time it’s striking how Roberts’ lyrics seem to sum up a state of mind or the state of the world in a compelling way.

Church Fire in 2024, photo by Tom Murphy

Sunday | 06.29
What: Denver Pride After-Party: Church Fire, YAN YEZ, Mr. Knobs and May Be Fern
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Denver pride happens the weekend of 6.28-6.29 and this event is a choice way to wind down the festivities, not that the likes of indie funk group May Be Fern is exactly tranquil stuff. Nor that Church Fire’s highly charged, industrial dance anthems tearing down the theoretical and spiritual framework of the patriarchy is tranquil either but it will be a catharsis we all need in time when it seemed like we should be rebuilding a better world instead of once again having to take on patriarchy’s most extreme manifestations in fascism and late capitalism because no one is coming to save us.

To Be Continued…

Best Shows in Denver and Beyond December 2022

Palm performs at Larimer Lounge on December 6, 2022, photo by Eve Alpert
Wild Pink, photo courtesy the artist

Thursday | 12.01
What: Wild Pink w/Trace Mountains and Knuckle Pups
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Wild Pink’s John Ross wrote one of the great story albums of recent years with 2021’s A Billion Little Lights and its themes of coming to terms with adulthood while staying connected with one’s creative life and navigating the temptations to ditch music as the occupation of adolescence. And how through creative work one can explore an evolving sense of meaning that hits you throughout your thirties and the rest of your life. 2022’s ILYSM (an acronym for “I Love You So Much”) takes that perspective to examine the details of life that deepen one”s bond with the people in your life. Knuckle Pups in from Denver released a deeply self-reflective album with 2022’s TV Ready in which the ambitious pop band fuses radical vulnerability with a compassionate honesty that is not nearly common enough in the realm of indie rock or any form of music today. Sometimes earnestness can seem like a pose but with Knuckle Pups it seems inspirational in its lack of pretension.

Cold Cave in 2011, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 12.02
What: Cold Cave w/Voight and Hex Cassette
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Wesley Eisold of Cold Cave has been mostly been releasing singles and EPs since the most recent full length album Cherish the Light Years came out in 2011. His most recent Fate in Seven Lessons (2021) is well within the realm of modern darkwave post-punk with his usual gift for teasing grit and darkness out of the songwriting although plenty of the music has a beautifully melodic melancholia reminiscent of New Order. Eisold has also been involved in a bit of writing including his work with the late, great Mark Lanegon on the book of poetry Plague Poems (2020). Opening the show are two Denver acts. Hex Cassette’s confrontational industrial dance music challenges notions of the role of artist and audience and breaking that barrier for a collective experience. Voight seems to be making good on its threat of completely injecting techno into its own searing shoegaze-infused post-punk and emotionally intense music.

Cannibal Corpse, photo by Alex Morgan

Friday | 12.02
What: Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest Denver 2022 Day 1: Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, Immolation, Black Anvil, Onyx and In The Company of Serpents
When: 5
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: This unique event includes some pretty extensive beer tasting for those so inclined but the real reason is to get to see some of the great extreme metal acts of today. That includes death metal legends Cannibal Corpse whose over the top gory lyrics have been banned in various countries despite how obviously absurd they are in the vein of the most demented horror movies of the 80s but really just more creative than a lot of those films. And the music itself stands up well in upholding the brutality of the lyrics with a technical proficiency worthy of the name of the band. Get there early to catch the bluesy, cinematic doom band from Denver In the Company of Serpents who don’t play Denver as much as they once did these days.

Wayfarer, photo courtesy the artists

Saturday | 12.03
What: Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest Denver 2022 Day 2: Pig Destroyer, Skinless, Wayfarer, Of Feather and Bone and Wake
When: 4
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Day two of this event includes more noteworthy acts out of the broad world of extreme metal including performances from Denver’s masters of cinematic doom, Wayfarer, the caustic death grind onslaught of Of Feather and Bone, the blackened grind of Calgary’s Wake and grindcore legends Pig Destroyer whose contorted and savagely brutal music is a fitting companion to JR Hayes’ darkly incisive lyrics about human experiences on the edge.

Soccer Mommy, photo by Sophie Hur

Saturday | 12.03
What: Soccer Mommy w/TOPS
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: Sophia Allison has been writing music and performing as Soccer Mommy since she was in college before dropping out and moving back to Nashville to pursue her career as a musician full time. It helped that she had a record deal with Fat Possum which released her debut album Clean in 2018 before she turned twenty-one. The album’s emotional openness and unabashed embrace of unconventional melody and song structure while crafting undeniable hooks garnered the record widespread critical acclaim. The most recent Soccer Mommy album Somtimes, Forever (2022) was produced with Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never and the team-up brought to Allison’s particularly confessional lyrics and always imaginative guitar work an experimental edge and sound design element for the songwriter’s most musically adventurous recording of her career thus far. Additionally, the lyrics probably startled listeners that expect artists to be vague in their sentiments in a pop song setting but hasn’t Allison been poetically pointed and vivid in her words all along? Opening the show is Montreal’s indie pop band TOPS whose gentle yet passionate compositions seem like they’d be pretty light and airy live as well but at the show the band seems to exude an unexpected vitality.

HaemoGoblin, photo courtesy the artists

Saturday | 12.03
What: HaemoGoblin and Fast N Loose at L. Lazer art opening
When: 9
Where: The Crypt ($10 cash)
Why: HaemoGoblin is an electronic duo that will be performing what it calls a ritualistic invocation. Calling the performance “Inauguration” what you will see is a “mini stage play set to music, designed to disorient, disturb and ‘shake awake’ the audience for a half hour or longer.” What will this look like? Well, veteran carnie frontwoman Ortenzia von Deadworry and S.S.G. her “summoned demon” synth player will definitely bring some theater to an often very predictable local music scene. Also on the bill for this art opening featuring the work of L. Lazer is Fast N Loose is a Motorhead tribute band.

The Soft Moon in 2015, photo by Tom Murphy

Sunday | 12.04
What: The Soft Moon w/Nuovo Testamento and Kill You Club DJs
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Luis Vasquez was a little ahead of the curve when he launched The Soft Moon in 2009. Originally a solo project, The Soft Moon evolved to become more of a live band that brought Vasquez’s songs of nervy energy and anxiety-purging urgency to life. His most recent album is 2022’s Exister which in the wake of one of the most challenging periods in recent world history on a wide scale is a catharsis of overcoming the enervating influences that come your way and considering the mere continuation of existence a triumph in itself. The songs seem to have leaned more into the industrial side of Vasquez’s songwriting with some real visceral power driving the moody atmospherics. Los Angeles-based darkwave/synth pop band Nuovo Testamento opens the show.

Hembree, photo by Jonny Marlow

Sunday | 12.04
What: Hembree w/Little Hurt, False Report and Mae Mae
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Hembree from Kansas City, Missouri that formed in 2015 and its big break to a national audience was the placement of its single “Holy Water” in an Apple ad during Super Bowl LII. The group’s tight rhythms serve as a foundation for the rest of the songwriting to stretch out whether into focused, unadorned rock songs or expansive, moody pieces and the techno-underpinned indie funk that is at the core of its sound. The group’s new album It’s a Dream! is a record tinged with nostalgic examinations of the roots of current anxieties and insecurities expressed in hazy melodies and resonating tones driven by a hypnotic beat. On the surface it may sound like another current indie rock offering with more than its fair share of more imaginative songwriting but Hembree really charts an internal journey in which one is prepared to exit the gauntlet of lucid dreams trapped in feeling everything until it makes sense and after one is able to move through tangled emotional memories.

The Lemonheads, photo by Barry Brescheisen

Monday | 12.05
What: The Lemonheads w/Bass Drum Of Death and On Being an Angel https://www.bluebirdtheater.net/events/detail/443688
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: The Lemonheads are one of few still extant bands to have come to prominence during the alternative rock era that didn’t quite fit in with the more trendy subgenres that made that era one of the most vibrant in the history of popular music. Its own brand of power pop was a vehicle for the songwriting of only constant member, singer and guitarist Evan Dando. The latter seems to have an ability to look into situations and people and extrapolate poetic insights with a compassionate perspective. The title track of the group’s 1992 breakthrough album It’s A Shame About Ray isn’t just about a troubled person who doesn’t fit in with any school and its politics, it’s about feeling like a perpetual outsider and the rest of the songs on the record are vivid stories about people we all know and might even be in a way that didn’t comport with the tales of desperation one heard in a lot of grunge and too “dark” for more faux posi faire of that era to now. Ever since The Lemonheads went on hiatus in 1997 and returned to operations in 2005, the group hasn’t been prolific with original material but Dando’s interpretations of artists that have influenced him on Varshons (2009) Varshons 2 (2019) have been a peek into what Dando’s brain has latched onto for inspiration and perhaps for this performance we’ll get to hear what the veteran songwriter has been up to in recent years. One thing is for certain his own songs have aged far better than those of many of his contemporaries owing in part to the gentle but raw honesty of the songwriting. Also on this bill is Bass Drum of Death originally from Oxford, Mississippi whose blues tinged noisy garage rock has a refreshing level of grit and menace befitting the name of the project.

Monday | 12.05
What: W.A.S.P. w/Armored Saint
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: W.A.S.P. is the kind of band out of the glam metal era in Los Angeles of the 1980s that more than any other group out of that world that courted controversy. Its music was and is a spirited, melodic hard rock with a strong sense of theater even in the songwriting. Sure its cover art for its debut single “Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)” with the circular saw codpiece offended people that took it more literally than could even remotely be intended. Certainly former guitarist Chris Holmes looked the buffoon drunk in a pool with his mother sitting by in the 1988 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years seemed to affirm the extreme and self-destructive hedonism associated with the band. But at its best W.A.S.P. were avatars of a music scene that could be cartoonish, bombastic and puerile while offering an alternative to a conformist puritanical culture with its lurid and triumphant storytelling. Perhaps co-headlining though less notorious is Armored Saint who also started in 1982 in Los Angeles and also pre-dated glam metal though often associated with that world of music due to the big hair and knack for solid melodic hooks. But like W.A.S.P. there was something with more edge than most of its glam rock contemporaries. While never quite having any mainstream breakthrough hits, Armored Saint was a staple of 1980s metal that has held up better than much of the music out of the 1980s Los Angeles heavy metal scene has.

Water From Your Eyes, photo by Ana Fangayen

Tuesday | 12.06
What: Palm w/Water From Your Eyes
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: As Water From Your Eyes, Nate Amos and Rachel Brown have made a career of using an eclectic and ever evolving palette of sounds to explore ideas and concepts through what could be considered dance pop. That is if your frame of reference might be the experimental electronic and punk out of New York and Los Angeles of the last fifteen years. Its 2020 album 33:44 is something you’d expect more out of a band on the Northern Spy label with its beautifully dire, ambient and modern classical soundscapes that are almost an homage to Penderecki’s “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” crossed with Howard Shore’s work for the films of David Cronenberg. But the duo’s most recent album Structure at times sounds like what might have happened if Aphex Twin in writing Selected Ambient Works Volume II had decided to turn those into pop songs. Except that Water From Your Eyes inserts enigmatic spoken word elements that serve as a a meta narrative that re-configures traditional album structure and gives the whole album a non-linear quality made cohesive by reimagining the nature of how creative work is structured. Fitting that this arty yet incredibly accessible group is sharing the stage with Philadelphia’s art rock weirdos Palm touring in support of Nicks and Grazes, an album that sounds like the band challenged its members to go on separate retreats to clear their minds of contemporary influences and to immerse themselves in non-musical art forms and come back to make the kind of psychedelic rock record that comes across like a collage of playful daydreams and arranged in a way that brushes aside conventional structure itself.

OFF! photo by Jeff Forney

Thursday and Friday | 12.08 and 12.09
What: OFF! w/Zulu
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: OFF! is of course the newer hardcore project fronted by legendary vocalist Keith Morris formerly of Black Flag and of Circle Jerks. The current lineup includes founding member Dmitri Coats of Burning Brides on guitar and as of 2021 Autry Fulbright II on bass and Justin Brown on drums. After an eight year hiatus on releases, OFF! released Free LSD in 2022. It’s still the searing hardcore sound you’d expect from the group but there are some clear differences with what sounds like synth and other ambient sounds giving the songs a psychedelic feel that wasn’t so much a part of its earlier sound. A refreshing update for a band that still maintains the intensity and edge without being stuck in a stylistic rut. Opening both dates at the Hi-Dive is anti-racist powerviolence band Zulu which injects its music with R&B samples and eschews the tough guy stance of hardcore.

Pond, photo by Matsu

Friday | 12.09
What: Pond w/Cryogeyser — rescheduled to April 16, 2023
When: 8
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Pond has shared membership with Tame Impala over the years with lead singer Nick Albrook being involved with both bands for a few years and Kevin Parker serving as drummer in earlier years and as a producer until 2020. The polished psychedelic pop of its first eight albums was helped in no small part due to Parker’s influence in the production department but with the 2021 album 9, Pond has given us its most interesting record to date with more grit in its overall sound, some edge to its funk elements and a willingness to embrace some rawness in its sound as well as take its atmospherics into a realm flirting with space rock. Los Angeles-based jangle fuzz trio Cryogeyser opens the show with its melancholic, lo-fi dream pop.

Obituary, photo by Tim Hubbard

Friday | 12.09
What: Obituary w/Amon Amarth, Carcass and Cattle Decapitation
When: 5:30
Where: The Fillmore Auditorium
Why: Obituary is touring ahead of the 2023 release of its new album Dying of Everything. After nearly 40 years as a band exploring the outer edges of the death metal format and pioneering some of that aesthetic it can be challenging to have something new to say with your music and a return to form can be tedious. But Obituary this time decided to stick to writing a strong set of material worthy of its pre-1997 split output. The dire messaging delivered with still convincingly brutal vocals but without cartoonish lyrics. Rounding out the bill are Seattle grindcore outfit Cattle Decapitation who are somehow both keenly aware of the absurdity and cruelty of modern human civilization and the need to ridicule the hubris of our species without making light of the situation in which we and other animals find ourselves due to a tolerance for savage forms of economic and social organization. And yes, grindcore/death metal legends/pioneers Carcass and Swedish, melodic death metal group Amon Amarth and its proclivity for lyrics about the Viking Age and a time before the Christian domination of Nordic culture.

The Smile, from the band’s Facebook page

Saturday and Sunday | 12.10 and 12.11
What: The Smile w/Robert Stillman
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: The Smile is Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame with drummer Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet. The trio made its debut at Glastonbury Festival in 2021 and its music produced during the limitations of association and collaboration during the COVID-19 lockdown emerged as an intimate and spacious, lonely set of melodies and fragile emotional expressions. In 2022 the group released its debut album A Light for Attracting Attention. The record is contemplative as one might expect with the musicians involved but also vulnerable and open in sentiments embracing a massive level of uncertainty and peril that continues to flow seemingly unchecked in a world beyond the ongoing pandemic and perpetuating a sustained anxiety that will have untold impacts for decades to come and written about in history books or their equivalent in some future time should such indulgences be permitted in a post-authoritarian era. The Smile seems to have written a record from the perspective of people keenly attuned to these concerns and not knowing if they’ll live long enough to see better days but not being attached to a sinking spirit of despair.

Bartees Strange, photo by Luke Piotrowski

Wednesday | 12.14
What: Bartees Strange w/Pom Pom Squad and They Hate Change
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Bartees Leon Cox Jr. has worn various hats in his career both musical and otherwise. But he is perhaps best known for his music under the moniker Bartees Strange following his stint in in the post-hardcore band Stay Inside. With the release of his 2020 debut Live Forever, Cox has proven himself a master of writing emotionally nuanced and vulnerable pop songs that incorporate elements of indie folk and, synth pop and hip-hop but with a production element that seems to make the music and its complex arrangements hit with a stirring immediacy. Fans of Twin Shadow will hear some similar sonic touchstones and the sophomore album Farm to Table (2022) revealed more of Cox’s gift for genre bending to great effect in delivering songs that are at once deeply personal and politically charged.

Twin Tribes, photo from Bandcamp

Thursday | 12.15
What: Twin Tribes w/Dancing Plague and Plague Garden
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Twin Tribes from Brownsville, TX have garnered no small amount of buzz for its blend of minimal synth and post-punk and a kind of vitality amid melancholic tones. Its most recent studio album Ceremony (2019) sounds like songs written during a flurry of peak emotions and capturing the urgency and desperation of a recent breakup. In most cities of size, Twin Tribes is performing in medium sized clubs but in Denver we’re fortunate to be able to catch the popular band in a small club like HQ. Dancing Plague is a darkwave solo act from Portland, OR whose dusky synth pop is like a darker OMD with some touches of influence from John Maus. In the interest of full transparency, the author of this blurb is in Plague Garden, a noteworthy post-punk/New Wave band from Denver.

ABANDONS, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday | 12.15
What: ABANDONS w/Old Soul Dies Young, Almanac Man and Fainting Dreams
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: This show is a nice split of experimental noise rock and shoegaze. ABANDONS might at another time be considered a post-rock band but in its mix one hears bits of post-metal, noise rock and ambient and it live shows have a visceral quality with music that one might more expect to be performed in a more meditative spirit. Old Soul Dies Young is the kind of band that happens when guys who were way into post-hardcore and doom drop that sound palette for something more melodic and atmospheric but with the same level of sonic bombast. Almanac Man is like a collision of doom and borderline aggressive, Chicago style noise rock. Fainting Dreams is the kind of dream pop band that comes about when its members maybe came up through hardcore and death metal and are shedding the aggression and mathematical precision and heaviness for radical vulnerability and dreamlike tones.

Organ, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 12.16
What: Sounds for Charity: Avarice, Organ, No More Cheering, Gabriel Albelo
When: 7
Where: Glob
Why: Proceeds from this show go to Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Warm weather gear and hand warmers also accepted. For your donation you can catch the glitch industrial dance stylings of Organ, Gabriel Albelo’s solo performance of his heavy psychedelic rock, Avarice’s dark, menacing industrial techno and the prepared noise environment soundscapes of No More Cheering.

Meet the Giant in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 12.17
What: Love Stallion w/Shanghai Metro Temple and Meet the Giant
When: 8
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Love Stallion is basically an 80s style glam metal band and if that’s your thing they’re definitely on the better end of the modern version of that with of course stage antics and style and the level of musicianship you’d expect. Shanghai Metro Temple is a fairly straight ahead indie rock band that sounds like it is heavily influenced by late 90s alternative and hard rock. Meet the Giant fuse downtempo electronic pop with post-punk, heavy shoegaze and imaginative soundscapes on the production end.

Wave Decay in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 12.17
What: Bluebook w/Wave Decay and Mon Cher
When: 8
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Bluebook these days isn’t the experimental indie folk jazz band of its early days. Instead there is a darkness and not so buttoned downed, controlled intensity to the performances. Seems like Julie Davis is letting her flaws, anxieties and dreams hang more loosely with this version of the band and that has just meant its music has blossomed more and its sound palette greatly expanded with the inclusion of formery Monofog and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake singer Hayley Helmericks on drums and backing vocals, Jess Parsons on keys and other instrumentation and maybe even Anna Morsett on guitar. Wave Decay is the kind of band that sounds like it took the door through psych garage into more shoegaze sounds and all the better for it. Mon Cher’s music is a particularly transporting and lies somewhere between dream pop and downtempo jazz.

Milk Blossoms in 2021, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 12.17
What: Milk Blossoms w/Meek and Knuckle Pups
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Knuckle Pups write radically vulnerable and thoughtful indie pop in the classic mold and its 2022 album TV Ready is both heartbreaking and uplifting. Milk Blossoms play a rare show with Michelle Rocquet now that she spends much of her time in New York City for professional and academic pursuits. So with this configuration of the band you’ll get the full dual vocal effect of powerfully rendered, tender pop songs that are irresistibly twee and cathartic.

Master Ferocious in 2021, photo by Tom Murphy

Sunday | 12.18
What: Never Kenezzard w/Zingaro, Sea of Flame and Master Ferocious
When: 3
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Never Kenezzard don’t really fit in with the metal scene so much though its blend of progressive rock sensibilities, doom and psychedelia finds it in a particularly more interesting corner of that realm of music. Sea of Flame are a sludge rock/doom band whose epic arrangements are not the rote edition of what doom has become. Master Ferocious somehow mix classic power metal with glam rock without seeming corny because the musicianship is so strong and the performance bordering on theatrical.

Alaska Thunderfuck, photo by Albert Sanchez

Sunday | 12.18
What: Alaska Thunderfuck Presents: The Red 4 Filth Tour
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Alaska Thunderfuck is perhaps best known for her competing in RuPaul’s Drag Race but over the last several years she has cultivated a pop music career. Steeped in modern electronic pop and a showcase for her outsize stage persona. Her latest album Red 4 Filth leaves behind some of the camp and humor of previous releases with a more obviously sincere set of pop songs that bring together sounds from hip-hop and classic modern pop including a cover of “All That She Wants” by Ace of Base.

Faceman in 2013, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday | 12.22
What: FaceMan Western Jupiter vinyl release, Tivoli Club Brass Band and Anthony Ruptak
When: 7
Where: The Skylark Lounge/Bobcat Club
Why: Faceman celebrates the release of its latest album on vinyl as well as making available on vinyl for the first time its 2016 album Wild and Hunting. The band fronted by Steve Faceman has long offered finely crafted pop Americana with an experimental edge though its new album Western Jupiter shows an embrace of a more straightforward approach to songcraft. But every release is fulled with songs that have heartfelt and sharply observed lyrics in stories about life that feel like they’re part of your life because Steve has honed in on an aspect of culture and social reality that seems to be in the air in that moment. In years past Faceman has put on theatrical performances with set pieces and costumes that help to illustrate the music in dramatic fashion in collaboration with local visual artists who have helped to make these outfits and elaborate sets and pieces of artwork like the stage Megalodon of several years ago or the huge tornado of paper made for the epic Faceman’s 100 Year Storm event of 2016 at The Oriental Theater in which Faceman invited 100 bands to perform. So there’s a bit of community involvement and creative vision behind what drives the band even if it’s not necessarily abundantly obvious from listening to its excellent songs on their own.

SORROWS, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 12.23
What: Baby Baby, Gila Teen, SORROWS and Ray Diess
When: 7
Where: Enigma Bazaar
Why: Baby Baby is the indie dream pop project of Lily Conrad. Reminiscent of bedroom pop artists of the late 90s and 2000s and has the aesthetics of lo-fi but with better sound production than much of that stuff often had. Gila Teen is the genre defying emo-shoegaze-post-punk band whose eccentric songs nevertheless always seem to be a direct line into the anxieties and affections coursing through the cosmos at the given moment of the performance. SORROWS is an emotionally charged downtempo band comprised of vibrant vocals, elegantly crafted rhythms and electronic production. Ray Diess is one of the Denver scene’s most compelling darkwave pop artists operating today.

Julian Street Nightmare, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 12.23
What: Fast Eddy, Julian Street Nightmare and Morning Oil
When: 8
Where: Globe Hall (free)
Why: When garage punk and the more mundane end of psychedelic rock collapsed under the weight of its own hubris and fake excitement some of the people who were on one end of that broader scene with any talent or imagination had to do something different and Fast Eddy came out of that milieu as a solid power pop band. Julian Street Nightmare create music from a thrilling nexus of post-punk, surf rock and art rock. Morning Oil sounds like it took some bit of inspiration from the better part of 80s glam metal and The Dead Boys.

Tuesday | 12.27
What: The Roots and BIG K.R.I.T.
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: The Roots are the influential, jazz rooted hip-hop band from Philadelphia that many may also know for serving as the house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Its use of live musical instrumentation has always set The Roots apart from most hip-hop groups whose use of samples is most often used to craft the beat and thus its live performances have a powerful physical presence that is impossible to duplicate otherwise. Big K.R.I.T. is the acclaimed rapper and producer from Mississippi whose eclectic production and socially conscious lyrics seem to hit at a very grassroots level of appeal with an accessible sound and a way of presenting heady ideas in a way that is both creative and personally relatable.

Voight, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday | 12.29
What: Watch Yourself Die, Voight, Sell Farm https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sell-farm-voight-wyd-at-the-mercury-cafe-tickets-481076160747?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete
When: 8
Where: Mercury Café
Why: Watch Yourself Die is kind of a post-punk supergroup comprised of members of Hex Cassette, Ray Diess and Julian Street Nightmare. Voight has long blurred the line between shoegaze, post-punk, darkwave and techno and infused it with emotionally intense live performances. Sell Farm might be an indiepop band but one that doesn’t see a reason why heavy dub and industrial music can’t be a part of the overall wheelhouse of sounds going into the project’s eclectic but always interesting songwriting.

Thursday | 12.29
What: Discomfort Creature w/Curious Things, Nightfishing
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Discomfort Creature is a punk band from Denver whose lineup includes current and former members of Gamits and Uphollow and this show signals the vinyl release of its 2021 self-titled debut on Snappy Little Numbers now that Chris Fogal is back in town for the occasion from his current residence in Switzerland. The record is an energetic fusion of pop punk and the more angular, Dischord-esque variety of punk.

Brotherhood of Machines at Deep Club event in 2014, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 12.30
What: FOANS, Brotherhood of Machines (album release) and Luxury Hearse
When: 9
Where: Broadway Roxy
Why: FOANS is the brainchild of producer Andrew Dahabrah whose melancholic house and techno music has been at the center of Denver’s underground dance music world for several years. Luxury Hearse is the project of Dan Coleman (Blank Human) and Rin Howell (Psychic Secretary) that breaks the barrier between techno, ambient and musique concrète. Brotherhood of Machines is apparently returning with its first new release and album in over six years. The project live has been a mysterious and sonically rich example of where ambient, abstract industrial, techno and noise converge to produce a sound that establishes a deep sense of mood and place.

To Be Continued…