Tag: Precocious Neophyte

Thursday | 10.01
What: Carín León
When: 7
Where: Ball Arena
Why: Carín León is a bonafide international star who built his career on performing various styles of regional Mexican music like Banda, mariachi, norteño and combined that more traditional and folk music with R&B, rock and country into a highly accessible form that is essentially modern pop music. He may not be so well known in English playlist formats but he’s playing at Ball Arena in Denver and at The Sphere in Las Vegas and other large venues throughout North America a testament to his status as a commercially popular artist who has garnered Latin Grammy Awards as well as an appearance at Austin City Limits. His energy as a performer on both recordings and live has an immediacy and authenticity with an instant appeal. In 2026 he collaborated with Jelly Roll on the single “Lighter” for the official album of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. His new album Muda released May 7, 2026.

Thursday | 10.01
What: Plastic Mystic, Church Fire, Watch Yourself Die and Clay K & The Vertebrates
When: 7/7:30
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Four of the front range’s best bands on one bill on a Thursday night beginning with art rock/prog/post-punk band Clay K & The Vertebrates from Fort Collins. Watch Yourself Die is like if a noise rock prog band put the focus on confrontational performance art that is so committed it crosses over into a psychedelic experience. Church Fire is the premier political industrial dance pop band from Denver. Plastic Mystic is a spirited fusion of garage rock, post-punk, hardcore and grunge.

Saturday | 10/03
What: Candy Chic album release w/The CDs and Lu Lagoon
When: 7 ($10)
Where: Matchbox
Why: Candy Chic is celebrating the release of its new album B-Side Movies. The quartet is in the realm of indie rock but with clear inspiration drawn from 1980s synth pop and the new album as the title suggests has a cinematic aspect in its production and songwriting but also with the kind of earnest emotional expression that seems like more something from another era, not the performative earnestness that plagued a certain segment of indie rock in the 2000s. Throughout one gets the sense that the songs were written as the soundtrack to a coming of age movie or a film about navigating early adulthood perhaps written by Brian K. Vaughan. Live the band performs with the appropriate enthusiasm appropriate to such possible inspirations.

Saturday | 10.03
What: Denver Porchfest
When: 12-7PM
Where: Baker District Porches
Why: This inaugural edition of the one day, short form festival runs throughout the Baker Neighborhood and features 193 local bands with donations to benefit East 7th Arts which provides art and music therapy for children with autism. There will be some of the best local acts across various porches and please consult the website linked for more details and possibly check the social media of bands listed for when and where they will be performing.

Monday | 10.05
What: Automatic w/Donzii
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex
Why: Automatic is a post-punk duo from Los Angeles comprised of Izzy Glaudini on synths and vocals and Halle Saxon on bass and vocals. Lola Dompé, daughter of Bauhaus/Love and Rockets drummer Kevin Haskins, is the group’s former drummer and vocalist. The 2025 album Is It Now? demonstrated the band was capable of creating evocative, atmospheric music with minimal elements. Opening the show is Donzii, an electro post-punk performance art No Wave-adjacent band originally from Miami. Jenna Balfe is a commanding and ritualistic singer whose dance moves are like something out of avant-garde dance theater, fun and pure rock and roll and bassist Dennis Fuller sounds like he studied heavily listening to John Taylor and Larry Graham before developing his own powerful style.

Monday | 10.05
What: Love Spells w/Orca
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Love Spells aka Sir Taegen Harris released his debut full length album Love Is the Law on July 24, 2026 via RCA. The artist grew up in and around Houston (now based in Los Angeles) and found solace in fantasy fiction as a youth but eventually discovered poetry as a vehicle to crafting lyrics for his early musical endeavors as a rap artist. Later in his teens he switched musical gears some and fused hip-hop production and more dream pop and indie rock style songwriting and the new album with his impressive use of falsetto vocals is a bit like if Prince came up on later R&B and dream pop and wrote emotionally vibrant songs about, frankly, similar subject matter like love, soul searing heartbreak and struggles with mental health. Isn’t that what “Let’s Go Crazy” is about?

Monday | 10.05
What: Shiner w/Criteria and Replica City
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Shiner is one of the secretly influential rock bands out of the 90s from Kansas City, Missouri. Its evolving sound is in the realm of post-hardcore and math rock but with deep atmospheric elements that crosses over into what was called space rock before everything in that realm of sonics got lumped in with shoegaze. Originally running from 1992-2003 the band reconvened in 2012 and has been putting out fascinating records since including its latest epic The Y Section (2026) that has more than a passing resonance with what Failure has been up to of late. Opening is Denver’s great post-hardcore/post-punk trip Replica City and Criteria from Omaha, the noisy post-punk band including former Cursive member Steve Pedersen and A.J. Mogis who runs Presto! Recording Studios with his brother Mike Mogis, a musician whose studio engineering credits are a not insignificant portion of modern indie rock.

Tuesday | 10.06
What: Big Thief w/Iris DeMent
When: 6:30
Where: Red Rocks Amphitheater
Why: Big Thief has become one of the biggest and most influential indie rock bands since its 2015 inception with both Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek having noteworthy solo careers parallel with the band. Though its music is associated with Americana and indie folk there has been an ambitious songwriting instinct obvious from its early releases but all serving music that is brimming with raw emotions channeled into vulnerable, poetic expressiveness. With the release of Double Infinity (2025), Big Thief showed that it could work with many songs and hone a new kind of sound for the band that seemed to incorporate more of its electronic elements and a more edgy noisiness than was more obvious on earlier records. It also included extensive contributions from ambient/avant-garde legend Laraaji.

Tuesday | 10.06
What: Buzzcocks w/Minds Eye and The Pitch Invasion
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Foundational post-punk band Buzzcocks is celebrating its 50 years of existence with this tour. After it started in Manchester, UK in 1976 Buzzcocks were the first punk band with an independently released EP, Spiral Scratch (1977). Even that initial release was the sound for what was coming after punk with an knack for pop hooks and a different kind of sensibility that was solidified in subsequent albums so that it innovated one branch of post-punk and really early pop punk. Early singles like “Orgasm Addict,” “What Do I Get?” and “Every Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)” are still staples of punk and post-punk playlists and sound just as exciting as when they were first released because Buzzcocks were seemingly not writing just for the late 70s. These days only Steve Diggle from the classic lineup is still in the band but it’s one that has released music since the tragic death of former lead singer and guitarist Pete Shelley in 2018 including 2026 album Attitude Adjustment.

Friday | 10.09
What: MVTANT w/Pink Stiletto, babybaby4ever, Velocity Garden and Kill You Club DJs
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: MVTANT is an industrial darkwave artist from San Antonio whose version of EBM is more steeped in the realm of techno and earlier progenitors of the style like Front Line Assembly and Fad Gadget. But in the dystopian dance music of the artist’s output you can hear the impact of electronic Krautrock and horror cinema soundtracks thus perhaps the title and themes of the 2024 album Electronic Body Horror. Pink Stiletto’s own darkwave flavor is more in line with a fusion of disco and synthpop. And babybaby4ever is the best modern synthpop artist most people outside of Denver haven’t had the pleasure of witnessing and Lily Conrad’s command of rich synth tone and playful stage performance is top tier.

Friday | 10.09
What: The Jungle Giants w/Morning Silk
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: The Jungle Giants are an indie rock quartet from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia who garnered a bit of international attention with the release of its 2013 album Learn to Exist noted for its irrepressible energy and creative hooks. In May 2026 the group released its first album in five years with Experiencing Feelings of Joy. The lead singles from the album showcased how The Jungle Giants aren’t just influenced by rock music and its vocal cadences have the hallmarks of hip-hop and R&B. All evident on previous releases but on the new album the songs have a richly developed atmospheric and production element that sounds geared for more mainstream appeal.

Saturday | 10.10
What: Pink Fuzz w/The Well and Tart
When: 7
Where: The Federal Theatre
Why: Pink Fuzz released its most recent single this week with “Don’t You Wanna Go To Heaven?” b/w “Manipulator” for digital download and streaming but also as a flexi disc. As usual the band lives up to its name with deeply hooky and melodic stoner rock. One of the opening acts The Well is from Austin and released its fourth full-length studio album …And Flames Ran Like Living Animals via Spaceflight Records on September 14, 2026. The trio’s burning, granular distortion puts into focus its heavy melodies and a knack for injecting pop hooks into metallic psychedelic rock. Fans of White Hills and the more urgent end of Black Mountain will appreciate the edge The Well brings to what feels like uplifting music. The band’s music video for “New Hallelujah for the Damned” was recorded at the SST warehouse and includes a cameo by Greg Ginn the founder of SST and, you know, Black Flag, Gone and several other bands over the years.

Saturday | 10.10
What: 49 Winchester w/Landon Smith
When: 7
Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: 49 Winchester from Castlewood, Virginia has been growing its cachet as a country rock band since 2013. The sextet released its first three albums independently before being signed to New West Records in 2022. From its 2014 self-titled debut the band has show signs of the influence of music well beyond what one might assume like harder edged rock but the aesthetic and themes of the music is rooted in their background in Appalachia and the region’s genre eclectic musical traditions. The group’s new record Change of Plans is brimming with songs about transitional periods of life and how life events can drastically shift one’s outlook and give one perspective on priorities and the course of how you’re going through the world. The album includes a soulful rendition of one of the most bluesy of Black Sabbath song with “Changes.” It’s a song that seems totemic for where 49 Winchester is today and perhaps its own audience.

Saturday | 10.10
What: Die Spitz w/Farmer’s Wife
When: 7
Where: Boulder Theater
Why: Before its 2025 debut album Something to Consume even dropped, Die Spitz had major underground buzz for its spirited live show. Is Die Spitz punk or metal or just some hybrid of the two that isn’t beholden to either. The vocals on the song have the kind of thrillingly feral quality one heard in early Hole and any point in the Babes in Toyland catalog. They haven’t steered clear of guitar solos but use them creatively with a fiery flair that coupled with the urgent rhythms and the dual vocals bypasses expectations. Die Spitz also has wonderfully pointed yet thoughtful and heartfelt social commentary that fits well with how the music sears through any static of what the band is supposed to sound like and how some of the most exciting and edgy music now is supposed to be delivered other than with conviction and passion.

Monday | 10.12
What: Castle Rat w/Unto Others and Wrath Knight
When: 6:30
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: Castle Rat wisely leaned into the fantasy imagery on stage and its lyrics from the beginning. The musicianship and well-crafted songs speak for themselves. The outfits, aesthetic and subject matter of the songs just make it more fun for people that show up to witness the spectacle. Many bands have tried a similar thing and found lacking because it is just cheesy or inept. Castle Rat’s debut full length The Bestiary (2025) offered tales of adventure and peril set to music that isn’t just trapped in doom or retro metal or heavy psychedelic rock but a fusion of all of that into its own flavor. Just look at press photos of the band and live footage on the internet and if that doesn’t seem appealing for some reason maybe don’t go but you might be missing out on one of the best live acts in the realm of metal going now.

Tuesday | 10.13
What: Sawyer Hill
When: 6:30
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Sawyer Hill got started playing in bars in Northwest Arkansas with a band of older kids before going solo and promoting his songs in social media where he garnered a wide fanbase. His song “Look At The Time” went viral and charted well with Spotify leading to signing to AWAL. His rich and charismatic baritone voice and passionate live performance can be heard fully utilized on Hill’s debut album Everybody’s Home, Nobody’s Happy (2026) where he somehow fuses some of his background in blues rock and perhaps gospel music and early Beck. But really Hill comes off like a singer from another era like a lost artist from the 60s or 70s who would have been sharing bills with honky tonk bands.

Wednesday | 10.14
What: zzzahara w/Faerybabyy and Bruha
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: zzzahara returns to Denver for a headlining show. They put out their album Distant Lands in June 2026 and its layered, bedroom pop style truly sounds like a dream-journey of self-discovery and healing. Inspired by a dream in which the songwriter spoke to their departed brother the record is steeped in embracing authentic feelings that we often keep buried as we hurtle through our lives. It is an album about reconnecting and perhaps growing from that process. It could be described as dream pop, shoegaze, psych and all the other atmospheric guitar genre tags you want but it also sounds like it’s informed by the possibilities of production and in some ways is like a pop cognate of They Are Gutting a Body of Water.

Thursday | 10.15
What: Raynes w/David Wimbish & The Collection
When: 7
Where: The Federal Theater
Why: The Los Angeles-based trio Raynes released its latest album Bloom in 2025 and further established its pop approach to songwriting. The group is often associated with folk due to its core of acoustic instruments and strong vocal arrangements. But Raynes has a backing of synths and a combination of live drums and electronic percussion. The result is what sounds like a fusion of chamber pop and bluegrass. Openers David Wimbish & The Collection released the album Heavy Love in 2026. Rooted in especially vulnerable and intimate songwriting style of folk pop, the new set of songs came about in the wake of Wimbish’s various life changes and challenges including dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in September 2024. And an often unspoken or explicitly dealt with in music directly aspect of being flooded with challenges is depression and the ways we employ to process those feelings. Whether through medication or various other approaches appropriate to given circumstances and nuances of what triggers the mind’s and body’s response to overwhelming, often prolonged, experiences. In delivering the music Wimbish and his bandmates involve the audience in putting together the set list and sharing stories from their lives for a kind of communal show and a way to bond with people that most artists wouldn’t attempt.

Friday | 10.16
What: REZN w/Lowheaven and BleakHeart
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Chicago’s REZN threads together doom and heavy rock with psychedelia and shoegaze into epic song cycles that explore transitional life phases and existential states reaching for an inner truth through honest experiences. Its latest album Cycles in the Infinite Dream isn’t as dark as previous albums but that’s like saying Kylesa’s later albums aren’t as heavy or as dark as the earlier records when that’s not so much true as the sound has evolved. Denver’s BleakHeart will open the show with its own radically vulnerable atmospheric heavy music somewhere in the meeting of dream pop, doom and post-punk.

Saturday | 10.17
What: The Wrecks w/Worry Club and Kid Sistr
When: 6
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Earlier in its career The Wrecks were more in the realm of indie/alternative rock seemingly influenced heavily by pop punk and emo. But its newer releases have incorporated what might be described as dream pop with greater attention to the atmospheric element of the songs and not a shoegaze adjacent sound so much. The band has been releasing singles over the past two years hinting at a new album on the horizon as the successor to 2022’s Sonder. Kid Sistr started out in New York near NYC but have been based out of Los Angeles for half a decade and its own music brings together punk-adjacent grit akin to 90s alternative rock, the kind of melodic immediacy and emotional uplift of Snail Mail and Soccer Mommy and a celebration of queer identity. The trio’s new EP American Teenage Prophecy is a vulnerably yet exuberant set of songs that lay out the struggles and triumphs of wading fully into one’s identity rather than one imposed by culture.

Saturday | 10.17
What: Fruit Bats w/Matthew Logan Vasquez
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Fruit Bats is the project of Eric D. Johnson who formed the band in 1997 in Chicago and enjoyed critical acclaim for a string of albums including a handful for Sub Pop before he dissolved the project in 2013 and performing as EDJ. But an offer to open for the 2015 My Morning Jacket inspired Johnson to reform the band. Since then the band has been prolific in its release schedule including 2026’s The Landfill. The record is like a companion to the 2025 album Baby Man which itself represented a shift in focus of Johnson’s songwriting to a more observational and stream-of-consciousness approach taking inspiration from his immediate environments with The Landfill seemingly drawing upon how landscapes in the midwest with hills such as they are more or less constructs of human civilization building upon the past and finding various uses for the land that change over the course of decades and centuries and the resonances we as individual humans have with that history and present in ways that aren’t always obvious but discernible if we take the time and develop the sensitivity to be aware. Musically it’s still in Johnson’s warmly folk style but coming across as even more like Bob Dylan than before.

Saturday | 10.17
What: A Strange Happening, Rowboat and The Picture Tour
When: 8 doors, 9 show, $10
Where: The Squire Lounge
Why: One of the best all local bills of the week with the indie, gritty dark American A Strange Happening whose songs are conceptual in terms of lyrics and as recording projects. The high concept approach isn’t obvious without a rewarding closer listen. Rowboat fuses folk based songwriting and deeply personal poetry infused with heartfelt social commentary. Yet also comes across like an intense, countrified shoegaze band. The Picture Tour makes no bones about being a dark post-punk band with elements of garage rock and shoegaze baked into its commanding and transporting songs.

Sunday | 10.18
What: Clejan’s “Strings of Valhalla” Tour
When: 1pm
Where: The Roxy Theater (2549 Welton St.)
Why: Clejan grew up in Atlanta and as with many kids he was urged into learning a classical instrument and for him that was the violin. But being in Atlanta as a kid in the 90s and 2000s he was exposed to the city’s hip-hop scene which was hitting the mainstream by the turn of the century and as a young person he was aware of the development of trap and as an artist himself he combined violin music with trap inspired in part by what he saw Lindsey Stirling blending her background in classical violin with pop, rock and EDM. Clejan released his new album Valhalla in 2026 and is currently touring in support of the album with this rare matinee show at The Roxy Theater near downtown Denver.

Monday | 10.19
What: Slow Pulp w/snuggle
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: Madison, Wisconsin spawned, Chicago-based indie rock band Slow Pulp recently issued its new album Melodie on Anti- September 18. 2026. The record sounds like a unification of the more indie folk flavor of its full-length debut Moveys (2020) and the more shoegaze/psychedelic rock style that informed the 2023 album Yard. But with more attention given to dynamic shifts and the textural and evocative possibilities of contrasting acoustic instruments and electronics. The album has a melancholic and reflective cast with explorations of self identity and how we move through the world and impact others with our self-perception and how that may differ from how we’re perceived. The mix of tender and effusive means the album doesn’t get stuck in a mood and reflects a yearning for reaching for one’s own potential and possibilities.

Wednesday | 10.21
What: MUNA w/hemlocke springs
When: 7
Where: Red Rocks
Why: Los Angeles-based synth pop trio MUNA met while students at USC and originally started making music in a more left field mode but shortly found more fruitful collaboration on material based in songwriting. Early in the band’s career they were signed to a major label and then dropped due to inadequate commercial performance, surely the sign of where major labels have been for years. But MUNA were signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records (in partnership with Dead Oceans) in 2021 and subsequently released its two finest and commercially successful albums of MUNA’s career including 2026’s Dancing on the Wall. Commercial considerations aside because who cares about that if a band doesn’t have the goods. MUNA’s punchy songwriting, typically strong hooks, tonally rich vocal performances and infectiously upbeat songs on an album inspired by the immense challenges to democracy and civil society posed by the second Felon47 administration injects some joy into one of the darkest times in modern American history and fortifying a spirit of resistance thereby.

Thursday | 10.22
What: Lords of Acid w/Princess Superstar, Tony and the Kiki and Mz Neon
When: 6:30
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Lords of Acid has been running since 1988 from Antwerp, Belgium with a sound that early combined industrial dance music with acid house and techno. The band’s aesthetic might be described as hedonistic camp with often cartoonish songs about sexuality and drugs with the 1991 debut album Lust becoming landmark in industrial music. Led by Praga Khan with an evolving cast of collaborators across the last few decades the live show is a spectacle befitting the bombastic and outrageous lyrics. And yet the music itself is well crafted and aimed for a sweaty dance floor.

Thursday | 10.22
What: Ceremony w/Destiny Bond and Pink Lady Monster
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Since 2004 Ceremony has been evolving its sound from an early more hardcore-inspired style to the noisy garage rock/post-punk of 2012’s Zoo and then more post-punk for L-Shaped Man (2015) and In the Spirit World Now (2019). With the new album Tell Me Your Dream Ceremony turns back to a more expansively aggressive sound while maintaining experimental elements that prevent the songs from sounding regressive. You hear keyboards accenting the angular, driving guitar and the guitar otherwise embracing unconventional melodic structures and the album ends on a melancholic, brooding, resigned note so as much as the record feels like a reconciliation with earlier impulses it also embodies and points in new directions. Opening is the great Denver hardcore band Destiny bond and Neo-No Wave legends Pink Lady Monster.

Friday | 10.23
What: Cop Killer, Team Nonexistent, Mouthful, Legs. The Band and Thinkdeath
When: 6/7, $15
Where: Ante Up
Why:With a name like Cop Killer you had better at least try to live up to what that sounds like and the Denver-based hardcore band does with lyrics that aim at take out authoritarian impulses in society. Team Nonexistent is a powerful amalgamation of grunge and riot grrrl. Legs. The Band is like a blend of garage-y blues rock and punk.

Friday | 10.23
What: Lesser Care w/Moonpool and Gooey Cookie
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Lesser Care has more or less quietly become one of the bands of choice for discerning fans of the post-punk and shoegaze crossover with a sound that is both ferocious and transporting. Its guitar tones are vibrant and not in the spindly post-punk style too many bands have adopted partly because Lesser Care is aiming to create deep and often dense atmospheres in which to get lost and dissolve the worst feelings in life. All of its albums are different and worth a thorough listen and its 2026 EP Lincoln Leather is one of its most sonically realized offerings to date introducing a decided post-hardcore element that brings more drive and push into the music that wasn’t already lacking it.

Monday | 10.26
What: Visceral Cuts w/Moon Pussy and Probes
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Visceral Cuts is a noise rock/metal/punk duo from Denton, Texas whose entire output is a tribute to horror cinema with song titles from classic horror films sublime to schlock, slasher to body horror, cosmic to creature feature with music to transform and honor the spirit of the films. Moon Pussy isn’t horror themed though from the name that sounds like a science fiction horror film. Instead it’s a mutant noise rock trio that has been responsible for some of the most potent and boundary defying music for nearly a decade.

Monday | 10.26
What: Failure w/Quannic
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Failure is one of the most influential bands that emerged in the wake of the alternative rock era that isn’t as well known as some of its peers like Tool. But when Haley Williams cites your band as a direct influence your reach is far beyond the cult following Failure has garnered across more than three decades. Its expansive guitar sounds, its cinematic yet intensely emotional songwriting that spans space rock shoegaze is like a modern version of art rock utilizing newer sounds and technology in crafting the band’s deep moods. Pick up any of its records and prepare for an engulfing sonic journey from its classic 90s albums including Fantastic Planet (1996) to its even more ambitious albums since reuniting after a 17 year hiatus in 2014 including the new record Location Lost (2026). With members of the band having experience in sound design both the records and the live show hit with a full spectrum of evocative sound and concepts.

Tuesday | 10.27
What: Taylor Bickett w/Fairhazel
When: 7
Where: Goosetown Tavern
Why: Indiana born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Taylor Bickett released her debut album Nothing I Can’t Undo via If This Then Records. With minimal production on the record and Bickett’s expressively vulnerable and vivid vocals centered lends her stories an immediacy and intimacy that suits her songs that are a slices of life and daydreams that incorporate humor and personal and social insight. “Nothing I Can’t Undo” expresses the desire to backtrack on mistakes and aim for what you really wanted or intended set to a backdrop of transitional life moments. “Politician” gently but sharply draws the portrait of the kind of politician we’ve come to accept as a representative while knowing we can do better. Bickett’s offers instantly relatable observations with music that frames it with gentle dramatics that pull the listener in.

Tuesday | 10.27
What: Dummy, American Culture, Golomb and Precocious Neophyte
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Dummy has consistently evolved its sound from its early days in the late 2010s. Every one of its three albums and two EPs showcase a band that may get lumped in with indie pop but live the band comes across more as a shoegaze band that incorporated elements of IDM, Krautrock and a more experimental version of psychedelia. The latest record Do You Love the Color of the Sky? sounds like Dummy has taken the clear inspiration of Stereolab through a 90s big beat filter for a sound that fuses more pop musical ideas and electronic dance music with imaginative songwriting. If you were a fan of the left field pop of Mandatory Enjoyment (2021) and the psychedelic post-punk shoegaze of Free Energy (2024) the new album is the next step and more in that evolution in blurring the line between electronic and analog psychedelic dance pop. Also on this bill are Denver shoegaze punk/indie pop legends American Culture, heavy space rock pop group Precocious Neophyte and Columbus, Ohio’s post-punk/indie pop/experimental rock trio Golomb.

Tuesday | 10.27
What: New Constellations w/Vox Rhea
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex
Why: Portland, Oregon synth pop duo New Constellations released its debut album It Comes In Waves on May 15, 2026. The record delves into the relationships gone sideways and the aftermath but articulates the emotions in the moment more vividly than so many songs about heartbreak as well as what it looks and feels like to recover from being headlong in melancholic moods and being open to connecting again and how that takes work as well. The band’s singles have certainly made the rounds of indie radio and playlists and hearing the music disconnected with immediate context is striking because the production end creates sonically rich melodies and rhythms that augment singer Harlee Case’s impassioned yet introspective vocals so even the often ethereal and synthwave pop sound hits a little harder. Fans of Phantogram and Metric will likely resonate strongly with wat New Constellations are putting out.

Thursday | 10.29
What: Dinosaur Jr w/Stef Chura
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: In the history of rock since 1984 few bands have as much cache of influence as Dinosaur Jr. The members of the band came out of the hardcore scene and that sound and sensibility can be heard in its early music. But Dinosaur Jr also indulged its classic rock, speed metal and jangle rock influences in creating a signature sound that would go on to inspire other bands to experiment with sheer volume, unconventional pacing and fusing noise with melody completely. Before splitting in 1997 Dinosaur Jr all but blueprinted much of alternative rock with groups like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Built to Spill, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo and Kurt Vile have drawn their lineage to the Dinosaur’s granular guitar sound and willingness to go off a song’s established map without losing sight of the essence of its appeal. The first three albums are classics of pre-alternative era rock but subsequent records have all been worthwhile including its 2026 album There Near. Is it possible the trio upped its own game? The vocals sound more vivid and confident than ever and stylistically we hear some chances taken while not compromising the wild guitar gyration pyrotechnics and fluidly expressive rhythms that have yielded decades of memorable music.

Thursday | 10.29
What: Julian St. Nightmare, Tassle, SFRM and Tickle Fight
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Julian St. Nightmare hasn’t played many shows since it reunited for live performance this past summer. The band was one of the best of the groups to emerge to local underground notoriety in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially fusing surf rock, darkwave and post-punk by the time the band went on hiatus in early 2024 it was one of the most compelling bands in Denver performing with an impassioned intensity that transcended supposed genre. Now a trio the emphasis is more on the electronic composition end augmented by moody yet fiery guitar and strong rhythms with live drums. SFRM (formerly Sellfarm) is somehow a powerful industrial darkwave/noise solo project. Tassels started as a bedroom dream pop/weirdo psych project but became a live band with the addition of bass. For a time the band had a live drummer but this show is going to be a return to drum machine loops. But the appeal of the live version of Tassles has always been the interplay from Nick Tassinari’s explosive, noisy yet tunefully dream-like guitar and Molly McGrath’s imaginative and confident bass lines coming off like a lo-fi Jesus and Mary Chain collaborating with Current Joys.

Friday | 10.30
What: Diles Que No Me Maten w/Sunswept and Ardo
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Diles Que No Me Maten has for several years been crafting music that blurs the line between poetry and songwriting. Stylistically the group is often considered psychedelic rock or folk or jazz but is really a unique sound that contains multitudes including trickles of avant-garde electronic music. Its new album Escrito en Agua (2026) has a title that seems like a reference to the phrase inscribed on the grave of English Romantic poet John Keats, “Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.” This is referenced without naming the poet on the Bandcamp page. But the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and the album in general sounds like a processional mourning for something we’ve collectively lost and trying to find one’s way back to vitality. It is also one of the least readily classifiable of the band’s offerings. One of the opening acts is Sunswept which is the ambient/pastoral folk flute and electronics project of Sarah Christensen whose songs also defy easy classification and also put the mind into a state of tranquility.

Friday | 10.30
What: King Buffalo w/L.A. Witch
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: For over a decade King Buffalo has been one of the more interesting bands to emerge out of the synthesis of desert rock, heavy psychedelia and doom. It’s not just crushing, disorienting riffs which might be enough. King Buffalo has a keen ear for how the rhythms can be both hypnotic and carry a tasty hook while layering in fiery and transporting guitar solos that link directly back into the flow of the song. With six albums under its belt King Buffalo is set to release its new album Doomsayer on December 4, 2026. The first since 2022’s Regenerator the early music from Doomsayer promises something easily on par with any of the group’s previous releases and the track listing hints at a great story arc of a dark mystical journey through a mythical west reflecting the turmoil and tests of the current era. There’s a better than half chance you’ll get to experience a lot of the new album on this tour.

Friday | 10.30
What: Greg Freeman w/Trinity Ace
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Calling Greg Freeman simply “alt-country” seems inadequate given his recorded output. In particularly the recently released All Set The Bone (2026). It’s like a psychedelic rock band had a folk phase and ditched that in favor of noise punk and then rediscovered a love of power pop hooks while still sounding borderline unhinged. Freeman sounds like he’s really letting loose some inner demons and purging accumulated angst throughout the record and yet we get moments of peace. It is a lot but doesn’t feel like too much. Like a fusion of The Replacements, Songs: Ohia and early John Dwyer projects.

Saturday | 10.31
What: Julia Jacklin w/Jordan Patterson
When: 8
Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: Julia Jacklin’s journey to internationally touring artist from Australia seems unlikely. She grew up in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales and didn’t meet anyone that was a full time musician until after she moved to attend Sydney University and, according to 2017 interview with Knar Bedian for Sound of Boston, living in a garage and working in a factory after graduation. Jacklin became involved in the local scene playing in various bands before her debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win (2016) caught the attention of the press outside of Australia and she started touring. Jacklin has also taken an active role in co-directing her music videos. Over the past decade Jacklin has released four critically acclaimed albums including The Gem released on September 25, 2026, her first for 4AD. Some of the album seems to be about the uncertainties and shifting emotions of being in a relationship and navigating how life circumstances and one’s own tendency to analyze various situations and feelings. Jacklin’s sensitive, warmly ethereal and finely nuanced vocal performance is impressive and immediately affecting and her guitar work along with that of Jacob Diamond provides the perfect musical accompaniment to figure out and understand, yes, various facets of one’s life.

Saturday | 10.31
What: White Rose Motor Oil album release of SPIDER! w/Black & White Motion Picture and Tensas and The Mourners
When: 7
Where: Bar404
Why: Denver’s White Rose Motor Oil is celebrating the release of its latest album SPIDER! The new record shows the band expanding its sound palette some with some moodier numbers but which still simmer with the fire that has helped render its rock Americana into something uniquely its own and not easily classifiable. Eryn DeSomer’s powerful vocals, always a centerpiece of the band’s sound, too ventures into different ranges of expression than expected. The guitars are more textural and edgy but expect the same sophisticated songwriting and insightful lyrics and raw power. It’s the kind of music one would hope Jim Jarmusch would include in his next film because it has enough classic rockabilly vibe with modern sensibilities to pair well with his aesthetic.

Day | Date
What: Halloween Cover Show: The B-52’s, Wire, Misfits, The Monks, Beat Happening, surprise set and Kill You Club DJs
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Some of Denver’s best rock/No Wave-adjacent/garage punk/post-punk/post-hardcore bands are coming together for tribute sets throughout the night and it’ll probably be pretty legit in terms of the versions of songs you’ll get to see. All night Kill You Club DJs will provide the proper soundtrack for a Halloween on Saturday.

To Be Continued…