Tag: UPSAHL

Wednesday | 10.02
What: Fontaines D.C. w/Been Stellar
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. has always been a bit different from the current crop of shout-y punk bands yet sharing a sharply observed critique of contemporary society and politics with a literary sensibility. For its 2024 album Romance the group took a bit of a different turn in its sounds drawing inspiration from manga, horror and existential cinema, ambient post-rock, a post-ironic absorption of nu metal and trip-hop. It sounds almost entirely unlike their previous offerings while preserving the core of its irreverent spirit and poetic leanings and transforming the expression of both. Openers Been Stellar from NYC is almost an American cognate of the musical impulses and instincts one finds in Fontaines D.C.. Its own melodic yet brooding rock is also brimming with an energy that suggests a sober assessment of the world as it is and deciding to reject the temptation to dissociation and despair. The quintet’s new album Scream from New York, NY is noisy and atmospheric with shades of Washington, DC post-punk and NYC arty noise rock.

Wednesday | 10.02
What: Mint Field w/Wave Decay
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Mint Field is a shoegaze/krautrock band from Mexico City that has garnered a bit of a cult following the past several years. Its songs have the kind of entrancing melodies one would hope to hear out of a dream pop outfit but its arrangements wax into the realm of the avant-garde with the use of noise and recursive production and sound processing so that its music ripples in hypnotic if not always incredibly predictable directions. Its latest full length is 2023’s Aprender a Ser and its autumnal moods and atmospheric resolves are reminiscent of Blonde Redhead in a more gloomy mood. In 2024 the group released the songs that were cut from the previous year’s albums as a mini-LP called Aprender a Ser: Extended. Wave Decay is of course the Denver band whose music most directly sonically aligns with Mint Field’s unorthodox rhythms and otherworldly leanings.

Wednesday | 10.02
What: High on Fire w/Weedeater and Cobranoid
When: 6
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: High on Fire is the band that Matt Pike started following the 1998 dissolution of foundational stoner rock band Sleep. High on Fire has been more hard edged even if the sludgy guitar sound is there. Depending on what record by the band you check out you’ll get a different flavor of heavy music. 2024’s Cometh the Storm is the first to feature Big Business and former Melvins drummer Coady Willis following the departure of Des Kensel. It’s vintage High on Fire but there is even more of a punk attitude in the energy behind the music’s rhythm.

Thurdsday | 10.03
What: Deicide w/Krisiun, Inferi and Cloak
When: 6
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: Death metal band Deicide hails from what many may consider the home of the genre in Tampa, Florida where legendary studio Morrisound Recording is located as well. The group has courted controversy from early on even before it changed its name from Carnage to Deicide in 1989 with wild theatrics and lyrics that were and have been gloriously, and colorfully anti-organized religion. But all of that wouldn’t amount to much if Deicide’s music was simply brutal guitar riffs and relentless rhythms with lead vocalist/bassist Glen Benton growling out scenes of horror and struggle. There is more creativity in what the group has done and while consistent in those regards its new album Banished by Sin reveals a good deal of evolution of style and experimenting with arrangements.

Thursday | 10.03
What: Luna Li w/John Roseboro
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Luna Li came out of Hannah Kim’s garage rock band Veins. But people apparently showed up thinking they were going to be some kind of metal band or the like and the group switched its name to Luna Li in 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic gave Kim the opportunity to create videos of performances from her home with her playing various instruments that went viral and established the project as a noteworthy act out of the then nascent bedroom pop movement. With the release of 2024’s When a Thought Grows Wings, Luna Li has proven that its lo-fi aesthetic translates well to a more high end production with lush atmospheres paired well with Kim’s knack for the intimate quality of her songwriting. Think cosmic dream pop made for the late night roller skating rink.

Thursday | 10.03
What: Wardruna w/Chelsea Wolfe https://www.redrocksonline.com/events/wardruna-539577/
When: 6
Where: Red Rocks
Why: Wardruna won’t release its new album Birna until January 24, 2025 but you’ll probably get to hear a good deal of its orchestral, epic, ambient, Nordic folk majesty in one of the perfect settings for that music at Red Rocks. This is the band’s only North American show ahead of that album release but the group has demonstrated a desire for playing iconic, historical settings in the past and a fall show at the natural amphitheater will only add to the experience of the music in a one-of-a-kind way. Also on the bill is the dark, atmospheric, Gothic metal and experimental music artist Chelsea Wolfe who brings to her own shows a mystical quality that will bring to the show another expression of blurring the mythical with the aesthetics of the present. Wolfe and Wardruna composer Einar Selvik recently did an interview with Frank Godla or Metal Injection discussing the upcoming show and you can watch that below.

Friday | 10.04
What: Air play Moon Safari
When: 7
Where: Bellco Theatre
Why: Air’s 1998 album Moon Safari released in January of that year became something of an instant classic. It borrowed heavily from the aesthetics of library music, downtempo, abstract funk and psychedelic lounge music. But it was also an amalgamation of some of the musical impulses of the time in its retrofuturist compositions. Other bands in other styles of music were tapping heavily into 70s and 60s music that at that time might have been considered schlockily self-indulgent but recontextualized and recombined with innovative production techniques and modern sensibilities it was like an aural vacation to a more chill space than some of the conflict of the late 90s often forgotten in the current sweep of history in which horror seems to be piling on top of horror and every week and sometimes every day there’s something new that seems to take up the oxygen of existence. So maybe you’ll get to experience a temporary exit from all of that at this show marking a celebration of that singular record whose magic Air didn’t quite capture again even as it innovated further.

Friday | 10.04
What: Blonde Redhead w/Allison Lorenzen
When: 6
Where: Levitt Pavilion
Why: Blonde Redhead doesn’t often make an appearance in Denver more than once every two or three years but this is a chance to see the legendary dream pop/art rock band outdoors before the colder days of Fall descend. Opening is ambient indie folk luminary Allison Lorenzen whose delicate and emotionally rich soundscapes will fit in well with the music to follow.

Friday | 10.04
What: Faye Webster w/Miya Folick
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Faye Webster has established herself as skilled practitioner of delicately orchestrated melodies and deeply personal storytelling across her five albums. Her imaginative songwriting is delivered with a soulful accessibility so that Webster can indulge moments of musical whimsy and inventiveness that make for albums that have a paradoxical diversity and consistency that lend them a timeless quality. Live, the singer-songwriter also bucks expectation in not just embodying the vulnerability and sensitivity required to make the music she does with authenticity but taking chances with stage sets and costumes that can make you wonder if you’ve stepped into an alternate reality serving the worlds and stories Webster has on offer. The summer leg of the tour for her 2021 album I Know I’m Funny Haha included the stage being flanked by giant, mythical, mysterious beings like something out of a supernatural manga. So expect something theatrical and entrancing for the presentation of the 2024 record Undressed at the Symphony.

Friday | 10.04
What: Blood Incantation – Absolute Everywhere album release w/Steve Roach
When: 8
Where: Boulder Theater
Why: This will be completely different kind of show with the headliners being Denver-based, psychedelic death metal band Blood Incantation celebrating the release of its new album Absolute Everywhere. But this year also marks the release of a documentary about the band’s time in Berlin called All Gates Open: In Search of Absolute Everywhere. The group’s 2022 all synth album Timewave Zero revealed explicitly the fact that the members of the band had an interest in sculpting atmospheres beyond what it had done on previous albums and the new set of songs fuses the two worlds in a seamless way and expanding in some ways what death metal can be. So who is opening this show but legendary ambient composer Steve Roach who would be worth making out to see all on his own.

Saturday | 10.05
What: The Milk Blossoms album release, Wheelchair Sports Camp and George Cessna
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The Milk Blossoms are releasing their latest album Open Portal on vinyl this night. The record is a resonantly introspective dive into memory and how little details can spark and linger in your brain, shedding light on significant moments and details of experience that the conscious mind can pass over and miss their holistic connectedness when limited by linear thought. These songs break down that process and turn it into poetry and music that feels like a direct experience rather than mere snippets filtered by one’s own psychological conditioning. Because of this the band’s songs can feel like dreams rendered into melancholic yet emotionally vibrant bits of pop goodness. Wheelchair Sports Camp is an amalgamation of dirty rap, masterful production, jazz wizardry and sharply observed social commentary in a brilliant and playful performance style. George Cessna’s songwriting like that of the late Kris Kristofferson recognizes no boundary between pop, rock and Americana with lyrics that are poignantly observant of personal struggle and common human moments navigating the often emotionally perilous world.

Saturday | 10.05
What: Kate Bollinger
When: 7
Where: eTown Hall
Why: Kate Bollinger recently released her debut full-length album Songs from a Thousand Frames of Mind (2024) on the Ghostly International imprint, a label more known for experimental and otherwise left field music. Bollinger’s own indie folk songs is the kind of thing you’d hear on the local indie rock station but if you listen deeper and watch any of her music videos it becomes obvious the Bollinger is an artist that experiments in tone and tonality and unconventional arrangements that somehow come together sounding like something from another era, but a mythical version of that era and her mastery of atmospheric songwriting is reminiscent of the warmly spookier end of The Velvet Underground’s folkier, drifty songs. Maybe on another tour the songwriter would be playing a regular club but this time around you can catch her at eTown Hall in Boulder and its finely curated programming.

Saturday | 10.05
What: Ginger Root w/Pearl & The Oysters
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: With a name like Ginger Root and knowing nothing about the artist you might be expecting a jam band but no, the project led by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Cameron Lew straddles the realms of soul, funk, jazz and pop in a seemingly self-aware style. Lew’s records unabashedly center the cheesier aspects of East Asian culture as a starting off point in writing with insight about the usual personal concerns while also commenting on society in a playful manner that at times can come across as surreal. His new album SHINBANGUMI is like a stroll through the kind of daytime television world that anyone that has spent time watching regular programming in Japan, Taiwan or Hong Kong will find familiar. That bizarre realm of crass commercialism, forced enthusiasm and manufactured positivity that serves as the backdrop of programming that isn’t necessarily advertising with often fantastic sound design is part of the aesthetic. But Lew turns the vibe on its ear while borrowing the chillout lounge energy to inform his own charming, psychedelic pop.

Saturday | 10.05
What: SynthBanger’s Fest: Arcade High, The Bad Dreamers, Master Boot Record, Starfarer, Watch Out For Snakes, The Runsaway Wild, Komonic, Bob Sync and Jacket
When: 3
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: DJ Tower presents the latest edition of his showcase of current Synthwave artists from Denver and beyond including Pittsburgh’s Arcade High, Los Angeles’ The Bad Dreamers and their late night crime drama pop and Master Boot Record from Rome, Italy and its orchestrated, energetic chiptune heaviness.

Saturday | 10.05
What: UPSAHL w/Conor Burns and Zoe Ko
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station
Why: UPSAHL came up as a trained multi-instrumentalist and singer but fortunately she channeled that knowledge into a skillset that has made her indie pop bangers have and uncommon musical depth and sophistication. Her early singles showcased her musicianship a little more but her newer work demonstrates that UPSAHL has a great command of production in crafting hooks for hedonistic dance club fare with interesting pop culture references like that to Jennifer’s Body in “Summer so hot.”

Sunday | 10.06
What: Descartes a Kant
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Descartes a Kant from Mexico City sounds like its members came up listening to a combination of art rock and 90s alternative pop. Its 2023 album After Destruction is like the soundtrack to a pirate takeover of a television station including commercials and instructions on the use of technologies. All with a healthy, surreal and subversive sense of humor. The music is often a fusion of synth pop and punk for a sound somewhere between a Garfunkel and Oates song with a frenetic noise rock version of pop punk. Fans of Otoboke Beaver and Deerhoof may like this band’s strange sounds and undeniable flair for theater.

Sunday | 10.06
What: J.R.C.G. w/American Culture and Candy Apple
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Justin R. Cruz Gallegos’ second album Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra) is a cathartic burst of hybrid musical ideas that bring together raw noise experiments, structured beats and a sound that has punk spirit but irreverent IDM sensibilities. It’s like a modern manifestation of the sort of thing Meat Beat Manifesto got up to in the early 90s and Trans Am’s more rock moments. But really it’s something different and more original than a lot of music with solid hooks and accessibility that came out in the past five years. Think something like if Fugazi and Sleaford Mods did a mashup project with a resurrected Macha producing. American Culture underwent a bit of a reboot of sound more in the direction of rediscovering and repurposing the melodic soundbending of Britpop groups and The Cure in a power pop mode without losing a raw human mode of expression in the past few years and is all the better for having pushed its boundaries past where it has been before. Candy Apple is what happens when hardcore kids realize the full noise potential of that music and stretch it into creative shapes outside the standard format.

Sunday | 10.06
What: Illuminati Hotties w/Daffo
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Sarah Tudzin is known at least as much for her masterful work as a producer, mixer and audio engineer as she is for her music with her band Illuminati Hotties. The latter put out its latest album POWER in August 2024 with Tudzin as producer alongside another luminary in audio production John Congleton. Though the songs are spare in their arrangements they are imbued with an energy and a fuzzy edge reminiscent of 90s alternative pop with often surprisingly introspective melodic vocal hooks that pair well with those Tudzin crafted for guitar. The wryly observational lyrics and personal insight makes the record something with more depth than is obvious because the songs are so catchy. Opening the show is Portland-based indie folk artist Daffo. Growing up in Philadelphia, Daffo was involved in the DIY scenes of Philly and New Jersey where they developed some of their uncommonly sensitive songwriting and fluidly dynamic musicianship. Their song “Poor Madeline” is an affecting work that captures the wistfulness of looking back on a time of displacement and emotional turmoil in one’s life and specifically about the loss of the feeling of having a place one associates with home. It’s immediately relatable and Daffo’s arrangements reflect well the welling of emotions and the granular flow of them in your mind as you’re feeling them. This characteristic the songwriter brings to their other released material so far as collected on the album Pest/Crisis Kit released September 20, 2024.

Sunday | 10.06
What: Boris “Amplifier Worship Service” w/Starcrawler
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Few albums have been as singular in exemplifying an aesthetic as succinctly summed up by the title of an album as Boris’s epochal 1998 album Amplifier Worship. Boris didn’t invent doom metal or necessarily do it better than everyone else but that record is like a user’s manual for how to make heavy music that’s dense with atmosphere, not too polished to be interesting and thoroughly informed by a willingness to let the wildness and bleeding edges of the analog technology employed drift where it may while guiding it all to great heights of artistry and intensity. And for one night in Denver you can witness the Japanese heavy music greats deliver that album in its entirety.

Tuesday | 10.08
What: Pixel Grip w/Madeline Goldstein
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Pixel Grip is a Chicago-based band whose industrial dance club sound is steeped in EBM and techno. Its rhythms and tones have an angular quality but the band’s vocals are ethereally melodic. Live the band looks like they come straight from a Goth club that never existed in a cyberpunk manga but the music goes hard and has the kind of visceral impact one wants from a darkwave act with pretensions to dance music. Pixel Grip doesn’t pretend. Madeline Goldstein has been making a mark for herself as a producer of moody synth pop in the wonderfully gloomy post-punk vein. Her 2023 album Other World couches Goldstein’s melodiously, yes, otherworldly vocals reminiscent of Siouxsie Sioux in layers of entrancing tones and driving rhythms.

Tuesday | 10.08
What: Shannon & The Clams w/The Deslondes
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Shannon & The Clams have been building a cult following for years since their 2007 inception. Lead vocalist Shannon Shaw was a startling presence with a powerhouse voice that made the band stand out when it was playing dive bars and the like a decade and more ago and the songwriting a mix of garage punk and the emotional delicacy and grit of 1960s girl groups has proven to be versatile and fruitful in exploring themes of love and heartache with creativity and passionate tunefulness. The outfit’s latest album The Moon is in the Wrong Place bears all the hallmarks of Shannon & The Clams’ blend of vital soulfulness and vulnerable introspection and waxes further into its psychedelic pop leanings.

Wednesday | 10.09
What: Crumb w/Vagabon
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Crumb’s foundation of jazz-inflected, psychedelic dream pop started garnering a bit of a following with its first two EPs Crumb (2016) and Locket (2017). It wasn’t the standard issue indie psych that had been flourishing often blandly in the middle of the 2010s. Crumb’s creative vision was more experimental and imaginative and its songwriting seemed to be informed by a deep listening of electronic music of the 90s and 2000s with rhythms that though often driven by live instruments flowed like something stemming from a production base. With its new album Amama, Crumb pushes its sounds further into colorful soundscaping with an aesthetic resonance comparable to the unique worlds of a Dash Shaw film and the wondrous imagery and sense of mysterious emotional familiarity.

Thursday | 10.10
What: Thou w/Slowhole, BleakHeart and The Flight of Sleipnir
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Thou may still be a cult band but its one that has garnered critical acclaim for its unique take on sludge and doom metal. Anyone that has seen the band live knows they don’t look like they’re about to get up and play the heaviest music of the night with a wild energy that stretches the music into interesting sonic and emotional shapes. They often look like you’re about to see some weird Americana. And in some ways that’s exactly what you get—a sonic portrait of aspects of the tortured American psyche. The group’s new album Umbilical is its most expansive and accessible yet without sacrificing the band’s rouch edges and idiosyncratic textures and tonal layers that make its songs such gloriously nightmarish passages of cathartic sound.

Thursday | 10.10
What: Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage w/The Grasping Straws and Gila Teen
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Club
Why: Jeffrey Lewis is a songwriter from New York City who is currently on tour with his band The Voltage. His rich and prolific body of work is a broadly diverse presentation of ideas and biographical/autobiograpical sketches that have a refreshingly and fascinating honesty and earnestness that fans of Half Japanese, Daniel Johnston, Camper Van Beethoven and Billy Bragg will find rewarding. It’s part punk, part folk, part Americana and all what might be described as captured, on recordings anyway, in brash burst of lo-fi vulnerability. Look for a new record from Lewis due out in March 2025 but for now take a visit to his Bandcamp page and really start anywhere.
https://jeffreylewis.bandcamp.com/

Friday | 10.11
What: Charli XCX w/Troye Sivan
When: 6:30
Where: Ball Arena
Why: Brat Summer just got extended into the Fall with Charli XCX’s latest tour in support of her 2024 album. The singer-songwriter-producer has long found ways of crafting enthralling modern pop music either largely on her own but often with various collaborators. Brat combines the brashness of Charli’s performance style and a radical vulnerability that has been an element of her lyrics for years. With Brat Charli and company tap into aspects of synth pop and transforms them into undeniable bangers with genuine emotional resonance. “360” became an obvious hit over the summer but “Apple” finds Charlotte Aitchison aka Charli XCX branching into new creative territory making the album one of the more innovative in mainstream popular music.

Friday | 10.11
What: Franksgiving – in Memory of Frank Bell: Little Fyodor, Mr. Pacman and Sense From Nonsense
When: 9
Where: Lion’s Lair
Why: Franksgiving was a yearly fundraiser for colitis and Crohn’s Disease charities led by the late Frank Bell, DJ and purveyor of fine musical weirdness for years. The banner of that cause has been taken up by Little Fyodor who has shared Bell’s appreciation for the musically odd and a maker of plenty of that one his own whether with tape collage legends or his long running, bizarro punk band that is more punk than most bands calling themselves such. But then you also get costumed video game superhero glitchcore/synth pop legends Mr. Pacman and the ambient/soundtrack project of former Echo Beds drummer/programmer/vocalist Tom Nelsen.

Saturday | 10.12
What: Meet the Giant 15 Year Anniversary w/Church Fire and Jaguar Stevens
When: 8
Where: 1010 Workshop
Why: Meet the Giant is a post-punk band with a keen ear for electronic soundscapes resulting in a music that is visceral, emotionally rich and possessed of great sonic nuance. The band has two albums under its belt after a decade of incubating before playing its first shows and on the verge of releasing a third and you may get a chance to hear some of the new material at this show. Industrial dance synth pop firebrands Church Fire are releasing the vinyl version of their great 2022 album puppy god through Witch Cat Records at this show as well.

Sunday | 10.13
What: GEL w/MS Paint, Destiny Bond and The Mall
When: 6
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: GEL recently released its most recent collection of punchy and caustic hardcore in the album Persona. Hailing from New Jersey, the quartet started life as a powerviolence outfit called Sick Shit. But starting in 2018 the fledgling group leaned further into more pure hardcore but with more expansive rhythms and a layer of moodiness under the aggressive bluster. And this show features some of the most noteworthy acts out of the recent wave of American hardcore with Destiny Bond and its amped anthems of navigating ideas of identity, personal politics and a bursting of narrow definitions of how we have to be and a resistance to bland yet destructive conformity. MS Paint came out of the hardcore scene but its synth and drums-driven post-punk is like something new with resonances with the likes of The Screamers and The VSS. It’s also one of the most powerful live bands you’re likely to see this year.

Monday | 10.14
What: Unwound w/Quits
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Unwound was considered one of the premier noise rock bands of the 90s and early 2000s even though it mostly earned a cult following playing dive bars, DIY spaces, basements and in the end small theaters. Its raw and both controlled and unhinged post-hardcore style had an intense energy and dreamlike passages of a transcendent emotional headiness that implanted so many of the band’s songs in the psyches of fans. At one point a critic or two compared their style and influence to that of Sonic Youth, a band that likely had more than a passing influence on Unwound. Following the 2001 tour in support of its then and most recent studio album, the highly experimental and even avant-garde Leaves Turn Inside You, Unwound split in 2002 only to resurface in 2022 after the passing of bassist Vern Rumsey. For the recent spate of live shows Jared Warren of Big Business and formerly of KARP has taken up role as bassist as one of the only people who could really do it justice as he like Unwound was based out of Olympia, Washington in the 90s as well not to mention Rumsey worked on KARP records. Opening are Denver noise rock legends Quits whose emotionally charged songs may sound like jagged emotions and caustic pronouncements about humanity but are really sensitively rendered observations and fantasies about life in a world that can feel hostile to human frailty.

Monday | 10.14
What: Clairo w/Alice Phoebe Lou
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Bedroom pop artist Clairo in her relatively short career has created a body of work and musical style that has had reverberations for other songwriters in the past several years and garnered a cult following as well. Her melancholic and delicate vocals and inventive use of organic and electronic instruments have a timeless quality because Clairo has mastered mixing and blending the aesthetics of multiple eras into her own style so that even if there’s a nostalgic aspect to the song it has a paradoxical immediacy. Her new record Charm has some of Clario’s most accomplished production and songwriting so that so many of the compositions feel like indie instrumentation over beatmaking paired with the usual melodious and chill vocals and every so slightly psychedelic sensibilities.

Tuesday | 10.15
What: Iguana Death Cult w/Los Toms and Supreme Joy
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Iguana Death Cult from Rotterdam, Holland formed in 2015 when singer/guitarist Jeroen Reek brought together a group of friends who didn’t know each other but had his friendship in common. As they began to develop their music their sound absorbed the garage and surf rock influences of the 2010s and manifested those ideas in music that moved beyond trendy aesthetics and by the time of its 2023 album Echo Palace you might be excused for thinking they were influenced more by the likes of Parquet Courts, Gang of Four and The English Beat. Still fiery but angular, arty and more daring in its guitar work than most garage rock acts. Also on the bill is the ferocious, Denver post-punk band Supreme Joy whose own roots in garage rock adjacent-modes isn’t so obvious.

Tuesday | 10.15
What: Mr. Gnome w/Spyderland and Glass Human
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Since its 2005 inception Mr. Gnome has cultivated an eclectic and evolving style of art rock that on its albums dives deep into concepts and aesthetics like they’re making a unique work with world building but not lacking in personal storytelling. Songs stand on their own yet fit into the mosaic of the work at hand. Its a level of creative songwriting that not many bands achieve without coming across as a little corny. Its latest offering is 2024’s synth-infused A Sliver of Space a seeming record about clinging to meaning as the world falls apart and resisting being washed away in the flood of world and life events.

Friday and Saturday | 10.18 and 10.19
What: Rootbeer Richie & The Reveille album release w/Slow Caves, May Be Fern and Cactus Cat on 10.18 and w/Bubby Lucky, Jesus Christ Taxi Driver, Dayton Stone & The Undertones on 10.19
When: 7 both nights
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The rock and soul review of Rootbeer Richie & The Reveille celebrates the release of its new album Never Needed Me with a weekend of shows including luminaries of the local rock and roll and indie rock scenes in Denver and Fort Collins.

Tuesday | 10.22
What: Testament, Kreator and Possessed
When: 6
Where: The Fillmore Auditorium
Why: Testament is one the most important of the second wave of thrash metal bands out of the Bay Area in the second half of the 80s that helped to define the genre with its unique approach to the musicianship. It had the wild exuberance of thrash in its first few years but backed by a technical precision and creativity in its execution that set the band apart from some of its contemporaries. Like its contemporaries, Testament was able to weather the implosion of the popularity of metal in the early 90s because its music seemed rooted in something more durable than hedonistic rock and roll tropes with more to say and its songwriting more imaginative than what was on offer from glam metal. By the 21st century the style Testament cultivated was vindicated with a new wave of popularity and the reunion of its classic lineup with brilliant lead guitarist Alex Skolnick returning to the fold. But this show includes other giants of 80s metal with influential German thrash group Kreator and pioneering death metal act Possessed.

Wednesday | 10.23
What: Minami Deutsch w/Nightfishing
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Minami Deutsch is the minimal techno-inspired psychedelic prog band from Tokyo whose motorik beats and hypnotic minimalism is both consistent and ever evolving in its soundscapes. Its 2022 album Fortune Goodies is like a gentle version of Kosmische that some may find resonances with the more abstract end of Deerhunter.

Wednesday | 10.23
What: Marc Rebillet w/Flying Lotus and Reggie Watts
When: 5
Where: Red Rocks
Why: Marc Rebillet is an eclectic music and multi-media creator whose live performances and YouTube streams, Facebook/Instagram live feeds etc. blur the line between electronic music, funk, R&B, comedy, performance art and whatever else seems to strike his fancy in the moment as an artist who has found a way to use the format as the medium of his artistic expression. For this tour he is bringing along like-minded creatives like filmmaker, experimental hip-hop and avant-garde jazz composer Flying Lotus and comedian and multi-faceted post-punk R&B storyteller Reggie Watts.

Thursday | 10.24
What: David Liebe Hart w/Magic Cyclops and DJ Wayzout
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: David Liebe Hart came to the attention of a wide audience for his appearances in the Adult Swim program Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! His surreal songs and puppet theater many probably assumed to be purely a character but there is an earnestness to Hart’s creative work that comes from a genuine place and his status an outsider artist is no pose. The music with his various collaborators has evolved to a truly unique kind of synth pop with themes of aliens, trains and the litany of tragedies of his love life. Magic Cyclops is not quite the Colorado (or is it Iowa, IYKYK) equivalent of Hart but his own take on surreal synth pop is driven by a concept of an egotistical people star whose personal is fueled by bombast and at times technical incompetence. His own songs, nevertheless, have their own charm and odd humor.

Friday |10.25
What: Photay w/M.Sage
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: For roughly the past decade Evan Shorntein has released experimental-leaning, electronic pop music as Photay. His latest offering is 2024’s Windswept which mixes minimal techno rhythms and structure with subtle textures and ethereal, sparkling melodies building to a playful mood. Opening the show is noted Colorado-based ambient artist, composer and curator M. Sage.

Friday | 10.25
What: Trees Inside Out (first show) w/Pleasure Prince and Extreme Sports Club
When: 7:30
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Trees Inside Out released its debut album IOVI on September 12, 2024. It’s a drifty bit of dream pop and space rock reminiscent of Low and Eleventh Dream Day. Its principle songwriters though are known figures in Denver’s shoegaze scene of the 90s and early 2000s with Roger Green (Idle Mind, The Czars) and Myshel Prasad (Space Team Electra) so really that alchemy of sounds extends from their own deeply creative songwriting and soundscaping and left field poetic sensibilities. Also on the record are Todd Ayers who was part of an early part of STE called Dive but later in Volplane and Sonnenblume; Sean Eden (Luna); Bill Kunkel (STE); Kit Peltzel (STE); John Rasmussen (among others, Pale Sun); and Lee Wall (Luna). That alone should be a reason to go to the show. Then Pleasure Prince is also on hand with their beautifully orchestrated, emotionally vibrant, experimental, electronic pop.

Saturday and Sunday | 10.26 and 10.27
What: The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs 25th Anniversary Tour
When: 7 both nights
Where: Boulder Theater
Why: Indie rock band The Magnetic Fields released 69 Love Songs in 1999 to great critical acclaim. Written as a concept for a music review by main songwriter Stephen Merritt that could have been 100 songs long but thought the shorter length more attainable and the math worked better for three sections of 23 songs apiece. The album is stylistically diverse and delivered with an almost nonchalant energy in the vocals and Merritt’s songs range in subject matter widely and depict relationships in a spectrum of sexual orientations. But mostly it’s an ambitious and sprawling collection of finely crafted pop songs that go well beyond the cliches and tropes of a subject that has been written about entirely too often without a fraction of the creativity.

Monday | 10.28
What: La Luz w/Tele Novella
When: 7
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: La Luz has evolved rapidly and in always interesting directions from its more surf rock-oriented sound when it began in 2012. But even then Shana Cleveland’s songwriting has set the band apart from presumed stylistic leanings. The band’s 2024 album News of the Universe is a futuristic, softly psychedelic set of songs that sound like the group has moved well into the richly atmospheric side of Krautrock and fused that perfectly with Cleveland’s expert pop songcraft and gift for intermingling classic songwriting and styles and sounds across decades and cultures into a coherent and entrancing whole.

What: The The
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: The The was both a critically acclaimed and commercially successful band throughout the 80s and 90s. Having come up from experimental music and post-punk roots, The The has always had a bit of an arty, left field edge even as many of its songs have enjoyed a bit of mainstream popularity like “Uncertain Smile” from its 1983 debut album Soul Mining, “Uncertain Smile” featuring Sinead O’Connor from the 1989 album Mind Bomb and “Dogs of Lust” from 1993’s Dusk. From 2003 through 2017 the project went on hold while main songwriter Matt Johnson focused on crafting music for soundtracks. In 2024 a new The The album emerged with Ensoulment a record of brooding, Americana flavored art rock noir songs about love, existential pondering and the band’s usual poignant social commentary.

Monday and Tuesday | 10.28 and 10.29
What: SHEROES Live with Carmel Holt
Where/When: The Colorado Sound 105.5 FM at 3PM on 10.28 and Indie 102.3 time TBA (10.29)
Why: The Road to Joni is a podcast that launched on September 6, 2024 hosted by SHEROES’ Camel Holt. The podcast honors the great folk rock/experimental pop legend Joni Mitchell. Guests have and will include the likes of St. Vincent, Brittany Howard, Hozier, Arooj Aftab and Bonnie Raitt. The first episode featured Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Lucius and Kathleen Edwards. Carmel taped episodes on her way across America from Kingston, NY to the “Joni Jam” at The Hollywood Bowl which occurred on October 19/20. She has also been making stops in various cities for on air visits and tapings at local NPR stations including The Colorado Sound in Fort Collins on October 28 and Indie 102.3 in Denver. Listen to the archived episodes here.

Wednesday | 10.30
What: Tokyo Police Club final tour
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: The members of Tokyo Police Club grew up and went to school together in their hometown of Newmarket, Ontario forming the band in 2004 when most of the group were still in high school. Unlike most bands formed in that way, TPC has stuck it out and its particular style of left field, guitar-driven post-punk went on to garner a sizable following and commercial success with songs imbued with great energy and immediacy alongside a spontaneous quality and willingness to go off standard melodic structures. The band has thus been able to consistently craft music that comes across authentic because a little rough around the edges. In January 2024 the quartet announced it was splitting up with a final tour concluding in Toronto on November 29.

Wednesday | 10.30
What: Vince Staples w/Baby Rose
When: 7
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Vince Staples released his sixth album Dark Times in May 2024 and offered a more vulnerable set of songs than his already impressive catalog of songs of emotionally open and introspective storytelling. This time out the moods are more downcast in a way that feels cinematic like Staples has written an album like an anthology of vignettes best embodied as a series of short films that illuminate themes of acceptance and the kind of resistance that comes not from some hokey everything’s gonna be alright insipidity but a deep assessment of how things are and working to not be overwhelmed by the challenges of finding meaning in a society that makes a genuine effort at doing so challenging.

Wednesday and Thursday | 10.30 and 10.31
What: T-Pain w/Akon (10.30) and Lil Jon (10.31)
When: 5:30 (10.30) and 6:30 (10.31)
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: T-Pain is most often associated with the popularization of Auto-Tune in popular music of the past twenty years and more. But for the artist it’s more than just a gimmick and he’s used it creative to give his vocals another dimension of expression beyond their normal range. And beyond the vocal treatment, T-Pain is a songwriter who has consistently tried to push the boundaries of hip-hop with his songwriting and production. In 2023 he released a record of eclectic covers called On Top of the Covers that includes “War Pigs” for which Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler have expressed great appreciation. Other than the selections the album showcased the singer’s prowess as a vocalist without Auto-Tune. So for this show you’ll probably get to witness T-Pain at the peak of his abilities thus far. The first night of this two night run includes a performance from Akon who early in T-Pain’s career helped to give that artist a leg up into the music industry through his record label Konvict Muzik. But Akon’s own pop-inflected hip-hop and world music infused R&B has garnered himself no small following as well. The second night you will get to see Lil Jon who was pivotal in developing crunk and that EDM (particularly bass music) and Southern hip-hop crossover as embodied prominently by his hit 2013 single “Turn Down For What” which he performed at the 2024 DNC.