Weird Al Qaida – Queen City Sounds and Art

Best Shows in Denver April 2026

**Light Asylum performs at The Oriental Theater on 4/3/26 with My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Devora, Die Sexual and Heavy Halo**

Wednesday | 04.01
What: Cass McCombs and Band w/Chris Cohen
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Acclaimed and prolific singer and songwriter Cass McCombs released perhaps his most intimate personal album in 2025 titled Interior Live Oak. The record sounds like it was recorded live with a minimal band with McComb’s expressive voice centered in songs that sound like their words were earned from going through a challenging experience and coming out of the other side with some glimmer of truth or at least a perspective and anecdote worth sharing. The songs are rooted in the emotionally vibrant folk rock with a psychedelic edge that is the songwriter’s hallmark and feel like moments of solace in these particularly chaotic times.

Wednesday | 04.01
What: Mint Field and Wave Decay
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Mint Field is a dream pop/shoegaze band from Mexico City that has established itself as one of the more original voices in that broad realm of music. Its elegant compositions with an ability to veer off expected atmospheric and rhythmic lines from the chill to the urgently distorted and from a kid of downtempo pace to one more hectic has yielded a body of work that can equally be compared favorably with lush and disorienting sweeps heard in My Bloody Valentine and the otherworldly transcendent moments of a Blonde Redhead song. Wave Decay is one of Denver’s finest shoegaze/krautrock bands worthy of anyone in the world operating in those sonic realms as well.

Friday | 04.03
What: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult w/Light Asylum, Die Sexual, Devora and Heavy Halo
When: 6
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: An entire evening of dark electronic music beginning with New York City-based industrial duo Heavy Halo whose style of Gothic industrial metal bridges the gap between hard EBM and Gravity Kills. Devora is more like an electropop thing but with production that sounds like it has some influence from or roots in the moodier end of synthpop. Die Sexual is an EBM/Goth disco duo from Los Angeles whose songs sound like a darkwave version of an electroclash band like early Ladytron had they been inspired by Front Line Assembly. Of course the headliner My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult is the legendary and influential industrial EBM band with a flare for the bombastic live show and gloriously sleaze of some of its lyrics but all with a great sense of fun and a respectable body of recorded work from which the set will likely draw. Light Asylum made a name for itself in New York clubs and beyond with its riveting electronic dance music including iconic single “Dark Allies” with singer Shannon Funchess’ commanding and soulful vocal performance centering a song with multiple memorable hooks within the same piece. Live Funchess is even more magnetic and charismatic.

Sunday | 04.05
What: Marissa Nadler w/Anand Wilder (of Yeasayer)
When: 7
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Marissa Nadler is an acclaimed songwriter whose work has been described as dark folk mainly because of its deep atmospheric quality and Nadler’s willingness to dive deep into sometimes challenging subject matter with a disarming sensitivity and honesty. There is a poetic quality to Nadler’s songwriting generally augmented by her mezzo-soprano voice that lends even the most melancholic moments in the songs a kind of transcendent beauty. Her most recent album New Radiations might be her most fully realized work to date with songs that will resonate with those of Julee Cruise in their soulful, cinematic otherworldliness and incredibly effective use of minimal instrumental elements to put the listener into a contemplative mindset open to feeling fully without reservations.

Wednesday | 04.08
What: QUAL w/Cursing, eHpH and DJ Katastrophy and guests
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: QUAL is the solo project of William Maybelline from Lebanon Hanover. Unlike the soundscape-y, noisy post-punk of the latter, QUAL is more in the vein of EBM rooted coldwave and industrial. The project’s 2025 album Love Zone is an extended meditation on the deleterious effects of digital culture on our lives and social relations. ehpH is Denver’s premier EBM and industrial duo with rich tonal production and a confrontational performance style more in line with classic industrial music.

Thursday | 04.09
What: Past Self, Medio Mutante, Porcelain Horses and KYC DJs
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Past Self is a Las Vegas-based band whose visual and musical aesthetic is true fusion of K-pop production and darkwave/Goth moodiness and haunted melodies. Its music videos look like a band that spends some time in urban exploration and filming spots that brimming with urban occult atmosphere. Porcelain Horses is a Denver-based darkwave band that includes Amanda Gostomski formerly of synth punk band Princess Dewclaw and death rock adjacent act Grave Moss.

Friday | 04.10
What: An evening with Weird Al Qaida w/Mermalair
When: 7
Where: Mutiny Information Cafe
Why: Weird Al Qaida bridges gaps between psychedelic folk, performance art, noise and ambient music and the show will probably combine that with poetry and theatrical weirdness. Think like a cross between a lo-fi folk Pink Floyd and Barnes & Barnes.

Friday | 04.10
What: The Picture Tour, Owosso and Part Weapon
When: 5/5:30
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: The Picture Tour has evolved out of a more garage grit infused shoegaze of its earlier incarnation into something more cinematic with songwriting seemingly inspired by late night drives in a Denver that existed until the early 2010s when there was urban decay within the city and on the edges and most spaces were not slathered over with bad modern architecture concepts and cookie cutter aesthetics. A time when you had to find your fun rather than have it marketed to you. So the songs are dark, have an edge and imbued with imagination that has been inspired in part by David Lynch films and the dream of the 90s before it died in Denver before the 2010s were over. Owosso is an amalgamation of shoegaze atmospherics and post-hardcore emotional and sonic edge.

Saturday | 04.11
What: Ultra Sunn w/The System Dreams of You and DJ Katastrophy
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Belgian EBM-post-punk duo Ultra Sunn return to North America in support of their latest album The Beast In You. The record builds on the robust synth tones and dance rhythms that feels darker and heavier than music in a similar vein often does. The new album seems to delve into themes of mental health and the struggle of processing feelings and experiences that linger with you in ways that can be challenging to shake. But the band casts that journey in almost mythological terms and pairs it with the kind of melodies and expansive, cathartic production that fans of Depeche Mode and Front 242 will likely find rewarding.

Sunday | 04.12
What: Hollow Crown Tour: ThxSoMch, MISSIO, WesGhost, Guardian, The Haunt, Oxymorons and rosecoloredworld
When: 4
Where: The Summit Music Hall
Why: Hollow Crown Tour is sort of a touring mini-music festival with eclectic lineups. On this bill there is emo rap/indie rock artist ThxSoMch whose creative music videos demonstrate an awareness of popular and internet culture and Gen Z cinema aesthetics. MISSIO is an Austin, Texas-based duo whose electronic pop borders on dark, industrial hip-hop at times and haunted indie pop in other moments in its discography. The band’s sprawling 2024 album I Am Cinco was comprised of its 2023 EPs and various singles to reflect intense peaks and valleys and emotions and musical styles best suited to express those moods whether sad, exuberant, angry and unhinged—hyper-pop, glitch, trap, dream pop and more sometimes all at once. Also on the bill is sibling duo The Haunt who are set to release their sophomore album in the fall. But the band has released the lead single “Ghost” which showcases the songwriting growth though maintaining the hard rock edge of the songs we heard from 2025 debut album New Addiction. Lead singer Anastasia Grace Haunt and guitarist/vocalist Maxamillion Haunt look like they’re going to be a Goth band (part of the appeal as a live act) but come off more ferocious like The Velveteers.

Monday | 04.13
What: Ratboys w/Vilagerrr
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Chicago’s Ratboys recently released its sixth album Singin’ to an Empty Chair. Reuniting with Chris Walla who had produced the 2023 album The Window, the band employed a left field approach in recording and performance including, according to a piece in Pitchfork, creating a Doppler shift by putting a radio on a spinning turntable. That and experimenting with altering the speed of recorded sections and recording in a cabin with high ceilings to capture the specific audio quality of such a space and its natural reverb. The resulting album is indeed one of the band’s more sonically inventive but the warmth of the songwriting remained and it is the band’s most emotionally open and creatively confessional to date. For the uninitiated Ratboys is sort of an Americana-inflected indie rock band that fans of Rilo Kiley will greatly appreciate for the similarly clever and literary lyrics and infectious energy.

Tuesday | 04.14
What: Pink Turns Blue w/Some Days Are Darker and Plague Garden
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Pink Turns Blue was founded in 1985 in Cologne, Germany and became one of the most noteworthy of the German New Wave bands of the era though its sound would now be considered post-punk with a well-developed keyboard/synth component in its core songwriting palette. The group split in 1995 but reunited in 2003 and has been releasing new material since including the 2025 album Black Swan and its melancholic and politically infused lyrics seemingly fitting for prospects of human life in the conflicted and imperiled world right now. On tour with Pink Turns Blue is NYC post-punk/darkwave trio Some Days Are Darker whose own synth infused compositions are brimming with the kind of gloomy melodies that reflect songs about heartbreak and perseverance. Opening is Denver’s great New Wave inflected post-punk band Plague Garden. Steeped in the edginess of death rock the group’s impassioned vocals, deeply atmospheric synths and beats and deep bass lines transcend expectations of genre.

Tuesday | 04.14
What: Die Krupps w/ghostbells
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Die Krupps is one of the pioneering acts of German industrial music. Formed in 1980 in Düsseldorf the group’s initial sound was more rooted in factory sounds, metallic percussion and live instruments but shifted into a more synthesizer sound with the analog percussion. The band split in 1985 but re-formed in 1989 and evolved in further incorporating metallic guitar sounds and one has to assume that Rammstein drew some inspiration from what Die Krupps was getting up to and that Die Krupps itself was getting some influence from Front 242’s songwriting and production style. After another breakup in 1997 the outfit got back together in 2005 and has been operating since. Opening the show is ghostbells from New York City. The duo released its debut EP Catacouture in February 2026 revealing its gift for blending dark synthpop-flavored darkwave, EBM and trap-beat-infused, glitch pop club music. With distinctively processed vocals think Alice Glass solo and some resonance with Boy Harsher.

Drew & Ellie Holcomb, photo courtesy the artists

Friday | 04.17
What: Drew & Ellie Holcomb
When: 7
Where: The Paramount Theatre
Why: Drew & Ellie Holcomb released their latest album Memory Bank on January 24, 2025 and the I’ll Be Home For Christmas EP on November 21. The current musical outing takes its name from a title of one of Memory Bank’s songs as Never Gonna Let You Go Tour. The record is a lively song about the travails and joys of love and being in a committed relationship. It’s earnest without being corny and the duo bring great mood and exuberance to the songs that bring to the album and its performance an unexpected gravitas at times as well as an endearing warmth even if the Holcombs’ particular style of Americana folk rock hadn’t previously been something you thought you’d be into.

Friday | 04.17
What: Monsterwatch w/Bitchflower and Blood Oath
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Monsterwatch sounds a bit like if Jay Reatard did a noise rock band so it’s still a little psychedelic but edgy and imbued with a ferocious energy. Its 2025 debut full-length album The Head is brimming with intensely headlong energy and a paradoxically economical and strategic use of space so it’s not all just constant assault to exhaust the senses. Monsterwatch knows when to let up and change directions in the sound up so it stays exciting. Blood Oath from Denver is cut from a similar cloth with its hyperkinetic noise garage sound that crosses over into a mutant punk. Bitchflower is like if a punk band absorbed influences from metal and performance art influenced post-punk with a memorable and live show that feels like it could be dangerous.

Saturday | 04.18
What: Moon Pussy album release w/Honduh Daze, Suicide Cages and Almanac Man
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Moon Pussy has long been one of the best, most unique and strange of noise rock bands out of Denver. It is celebrating the release of its new album At the Pace of Outrage at this show. The live show is often an wonderfully unhinged bit of performance art with finely accented percussion seeming to hold together the explosive yet hypnotic bass lines and gyrating guitar squall. The new album is not short on musical madness and catharsis but it is also the most focused songwriting of the band’s career thus far and sonically the most representative of its sheer, inspired mayhem as a live band. Joining them for this event are Almanac Man and their angular, DC-post-punk-inflected post-hardcore, the hybrid extreme metal and savage post-hardcore of Suicide Cages and their searingly pointed yet thoughtful lyrics and performance art, art-hardcore noise punk band Honduh Daze from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

William Basinski in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 04.18
What: William Basinski w/Paul Riedl
When: 8
Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox
Why: William Basinski is one of the most influential composers of the late 20th and early 21st century most celebrated for his 2002-3003 four-volume album/project The Disintegration Loops. His cinematic and emotionally nuanced works of ambient music and drone have an analog resonance that is often as textural as tonal and invite getting lost in the echoes and streams of thought-provoking sounds of his work. Paul Riedl is a member of extreme metal band Blood Incantation who has been known to more than dabble in making analog synth compositions of his own that are often now part of the shows of his more well-known project.

Monday | 04.20
What: SunnO))) w/Gentry Densley
When: 7
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: The new SunnO))) record, self-titled and available via Sub Pop, may sound to some like the colossal, primeval, metallic ambient drones of the duo’s two most recent albums but one can hear in the lingering monoliths of distorted guitar sustain a quality that feels somehow bigger due in no small part to the recording technique involving multiple microphones, re-amping and extreme distance in setting up a stereo array. Which may be why the record comes perhaps closes to capturing a bit of how seeing the band live is a physical experience beyond standard music. Those sprawling drones aren’t for casual metal fans or for people with limited patience with flowing with the sounds to the lingering and then erupting catharsis. It’s like getting your molecules re-aligned to the tune of energies tapping into environment and subconscious experiences. Chances are you won’t experience anything quite like it outside of maybe seeing My Bloody Valentine but with none of that band’s pop hook leanings.

The Wedding Present, photo from Bandcamp

Tuesday | 04.21
What: The Wedding Present w/Mark Robinson sings Unrest
When: 7
Where: Meow Wolf
Why: The Wedding Present were one of the most important bands associated with C86 in the 1980s, the “movement” captured on the compilation of the same name of guitar pop bands with a leg in power pop, post-punk, jangle rock and a vulnerable aesthetic that could nevertheless have some intensity and passion behind the performances. For this tour the group led by longtime singer and guitarist David Gedge will be celebrating the 35-year anniversary of its acclaimed 1991 album Seamonsters. The sound of the record, produced by Steve Albini, has aged well as it doesn’t sound beholden to the then burgeoning more mainstream end of alternative rock while modern ears might hear there some wall of sound adjacent to shoegaze and the indie pop and indie rock that would emerge throughout the 90s underground and not so underground in the current century. Opening the show is Mark Robinson the former lead singer and guitarist of underrated and important indie pop band Unrest whose catalog of music is the missing link between C86 and modern indie rock as we know it with a legacy of some of the most achingly beautiful and spirited pop music ever recorded.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby, photo by Scarlet Page

Tuesday | 04.21
What: Brigitte Calls Me Baby w/Skorts
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Brigitte Calls Me Baby from Chicago sounds like they grew up immersed in the post-punk jangle and poetry of the music of The Smiths as well as the Millennium era post-punk cool and urban aesthetic of The Strokes with the mastery of intricate and tasty guitar work that those comparisons imply. The group’s new album Irreversible (out March 13, 2026) makes it more clear that the group’s inspirations and influences tap into classic pop songcraft and crooning vocals so that its current sound resonates equally with early 60s rock and 80s Mancunian rock.

Wednesday | 04.22
What: Model/Actriz w/Agriculture
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: If you only listened to Model/Actriz’s two excellent album Dogsbody (2023) and Pirouette (2025) you might come away expecting a sophisticated post-punk band with some ground in noise rock and industrial. But live the group has an explosive intensity and confrontational performance style that elevates the songs to something with a palpable excitement so that the live shows border on what you might expect out of a modern hardcore act. Also on the bill is Los Angeles-based, experimental black metal band Agriculture. The latter also has two remarkable records that were released the same years with the self-titled from 2023 and 2025’s beautifully forbidding The Spiritual Sound. Agriculture’s live show though fully embodying the sounds and aesthetics of black metal also has a friendly energy and an expansive, atmospheric quality that propels it beyond expectations of genre as well. A fine pairing for one bill of disparate styles but a similar spirit.

Madeline Goldstein, photo courtesy the artist

Thursday | 04.23
What: Madeline Goldstein w/Normal Bias and The Siren Project
When: 7
Where: The Crypt
Why: Madeline Goldstein has been crafting a body of work for the past handful of years that has set a high standard for rich synth tone a finely crafted melodies. Her style is more in the darkwave vein but her music has by not transcended expectations especially with her new record Speaking to the Body where maybe the moods will be reminiscent of something from the 80s and of the more pop era of Giorgio Moroder but her songs explore human aspiration, identity and navigating a modern world where presentation and perception seem to be how one’s value is judged and the alienation that stems from that dynamic that can have impacts on one’s psyche in subtle and insidious ways. Normal Bias is a techno synthpop band from New York City that is reminiscent of an EBM Depeche Mode. The Siren Project from Denver is a long running duo whose music bridges the realms of trip-hop, darkwave and electronic dream pop.

Thursday | 04.23
What: An Evening with Maya Hawke
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Maya Hawke may be more well-known for her life in acting especially for her recurring role as Robin Buckley in seasons 3-5 of Stranger Things. But since 2020 she’s been releasing music that has been in the realm of indie pop but with an experimental bent. Her next album Maitreya Corso due out May 1, 2026 on Mom + Pop is a next step in her evolution as a songwriter and the single “Devil You Know” is like a fusion of hip-hop production and arrangements and dream pop folk rock. The album named for the future Buddha to come as well as one of the influential heroes of American literature, Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso. The album seems to thread the connections between spiritual aspiration and gritty urban aesthetics in producing creative work that can be transcendent and rooted in direct human experiences.

Friday | 04.24
What: Products Band w/Totem Pocket, Angel Band and Spirit Sedan
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Products Band from Minneapolis is a mix of angular post-punk sensibilities, jangle pop sounds and punk energy. Its 2025 album Some Sudden Weather solidified seemingly disparate musical instincts and after the group toured with Deerhoof it has worked with that band’s guitarist John Dieterich on new material that highlights the group’s eclectic and eccentric aspects while preserving its instincts for vibrant, anthemic songcraft. Opening is Denver’s psychedelic shoegaze band Totem Pocket and punk-infused indie pop group Angel Band.

Saturday | 04.25
What: Lebanon Hanover w/Soft Vein and DJ Katastrophy
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Lebanon Hanover has been a band of choice for discerning fans of modern post-punk and darkwave. It would be imprecise to lump the German band in with a lot of artists in those creative lanes because its sound is so different. Listen to its most recent album 2025’s Asylum Lullabies and one hears a truly dark and dystopian set of songs like if Siouxsie and the Banshees and early Dead Can Dance at their darkest asked themselves how do we make this even more harrowing? And yet the music has an entrancing quality that draws you into its unsettling compositions. It’s a record that is meant to reflect struggles with mental health, interpersonal issues and the dread and fear rampant in a time of genocide, war, rising fascism and environmental catastrophe closing in and it comforts in not telling you everything is okay or that it will be without actual effort to attempting to address one’s personal and the world’s maladies which can feel overwhelming but especially more so without a sense of solidarity with others.

Sunday | 04.26
What: Cannons w/Bob Moses and Oxis
When: 6/6:30
Where: Red Rocks Amphitheater
Why: Cannons from Los Angeles has gone from playing modest shows at small clubs around America and beyond in its early days after getting off the ground in 2013. Its particular style of synth-infused dream pop has had a cinematic yet intimate quality from the beginning and now with the release of its 2026 album Everyting Glows the trio sounds introspective but with a theatrical flair that is born out by footage of the live shows that have posted to the internet with the light show and sets lending the presentation the quality of a modern roller disco aesthetic that is also reminiscent of early chillwave so that the performance comes across as intimate despite the larger format stage. For this tour the band shares headlining status with Canadian electronic pop duo Bob Moses. And no there is no one in the band named Bob Moses. Rather, its fusion of deep house and synthwave gives a more compelling and current version of 2010s EDM.

Monday | 04.27
What: Grace Ives w/Whu Else
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Grace Ives came to the attention of wider audiences around the time she released her second album Janky Star (2022) and as an opening act on tour with Lykke Li. Her bedroom pop compositions didn’t sound or feel underdeveloped yet had that freshness, spontaneity and free creativity that makes music that comes out of that realm of songwriting so appealing. It doesn’t have the polish and production that seems to render a lot of mainstream music kind of boring. In 2026 Ives presents us with Girlfriend. The album thankfully has that raw authenticity that has made her songs stand out but with further creative development so that there is a fuller sound so that her finely crafted beats and orchestral melodic arrangements complement her emotionally wide-ranging vocals. Even though Ives sounds sonically larger she has honed her ability to write music that feels intimate, confessional and immediate.

Tuesday | 04.28
What: Loolowningen w/Cherry Spit and Replica City
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Loolowningen is a band from Japan that, like many bands from that country, is a bit difficult to pigeonhole. Listen to any of the recordings and be prepared to hear how it is like avant-garde punk at least in the performance and delivery, like prog/art rock, like psychedelic rock and modern classical. All at once without seeming like its trying to do too much. It sounds both maximalist and effortless in its intricate arrangements. Live the band definitely has kinetic presence and a sound like if a Chicago noise rock band had even more free jazz leanings and was way into Can. The group recently released the Mimic/Ringwanderung EP.

Thursday | 04.30
What: Cursing, Snakes of Russia, Voight and Vox Menomnic
When: 7/7:30
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Cursing is an industrial/EBM trio comprised of Devin James Fry, Ryan Halgren and Alex Anderson. The latter some may know for being deeply involved in the Freq Boutique event and for ye olde skuel as half of ManCub. This current project which released the excellent black tape album in 2025 is more in the vein of a politically infused combination of Front 242, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and the darker end of Nicolas Jaar. Informed by deep house and techno, Cursing is not the cookie cutter industrial outfit. Voight also combines techno aesthetics with post-punk but brings noisy shoegaze and a ferocious live presence to the music that has meant it never quite fits in with the darkwave/Goth scene nor with the local shoegaze/dream pop world and all the better for it.

Best Shows in Denver and Beyond December 2024

**Xeno & Oaklander perform at Hi-Dive on December 12, 2024, photo by Liz Wendelbo**

Sunday | 12.01
What: Machete Mouth, Joseph Lamar, S.T3V
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: An evening of the best local, left-field/experimental R&B. Go and witness the soulful downtempo ambient style of Machete Mouth, the IDM psychedelic soul performance art leanings of Joseph Lamar and indie rock/shoegaze/abstract folk sounds of S.T3V.

Wednesday | 12.04
What: Anthony Raneri w/Brother Bird
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Anthony Raneri is perhaps better known for being the singer and songwriter in punk/emo band Bayside. But his solo work is more countrified yet atmospheric and his latest record Everyday Royalty is an introspective reckoning with how one’s life suddenly feels like your mistakes or at least the areas you’ve been neglecting more than you realize catch up to you emotionally, psychologically and even physically. Whereas Raneri’s brash and cathartic songwriting has its own psychological cleansing on stage, Brother Bird’s songs are more delicate and in the realm of folk but her production is around the edges gives the songwriter’s music a cinematic yet intimate quality that unfolds across a song like her own kind of confessional and self-examination that too feels relatable on a very human level of navigating life with an imperfect set of tools and capacities to do so.

Thursday | 12.05
What: Machine Girl w/Lightning Bolt and Kill Alters
When: 7
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: For over a decade Machine Girl has been developing its own brand of breakcore/digital hardcore/glitch industrial sound. Famously the duo performed a show at a house in Denver and caved in the floor because of the intensity of the dancing. And the group does go hard but its electronic soundscapes are very in the vein of drum and bass and jungle with the relentless beats and tranquil/chill passages. Lightning Bolt is the legendary noise rock band that got started in Providence, Rhode Island in 1994. Along with other local music weirdos like artist and former member of Mindflayer and Forcefield Matt Brinkman Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt formed the iconic and influential DIY space Fort Thunder. In its 30 years together Lightning Bolt has been known for preferring to perform at unconventional spaces if appropriate and available and if not, turning a more conventional venue into something of a performance art event with its frenetic and borderline chaotic live shows that often feel like the noise rock equivalent of free jazz or conceptual as much as musical use of noise incorporating the energy of everyone that shows up.

Friday | 12.06
What: Greet Death w/Cherished and Prize Horse
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Greet Death made its reputation as a band that fused heaviness with ethereal shoegaze tonality. But since then its music has drifted in even more melodic and melancholic. More slowcore in its arrangements and thus hazily psychedelic but not bereft of a sonic freakout when the moment calls for it. Opening the show is Denver’s post-punk-turned-shoegaze band Cherished whose lyrics give a glimpse into a side of America all of us probably recognize but with a perspective that’s very real and non-judgmental. Prize Horse from Minneapolis has a sound that sits at the crux of shoegaze, post-rock and the more interesting 90s emo.

Friday | 12.06
What: A Place For Owls, Corsicana and INNS
When: 7:30
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: A Place For Owls is refreshingly a raw and heart on sleeve emo band of the current wave variety meaning its influences span beyond the influx of math rock and vulnerability and occasional forays into atonality. APFO’s guitar work is elegant and inviting and its whole vibe is one inviting listeners to share in these previously private moments that might help to illuminate one’s own feelings about complicated situations. Corsicana is the dream pop band from Denver.

Maria Bamford, photo from mariabamford.com

Friday | 12.06
What: Maria Bamford
When: 6:30
Where: The Paramount Theatre
Why: Maria Bamford is one of the great, living stand-up comedians whose surreal yet sharply observed humor has shed a light on American folly and the darkly absurd side of capitalism and wellness culture. Part of Bamford’s appeal is how open and vulnerable she is regarding her own struggles with mental health and trying to fit in with a warped and demented culture and presents it with her inimitable style.

King Cardinal, photo from kingcardinal.com

Saturday | 12.07
What: King Cardinal
When: 10 am
Where: Swallow Hill
Why: It is a free show but it’ll be one of Denver’s better Americana/roots rock bands, King Cardinal. 2024, though, saw the release of he band’s most recent album Land Lines which waxes well into the realm of cosmic country at times but otherwise is full of the band’s well crafted story songs and uplifting presentation.

Saturday | 12.07
What: Weird Al Qaida w/Pythian Whispers
When: 9:30
Where: Mutiny Information Cafe
Why: Experimental psychedelic noise band Weird Al Qaida makes a rare appearance in the basement of the new location of Mutiny Information Cafe. Expect multi-media performance elements, pitch shifted vocals and a fusion of psychedelic folk, art rock and outsider pop. Opening is psychedelic ambient and noise project Pythian Whispers which includes Tom Murphy who is writing this.

Saturday | 12.07
What: Nova Fest: Church Fire, Night Fishing, The Photo Atlas, Post/War and Gifter 8 at Hi-Dive
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Nova Fest returns with a stacked lineup including industrial dance revolutionaries Church Fire, psych doom band Night Fishing, the resurrected dance punk band The Photo Atlas back from Denver’s 2000s indie rock heyday and the shoegaze-y Post/War.

Thursday | 12.12
What: Franz Ferdinand w/almost monday and Losers Club
When: 6
Where: The Ogden Theatre
Why: The new Franz Ferdinand album The Human Fear doesn’t come out until January 10, 2025 but for this show there’s a better than half a chance you’ll get to see some of that material live. The Scottish post-punk band first made major waves with its 2004 self-titled album and breakout single “Take Me Out.” The then post-punk revival was well under way and the group got lumped in with “dance punk” perhaps not unjustifiably and its subsequent albums proved the band had more in their repertoire than a trendy style. Its funky power pop has had underpinnings of influence from literature and dub and has evolved in ways that have refreshingly not been so obvious. For example the 2015 album as FFS when the band merged with glam and art rock legends Sparks for a unique album for which they toured doing sets of their own and together as the supergroup. There’s something vital in what the band has had to offer from the beginning and its live shows have been proof positive.

Xeno & Oaklander in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday | 12.12
What: Xeno & Oaklander w/Spiritual Poison and Terravault Network
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Modern cold wave legends Xeno & Oaklander return to Denver for a show at Hi-Dive in support of its latest album Via Negativa (in the doorway light). The duo has innovated in its use of analog and digital synthesis to craft evocative soundscapes as conceptual pop songs since its 2004 inception and the new record is reminiscent of what might happen if Chris & Cosey and Giorgio Moroder collaborated on an album of gorgeously icy synthpop.

Thursday | 12.12
What: David Eugene Edwards w/Logan Farmer
When: 8: 30
Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox
Why: David Eugene Edwards established his dark folk and post-punk bonafides as a member of influential Gothic Americana band 16 Horsepower and further with Wovenhand. His 2023 solo album Hyacinth is imbued with the kind of gravitas and grandeur one has come to expect from the songwriter and its lush arrangements don’t feel stripped down even if not expressed with the same level of sturm and drang as his other projects. The emotional intensity and vibrant poetic sensibility and insight is very much running through the songs. Opening the show is Fort Collins-based songwriter Logan Farmer whose luminously atmospheric variety of folk songcraft is transporting and soothing. His most recent album 2022’s A Mold For The Bell includes contributions from avant-garde harpist Mary Lattimore and saxophonist Joseph Shabason. It’s an album of great subtlety, nuance of expression and great depth of mood that rewards patient listening.

Limbwrecker in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 12.14
What: Limbwrecker (final show) w/Sugar Skulls & Marigolds, Rico Predicate and Corpsewhale
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Denver-based grind/powerviolence band Limbwrecker is taking the stage one final time for a set of furiously noisy and cathartic, metallic post-hardcore and confrontational antics. They will be joined by fellow perpetrators of sonic violence with crafters of epic, instrumental, post-metal journeys Sugar Skulls & Marigolds, death grind thrashers Rico Predicate and industrial noise artist Corpsewhale.

Sunday | 12.15
What: Church Car, Pink Lady Monster, The Trappings, Hippies Wearing Muzzles
When: 7:30
Where: The Skylark Lounge Bobcat Room
Why: Church Car might be the new manifestation of avant-garage soul artist Big Daddy Mugglestone but don’t bother trying to run the new name through a search engine. There are plenty of other reasons to go to this show like to see the spectacular No Wave free jazz dream psychedelia group Pink Lady Monster and blend of allure and menace. Hippies Wearing Muzzles is the solo analog synth composition project of Lee Evans who some may know from his long tenure as the bassist in indie pop group Kissing Party. The Trappings is a lo-fi experimental pop project of Adam Baumeister, the man behind the lathe cut imprint Meep Records and his own music is worth a deep dive in its own right for the sprawling and exploratory nuggets of imaginative music making therein.

Monday | 12.16
What: Emma Ruth Rundle w/Stonefront Church
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Emma Ruth Rundle has made a name for herself as a writer of richly emotional and introspective, darkly atmospheric songs that blur and break the edges of strict genre. In her more recent albums Rundle’s gift for weaving soundscape-y, even ambient folk expressions of how the inner life finds resonance with the mythical in a synergistic and transformative way. Her most recent album, 2022’s EG2: Dowsing Voice, seemed to draw upon deserty sounds and textures to delve into themes of ancient trauma and self-rediscovery.

Lanx Borealist in 2015, photo by Tom Murphy

Thursday | 12.19
What: Weirdo Music: Rooster Jake, Lanx Borealis, Brotherhood of Machines
When: 7
Where: Fort Greene
Why: This showcase of local experimental music will feature the left field hip-hop of Rooster Jake, the synth-driven and organic soundscapes of Lanx Borealis and Brotherhood of Machines’ deep house/abstract electronic dance oriented compositions.

Vatican Vamps, photo courtesy the artists

Saturday | 12.21
What: New Verbs w/Cactusheads and Vatican Vamps https://globehall.com/event/new-verbs-w-cactusheads-vatican-vamps/globe-hall/denver-colorado/
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: New Verbs are an indie rock band from Denver/Boulder who if you dissect their sound a bit you’ll hear hints of the influence of The Fall, Deerhunter and 2010’s psych rock. Maybe Cactusheads are literally operating out of a garage in preparing to take the stage, like many bands, its musical roots seem to have at least evolved beyond the ragged amateurishness of well-intentioned miscreants into writing solid melodic hooks to go along with the grit. Vatican Vamps are a post-punk band from Denver that released its self-titled debut full length in March 2024 showcasing its dusky, atmospheric and earnestly weighty post-punk.

Saturday | 12.21
What: Broken Record, Curious Things, Replica City and The Gentlys
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Broken Record blurs the line between melodic post-hardcore and shoegaze with delicate emotional colorings. Curious Things is a trio of former members of The Gamits, The Dead Girls and Lawsuit Models whose songs are an appealing blend of power pop and emo. Replica City delivers a noisy, angular post-punk post-hardcore style with vocal performances both vulnerable and confrontational. The Gently’s is the latest band to include Dameon Merkl, the charismatic frontman of dark Americana legends Bad Luck City and Lost Walks.

Saturday | 12.28
What: Cheap Perfume, Arson Charge, Lost Relics and Brass Tags
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: At the top of the bill is political/feminist punk band Cheap Perfume with its heartfelt and often refreshingly wickedly and pointedly humorous lyrics still incredibly relevant in light of the seeming slide of world society in the past few years steeply in the wrong direction. Arson Charge is a punk band including members of other acts from Denver including SPELLS singer Ben Roy. Brass Tags is a post-hardcore band in the vein of melodic practitioners of noisy punk like Jawbox. Lost Relics split the difference between sludge metal akin to Melvins and heavy noise rock reminiscent of Unsane.

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy

Monday and Tuesday | 12.30 and 12.31
What: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club w/Rattlesnake Milk and DJ Ryan Wong
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Denver pioneers of Gothic Americana Slim Cessna’s Auto Club play their two night run at the Hi-Dive. If you’ve seen the group in the past several years it’s become obvious the Gothic part is perhaps less accurate than comparing the live show and music to a kind of Western Vaudeville with music inspired by literature and theater infused with local cultural flavor and a flair for the dramatic and inventive, lively songwriting that is as life affirming as it draws upon any traditional sounds and style. Rattlesnake Milk from Texas is straight up cowboy western plains style country music.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S2E36: Weird Al Qaida

Weird Al Qaida got off the ground in 2008/2009 when Eric Peterson and Ingvald Grunder formed the experimental project with the aim of being able to explore whatever musical ideas came to mind. Both had been in bands in and around the Denver music scene for years prior with Peterson having played in power pop/punk pop group The Barrys and Grunder having spent some time in Orbit Service. Weird Al Qaida doesn’t fit nicely into any Denver subscene not being quite noise enough for that world though elements of musique concrète, ambient and noise are elements of its songwriting and not quite psychedelic folk or jazz enough for a more mainstream version of that. But its fascinating body of recorded work including the 2011 seven inch Psychic Wizard, 2016’s Plastic Family and now the 2022 record The Dog & The Deer showcase imaginative soundscaping and arrangements that expand categories of what music can be while remaining essentially accessible.

Listen to our interview with Weird Al Qaida on Bandcamp and connect with the duo at its website linked below. Weird Al Qaida performs at Mutiny Information Café on Friday, February 17, 2023 from 8:30-9:30 pm and with any luck we’ll get further chances to catch the band in person now that live music is back to being more regular.

weirdalqaida.com

Best Shows in Denver 1/24/19 – 1/30/19

hackdepicciotto_sylviasteinhäuser — **hackedepicciotto performs January 30 with DBUK at Lost Lake. Photo by Sylvia Steinhäuser**

Thursday | January 24, 2019

meetthegiant3_may15_2018_tommurphy — Meet the Giant, photo by Tom Murphy

Who: Meet the Giant w/Dead Pay Rent, Mr. Atomic
When: Thursday, 01.24, 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Meet the Giant, perhaps unintentionally, perhaps subconsciously, perhaps entirely by plan, has drawn on both 80s and 90s sounds at a time when the various aesthetics of those decades are firmly back in vogue. Downtempo, brooding post-punk, the rhythms of sample-driven composition and emotionally rich vocals make for a band that sounds instantly like something beyond having an appeal to nostalgia while drawing on a hint of that. The group spent nearly a decade honing its songcraft and chemistry as a unit and more than a small amount of the intimacy that comes out of such extended wood shedding comes through in the music like you’re getting to experience that connection that friends have who can share much with each other and be real. Many bands put on some kind of ego-driven facade fueled by a kind of borrowed rock and roll myth bravado. Meet the Giant comes about its rock and roll power honestly and with tender emotions laid bare, which is always more compelling than tough guy strutting any day of the week. Do yourself a favor and see them or at least check out their remarkable 2018 self-titled debut.

Who: DSTR, eHpH, Cutworm
When: Thursday, 01.24, 8 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: DSTR is Destroid, a project of Daniel Meyer who some may know more for his work as half of influential EBM band Haujobb. Distorted vocals, imaginative soundscaping, strong, pulsing beats and menacing, glitch-hazed atmospherics. Denver’s eHpH has been making an interesting hybrid of industrial rock and dark EBM of their own but refreshingly unlike any of their peers in the Mile High City. Cutworm is a bit of a left field choice for a bill like this if its 2018 Swallow EP is any indication with its sound being unfruitful in placing in a particular genre box. Its sounds range from modern downtempo darkwave to especially beautifully moody IDM. Live, though, Cutworm definitely brings the industrial edge into the production.

Friday | January 25, 2019

klausdafoe_nov10_2018_tommurphy — Klaus Dafoe, photo by Tom Murphy

Who: Red Tack, George Cessna and Blindrunner
When: Friday, 01.25, 9 p.m.
Where: Lion’s Lair
Why: Red Tack is the solo, somewhat weirdo singer-songwriter project of Ted Thacker who should be remembered widely for being in 90s alternative rock band Baldo Rex and later as a member of indiepop band Veronica. Whatever his pedigree, Thacker has remained one of Denver’s most interesting songwriters and personalities. George Cessna is the son of Slim Cessna of Auto Club fame. The younger Cessna’s own work is both not too surprising considering his father’s legendary musical legacy but he is far from a carbon copy and his use of raw sound and atmosphere in his recordings and his wide ranging musical style in a broader realm of Americana and weirdo folk is noteworthy on its own merits.

Who: faim (record release), Line Brawl, Euth, Moral Law and Targets
When: Friday, 01.25, 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Hardcore band faim is releasing its latest seven inch through Convulse Records and celebrating the occasion with a few of Denver’s and Wyoming’s best hardcore acts.

Who: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 and 2
When: Friday, 01.25, 9:30 p.m.
Where: Sie Film Center
Why: Tobe Hooper passed away in 2017 leaving behind a legacy of unusual and influential films beginning, in terms of impact, with 1974’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a movie so graphically violent and darkly disturbing for the time, because it felt more like a documentary than the mostly tame horror cinema up to its release. In 1986 he released the sequel as a horrifying kind of parody. Between that, the 1982 Poltergeist film, 1985’s space vampire spectacle Lifeforce and numerous other films, Hooper’s unique cinematic vision will be celebrated for years to come including this month-long or so series hosted by Theresa Mercado kicking off this night on the director’s birthday.

Who: Flaural, Panther Martin and The Eye & The Arrow
When: Friday, 01.25, 8 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: The kind of line up you want to see more often in the realm of indie rock with Flaurel’s psychedelic pop, Panther Martin’s visionary lo-fi rock and The Eye & The Arrow’s re-working of Americana into something we’re not hearing ad infinitum on playlists and radio stations with a fairly vanilla stream of content.

Who: Klaus Dafoe, New Standards Men and Simulators
When: Friday, 01.25, 9 p.m.
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Klaus Dafoe seems to be a sort of instrumental rebirth of late 90s to mid-2000s indie math rock but deconstructed to be more fractured and potentially more interesting than some of the bands mining that neo-mathcore/emo sound of late. Simulators are the kind of post-punk that carves out the overtly atmospheric quality for stark contrasts of tone and angular rhythms that somehow still flow without getting splintery and yet, despite that intentional minimalism, bursting with Bryon Parker’s raw emotional vocals.

Saturday | January 26, 2019

hippocampus-creditpoonehghana — Hippo Campus, photo by Pooneh Ghana

Who: Hippo Campus w/Now Now
When: Saturday, 01.26, 9 p.m.
Where: The Ogden
Why: Hippo Campus has been writing finely crafted pop songs since its early days and challenging itself to make each record reflect not just personal and creative growth, qualities you’d want in any band worth your continued attention, but an evolving approach to larger cultural narratives. The group’s 2018 album Bambi offers no pat answers or platitudes. It is a record brimming with questions instead of the instant opinion/instant expert tendency that permeates our culture from the way people interact and present themselves on social media and how one must conduct oneself in various contexts lest one be thought indecisive rather than recognizing and learning to identify nuance—not in a way to placate all sides but in order to avoid the hubris of being unaware of one’s own limitations of knowledge and comprehension. It can be enjoyed as just a solid pop album but there’s a great deal of dimensionality and content for anyone wanting to listen deeper.

Who: A Celebration of 1/26 with Weird Al Qaida, Gregory Ego and Mermalair
When: Saturday, 01.26, 7 p.m.
Where: Mutiny Information Café
Why: Weird Al Quaida is an avant-garde punk/noise/psychedelic band from Denver that doesn’t perform often. Definitely for fans of the more rock end of Sun City Girls.

Who: Space Jail, Snaggletoothe and Claudzilla
When: Saturday, 01.26, 7:30 p.m.
Where: The People’s Building
Why: Space Jail might be described as a psychedelic synth band. Snaggletoothe as psych prog. Claudzilla as a one-person keytar rock weirdo extravaganza. All in likely the only venue in Aurora where you might see music anywhere within he realm of these bands.

Who: Soulless Maneater, Sliver, Endless Nameless, Fox Moses, Equine
When: Saturday, 01.26, 9 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: Soulless Maneater is somewhere between the best death rock band in Denver and a moodily creepy doom band. Sliver is “Diet Nirvana.” Fox Moses sounds like a gloomier neo-grunge band and all the better for that. Endless Nameless sounds like a hybrid of math rock, shoegaze and post-rock—not that those are mutually exclusive concepts. Equine is the avant-guitar and synth solo project of former Epileptinomicon and Moth Eater guitarist Kevin Richards.

Sunday | January 27, 2019

sumac_annegodoneo — Sumac, photo by Anne Godoneo

Who: Sumac, Divide and Dissolve, Tashi Dorij
When: Sunday, 01.27, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Aaron Turner’s guitar work and songwriting in partnership with fellow musicians has helped to define some of the boundaries of the more experimental, heavy music. As the leader of Hydra Head Records he also encouraged the development of that music throughout the 90s and 2000s. As a member of Isis, Old Man Gloom and Mamiffer, to name a few projects, Turner has crafted consistently interesting material that is undeniably within the realm of metal but with an ear for abstracting sounds into noise and then back together into coherent expressions of emotion outside the realm of standard songwriting in the genre. With Sumac this may be especially so in particular the band’s 2018 album Love In Shadow where the trio takes the concept of love at its most primordial level pre-marketing device, pre-narrowing the concept down to a relatively trite, or at least limited, word casually thrown around. Also on this tour is Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorij whose noisescapes could be considered loosely as avant-garde but also seem to contain a kind of personal ritualistic expression. See his own 2018 album gàng lu khau chap ‘mi gera gi she an example of the sorts of music you’re in for during his set. Since Dorij and Turner have collaborated on at least one record maybe you’ll get to see some of that this night as well.

Tuesday | January 29, 2019

themaykit_jul25_2015_tommurphy — The Maykit circa 2015, photo by Tom Murphy

Who: Nadia Bolz-Weber – The Shameless Book Tour
When: Tuesday, 01.29, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Tattered Cover — Colfax
Why: Nadia Bolz-Weber is the activist and Lutheran pastor whose 2014 memoir Pastrix: the cranky, beautiful faith of a sinner & saint traced her personal growth from a kind of bohemian comedian to sober theology student and pastor. The book, brimming with irreverent humor and sarcasm as well as plenty of illuminating insights into human psychology, whether you’re Christian or not, struck a chord with a fairly sizable audience. In humanizing challenges many people face, Bolz-Weber made a good case for how we can embrace an expanded sense of our own best selves. In July 2018 left her pastoship of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. Now she is releasing her new book Shameless: A Sexual Reformation. As a candid reexamination of “patriarchy, sex, and power” (from the Tattered Cover website), Bolz-Weber will likely further cement her reputation as something of a refreshingly maverick religious thinker and writer.

Who: Big Paleo album release w/Places Back Home, The Maykit and Quentin
When: Tuesday, 01.29, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Denver-based math rock Big Paleo is releasing its, presumably, debut album. One of the opening bands, The Maykit, may not be math rock but its intricate musicianship and songwriting and Max Winne’s indisputably sincere vocal delivery will be a standout of the evening.

Wednesday | January 30, 2019

mallrat_photocredit_ michelle pitris — Mallrat, photo by Michelle Pitris

Who: Gnash w/Mallrat and Guardin
When: Wednesday, 01.30, 7 p.m.
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Mallrat is Grace Shaw from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Since high school, Shaw has been writing sophisticated pop songs that bring together elements of electronic dance production, hip-hop style beats and the informal structure of modern indie rock—really an ideal synthesis and vehicle for expressing one’s ideas with nuance but a direct emotional quality. Her 2018 EP In The Sky is an interesting blend of contrasts: dusky atmospherics speckled with bright highlights, onomatopoeic cadences and vivid lyrics and soaring, saturated melodies dissolving into introspective minimalism. Headlining the show is Gnash, aka Garrett Nash, who released his debut full-length We on January 11, 2019. Nash made waves with his early breakup EPs and his far better than average beat-driven R&B.

Who: Hackedepicciotto w/DBUK
When: Wednesday, 01.30, 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Hackedepicciotto is a multi-media, experimental music duo comprised of Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander Hacke. De Picciotto was one of the founders of the long-running electronic music festival The Love Parade in Berlin. The festival was initiated as celebration of innovative electronic music but also as a subversive kind of demonstration for peace through love and music. Hacke is the bassist for influential industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten. The aforementioned couldn’t completely encompass either artist’s work, output and collaborations and it would be worthwhile to explore their work in depth. But with this project the two bring together a set of skills in composition, performance, film making and storytelling. The word “immersive” gets thrown around a lot these days but it definitely applies to a Hackedepicciotto show. It isn’t just that the sound design and visuals and songwriting are striking, they are, it’s also because before it quite became a widely articulated phenomenon, de Picciotto, in her 2013/2015 graphic novel We Are Gypsies now vividly and powerfully captured what it’s like to be noteworthy, internationally renowned artists have to uproot from one’s home and home city of decades due to gentrification. Then, as explored in further detail on the 2016 album Perserverantia and 2017’s Menetekel how the way the world economy functions now globally has not only all but dismantled the way independent artists and not-so-independent artists can live, function and thrive. The albums alone are worthwhile experiences in the listening but the live show is where you truly get to experience a deep emotional manifestation of faith and hope nearly crushed by despair at the state of things supported by a drive to seek what must be better over the horizon. There is no naivete to the work, de Picciotto and Hacke both know they can never really regain what they once had, but a reminder that one’s compulsion to pursue one’s life work can be a beacon through difficult times. The duo’s latest release is the 2018 meditation soundtrack Joy.

Who: The Pink Spiders w/Television Generation and Smile Victoria
When: Wednesday, 01.30, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: The Pink Spiders are a power pop band from Nashville who had a minor hit in 2006 with “Little Razorblade” from their Ric Ocasek-produced album Teenage Graffiti. Smile Victoria sounds like it’s still wearing its Pixies and others 90s alternative music fairly freshly. But not in the neo-grunge kind of way as the trio has more atmosphere and melody than some of its peers tapping into the same era. Television Generation somehow perfectly blends grunge with power pop without sounding like Nirvana or like Cheap Trick gone metal. Is there a bit of sonic DNA in there out of Love Battery and Buzzcocks? Probably but live the band has plenty of grit and emotional darkness to keep it from ever feeling derivative.