Category: Coming Soon

Listings and stories about bands coming soon to one of the hundreds of Denver venues.

Live DenverThread Review: The Inactivists provide some sweet, sickly heartbreak for the love-challenged
February 9, 2010 Off

Live DenverThread Review: The Inactivists provide some sweet, sickly heartbreak for the love-challenged

By Billy Thieme

Scott Livingston isn’t someone you want to wrong, particularly in the arena of love. As frontman of Denver band The Inactivists, a band known for its nerdy humor mixed with artsy rock, he’s got a soapbox that’s pretty tall. And with the band’s latest record, “Love Songs and Other Songs About Love,” they’ve taken the heartbreak of a dissolved relationship and bent it into an aural sculpture on a framework of sardonic and geeky wit, and Livingston is the mouthpiece.

Even more extreme than the record, Inactivists’ live show is one to be reckoned with, and they showed it off last Saturday night (January 30) at the Walnut Room in front of an impressive crowd. Behind his electric ukelele, Livingston cuts an impressive figure that belies the internal strife his lyrics portend. He’s more than well met by Victoria Lundy’s wild and earthy performance on the theremin and Pattie Melt’s smooth, punky saxophone and accordion, Matt Sumner’s bass funk and Kelly Prestridge’s complex rhythms.

The Reverend Horton Heat @ the Boulder Theater, 01/15/10 – Reverb
January 21, 2010 Off

The Reverend Horton Heat @ the Boulder Theater, 01/15/10 – Reverb

By Billy Thieme

As far as psychobilly goes, you’re not likely to find a better practitioner than Jim “Reverend Horton” Heath and the rest of his legendary trio, the Reverend Horton Heat. The Texas group graced the Boulder Theater last Friday night in the middle of a multiple night tour in Colorado. Too bad the Boulder crowd didn’t completely wake up for the show!

Melt Banana @ the Bluebird Theater – 12/07/09 – Reverb
December 10, 2009 Off

Melt Banana @ the Bluebird Theater – 12/07/09 – Reverb

By Billy Thieme

For the first 25 minutes of their set at the Bluebird Theater Monday night,Melt Banana blasted the crowd with a melange of noise and darkness — pierced only by the members’ head-mounted lights — that felt like my imagination of shock therapy, without the benefit of that thick piece of rubber they shove in your mouth to keep you from biting through your tongue. Never have I been so impressed by the venue’s sound system, nor have I ever felt the need to don earplugs so badly. And yet I, along with the smallish, half-capacity (at best) crowd, loved every ear drum piercing minute of it. So much so that when the four piece settled into more accessible, 30- to 90-second pieces with recognizable rhythms and chords for the remainder of their set, we all seemed to miss the cacophony.

DenverThread Live Review: Vitamins w/The Outfit, Meadowlark, 11/7/09
November 11, 2009 Off

DenverThread Live Review: Vitamins w/The Outfit, Meadowlark, 11/7/09

By Billy Thieme

The Meadowlark Bar continues to set the bar for live national and local lineups in a hip, comfortable environment night after night. Last Saturday’s lineup was no exception, and featured The Outfit and headliners Vitamins, both originally from Greeley, after being supported by Johnny Burroughs (also a Greeley native) and Seattle’s garage-bluesy The Curious Mystery. The last two groups stole the night, and each packed the place with what looked like two separate crowds.
Vitamins’ style ranges from sweeping, ethereal arrangements that recall Cocteau Twins and Ride, to grooving psychedelic noise pop reminiscent of Sonic Youth or Yo La Tengo. Strong, anchoring euro-jazz bass lines and often sparse, lilting vocals also add an otherworldly, Stereolab quality to it as well. Their mixture of these influences creates a sound that’s almost entirely their own – but not quite. For a relatively young band – they formed in 2005 in Greeley, and transplanted themselves in Denver not too long after – they’ve come a long way in a short time, but still seem to favor different influences on an almost song-by-song basis. Overall, though, the variety makes for one of Denver’s more exciting live shows.

Speedwolf hits the road to tour the midwest, after opening for Valient Thorr at Larimer Lounge
November 9, 2009 Off

Speedwolf hits the road to tour the midwest, after opening for Valient Thorr at Larimer Lounge

By Billy Thieme

One of Denver’s hardest working metal bands, Speedwolf, is about to embark on a week-long tour of the midwest to spread their raucous brand of speed metal to the heartland. Starting out in Des Moines, IA on Thursday, November 19, the band will play shows back-to-back every night for six nights, traveling through Chicago, Lakewood (Ohio), Lansing, St. Louis and Kansas City before heading back home to Denver (dates are listed below). Seems exhausting, but if any band can pull it off and live to tell about it, it’s this one.

After months of playing multiple shows around Denver nearly every week, the band is excited to take their high energy, explosive speed metal show on the road – and answer to the public that’s been calling them out. They’ll be sharing stages on the tour with bands like Borderline Insanity, Animal Mothers, Calin’s Murder, Music Hates You, Wastelander and Die Wasted, among others, but they’re most excited to be playing a few with Nunslaughter and SuperChrist.

Fiercely Local: Jam Space USA and Whisper Fiercely join forces for the Denver music scene
November 5, 2009 Off

Fiercely Local: Jam Space USA and Whisper Fiercely join forces for the Denver music scene

By Billy Thieme

Two local businesses, each with some pretty serious clout and equally serious dedication to the local Denver music scene, recently joined forces to offer local bands, beginners or otherwise, a huge resource center to help them succeed. Whisper Fiercely has been a successful production company for the past two years and have always focused on the local. The group offers bands (and other businesses) design, merchandise, promotion and marketing help, and were also instrumental in organizing, promoting, booking and executing EchoFest ’09, the local band extravaganza (there were over 20 local bands on the lineup) at Echo Mountain. Jam Space USA, a local studio facility on North Federal, opened just a year ago, and offers local musicians professionally and fully stocked and wired studio and recording space, as well as promotional support. A few months ago, Whisper Fiercely moved into the building, and the two have decided to collaborate.