Weaving through Denver Music, Art, Culture, and Life
Live reviews of local acts playing in, around, and of Denver.
Sian Alice Group filled the Hi-Dive last Tuesday with a resplendent sound that coaxed visions of quiet, snow-filled night streets as easily it did hot, tribal raves in the desert. Unfortunately, their tremendous performance was about all that filled the venue, as the crowd was far smaller than it should have been, even for a school night.
While the new outdoor festival, put on for the first time last Saturday at Echo Mountain, is certainly no Monolith (yet), it was well attended, and went off pretty much without a hitch.
Arranged and staged in a cooperative effort between local sponsor JamSpace, local promoter Whisper Fiercely and Echo Mountain, the all-day festival featured a lineup of about 20 local Denver bands on two stages, set up smack in the middle of the mountain’s bunny hill and nestled against the “magic carpet” lift, and attracted a crowd that at one point looked like it was comprised of more than 100 fans, despite some pretty stiff winds, wild temperature swings, and a rugged, campground atmosphere.
As you can imagine, putting on any live show isn’t a walk in the park. There are so many places where things can go wrong – from bands canceling at the last minute (even if they do actually call and let the promoter know) to equipment problems, to a myriad of other problems, any of which have the potential to bring all the promoter’s and venue’s efforts to naught, which is to say nothing about any return on their investments in both time and money.
Try and imagine doing it outside, on the side of a mountain, in the middle of a skiing/boarding park, more than 30 minutes from downtown, and more than 12 miles from the nearest significant power grid. Not only are there the usual equipment and sound considerations to contend with, but now you’ve added weather, terrain, transportation and power challenges that no other venue faces, even on their worst day.
Velvet Cash played a strong set of great psychobilly at Meadowlark last Thursday night, in what was supposed to be one of the final outdoor shows of the season.
Weaving ubiquitously through all of it was the music. From so many pipers practicing simultaneously (a cacophony that everyone should experience), to the competing full bands on the field, to the large and small musician’s tents hosting performances with endless combinations of Celtic folk and rock . . . .
Git Some gets a lot of their sound from the now defunct Denver band Planes Mistaken for Stars, once home to both Keener and French (and once voted Denver’s best band in the Denver Post’s Underground Music Poll), but this band’s take on the music is somewhat less dramatic. They’ve kept the weighty metal chords in their sound, but have added a Jesus Lizard-meets-Black Flag song structure, which seems to give the sound some lift. Where PMFS reflected the more traditional, sour sturm und drang behind emo, Git Some offers a faster, more careless attitude.
Both live and on record, The Alltunators masterfully mix honest and passionate acoustic constructions behind Jessica Slater’s heartfelt lyrics and sweet and earnest, soft-spoken vocals, and add brilliant, bluesy jams behind Andy Miller’s sassy juke joint crooning. . . . The result is a summery Sunday afternoon feeling – fresh, relaxing, almost drowsily comforting.
I had a chance to interview the band recently about where they’ve come from, and where they’re going.
Frontside Five has reached a sort of plateau in skate-punk, which actually involves leaving behind much of the genre’s simplicity in favor of some more complex rhythms, and a slightly more metal edge.
There are some artists that need to be alone, and then there are those that just plain can’t play with anyone else. It’s the latter group that put themselves on stage as a one-man-band — performing with total musical independence, total responsibility.
