Category: Denver Threads

News, reviews, interviews, specifically about local Denver bands, any genre
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.

Echofest ’09: In this case, it’s the first time that’s charmed – Echo Mountain – 09/26/09
September 29, 2009 Off

Echofest ’09: In this case, it’s the first time that’s charmed – Echo Mountain – 09/26/09

By Billy Thieme

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.