Tag: live music

The 11th Annual UMS Starts Today – So do DenverThread’s lists – here’s day one
July 21, 2011 Off

The 11th Annual UMS Starts Today – So do DenverThread’s lists – here’s day one

By Billy Thieme

It’s here! And it’s definitely THE highpoint of Denver’s summer music season! A full Red Rocks schedule, the Warped and other festival tours, multiple nights of Widespread Panic – even the monster U2 show in Invesco Field at Mile High – all pale in comparison to the magnitude of this weekend’s pinnacle. The 11th Annual Underground Music Showcase (UMS) starts this Thursday evening, and will dominate a few square miles of South Broadway for the following three nights.

This year’s show features close to 300 bands, comedians , singer songwriters and other talents, and will be housed in a huge number of venues, restaurants, bookstores, skateboard shops and t-shirt shops along South Broadway (here’s a handy listing, with a MAP!) – including two major outdoor stages – from 6th Avenue at the top to Cedar at the bottom.

Needless to say, the choices for live music abound – heck, they’re pretty overwhelming. Let’s face it: there’s no way anyone can possibly see all that the UMS has to offer, and it’d be a miracle to see everything you’d like to see. So let us at DenverThread take a little of the pressure to decide off of your shoulders, with our daily preview lists for this year’s festival.

Through the weekend, we’ll be listing our choices of the best things to see – for a lot of reasons. Whether your tastes run into the sludge-stoner-metal quagmire, meander through dreamy twee-pop or get hypnotically lost in psychedelic shoegaze, we’ll get you where you want to be, and make sure you’re catching something you’ve hopefully never seen before while we’re at it.

New Threads – Inactivists release “The War on Jazz Hands” to a hungry public at the Walnut Room
April 1, 2011 Off

New Threads – Inactivists release “The War on Jazz Hands” to a hungry public at the Walnut Room

By Billy Thieme

If there’s one thing we need less of in this world, it’s got to be those annoying flapping fingers at the end of swirling hands, and a more worthy cause for war probably doesn’t currently exist. And yet, as a country, we’re dang near broke. But I already digress . . .

This sentiment comes from the title of The Inactivists’ latest record, “The War On Jazz Hands.” The Denver band remains one of the local scene’s hidden treasures, and the title’s an adroit summation of their personality and style: playful like They Might Be Giants with an adult humor that hovers around that of Ween, but remains more explicitly juvenile. And yet, they’re always musically complex, diverse and accomplished, in the only way that would ever allow a true theremin artist – in this case the accomplished and extremely talented Victoria Lundy – to fit in.

The UMS, Day 3 – So many bands, so little time! More pre-kus from DenverThread
July 24, 2010 Off

The UMS, Day 3 – So many bands, so little time! More pre-kus from DenverThread

By Billy Thieme

Now that we’ve got two, fat and sassy days of the Underground Music Showcase under our belts, the real monster is being unleashed. This weekend, as in festivals past, begins the real UMS proper, and there are more bands, artists, venues, drinks and awesome food today than both of the previous two days combined!

Today also brings out the two-day visit of Lucha Libre Mexicana – a wonderful experience by any standards – in the Groove Automotive Stage at 3:45 & 5:15. If you haven’t seen the masked luchadores before – don’t dare miss this act! You’ll definitely regret it. . . .

New Threads: New tunes from Gypsy Nomads, Mad Dog and the Smokin’ Js and Deadbubbles
June 1, 2010 Off

New Threads: New tunes from Gypsy Nomads, Mad Dog and the Smokin’ Js and Deadbubbles

By Billy Thieme

The summer music overflow has begun, and Denver looks to be deluged with a constant influx, through-flux and home-spun-flux of music for the season, both live and recorded. Upstate New York’s Gypsy Nomads have released a new collection of twelve songs laced with oodles of magic – of both the cabaret/vaudeville and faerie ilk – that will have even the driest of cynics swaying, maybe even singing along, to the duo’s French medieval folk meets West-Mass punk instrumentation. Mad Dog and the Smokin’ Js recently released a live recording of a show at the Tomichi Tavern in Gunnison, CO that captures the bands’ sonic mayhem and should whet any aficionado’s roots appetite. Among other projects – which include a tribute album (currently in the works) and hosting the legendary Hugh Cornwell (frontman of the seminal British punk band Stranglers) in a truly exclusive show recently – Deadbubbles recently produced the “24 Hr. Nemesis” EP, a collection of early ambient recordings featuring White and current guitarist Paul Humphrey.

Who’s Playin’ What, Where? This Week – Katy Taylor, Salesman, Ideal Fathers
April 23, 2010 Off

Who’s Playin’ What, Where? This Week – Katy Taylor, Salesman, Ideal Fathers

By Billy Thieme

With a beautiful, lilting voice delivering delicate and passionate songs that recall a younger, more relaxed Suzanne Vega, local troubadour Katy Taylor will be gracing Trios Enoteca this Friday night, to accompany the restaurant’s well-made cocktails, beers, wines and foods. Taylor fits well in the smooth, low-lit atmosphere of Trios – though she would also fit impeccably in a larger venue – with her powerful, folky compositions and accomplished acoustic guitar.

Lion’s Lair Art Shows: East Colfax finds Jesus, and he’s hangin’ at the Lair!
January 27, 2010 Off

Lion’s Lair Art Shows: East Colfax finds Jesus, and he’s hangin’ at the Lair!

By Billy Thieme

Matthew Hunter is keeping his artful promises, and this time the results approach the sacred – and may come close to a little of the profane as well. Hunter promised himself recently that he would hold a cooperative art show in the Lion’s Lair, Denver’s venerated punk rock dive, every other month into perpetuity, or for as long as he (and the community) could stand it – whichever comes first.

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.