At times, the music industry can seem like a viciously preposterous environment, kind of like a Sharknado movie sequel only with amplified instruments and egos, laptop computers and seven-dollar plastic water bottles sucked into a funnel cloud with the slimy sharks. But every now and then, a musician emerges from an overseas humanitarian mission or […]
Hops and Handrails Festival Moves Mountains to Longmont, CO
Moving mountains is usually the province and design of Greek gods, religious deities in the pages of sacred books or Hollywood film directors armed with a bevy of computer special effects. However, for one Colorado-based brewer, it has become an annual ritual in the front range town of Longmont, Colorado that is merely a matter […]
March Fourth and Pimps of Joytime Booty Shake with Swagger at the Fox Theatre, February 25, 2017
They put their socks on one at time like the rest of us, but that pretty much is where the resemblance to ordinary folks like us ends. Some have speculated that they could be aliens from another planet-perhaps set on this planet as interstellar ambassadors of a higher universal groove. They, on occasion, have referred […]
Higher Society Lifts Spirits in Denver for New Year’s Eve
Fuck, 2016! That was the prevailing feeling for many people in our country as we lurched toward year’s end. So many beloved musicians died. There were bombings, searing police confrontations and there was the near apocalyptic collapse of democracies around the world. Many pundits included our country in that post-mortem. But, I had personal reasons […]
Nitro Fest, featuring Beats Antique, Ignites Longmont, CO
In retrospect, I am a bit surprised there was no carnival barker in candy cane-striped pants with a handlebar mustache shouting, “Step Right Up, Ladies and Gentlemen!” There was the obvious, the circus tent. And the carnie stilt walkers, acrobats and aerialists. But it wasn’t a circus. It was a beer festival. Or was it? […]
Formula 5 was ‘The Band That Could’ at Owsley’s Golden Road in Boulder, CO
For a while on Saturday, October 8, the four intrepid members of the Albany based jamband Formula 5, in the middle of their first tour of Western states, thought they’d be trapped in a “The Little Engine That Couldn’t” scenario with their trademark 70’s tour van that may well have driven off the set of […]
March Fourth Struts its Stuff at the Boulder Theater
Confetti bursts of brass, acrobatics, Balkan music, writhing sweat-covered bodies, salsa, electro-swing, and funk mayhem exploded September 24 at the Boulder Theater with the arrival of the foot stomping March Fourth band from Portland Oregon. With about 20 performers, including stilt walkers, acrobats and a fierce percussive, brass-laden musician blazed its way through a wild […]
Simple Magic at Burning Man 2016, Black Rock City, NV (NSFW)
It was one of those hidden treasure moments, like when you open an old shoe box and discovered that your deceased father kept every Father’s Day card you ever mailed him. Or perhaps, as when, you stumble through a dry creek bed and find, wedged between two tree limbs, a small pock-marked, granite stone that […]
Arise Festival Stands Tall Among Giants
There is an ancient Eastern ritual cycle known as Jo-Ha-Kyu which has been applied to tea ceremonies, martial arts rituals, and even theater performances. The cycle was created to create intention and awareness to the different stages of life. From August 5-7 outside Loveland, Colorado, a family-run, independent music festival, called Arise, enacted the spirit of […]
Flaming Lips, Colorado Symphony Orchestra Soar at Red Rocks
It was only a matter of time, but, still, it only happened once. It was after the last of the confetti guns fired their joyous paper rainbows. It was after the last violin string plucked their textured whimsy into our hearts, and flitted away like an invisible butterfly into the crisp Colorado air. It wasn’t […]