Seriously, dude, it’s frickin’ David Lee Roth. Seriously. Photo by Denver Post photographer John Leyba.
The flashy brand of rock ‘n’ roll that put Van Halen into the public’s heart — and the history books — was all about putting on a show: Diamond David Lee Roth’s outrageous antics and guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s otherworldly ability on the fretboard.
Given that kind of a history, the band’s reunion show Friday night at the Pepsi Center was an outright success.

Song titles and lyrics were often hard to come by at the Fray’s Friday show. Photo of previous show by Rod Blackhurst.
The band that sold out three shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre last year played the relatively tiny Bluebird Theater this past weekend, thrilling fans with an unusually loose set of all-new material.
The Fray, the biggest-selling band ever to come from Colorado, could have easily played a venue 20 times bigger than the Bluebird, with its 500-person capacity, but the sold-out shows Friday, Saturday and [...]

A couple weeks ago, indie music websites were abuzz with the news that Liars frontman Angus Andrew seriously jacked up his back — though the good news was it wouldn’t affect the band’s tour. Indie fans rejoiced.
They should have read the fine print.
Andrew was able to drag himself up on stage for Liars’ Denver appearance to promote last year’s self-titled effort, but that clearly wasn’t the same as being able to work the stage in true Liars fashion. In fact, he spent most of the [...]

There’s blood on the wall, and then there’s Blood on the Wall. Photo from Fiddle While You Burn.
Of all the god-awful times to unsuction yourself from the couch — and your steady stream of Percocet haze, and your “Lost” Season 3 DVD — it would be the first day of the month of Satan: February. Icy temperatures. The stomach flu. Disgusted sneers from disgusting people. Layoffs. Overtime. Gypsies.
So it was with great strength that we fought gravity and time, and grasped our way to the [...]

Widowers faced serious competition for the Friday concert-going crowd. Photos by Reverb contributor Doug Beam.
One of our favorite new Denver bands, Widowers, rocked a half-full Hi-Dive on Friday night, competing with a packed slate of big-name shows around town (Van Halen, the Fray, Talib Kweli) and going on relatively late (post-midnight). It was only their second show featuring Kate Wingrove as their second singer. Check out Reverb contributor Doug Beam’s photo essay of the set.

People didn’t mind waiting, often in unusual weather, to catch Talib Kewli at the Gothic.
While waiting in line to get into the sold-out Talib Kweli show at the Gothic Theatre on Friday I saw the first of two surprising events — a thunder and lightening snow storm. Who even knew that was possible? It was a true testament to Kweli’s draw that people waited for up to an hour in that sort of cold to get inside.
Once you did make it in, the Gothic was [...]