“Stop for a second and think the next time you get a haircut!” Photos by Joe McCabe.
California’s occasionally twangy, mostly just crazy Throw Rag and Austin, Texas punks Lower Class Brats joined forces for a show at the Marquis Theater on Thursday. As you can tell from the following photo essay from Reverb contributor Joe McCabe, the ear-splitting rock music all the kids seem to be listening to these days connected with the crowd of hopped-up teenagers.
I think one of them may have vandalized my [...]

James is not a person. Tim Booth is. He’s just not a very happy person. Photos by Laurie Scavo.
Monday night’s James show at the Ogden Theater came off at times like a charismatic service, with nearly all in the audience signing along with just about every word — correctly and passionately.
It was almost as if those in the audience, while obviously near-ecstatic to be in the same room with their long-suffering heroes, were as exhausted as the band. Unfortunately, the troubled band too often merely [...]

American Relay provides some of the best hardcore-punk-infused blues you’re likely to find in Denver. Photos by Jason Claypool.
Once they enter your head, it’s unlikely anyone could forget these words form John Lee Hooker’s 1948 blues anthem “Boogie Chillen:”
“I heard Papa tell Mama
‘Let that boy boogie-woogie!
It’s in him
And it got to come out!’ ”
After seeing Saturday’s American Relay show at the Lion’s Lair, I’ve got no doubt that these boys have the boogie-woogie in them, too, and they have absolutely no trouble letting it [...]

Yeah, Nick Cave sold his soul… and now he’s coming for yours. Photo by Laurie Scavo.
Demon seed was spilled on the Ogden Theatre stage on Friday as Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds delivered a testosterone-fueled throwback set that proved the vigorous Aussie, four days removed from his own 51st birthday party, has likely made some kind of deal with the devil somewhere along the way.
In a hall that felt appropriately more like a furnace, Cave alternately played sidewalk preacher, cautionary prophet and paranoid [...]

If you think this photo makes the Dandy Warhols look like self-important d-bags, well, you’re not far off. Photo from MySpace.com.
If Courtney Taylor-Taylor isn’t a pretentious asshole, he sure is good at acting like one. The pouty-lipped Taylor-Taylor, lead singer and guitarist of psychedelic pop-rockers the Dandy Warhols, made his entrance to the stage of the Gothic Theatre on Saturday night already posturing, cocking his head back and constantly pushing his long, artfully-greased mane to the side in dramatic sweeps. “What is this, a frat [...]

High Places helped elevate the upbeat crowd at Rhinoceropolis on Saturday night. Photo by Sarah Slater.
I saw Sonic Youth once. I left the venue reborn, my jaw dropped and stuck open, pupils dilated like I had seen an acid-ghost. This religious experience turned me from a Youth admirer to obsessed follower, the devotion peaking when I almost fainted after spotting messiahs Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore standing outside of my subway stop in NYC. No other band has crept into my spine and mind this [...]

Is Dr. Dog too cool to exist in three dimensions? Photos and text by Matt Schild.
Dr. Dog concerts aren’t so much a trip back in time as a trip outside of time. They draw an audience that’s about as mismatched as you can hope for, with sack-dress and dreadlock-sporting hippie women bubbling with pre-Atlamont innocence mashed into a crowd smattered with Pitchfork-era cool kids, pop-punk loving youngsters there for the melodies and a few misplaced and confused looking professionals.
In a musical feat almost short of [...]

Sigur Rós might have fared better at Red Rocks on Saturday had the placid crowd been on a Sigur Rush. Photo by Laurie Scavo.
Colorado fans rarely need cajoling to get rowdy. This, after all, is the land of burning couches, where tear gas is a key ingredient in sports celebrations and where some swear the hideous crowd “wave” was born. But those are all sports-related phenomenons and none occurred at Saturday’s Sigur Rós concert, where fans mostly sat and listened intently to the important music [...]

Darker My Love’s gauzy, unhurried sound was all homage at the Gothic Theatre on Saturday. MySpace pic by Timothy Norris.
Psychedelic, psychedelic, blah, blah, blah. Your eyes may very well be glazing over already. The revival has been spiraling solidly onward since the ’80s, starting most notably with California’s Paisley Underground. It’s to be expected, though. In a time where culture is hurtling towards the hyper-microcosmic, it’s no wonder that someone, somewhere aches for simpler times. Luckily, Darker My Love isn’t so doped-up on nostalgia as [...]

Long-running punk act Lagwagon’s crowd was adoring as ever at the Ogden on Wednesday. Photo of previous show from MySpace.
I turned 28 recently, and I spoke to my friend James about the strange changes I was feeling in my brain and heart. He enlightened me with a story of the “Saturn Returns” phenomenon that happens at this stage in life. I won’t bore you with a hippy-dippy explanation, but basically, it is a time of struggle, change and growth. After learning about Saturn Returns, I [...]