“Hello, Denver. I’m about to knock my front teeth out!” Photo of August 2008 Ogden Theatre set by Laurie Scavo.
It has become trite to praise the Faint. Since I was as young as the fresh faces making out between sets, I have heard journalists rave about the Faint. Over the years I have seen the Omaha new-wavers more than any other band, and in an array of different venues, from a tiny club with a hundred or so people to a nearly sold out show [...]

Oddly, all the TV monitors were tuned to a particularly violent episode of “Antiques Roadshow.” Photos by Laurie Scavo.
MSTRKRFT is one of that band names that at first means nothing, is frutratingly unpronounceable and, well, just isn’t that good (was Nuclear Grilled Cheese already taken?) But the moniker of the remix-happy Toronto electronic duo, which rose from the ashes of Death from Above 1979 and Girlsareshort, actually stands for “master-kraft.” And yeah, they’re pretty friggin’ good.
Like any live show that doesn’t include playing actual instruments, [...]

Missy Higgins’ winning songs and stage presence captivated the crowd at the Bluebird Theater on Tuesday. Text and photos by Candace Horgan.
Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins, who is cutting her tour short so she can film her first movie, performed one of her last shows of that tour at the Bluebird Theater before an enraptured, sold-out crowd on Tuesday night.
Blending a pop ethos with a folk-music sensibility is never easy, and it all too often results in a mushy pablum that leaves the listener cold and [...]

The Acorn brought its thoughtful travelogues to the Hi-Dive on Tuesday. Photo from MySpace.
A front from the north entered the Hi-Dive on Tuesday night with Canada’s Ohbijou and headliner the Acorn, alongside Portland’s Shaky Hands. It was an easy night of listening and a window to the newest hot-young-things coming into focus in the ever-so-experimental indie music scene.
Casey Mecija and her sister Jennifer began the night with their band Ohbijou. The girls played off each other all night with their humor, instruments and Casey’s adolescent, [...]

Secret Machines were smart enough not to drag out their set at the Bluebird Theater on Monday. Photo from thesecretmachines.com.
When I was in high school my religion teacher had a poster in his room that said, “What is popular isn’t always right, and what is right isn’t always popular.” This was never truer than Monday at the Bluebird Theater before the Secret Machines took the stage. I haven’t been to a show that felt that empty since I was 17 standing on a makeshift stage [...]

Utah County Swillers joined Whiskey Throttle at 3 Kings Tavern on Friday. Photos by Jason Claypool.
There’s a lot in a name. Utah County Swillers, for example, better either hail from Utah or be ass-kickin’ enough to justify the righteous name. (Fortunately they’re both). And if Denver’s own trash-surf kings Whiskey Throttle don’t drink a lot of the devilsh brown liquid during their set, well, what’s the name for? (They might.)
The two bands joined for a show at 3 Kings Tavern last Friday, and Reverb contributing [...]

This ain’t your grandma’s revival, punk! Photos by Joe McCabe.
Last Thursday’s Revival Tour lived up to its name in more ways than one. The SideOneDummy-sponsored national tour brings out a host of relatively well-known punk and twang-rock frontmen — including Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero), Tim Barry (Avail), Jon Snodgrass (Drag the River) and Austin Lucas — for sets that blur the line between solo performance and full-on collaboration.
Reverb contributing photographer Joe McCabe felt the itch for a little revivin’ and stopped [...]

A nearly vocal-free Abe Vigoda performed at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom on Monday. Photo by Joe McCabe.
I feel I should start this review by saying that within 30 minutes of entering Cervantes for the Diplo show on Monday night, I was offered extacy… by a dude in a tie-dye T-shirt with dreads who reeked of patchouilli. “This has to be a set-up,” I thought. There’s no way a stereotypical “hippie” man would offer to sell me hallucinogenic drugs in a place decorated with scenes from Alice [...]

Parts & Labor’s pieces were equally as strong as the whole at the Hi-Dive on Monday. Photos by Doug Beam.
If you’re a band, and someone manages to call you “experimental,” you’ve been setting up your fussboard before each show. The fussboard, while dependent on the preferences of each musician, is a waist-high table covered in pedals, pads and wires of every color. When mashing it and twisting its candylike knobs, you are not merely playing it; you are engaging with it, or overseeing it. These [...]

Who could possibly be as smooth as Maxwell? No one, clearly! Photos by Laurie Scavo.
Brooklyn-based vocalist Maxwell (a.k.a. Maxwell Rivera) is nothing if not smooth. A fixture on the neo-soul and R&B scene for over a decade now, Maxwell’s relatively tame but still booty-shakin’, love-makin’ songs have earned his Grammy nominations and multi-platinum sales.
Although he hasn’t released an album since 2005′s “Urban Hang Suite/Embreya,” he stopped by the Paramount Theatre on Saturday to entertain the nice people. Check out Reverb contributor Laurie Scavo’s photo essay [...]