Joe Cocker’s trademark howl still resonates despite his 65 years. Photos by John Leyba, The Denver Post.
Joe Cocker’s still got it. Almost 30 years have passed since Cocker’s infamous, subtitles-required appearance at Woodstock, and the “Sheffield Shouter”-turned-Colorado’s-own Crawford crooner can still dazzle a crowd with his rough-hewn garbling and soulful touch. On a wind-swept Tuesday, a capacity crowd at Denver’s Botanic Gardens danced, clapped and made merry as Cocker and his eight-piece band galloped through his classics.

Longtime fans seem to be keeping Strung Out on track these days, as opposed to any new recruits. Photos by Joe McCabe.
Strung Out were damn near kings of the mid-to-late ’90s punk scene. Their stickers shared prime skateboard deck real estate with the likes of NOFX, Lagwagon and Rancid. Flash forward a decade later and Strung Out’s popularity has faded some, but their staying power over the past 17 years has been impressive.

John Prine will play at Red Rocks on Saturday for as long as we let him. Seriously.
Country-folk legend John Prine is certainly a friend of the Front Range, having visited Red Rocks, the Paramount Theatre, Denver Botanic Gardens and other venues regularly over his nearly four decades of touring and recording. Prine even remembers Marvelous Marv’s, a club near 15th and Curtis streets that eventually became ’70s folk- and rock-haven Ebbets Field. “It had leopard-skin walls, and the waitresses were dressed like cave women,” the [...]

Although the crowd talked over their set at times, the Dead Science got a warm reception at the Hi-Dive on Tuesday. Reverb file photo by Doug Beam.
An exciting aspect of the post-rock (or neo-prog, post-prog or post-prog-a-delic — whatever you choose to call it) scene comes from roots in the wandering freeform nature of improvisation. Or, at least, that’s how it appears on stage half the time. Bands like Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu, to name a couple, draw much of their style from John Coltrane’s [...]

Mayhem: a death- and Armageddon-obsessed black metal band even your grandma can get behind. Or not. Photos by Joe McCabe.
Mayhem rolled into Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom on Sunday, celebrating 25 years of doom and gloom. The controversial black metal band, known for their violent live shows, played just under an hour. Tearing through most of “Death Crush” and covering some of their later releases, Mayhem put on a hell of a show. – Joe McCabe
Check out Joe’s photo essay of the ruddy evening after the jump.

Elvis Costello, “Secret, Profane & Sugarcane” (Hear Music)
If you listen to Elvis Costello talking about it, his most recent outing is not a bluegrass record. But if you listen to the album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, you might think differently. It’s not bluegrass simply because of the instrumentation — Dobro, fiddle, mandolin, accordion and double bass — or the band (full of marquee names) backing him up. The lush full-length is bluegrass because it feels like bluegrass — the luminous stories of harrowing sadness [...]

Loretta Lynn is taking requests — tonight at the Paramount Theatre.
Loretta Lynn is not touring to support a new album. The legendary country singer’s tour is not sponsored by Xbox 360, and she is not hitting the road to coincide with a maniacal media blitz.
Lynn is touring because “it’s better than sitting on the couch and watching TV.”

Bad Weather California’s mostly-acoustic performance at Swallow Hill on Saturday offered a subtly different take on the band’s invigorating folk-rock. Photos and review by Sarah Slater.
“We’re Bad Weather California, and we’re a rock and roll band!” said frontman Chris Adolf at the outset what was billed as a “rare acoustic” (well, almost) performance on Saturday at Swallow Hill Music, a landmark venue and home to folk musicians in Denver since the 1970s. This declaration seemed some sort of pre-emptive excuse for any non-folky antics to [...]

Lizz Wright’s stunning vocals helped enliven an occasionally sleepy Telluride Jazz Celebration last weekend. Photos by Nathan Rist.
Jazz has a little something for everyone, so what better venue to experience this versatility than hearing more than a dozen bands in the grandeur of a box canyon during the 33rd annual Telluride Jazz Celebration last weekend? Despite the move of dates from fall to spring, the festival was plagued by cold and rain. This, remarkably, did little to damper the spirits of those in attendance.

The sign says it all, don’t you think? Photos by Todd Radunsky.
There’s a perpetual desire in the hearts of all punk rockers, young and old alike, that can only be satisfied by the high-octane fun of a simple Ramones-core show. The Marquis is happy to provide the Denver scene with a fix on a pretty regular basis. Last Friday night, in a show headlined by New Hampshire’s the Queers, satiation came for a large all-ages audience as they enjoyed a dose of pure, uncut melodic [...]