Chad Price of beloved Denver country-punks Drag the River is pulling an inspired stunt to promote “Smile Sweet Face,” his new solo album: an acoustic tour of 10 Colorado breweries in a single day, ranging from Fort Collins to Denver. It’s a testament to our state’s rich vein of beer resources that Price can even do it, but he’ll also play some proper shows at Colorado Springs’ Triple Nickel (Oct. 22), Denver’s Oriental Theater (Oct. 23) and Fort Collins’ Road 34 (Oct. 24).
The full press [...]

Despite their arty, glam-punk reputation, the Manic Street Preachers offered one of the most straightforward and gracious sets of the year at the Bluebird Theater last night.
True devotion to a band is an insane, beautiful thing. It causes you to spend thousands of dollars on records, T-shirts, posters and buttons. It compels you to make the 450-mile drive from Albuquerque to Denver for a single night of musical bliss — as an excitable Welshman named Neil did yesterday to see Manic Street Preachers. The Monday [...]

After spending time in both California and Nashville jump-starting her music career, Denver native Coles Whalen has returned to the Mile High City with a new CD, “The Whistle Stop Road Record.” The record mixes live and studio tracks, from acoustic-only numbers like the jazzy romantic “Wake Up Easy” to the country-tinged “Go Child” to a brilliant cover of Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet.”
Whalen will be playing a CD release show at the Soiled Dove on Thursday, Oct. 1, the same day the CD hits [...]

Van Morrison was a crowd-pleaser — even without too many crowd pleasers — on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Theatre. Photos by Brian Carney.

Van Morrison was armed well at his Denver concert on Saturday night.
Wearing his ever-present sunglasses, suit and fedora, Morrison switched between a white acoustic guitar and a harmonica, an electric guitar and an alto saxophone during his 90-minute, no-nonsense set at the Wells Fargo Theatre on Saturday.

The Airborne Toxic Event played a tighter, brighter show at the Boulder Theater than at their previous outing along the Front Range last week. Photos by Joe McCabe.
The Airborne Toxic Event followed up a mostly-successful Denver show with a stop at the Boulder Theater on Thursday. Playing through their self-titled album and introducing a couple new songs, the set was much tighter and cleaner than their show at the Ogden Theatre the night before. The band had regained the energy and the charisma that they [...]

Flogging Molly’s Dave King takes to the air at his band’s Red Rocks set on Saturday. Photos by Nathan Rist.
“It’s hard to think of hell in a place like this,” Flogging Molly lead singer Dave King screamed from the stage at Red Rocks Saturday night to a roar from the crowd before launching into a blistering “Rebels of the Sacred Heart.”

Who needs a mediocre new album when you’ve got an excellent back catalog? Photos by Jennifer Cohen.
Every veteran band’s fans deserve a tour like the one Social Distortion gave its followers: One where there isn’t a new album to pimp out, one that isn’t hampered by the new, so-so material that just eats into a set list that should be chock full of classics, one that’s a flesh-and-blood greatest hits set.

Jessica Slater of the Alltunators performs at the Denver Art Museum. Photo from MySpace.com.
It appears that, on the way to wrapping up another great season of backyard concerts in the Meadowlark’s spectacular outdoor stage, the venue may have run into some trouble with their Larimer Street neighbors. At least that’s why I was told that last Thursday night’s Velvet Cash, New Ben Franklins, Jimbo Darville and the Truckadours and the Alltunators lineup was moved inside at the last minute.

Airborne Toxic Event singer Mike Jollett and his band proved their choice of covers that they’re dedicated to passionately wrought music. Photos by Joe McCabe.
I think I know what the musical equivalent of the baseball joke “Who’s on first?” looks like now.
There are many questions I have about the co-headlining experiment featuring Arctic Monkeys and the Airborne Toxic Event Thursday night at the Ogden Theatre, not the least of which is, “Who’s the ‘fifth monkey?” But before we dive into that… It’s unfortunate when you [...]

Manic Street Preachers are back with a new set of songs produced by Chicago legend Steve Albini and a tour that takes them through Denver on Monday.
Critically-acclaimed Welsh band Manic Street Preachers haven’t toured the U.S. in a decade, but that’s changing with the release of their new album, “Journal for Plague Lovers,” a gritty, reinvigorated work produced by Windy City legend (and Manics idol) Steve Albini. It features lyrics left behind by guitarist Richey Edwards — a first since the group’s 1994 opus “The [...]