Aimee Mann played a relatively spare set at the Boulder Theater on Wednesday that was half prepared and half audience requests. Photos by Brittany Moore.
One suspects that Aimee Mann has had her share of weird requests shouted out over the years. As she explained how her show was going to go on Wednesday night at the Boulder Theater, the first half would be a set of her choosing, and for the second half she would accept requests from people in the audience. There were, however, [...]

After years of playing a supporting role, Elin Palmer is more than ready for her close-up. Photo by Todd Roeth.
You might not know Elin Palmer. You might be unfamiliar with her stark beauty, her delicate nature, her extreme talents and precise playing. Heck, you might not know how to pronounce her first name: Ee-lin – a very common Swedish name, “like Maria in the United States,” she says.

Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland seemed alternately uncomfortable and unphased during his band’s show at the Fillmore on Tuesday. Photos by Mateo Leyba.
I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing Stone Temple Pilots (fans know them as STP) during the height of their career in the ’90s, so I have no barometer for their live shows today. Regardless, I have something to say to lead singer Scott Weiland: relax! Take a deep breath and realize that you were once, and still are, the frontman for [...]

Veteran fusion-rockers Little Feat performed at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday. Photos by Nathan Rist.
Little Feat, for all its L.A.-flavored studio fusion of blues, rock, jazz and folk over the years, has always remained a live performance band at heart. That’s been abundantly clear as the band continues to tour regularly — including a Tuesday show at the Fox Theatre with openers WhiteWater Ramble.
Reverb contributing photographer Nathan Rist navigated the unusually annoying crowd of drunk hippies and stoned 20-somethings to deliver this photo essay of [...]

Joe Pug likes writing songs, and you like listening to them. So there. Photo by Todd Roeth.
Joe Pug has a voice that yearns to be heard. The Chicago-based songwriter was hardly on the map a year ago as he crisscrossed the U.S., yet now his songs are favorites overseas and his shows are hot tickets across America.
Like other great songwriters of his generations – Josh Ritter and the Tallest Man on Earth included – it’s easy to quote Pug’s lyrics to illustrate the point of [...]

Michael Buble, “Crazy Love” (Reprise)
Something odd happens on the second half of “Crazy Love,” Michael Buble’s follow-up to “Call Me Irresponsible.” After a buttery, smoothly produced take on the standard “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You,” Buble switches bands — from his own studio musicians to the real-deal Dap-Kings — for the analog-sounding “Baby (You’ve Got What it Takes),” a duet with Dap-Kings leader Sharon Jones.

Three peas in a pod: Yo La Tengo has made for a cohesive, ever-curious musical unit over its quarter century as a band.
Indie music heroes Yo La Tengo played an instrumentally tight, creatively meandering two-hour set at the Ogden Theatre on Saturday, leaving a fully packed house both elated and exhausted. Now in their 25th year together, the Hoboken trio have a cache of music that crosses and re-crosses genres but always remains within their own style. Their show featured Ira Kaplan’s signature reverb and [...]

Hot Buttered Rum and openers Poor Man’s Whiskey tore down the barrier between audience and performer at the Fox Theatre on Saturday. Photos by Nathan Rist.
Hot Buttered Rum were great when I saw them in April, but the band’s Saturday night at the Fox Theatre in Boulder bettered even that stellar spring concert. The night started off strong with an impressive set by San Francisco’s Poor Man’s Whiskey, who actually came to the floor in front of the stage and played their first song fully [...]

Dethklok works in the context of a TV show, but they paled on stage when compared with the incredible tightness and power of Mastodon (above). Photos by Tina Hagerling.
Mastodon and Dethklok define the self-aware, hipster metal scene. By combining mythical and cerebral concepts with animation and humor, they target more than your average blue collar metal-head. At their Fillmore Auditorium show on Saturday, each band offered something for metal-heads and irony-loving indie-rockers alike. And while each had undeniably brutal chops, Mastodon’s dynamic set proved difficult [...]

Butthole Surfers singer Gibby Hayes, here pictured last year in Philadelphia, joined his band in mailing in his performance at the Ogden Theatre on Friday. Photo from MySpace.
If you’d never seen Butthole Surfers before last Friday night’s show at the Ogden, then you were treated to a mild spectacle. On the other hand, if this show was a chance for you to revisit the band after their many years away from stages (as it was for me), chances are you found yourself more than a [...]