:: Underoath :: Saosi :: The Devil Wears Prada ::
:: Friday, November 7, 2008 :: The Fillmore Auditorium ::

Photos by Mitch Klein/www.mitchkline.com

Jeremy DePoyster - The Devil Wears Prada

Beau Burchell - Saosin

Spencer Chamberlain - Underoath

:: Beastie Boys and Tenacious D ::

:: Rock The Vote ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: Monday, November 3 :: Election Eve ::

By Brian F. Johnson/photos by Timothy Dwenger and Lurch Mudpuddle

Last night, as the clock counted down to the single-digit hours leading up to the election, Rock The Vote returned to Denver for their final vote-inspiring push and in tow — the voter registration organization which has registered more than 2.3 million voters — had with them Tenacious D and the Beastie Boys.

Shortly following the Beastie Boys’ sound check of what sounded like from the outside of the Fillmore a blistering version of “Sabotage,” the five musicians, Beastie Boys Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA, along with Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D, set up shop in the corner of the Fillmore to field questions from a team of Denver reporters.

The Q&A format lead to a stodgy and admittedly uncomfortable beginning to the discussion at hand but Mike D helped to get the conversation started by explaining that the Beastie Boys had felt “consumed” by the upcoming election and the thoughts that the last election was decided by such a narrow margin. “So that’s what prompted us to get involved,” D (Mike Diamond) said, sporting the latest incarnation of his Fletch-sized Jew-fro.

The balded Gass responded that he thought the last election was stolen and was committed to making sure that didn’t happen again. “And if you go to our show, I probably know who you’ll vote for,” he said. That response prompted me, who had earlier had it stressed that Rock the Vote was non-partisan to quip, “Is that automatic? If you go see the Beastie Boys and The D, does that mean you’re automatically voting for Obama? I mean, you’re an older white man, Kage. Shouldn’t you be with the G.O.P.,” I asked. Continue — Read more »

:: Matisyahu ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: November 29 ::

:: Fox Theatre :: November 30 ::

By Karen Maye

For some, music can define their life. For Matisyahu Miller, music is life.

Matisyahu was born Matthew Paul Miller on June 30, 1979 in West Chester, Pa. Although he is not a rabbi, the Hasidic Jew, who uses the Yiddish pronunciation of the name Matthew, is often referred to as the “Reggae Rabbi.”

During his early teenage years, Matisyahu fell into the “Deadhead” crowd. He learned to beat box, and would play his bongos in the lunchroom, proudly displaying his Birkenstocks and dreadlocks. But at the age of 16, Matisyahu participated in a semester-long Jewish heritage program in Israel and his true feelings about his religion began to surface.
Continue — Read more »

:: Yeasayer ::

:: Bluebird Theater ::

:: November 29 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

From the musical hotbed of Brooklyn, N.Y. is rising yet another electrifying experimental indie-rock band. Yeasayer’s rich blend of psychedelic, Middle Eastern and gospel influences create a genre defying sound that has been garnering global attention since the band first appeared at the SXSW Festival in March of 2007. Since then, they’ve toured the U.K. and Europe several times, ravaged U.S. clubs with electro-pop act MGMT, played countless high profile festivals, and even ventured as far from home as Australia and New Zealand.

It’s been a whirlwind year-and-a-half for the band and according to frontman Chris Keating, “It’s kinda become a real job at this point.”  Speaking with The Marquee while waiting to meet up with his father on a crisp October day in New York, Keating went on to say that “the European festivals make it possible to be a professional musician. Some of those bigger festivals pay you enough to exist for a couple of months of touring smaller venues.”
Continue — Read more »

:: Henry Rollins ::

:: Boulder Theater :: November 8 ::

By Lisa Oshlo

Former Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins puts his punk-rock ethos to (good) use on his latest spoken word tour. Honest and frank to the point of seeming marvelously unscripted, Rollins has garnered much cred as a spoken word artist for almost three decades. His latest tour is in its fifteenth month and is billed as a celebration of “the end of the Bush era.” It is an era that has provided much fodder for Rollins’ many speaking engagements, as his shows have become increasingly focused on politics under the current regime.

“The last seven years and so many months I’ve become quite used to George W. Bush,” Rollins said when The Marquee recently caught up with him. “We’ve kind of become pals. He’s become my English teacher as he’s reinvented the English language, and also he’s become my travel agent. So whenever he rattles a country too much, I immediately book a plane ticket, get a visa, and go. I’ve had some really interesting trips thanks to the man. He’s definitely made me realize that all wars are preventable and that I should go out and shake as many hands in as many countries as possible, and get the dialogue going. So I have him to thank for that.”
Continue — Read more »

:: Blitzen Trapper ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: November 6 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Since the 1980s, the Pacific Northwest has been a hotbed for indie rock bands (although back in the ’80s it was called “alternative”). Whether it is the dreary weather, the strong coffee, or the hip venues remains up for debate, but what is for certain is that interesting new bands have been breaking through into mainstream consciousness with impressive regularity for the last 20-odd years.

The latest of these bands is Portland-based Blitzen Trapper. While they’ve officially been a band for eight years, until recently their lo-fi blend of Americana and indie-rock wasn’t well known outside of the Northwest. However, with the 2007 release of Wild Mountain Nation, all of that changed.

Continue — Read more »

:: Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman ::

:: Fox Theatre :: November 9 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

“You don’t gotta be loud, son, to be heavy as shit.”

This is a new mantra of guitarist Tom Morello, best known as the mega-shredding guitar hero for the bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. The statement is a true one, but coming from someone who has built his career on over-the-top virtuoso electric arena rock riffs, it almost seems like an oxymoron.

But that mantra is what Morello has applied to his solo project, Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman. “There are plenty of bands that play with a wall of Marshall stacks that are as whimpy as a Hostess Twinkie, and sometimes when you turn down the volume you’re able to get people to lean in and let the heaviness of the lyrics sink in and that’s the template for this tour,” Morello said in a recent interview with The Marquee.

“The template is half Dylan and half Hendrix,” he continued. “It’s going to be half acoustic and half electric. Not only will there be the no sell-out, acoustic, three chords and the truth part of the show, but also, with the band I put together called the Freedom Fighter Orchestra, there will be more insane electric playing than I’ve ever done with Rage or Audioslave because it’s not confined to a three-and-a-half minute song.”

Continue — Read more »

:: Suicidal Tendencies ::

:: Gothic Theatre :: Nov. 28 ::

By Brandon Daviet

If you were to apply the theory of “don’t judge a book by its cover” to the world of music, one of the first bands that it would apply to would be Suicidal Tendencies. Their name instantly turns heads and often those heads are of people who assume the band is one big walking bad influence.

However, closer inspection reveals something quite different. Sure, the band might sing about dark emotions and use a few curse words, but they have always done it in a way that inspires their fans to overcome their problems rather than wallow in them. In essence, Suicidal Tendencies is motivational music for people that don’t find quiet time with singer/songwriters particularly useful.

Continue — Read more »

 :: Rachel Yamagata ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: November 11 ::

By Marisa Beahm

For the melancholic who are too choked up to express their own poignant sentiments, Rachael Yamagata’s got their voice. This 31-year-old singer/songwriter expounds insightful, emotionally jarring songs with enough gritty rock influence to keep the music attractive for even the impossibly upbeat.

In early October, the East Coast migrant released her second full-length solo album, called Elephants …Teeth Sinking Into Hearts, and is hitting the road to promote it.

Yamagata, who describes herself as willingly vulnerable and nonjudgmentally truthful, uses her music to express the complexity of human relationships.“The greatest compliment I ever get is that I put (fans’) emotions in ways they couldn’t articulate. It helps them with a healing process,” said Yamagata in a recent interview with The Marquee.

Continue — Read more »

:: Elephant Revival ::

:: with support from Boulder Acoustic Society and Riverbend ::

:: Boulder Theater :: November 29 ::

By Jeffrey Keith

Elephant Revival is living proof that the way high Colorado Front Range town of Nederland continues to inspire some of the finest and most creative music to be found anywhere. Following the lead, but not the footsteps, of groups like Leftover Salmon and the Yonder Mountain String Band, the five-piece Elephant Revival has created a unique and appealing modern acoustic sound simultaneously soaked in all manner of tradition.

“You can call it ‘neo-acoustic electric transcendental folk’…The folk rock connotation doesn’t quite cut it,” said multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/vocalist Dan Rose during a recent breakfast sit-down with The Marquee at Nederland’s acoustic HQ, the Shining Star Cafe; lead singer and woman-of-all-sounds-percussive, Bonnie Paine, joined the mid-morning party as well.

Continue — Read more »

Ray Lamontagne
Gossip In The Grain

RCA

4.5 out of 5 stars

There is something to be said about the tortured songwriter who finds emotional release in his or her music and the emotional connection usually forms quickly between singer and listener.

Ray Lamontagne has fit that mold almost too perfectly with his first two albums. His third, Gossip in the Grain, finds a matured songwriter delivering his most poignant work, a clear-cut piece of work to be remembered by.

Recorded in Box, England with producer Ethan Johns once again back in the control room, Lamontagne has finally found a medium between his upbeat songs like “Trouble” and “Forever My Friend” off his debut album Trouble and the darkness that permeated his follow-up album Till The Sun Turns Black.

Gossip in the Grain’s strength lies in Lamontagne’s and Johns’ decision to use a wide variety of instrumentation at their disposal, including a horn section and gospel background vocals on the album opener, “You Are The Best Thing,” a string section on “Let it Be Me” and my favorite album track “Sarah,” Wurlitzer on “Meg White,” banjo on “Hey Me, Hey Mama,” and blues harp on “Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s a Shame).”

What they have been able to accomplish was take Lamontagne’s often simple folk songs and turn them into their own musical soundscapes. This is also the first album to include his backup band in the recording process, and guitarist Eric Heywood, bassist Jennifer Condos and backup vocalist Leona Ness also contribute greatly.

Gossip in the Grain doesn’t sound like a solo album. It sounds like a band whose members are aware and capable of living up to their smaller role within the bigger group. This makes Lamontagne sound less like a singer/songwriter and more like a musician.

That change is absolutely welcoming and will probably draw more people to his music, which is why most people get into the business to begin with — to turn as many people on  to their music as possible. If anyone else tells you otherwise, they are lying.

One thing Gossip in the Grain accomplishes is a foreshadowing of things to come. For Lamontagne the future is bright.

Album standouts include the Nick Drake-influenced “Sarah,” the upbeat “You Are The Best Thing” and the bluesy “Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s a Shame).”

— Jonathan Keller

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
Cardinology

Lost Highway

3.5 out of 5 stars

:: Ryan Adams & The Cardinals :: supporting Oasis ::
:: Broomfield Event Center :: December 8 ::

It has been an unusually long wait for Ryan Adams’ follow-up to 2007’s Easy Tiger. Especially for an artist as prolific as Adams, who once released three albums in a year. The wait, however, was well worth it as Ryan Adams and The Cardinals deliver their fourth studio album, which shines as their most cohesive project since Adams started touting The Cardinals as his backup band in 2005.

Cardinology is a straight-forward rock album that works because it is an extension of the band’s live show. It is pretty clear to see that Cardinology was meant to be played live and showcases a band coming off a fairly rigorous tour schedule. The Cardinals (Adams included) are a well-oiled machine of electric guitars, harmony vocals and catchy choruses. However, much like The Cardinals’ previous three albums, Cardinology isn’t as fluid as some of Adams’ pre-Cardinal solo releases and features some straight out duds such as the cliché of a rock song “Magick.” Although the album has some of Adams’ best songs in recent memory, the duds still dim the light of greatness.

Perhaps this is Adams’ reminder to himself that getting clean is what allowed this album to be made in the first place. After all, being alive and making a good record is much better than being dead and making none at all. At least that is what my mom always told me.

— Jonathan Keller

:: Ryan Adams & The Cardinals :: supporting Oasis ::
:: Broomfield Event Center :: December 8 ::