Last night in Broomfield, AEG Live flexed it’s concert muscle with the Grand Re-opening of the Broomfield Event Center as the First Bank Center. The venue is being called a multi-purpose venue, that can change the capacity of the room from 3,500 to 6,500, depending on stage placement. The opening concerts will be Friday and Saturday of this weekend with Furthur featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead. Both nights are sold out.

AEG Live president, and Colorado concert promoting legend Chuck Morris told the VIP crowd Wednesday night, “We think we built a new paradigm for the live music experience combining the very best parts of arena production. We can hang anything here for almost anything in the world with the decor and soul  and intimacy of some of the world’s great theaters. We can bring in and put up any band with any size stage, but it needed some soul and that’s what we spent the last 6 months on.”

Morris went on to say that one of the reasons AEG is so happy about the building is its proximity to current and developing transportation access points. “On May 1 will be the opening of an RTD Park and Ride right in front of our building, coming from Boulder and going to Denver and right on the other side of the new walkway bridge which will go right into our front door, will be coming from Denver and going to Boulder. And eventually, about 200 yards away or so is a little train track which will be a light rail coming from all parts of Denver and going to Boulder. The future for our transportation to this building is just outrageous. Everything done and everything still in the works will work to create the ultimate fan experience, which I pride myself in providing over 40 years in the business,” Morris said.

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A brief discussion with Brett Dowlen of Dowlen Sound regarding what the First Bank Center is going to sound like…

As guys with ears go, Brett Dowlen reigns supreme. His stamp is on many of the famous concert halls around Colorado, from Red Rocks and the Ogden Theatre to new concert “venues” like the Mile High Music Festival…yeah, he’s the guy that can make a soccer field sound decent. The Fox Theatre in Boulder changed it’s tagline to “Where the Sound is the Difference” after Dowlen began working with the club.

Dowlen was on hand for the grand re-opening of the Broomfield Event Center last night as the First Bank Center. While he said that many shows which come through the venue will bring their own sound systems, that he and his team have engineered a system specifically for the room and that getting a good sound won’t be a problem.

The New Mastersounds celebrate a decade together with newest work, Ten Years On

:: The New Mastersounds ::

:: Fox Theatre :: March 3 ::

:: Grand Ballroom (Steamboat) :: March 4 ::

:: Agave (Avon) :: March 5 ::

:: Ogden Theatre :: March 6 ::

:: Belly Up (Aspen) :: March 8 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Colorado is known for many things, but high on almost every list are the majestic mountains and the incredible music scene. These are two of the main features that keep Eddie Roberts and his bandmates in The New Mastersounds coming back time and time again. Though the band hails from the Northern England city of Leeds, where the highest point is a mere thousand feet above sea level and the only ski hills are housed indoors in giant warehouses, Roberts loves to hit the slopes when he can while out on the road.

“There is nothing here in England.  Just indoor slopes,” he said during a recent interview with The Marquee, before admitting that he’d spent the morning with his kids at a nearby indoor hill. “They all learned there.  I haven’t managed to get them on a mountain yet but these places are good for learning. At least it’s snow.  I think we have a day off in Aspen so the plan is to ski. We usually try to get some skiing in on the Colorado run.” FULL STORY — CONTINUE — READ MORE »

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club drops Beat The Devil’s Tattoo and hits the road again

:: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ::

:: Gothic Theater :: March 2 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Bands often hate it when a writer makes broad claims that a new album is a “return to the band’s roots,” or a “big departure for the band.” Maybe it’s because those phrases can cheapen the artistic struggle it takes to get an album recorded and released. Maybe it’s because returns or departures just make it sound too easy.

But for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s guitarist Peter Hayes, his gripe lies with the fact that it just doesn’t make sense in his world. “When was the departure and when was the big return,” Hayes said in recent interview with The Marquee, just before setting out on tour. Days after the band piled onto the bus, their newest album Beat the Devil’s Tattoo hit the streets, but well before that, writers across the country, in an almost unified manner, were calling Tattoo a return to the band’s rootsy, dark, psychedelic sound. Most writers, in the very next sentence, then linked the new album to the band’s 2005 release, HOWL.

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TENACIOUS D’S KYLE GASS FOCUSES ON HIS REDNECK ROCK BAND, TRAINWRECK

:: Trainwreck ::

:: Larimer Lounge :: March 18 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Kyle Gass doesn’t need to have a side project. He’s the co-founder of “the greatest band in the world,” Tenacious D. He’s starred in blockbuster films like Kung Fu Panda, Extreme Movie and, of course, the almost-true to life film The Pick of Destiny, which profiles Gass and bandmate Jack Black as they hunt for the magic to make the D, the world’s greatest band.

The problem, however, is that Gass’ prima donna cohort, Black, is so busy with his movie career, that the D (and subsequently Gass) often get put on the back burner. “Well, you know, Jack is always doing movies, and I just thought that I like to play live a lot and I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to play with the D as often as I’d like — which is kind of a big deal to me,” Gass said in a recent interview with The Marquee. “Plus, I like playing in a band, and also, Jack just steamrolls me on stage. He would just assume me not say anything.” FULL STORY — CONTINUE — READ MORE »

Mother Hips tour in support of one of their best albums to date, Pacific Dust

:: The Mother Hips ::

:: The hi-dive :: March 12 ::

:: Ghost Ranch (Steamboat) :: March 13 ::

By Jonathan Keller

The Mother Hips just won’t quit.

Having been around for the better part of 20 years, The Mother Hips have continued to endure the wave of ups and downs and founding member, vocalist and guitarist Tim Bluhm has been there through it all — their major label signing in the early 1990s by famed producer Rick Rubin to his American Recordings label (they were label mates with The Black Crowes, Johnny Cash and Tom Petty), the eventual drop from the label, a brief hiatus in 2003, and their strong comeback with the best album they have released in nearly a decade, 2009’s Pacific Dust.
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Scotland’s best export in years, We Were Promised Jetpacks, return to Colorado

:: We Were Promised Jetpacks::

:: hi-dive :: March 6 ::

By Dan Rutherford

The music industry’s outspoken critics seem unified in the complaint that “Paying your dues and following the ‘old rules’ no longer breaks a new artist.” Well, if that is indeed the case, someone forgot to send the memo to We Were Promised Jetpacks, arguably Scotland’s hottest music export in the last year.

From their origins and how they were signed to their highly acclaimed debut record, they have proven that in an age of defying the status quo, the antiquated proven path can still be fruitful.

Touted by many as the bright spot of 2009’s Monolith Festival, the band is currently zigzagging the U.S. on their first headlining tour, and took a few minutes with The Marquee to chat about their expectation

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The Devil Wears Prada bring metalcore and faith to the national scene

:: The Devil Wears Prada::

:: with Killswitch Engage and Dark Tranquility ::

:: Fillmore Auditorium :: March 13 ::

By Joe Kovack

Just because they share the same name as the title of the 2006 chick flick, The Devil Wears Prada is in no way affiliated with fashion.

In fact, the Dayton, Ohio band fashioned their name from an anti-materialistic message they heard plenty of years before the movie was released, but decided to stick with the name afterwards because, quite frankly, they had it first. As lead singer Mike Hranica explained to The Marquee in a recent interview, “It’s just this idea of not being too materialistic and it’s just something we ran with. We didn’t want anything too overly serious, just kind of fun and clever, and that’s how it came about. And when we picked the name we weren’t planning on getting signed or anything like that. We never thought about that. If we would have known that we would be putting out records and touring around the world, we probably would have thought more about it … so we ended up getting stuck with a stupid chick-flick name, but it’s too late to change it now (laughs),” Hranica said. FULL STORY — CONTINUE — READ MORE »

Denver singer/songwriter Rob Drabkin continues to grow beyond Colorado

:: Rob Drabkin ::

:: supporting Mike Doughty ::

:: Fox Theatre :: March 16 ::

By Joe Kovack

When folks talk about an artist growing, rarely are they talking about a physical change. But for Rob Drabkin, it seems that the more his career grows, the more his full-throttled afro reaches to the ceiling, as if the stage lights he plays under were actually grow lights, forcing his locks to stretch with each passing performance.

Growing up in Denver, Drabkin was like any other 11-year-old-boy just finding the awesomeness that is music. His poison was Metallica, Guns ’N Roses, Nirvana and the other rock essentials of that era that pump a kid up before a baseball game or make them want to learn to play that epic instrument that makes it all possible: the guitar. FULL STORY — CONTINUE — READ MORE »

Phish – Festival 8 – Slot Music Packaging

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5 out of 5 stars