This weekend has no shortage of amazing shows taking place in our fair city. We listed some of our favorites, also if you want to make the trek up to Telluride we will be covering the Telluride Blues and Brews festival (look for our Instagram coverage all weekend).
Saturday:
The Dear Hunter // Marquis Theatre // Saturday, Sept 19.
The show is in support of their new record Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise, out now on Cave & Canary Goods / Equal Vision Records. CHON & Gates are opening the show. The record marks the long-awaited continuation of the band's six album concept series chronicling the story of a boy at the turn of the century, only referred to as "The Dear Hunter." Act IV is the their most orchestral and multi-layered set of songs to date. Watch the video for "Waves": https://youtu.be/ntHFxkX0fxU
Sunday:
Thundercat w/ Felix Fast4ward and Dandu // Larimer Lounge // Sunday September 20th
Bassist/songwriter/vocalist Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat, has music deeply rooted within. His father, Ronald Bruner, Sr., is an internationally renowned jazz drummer who played with the Temptations, Diana Ross, Gary Bartz and Gladys Knight. His brother Ronald Bruner, Jr., a Grammy-winning drummer, has played with the likes of Roy Hargrove, Stanley Clarke, and Wayne Shorter. Stephen joined his brother as a member of West Coast punk vets Suicidal Tendencies, playing bass on their worldwide tours while still in high school. He also toured through Japan with Stanley Clarke at the age of 16. As Thundercat, Bruner takes his jazz roots and works with a mix of artists that suit his wildly experimental sensibilities – ranging from Flying Lotus, Erykah Badu, and Stanley Clarke, as well as more recent collaborations with Wiz Khalifa and Earl Sweatshirt, to name but a few. After meeting and touring with Flying Lotus, the two artists collaborated on Lotus’ 2010 LP ‘Cosmogramma’ on the track ‘MmmHmm.’ Their kindred sense of musicality led to Thundercat’s 2011 solo debut ‘The Golden Age of Apocalypse,’ co-produced by Flying Lotus, which opened Bruner up to a new stratosphere of songwriting and artistic exploration. In 2013, Thundercat teamed up with executive producer Flying Lotus once again, to form a profound body of work for his second album, ‘Apocalypse.’ Forthcoming on Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint this July, the album straddles lines and pushes genres further, blurring the confines of pop, funk, electronica and prog rock, and creating something else entirely. Both vulnerable and fearless, a comedy and tragedy, ‘Apocalypse’ is an intimate portrait of an artist who will continue to take music to a new place; the beyond.
Duran Duran // Red Rocks Amphitheatre // Sunday September 20th
Multi-platinum superstars Duran Duran will release their 14th studio album, Paper Gods in the U.S. on September 18th and in the rest of the world on September 11th through Warner Bros. Records. Singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor, and drummer Roger Taylor recorded the album in London with producers Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, Josh Blair, and Mr Hudson. The record features special guests Janelle Monáe (on the first single “Pressure Off”), former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, Canadian Juno-Award winning singer Kiesza, British singer/songwriter Mr Hudson, violinist Davidé Rossi and actress Lindsay Lohan. The album was mixed by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent. Paper Gods will be available for pre-order and “Pressure Off” will be available for purchase at all participating digital retailers and DuranDuran.com this week.
The songs on Paper Gods capture the duality and sense of conflict at the heart of Duran Duran’s music. “It really goes back to that strange early Duran mix: the hard-edged pop, coexisting with this dark, weird, experimental side,” John says. “That’s something that’s essential to all of us,” Nick adds. “It’s great to be able to lift people’s spirits — and your own — with a strong shot of pure pop, but the world we live in isn’t all just made of that stuff, so it seems natural to me that we have kept one foot in the darker, more Gothic side of life.”
Early sessions for Paper Gods began in 2013, with Mark Ronson and engineer Josh Blair once again joining the band in their south London recording studio, as they had for 2011’s All You Need is Now, which was produced by Ronson. When Ronson was called away to begin working on his own album, Duran Duran and Blair hooked up with the Kanye West/Jay-Z collaborator Ben “Mr” Hudson, and the sessions caught fire. In the summer of 2014, Ronson returned once more to the project, adding long-time Duran collaborator, Nile Rodgers to the mix for two of the album’s standout tracks. The remaining songs were co-produced by Josh Blair and the band.
“We found a whole new level of inspiration on this album,” says Rhodes.
“We’ve allowed ourselves the time to make music that we can be proud of,” adds Le Bon . “I judge what we release by my favourite albums — Horses, Harvest, Let It Bleed, Blue, Transformer, Aladdin Sane. Those are classic albums. The only rule is it’s got to be music you can live with for the rest of your life.”
CHIC co-founder Nile Rodgers and Mark Ronson co-wrote, and produced the tracks “Pressure Off” and “Only in Dreams. Rodgers also features on the first single from what will be the band’s 14th studio release. The former harks back to the taut funk of Duran Duran’s 1986 album Notorious, which was also co-produced by Rodgers. “Notorious was a strong touchstone for the band,” says Roger Taylor. “All You Need is Now definitely reflected our earlier albums, but our starting point here was Notorious. We’re fortunate to be able to be inspired by our own back catalogue – not many bands can say that.”
In a collaboration overseen by China Chow, the band worked closely with Los Angeles-based artist Alex Israel, who created the album’s cover art. It features a collage of images that reference the visual history of Duran Duran, each placed like a sticker on a reproduction of Israel’s “Sky Backdrop” painting. The logo and graphic design are by Brian Roettinger.
Alongside news of the new album, Duran Duran have also announced that they will perform a series of summer festivals, as well as several shows in the U.S. in September and October, followed by a UK arena tour that kicks off in late November. Fan Community members will have access to pre-sale tickets and VIP packages. Following the Duran Duran VIP member pre-sale, in the UK, American Express Card Members will have the ability to purchase tickets before the general public on-sale.
Formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978, Duran Duran is one of the most culturally influential and commercially successful bands of all time, topping the charts around the world over the past three decades and selling more than 100 million records worldwide. The band has been honored with multiple Grammy, BRIT, Ivor Novello, and MTV Video Music Lifetime Achievement Awards, as well as a 20th Century Style Icon award from the City of Milan. In July, they will receive the Spotify UK Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s 40th Anniversary O2 Silver Clef Awards. Tireless innovators, they are always at the vanguard of music, fashion, art, technology and film — a group with unique and everlasting appeal.
PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE AT AXS.COM OR CHARGE TICKETS BY PHONE, CALL 888.929.7849
GA and Reserved tickets are $49.50 - $125.00 plus applicable service charges. All ages show.
Tickets to this show are available at the box office of the Denver Coliseum from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. every Saturday.
Rose Quartz (Tour Kickoff Show) // The Hi-Dive // Sunday September 20th
Rose Quartz (formerly FLASHLIGHTS) offers an intoxicating brand of Electro-Pop music laced with sultry vocal hooks atop a modern synthesized production. With roots deeply planted in Denver's renowned "DIY" music scene, Rose Quartz is an amalgamation of two highly motivated music producers who, following the 2011 launch of their own record label (HUG Records), began cornering the market on fresh, emerging music both inside—and out—of Denver. They boast a live show as infectious as their music, complete with live production and fuzzed-out intelligent lighting, offering audiences an experience that is both understated and impacting at once. The kickoff party takes place this Sunday with openers Sur Ellz and Bollywood Life.