Austin's own Shakey Graves headlined The Westword Music Showcase (Photo Credit: Robert Castro)
The Westword Music Festival proved you don't need an EDM headliner to pack in a full house. Such was evident this past Saturday as the annual one day music festival once again invaded the Golden Triangle in Denver. With a heavier influence on folk rock this year bands such as The Revivalist and headliner Shakey Graves entertained the masses without missing a step.
Trev Rich giving his hometown an amazing performance. (Photo Credit: Robert Castro)
The festival once again played host to numerous local bands all along the various bars and venues spread out. Some of our favorite performances included sets from Kayla Marque, Cheap Perfume, The Other Black, Altas, and IZCALLI. The two main stages had us hopping back and forth to catch sets from Edison, Arizona (not the state), Coin, and hometown favorite and Cash Money Recording artist Trev Rich.
Wesley Watkins of The Other Black (Photo Credit: Aly McClaran)
Australian outfit Cut Copy have been around for quite sometime now and still managed to have the whole festival dancing (the only dance/electronic act) on the main stage. Hits like "Lights and Music" created a rather sweaty dance party before we headed over to The Revivalist for some knee slapping fun.
Cut Copy still making us dance after all these years (Photo Credit: Aly McClaran)
This years headliner came to us all the way from Austin, Texas and has been spending some time up in the mountains recording what we hope is a new album. The last time we had a chance to see Shakey Graves was for a Budweiser event this past summer. Always a huge draw in Colorado, he managed to give us an amazing performance that had the crowd singing and clapping no more evident than his big hit "Dearly Departed" coincidentally performed by him and Denver artist Esme Patterson (we didn't get no Esme unfortunately). This years festival was packed once again as it always is, we just wish more people would flock to the smaller venues to see some of the best Colorado bands play, bands like Edison, Redlands, and other main stage acts got their start by playing these smaller stages and as you can see the hard work has paid off. Kudos to the amazing team behind the scenes who put this together and allow us to be a important player when it comes to helping support the festival. Until next year...
Photos by Ultra5280's Robert Castro and Aly McClaran (Do not use without permission)
