Honored to be back playing at what is quickly becoming the go-to destination for live music in Downtown Boulder.
Part lounge, part lodge, the name says it all with an emphasis on cold cocktails and hot acts, you will not want to miss this who's-who's event.
Tell your friends and let's make this a party. Bar opens at 5:00, Doors at 8:00, Show is from 9-11. No opener. Full five-piece line-up with surprise guests.
$12
Headlining a three-band set with Unicorn Hits and Dabylon. $7 at the door.
Dabylon Making groovy sounds for your earholes since the great almost apocalypse of 2020. Dabylon is as genre-less as it comes. Tracks range from electronic funk to indie rock to chill-wave and everything in between. Listen yourself and come to your own conclusions fellow Dabylonians. Dabylon is as genre-less as it comes. Listen yourself and come to your own conclusions fellow Dabylonians.
https://www.instagram.com/dabylon_tunes/
Unicorn Hits Unicorn hits is a queer-driven 4-piece rock and roll tapestry from the 14th century. From dark ballads to chugging riffs, weird sounds escape through shrapnel guitars and a roiling rhythm section. We are the wizard (guitars), the thunder (bass) the storm (drums), and the magpie (voice/guitars).
The Sun breaks into the Denver music scene at one of our favorite venues and we can't wait to play the famous Bobcat Room! 7:00 Doors 8:00 Hollow Head 9:00 Sun Jr 11:00 Dreem Machine
$12 in advance, $15 at the door
Roots Music Project and Nod Norkus Presents bring you the Boulder County Rolling Orchestra: a curation of Boulder’s best psychedelic, funk, Americana, folk, western, and rock n’ roll bands, and solo acts. The BCRO is presented in three sequential parts: the opening act, the main act, and the closing act. Don’t get stuck eating out, come early, stay late and enjoy the talent and community of our local musicians and friends in its entirety. Food Truck TBD.
Opening Act: Derek Warwick is a singer-songwriter from Boulder, CO. His musical styling and influences range from Jim James, Paul Simon, Beck, and Prince. His sets consist of a wide range of covers but his many originals are what everyone in the audience walks away remembering. He will make you laugh, and cry, but mostly smile any time he performs. Catch him playing around the Front Range and with his band Midnight Strange, at any type of venue. @derjthebutcher @midnight.strange / www.midnightstrange.com
Closing Act: The Skinny is an instrumental quintet bringing an original JazzFunk experience from Colorado's Front Range. Danceable grooves are complemented with intricate arrangements and inventive improvisation. The band shines live and works hard to create shared energy with the audience. @theskinnyfunk / www.theskinnyfunk.com
Doors at 6:30 PM
Opening Act at 7 PM
Main Act at 7:30 PM
Closing Act at 9:45 PM
Please note this is a standing show with a dance floor. Some seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis on the perimeter of the room.
Full Bar on premises. 18+ welcome
ABOUT ROOTS MUSIC PROJECT Roots Music Project is a non-profit local music incubator based in Boulder, Colorado. We believe in the power of music to make the world a better place. All music starts locally. We empower artists, fans, and venues to connect and create a thriving and inspiring local music scene. RootsMusicProject.org
$24.95 - ($22 + fees)
The ONE Club for Creativity Denver is a non-profit org championing Denver's promise as an emerging, hub for internationally recognized creative work.
Get your tix to the One Club Awards Festival, headlined by winning work, dinner, drinks, yard games, and of course… a live jam band, ... us!
Individual Tickets: $79 Member / $95 Non Member Tables of 10: $749 Member / $899 Non Member
Just a get-together with friends, you know, a party in a barn with a band and stuff. Message us to get on the guest list.
We're excited to be playing at one of our favorite spots in Boulder County, The Gold Hill General Store, and Pub! We'll be out back for a beautiful fall day and expect the pub to be serving up delicious pizzas, pastries, and killer chicken pot pie, plus cold bevies, as always. It's going to be an epic mountain day, see ya there.
Details and link to tickets to follow
$10 in advance and at the door. (21+) Velvet Elk Lounge does not allow minors - No Exceptions. Bar opens at 5:00. Concert doors at 8:00.
+21 No exceptions - $10 in advance
As much as we love pushing our own musical boundaries we also love being a family. This means being there for our friends and family and providing some great music for a good old fashion house party from time to time. All are welcome and we look forward to widening the circle of our tribe, it's been a good summer, let's send her out on a great note.
2020 was not quite what Jay Farrar was expecting for the 25th anniversary of Son Volt, the band he started in 1995 after leaving the seminal group Uncle Tupelo, whose No Depression album helped define the alt-country and Americana genre. The group had just finished an Outlaw Country Cruise when the pandemic hit and sent them into their homes on lockdown.
Instead of a triumphant tour marking the illustrious landmark, Farrar was forced indoors by the pandemic, and his “Reverie” during that time helped define Electro Melodier, Son Volt’s 10th studio album – and third for influential Nashville indie Thirty Tigers. The title, taken from the names of two vintage amplifiers from the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, also describes the disc’s unique blend of folk, country, blues, soul and rock – an electric troubadour with melodies that hit and stick. Social protest songs like “Living in the U.S.A.” and “The Globe,” the former about the promises of this nation gone wrong, the latter referencing the street protests accompanying the Black Lives Matter movement, exist side by side with odes to long-term relationships (specifically his 25-year marriage) in “Diamonds and Cigarettes” and “Lucky Ones.”
Once again accompanied by the current Son Volt line up – keyboardist/steel guitarist Mark Spencer, bassist Andrew Duplantis, guitarist Chris Frame and drummer Mark Patterson – Farrar takes a slight turn from 2019’s politically pointed Union to a series of songs that asks questions rather than demanding answers – think of “Living in the U.S.A.” as Farrar’s version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” or Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power,” an anthem to unite the populace.
“I had more time to devote to and concentrate on the writing,” says Farrar about his enforced quarantine. “We were fortunate in that we had just released Union and toured the country, so we were off cycle. It was still a rough year, but as a songwriter, I was able to make the most of it.”
One listen to Electro Melodier, which opens with “Reverie,” describing Farrar’s contemplative state gazing out his window, enlivened with Mark Spencer’s “Wichita Lineman” guitar riffs and the lush Big Star melodies, and you wonder why no other rock ‘n’ roll bands or singer/songwriters are making albums like this about what we’re all going through.
“I wanted to concentrate on the melodies which got me into music in the first place,” says Farrar. “I wanted politics to take a back seat this time, but it always seems to find a way back in there.”
Listen to the Moog line from The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” channeled in “The Globe,” or the Led Zeppelin homage in “Someday Is Now,” the nod to gut-bucket Mississippi delta blues in the Lightnin’ Hopkins low-tuned guitar stylings of “War on Misery” or Spencer’s haunting slide on the funereal dirge of “The Levee On Down,” which takes Andrew Jackson to task for everything from the “Trail of Tears” massacre of the Cherokees to his face on the $20 bill instead of Harriet Tubman. The environmentally conscious “Arkey Blue” nods to a honky-tonk in Bandera, TX, Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar, where Hank Williams, Sr. allegedly carved his name into one of the wood tables, and even quotes Pope Francis on “turbulent rains never before seen.”
“I’m just asking the same question, how can so much go wrong in a country that is held up as an example to the world of something righteous,” explains Farrar about songs like “Living in the U.S.A.,” in which you can hear doomsaying prophecies like Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” set to the guitar riffs of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane.”
Still based in St. Louis (“It kinda makes sense as a central location for touring because all the interstates connect through here”), Farrar was born in Belleville, IL, where he formed Uncle Tupelo with his high school classmate Jeff Tweedy. “We had similar musical interests and took it from there,” says Jay modestly about the groundbreaking group.
Farrar is grateful to his wife of 25 years, a sentiment which he expresses lovingly on “Diamonds and Cigarettes” – featuring vocals by country singer Laura Cantrell, along with songs like the soulful “Lucky Ones” and “Sweet Refrain,” a song that captures the spirit of Bentonia, Mississippi, home of Skip James along with name checks for local legends Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and the Bluefront Cafe. “These are the Times” was recorded entirely remotely by Zoom, signaling one of the new methods of making music ushered in by Covid.
With tour dates scheduled before the end of 2021, Son Volt is ready to return to what they know best after a welcome period of introspection. “It’s a good time to take stock of what’s lost and what’s gained,” said Farrar. “At this point, we’re not even sure what we’re going to get back.” The songs of Electro Melodier help remind us to be thankful of what we still have – new music from Jay Farrar and Son Volt.
“Daylight brings the clues to the world to life/Make or break gotta do what it takes to survive.” “Sweet Refrain”
What do Local Natives sound like?
If you distilled California into soundwaves and vibrations, it might resemble the sonic and spiritual interplay of the Los Angeles quintet—Taylor Rice [vocals, guitar], Kelcey Ayer [vocals, keys, percussion, guitar], Ryan Hahn [guitar, keys, mandolin, vocals], Matt Frazier [drums], and Nik Ewing [bass, keys, vocals].
Hills and valleys of six-string bliss, a coastal spray of neon keyboards, and sundrenched melodies comprise a growing catalog of entrancing and engaging anthems by the band. Based in Los Angeles, the group progressed their sound over the course of three full-length albums, Gorilla Manor [2009], Hummingbird [2013], and, most recently, Sunlit Youth [2016]. The latter received praise from Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, The Guardian and many more. In between countless sold out shows and festival appearances - including a standout Coachella 2017 set - they’ve graced the stages of Austin City Limits, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Late Show With James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and more.
That’s what Local Natives sound like.
