Spring ushers in a bloom of music
As food trucks rear out from hibernation to sell us late-afternoon sandwiches and squirrels flitter from branch to branch reaching out to steal those sandwiches, we know it must be spring.
Or at least it sure feels that way. To be fair, it’s felt like sandal weather off and on since early February. But there is one sure way to tell: Denver’s concert schedule explodes. Like baby birds, bands crack out of their winter holiday hiatus to milk as many dates as they can out of the warm months. This list is just the tip of the iceberg — you could botch a perfectly good credit score trying to catch every worthwhile show coming through town.
It also marks the kickoff of Red Rocks season, but we aren’t going there just yet. Don’t be alarmed: The venue’s calendar looks as strong as always. But seeing as it’s outside of Denver and a beast unto itself, we’re saving our look at the venue for another day.
March
Kevin Abstract (with Romil), dissociative hip-hop, Larimer Lounge, March 21, $15-$18 Weaves (with Belle Game), bootstrap pop, Globe Hall, March 22, $10-$12 Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night
Sweats (with Devotchka and Joe Sampson), charity benefit rock, the Ogden Theatre, March 23, $32-$38 Xenia Rubinos (with the Other Black and Sur Ellz), alt-jazz, the Marquis Theater, March 26, $12-$14
Nikki Lane (with Robert Ellis and Jonathan Tyler), rattling country rock: Lane sounds like a preacher’s daughter who has been swallowed by the fire-and-brimstone the church warned us about. Bluebird Theater, March 27, $17-$20
Jonathan Richman, free-verse folk, the Bluebird Theater, March 28, $17-$20
Big Sean (with Madeintyo and DJ Mo Beatz), Top 40 rap, Fillmore Auditorium, March 28, $49.50-$64
Andy Shauf (with Aldous Harding), diffident rock, Larimer Lounge, March 28, $13-$15
Maggie Rogers (with the Overcoats), preternatural indie pop: Rogers went from music student to phenom after moving Pharrell to tears with her song “Alaska.” The jury’s still out on her as a capital-A Artist, but it’s saying something to launch a sell-out tour on the power of one (admittedly entrancing) single. Larimer Lounge, March 30, $15
Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Appalachian alt-rock, Globe Hall, March 31, $15
April
Oathbreaker (with Khemmis, Jaye Jayle and Of Feather & Bone), wailing Belgian metal, the Marquis Theater, April 3, $12-$14
Clownvis Presley, send-up blues, Lost Lake Lounge, April 3, $5-$10 21 Savage (with Young M.A., Tee Grizzley and Young Nudy), low-key rap, the Ogden Theatre, April 4, $32-$38
Dead Man Winter (with Erik Koskinen Duo), ruminative
folk, the Bluebird Theater, April 4, $15-$17
Jay Som + The Courtneys (with Shady Elders), outcast indie, Lost Lake Lounge, April 6, $10-$12
Jackie Green (with David Luning), pretty-boy rock, Globe Hall, April 6 and 7, $22-$25
Tinariwen (with Dengue Fever), Saharan spirit rock: This band of Mali musicians filters traditional rock music through its own lens of sounds and experience, which is largely affected by the plight of African diaspora. It’s impossibly original and, even if you can’t understand a lick of Tamasheq, the band’s native language, affecting. Oriental Theater, April 8, $32
Chicano Batman (with SadGirl and the Shacks), retro soul pop: Dripping with style -- particularly on “Freedom Is Free,” their next-level new album — this East Los Angeles fourpiece has a habit of turning rock clubs into pressure cookers. That’s a good thing. The Bluebird Theater, April 10, $15
Field Division, folk-pop reverie, Lion’s Lair, April 11, $TBA
Other Worlds (with the Velveteers and Larry Nix & the Killer Gents), woke rock: A little
My Morning Jacket, a little Band of Horses, this Denver band sounds way too polished to languish in obscurity. You can change that. The Larimer Lounge, April 14, $10-$12
The Walters (with Summer Salt and Panther Martin), forlorn indie rock, Hi-Dive, April 17, $8-$10
Gucci Mane, trap rap: Ask most hip-hop heads and they’ll you that, ice cream face tattoo or not, Mane is a living legend. Less than a year out of the slammer, he’ll grace Denver on its favorite day of the year on what’s somehow his first-ever tour. The Ogden Theatre, April 20, $65-$75
Tim Kasher (with Allison Weiss and Terry Malts), indie singersongwriter, Larimer Lounge, April 25, $12-$15
No Ceilings (feat. Boogie, Kaiydo, Kemba and Michael Christmas), collective hip-hop, the Bluebird Theater, April 27, $15-$18
Brent Cowles (with Wildermiss and King Cardinal), prairie indie, Hi-Dive, April 28, $12-$15
Joe Pug (with Anais Mitchell), Bob Dylan practitioner, the Bluebird Theater, April 30, $17-$20
May
Jamey Johnson (with Margo Price and Brent Cobb), new country, the Ogden Theatre, May 3, $35-$50
Leif Vollebekk, Icelantic folk: That Lief Vollebekk’s rhythmic folk-blues are filling the tiny Lost Lake Lounge and not a 1,000-plus venue is an odd whim of fate. Count yourself lucky. Lost Lake Lounge, May 8, $12-$14
Kongos (with Mother Mother), Soweto electro-pop, Marquis Theatre, May 9, $23-$325
The Wild Reeds (with Blank Range and Izaak Optaz), harmonic stomp, Larimer Lounge, May 12, $12-$15
Kehlani (with Ella Mai, Jahkoy and Noodles), PBR&B: You could think of Kehlani as an America’s Got Talent star gone wrong. But really, she’s a pop star for this generation: brash, thoroughly tattooed and above all, fun. Ogden Theatre, May 17, $25-$30
Soundgarden (with the Pretty Reckless and Dillinger Escape Plan), seminal alt-rock, Fillmore Auditorium, May 22, $66.75
Matthew Logan Vasquez (with Bad Licks and Blake Brown & the American Dust Choir), full-bore rock, Larimer Lounge, May 27, $15-$17
June
Zakk Sabbath (with Beastmaker), metal tribute, the Marquis Theater, June 4, $25-$28
Modest Mouse (with Morning Teleportation), weirdo rock, Fillmore Auditorium, June 6, $39.75-$45
At the Drive In, scene rock: The punk world has been waiting years for feral vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala to return to the project that first gathered so many sweaty mosh pits around him in the late 1990s. After all these years, the reunion tour is on, with a new album to boot. Fillmore Auditorium, June 15, $39.50