Weaving through Denver Music, Art, Culture, and Life
The band’s show at the Bluebird Theater last Sunday night turned out to be a perfect place to show off their emulative prowess, featuring a playlist of songs heavily influenced as much by old school bands like Joy Division, Bauhaus, the Cure and Soft Cell as Interpol and Nine Inch Nails, and with more than a bit of Rick James’ funk.
Clutch is heavy. Heavy enough to pull in all the roots of punk, metal, funk and grunge and bundle them into the perfect musical explosive. Their performance at the Fillmore last Wednesday proved it, as they pummeled a more than willing, near capacity audience with over 90 minutes of material from all over their musical history.
Velvet Cash played a strong set of great psychobilly at Meadowlark last Thursday night, in what was supposed to be one of the final outdoor shows of the season.
The feeling behind songs like “Cousins,” “Robo Bandidos,” and set-ender “I’m Not Gay” seemed to fall flat. . . . the type of industrial punk they were pawning, infused with a cheap strip-joint aesthetic is more worn out, old and embarrassing than the strippers one might find at said strip-joint.
Ween have . . . aged well (only too evident in Gene’s now-grey, newly short hair), and comfortably wield many varying musical styles with aplomb. Their tight grasp on the building blocks of so many genres, arguably born out of a deep-seated irreverence for all of them, has given them the ability to create true-sounding originals full of wit, charm and sarcasm, with mere hints of mockery.
I love it when two drummers can pull it off playing together, and Green and Plummer played as if they were one — with the benefit of eight limbs. At the same time Fairchild’s guitar performance came as close as possible to actually replacing Johnny Marr, arguably one of indie rock’s most innovative players.
“. . . it’s hard to make the Shins comparisons on Fruit Bats’ excellent new album, “The Ruminant Band,” which edges closer to the rambling vibe of ’70s classic rock than the Shins’ ’60s-tinged missives.” – John Wenzel, Denver Post
. . . the five-piece showed the surging Denver throng that it has reached a sort of musical plateau, one where it can perform just about any collection of new, old and really old material with aplomb and brilliance. They can whip any crowd into a throbbing fury, and then easily coax it back into placidity.
