UMS 2012 Has Come & Gone, Denver – Recaps & Photos
This year’s Denver Post Underground Music Showcase (UMS) may have been the biggest and best yet, and – barring the…
Weaving through Denver Music, Art, Culture, and Life
This year’s Denver Post Underground Music Showcase (UMS) may have been the biggest and best yet, and – barring the…
Denver’s amidst a record-setting streak of over-90-degree days (we’re on day nine – or ten – or somewhere around there,…
As usual, when the summer rolls into its own – and as of this writing this one’s only one day old (but that day’s holding in enough heat for a friggin’ month of ’em….) – Denver plays host to more and more bands from out of town, and the local scene takes a boot, too. There are so many things to go and see over the next two weeks, we’re seriously considering just letting the heat evaporate us, so we can be a mist traveling through town, visiting all the venues we can each night – and a few of them simultaneously.
Or – that could be the heat getting to us.
In any case, from a surprising visit from Black Flag and hardcore guitar hero Greg Ginn – at Bar Bar, no less (and, rumor has it, FREE) – to what promises to be a stunning Larimer Lounge set with Thurston Moore (he’s stopping by Boulder, too, but who wants to drive that far?), to the dueling summer showcases – Westword’s (This weekend) and The UMS (in late July), there’s definitely no shortage of places to get your fix of good music.
So take lift the needle off your new Bieber disc (say, does he even know how to play any of his own vinyl? Does his stuff come out on vinyl? Nevermind – don’t wanna know) and get outside to see and hear some good music.
The 11th Annual UMS is now in its third day, and rounding the inside corner to slingshot itself into full, reckless, dangerous and foolhardy speed, and you’re going to want to grab on for dear life about now, and hold on. It’s going to get a lot more beautiful before too long, and there’ll be more than you can imagine to see, hear, taste and drink.
All the more reason to follow our recommendations for which bands to see, where, and just a little bit of why.
Today’s also the day that the all ages crowd can take the most advantage of the many, many options – and we’ve put a little emphasis on the bands playing that anyone can see, to encourage you to get out from under the Xbox and GET OUT HERE, NOW!
It’s here! And it’s definitely THE highpoint of Denver’s summer music season! A full Red Rocks schedule, the Warped and other festival tours, multiple nights of Widespread Panic – even the monster U2 show in Invesco Field at Mile High – all pale in comparison to the magnitude of this weekend’s pinnacle. The 11th Annual Underground Music Showcase (UMS) starts this Thursday evening, and will dominate a few square miles of South Broadway for the following three nights.
This year’s show features close to 300 bands, comedians , singer songwriters and other talents, and will be housed in a huge number of venues, restaurants, bookstores, skateboard shops and t-shirt shops along South Broadway (here’s a handy listing, with a MAP!) – including two major outdoor stages – from 6th Avenue at the top to Cedar at the bottom.
Needless to say, the choices for live music abound – heck, they’re pretty overwhelming. Let’s face it: there’s no way anyone can possibly see all that the UMS has to offer, and it’d be a miracle to see everything you’d like to see. So let us at DenverThread take a little of the pressure to decide off of your shoulders, with our daily preview lists for this year’s festival.
Through the weekend, we’ll be listing our choices of the best things to see – for a lot of reasons. Whether your tastes run into the sludge-stoner-metal quagmire, meander through dreamy twee-pop or get hypnotically lost in psychedelic shoegaze, we’ll get you where you want to be, and make sure you’re catching something you’ve hopefully never seen before while we’re at it.
Judging from the sounds that burst from the Larimer Lounge stage last Saturday night, Colorado is no longer landlocked, and Denver now sports beachfront property.
Those sounds came from local instrumental legends Maraca Five-0, who have reunited after six years to debut as opener for Slim Cessna’s Auto Club — one of a short list of shows this summer.
Actually, it’s far less than fair to classify Maraca Five-0 as a mere “surf band.” While they echo the sound of the Ventures, Laika & the Cosmonauts, Link Wray and Dick Dale, their interpretation of it evokes much more.