Reed Foehl had a hell of a year in 2011. He got to perform with Arlo Guthrie at eTown and with Anais Mitchell on her unique folk project “Hadestown :: A Folk Opera,” and now Leann Womack is recording one of his songs. Each year seems to bring more and more for this man, and 2012 may be his biggest year yet!
The Fox Theatre has the potential to become very reminiscent of a sardine can when it’s sold out and that potential was met this past Saturday night when third wave Ska giants Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto came into town with their one-of-a-kind show. Old punk rockers and youngsters in checkered suspenders filed in early to find a spot before Reel Big Fish took the stage, but it was Streetlight Manifesto that stole the show!
The night before Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for people to gather with family and friends you haven’t seen in a while and catch up on the year. This is exactly what Polytoxic’s Last Waltz – Revisited has become for so many here in Denver. While the annual event is a place for Denver music fans to come together, it is also a time for Denver musicians to gather and do what they best, play music together. If it’s not already, do yourself a favor and make Polytoxic’s The Last Waltz – Revisited a part of your Thanksgiving Tradition.
On Thanksgiving Day in 1976, a coked-up film director who had just scored massive success with his films “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver,” stepped away from the cityscape of New York and traveled to the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco to train his lens on a band for the first time. Over the course of a nine-hour event, he helped to close one chapter of rock and roll, and to ultimately define every rock movie that ever followed.
The Felice Brothers didn’t chat with the crowd last Monday at The Hi-Dive; there was a lot of agitation and rawness coming from the stage, as if their Americana punk was being played in a boxing ring. These guys are proud, authentic, tough, brilliant, raw, emotional, and real Catskill thugs. Their energy was infectious and intimidating. They played as if they preferred no one to be there, and we danced like we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
The Pepsi Center was filled with Caribbean Soul last Tuesday night. Before music even started, there were beach balls flying, fins waving and Tequila debilitating Parrotheads of all ages. Jimmy Buffett proved his brand is as strong as ever as 15,000 people in Hawaiian shirts sang along to “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw,” “Margaritaville” and “Volcano” as if it was one of the great American past times. On every level it was the feeding frenzy that Buffett inspires everywhere he plays.
Packed full of choice covers, The Warren Haynes band served up a second helping of Soul on Wednesday night at The Ogden. Less gritty than Gov’t Mule, the band focused on the Soul and R&B side of Haynes passion and offered up some rich harmonies courtesy of keyboardist Nigel Hall and Alfreda Gerald, who did an incredible job filling in for the legendary Ruthie Foster.