The days are longer and the temps are hotter, which means one thing: summer concerts. Here on the Front Range, we’re lucky to host a seemingly endless parade of marquee acts at legendary venues night after night. But it’s not just touring bands lighting up our little corner of Colorado this season. There’s plenty of homegrown talent, too. That’s why we’re back with another sampler of the season’s sonic bounty, with a roundup of local acts you’ll definitely want to add to your summer playlist.
Pet Falcon
Lots of things happen in Erie basements — underwhelming mushroom trips, record-setting GTA runs, longing nights spent browsing Zillow listings in Lafayette. Few are worth writing about, even fewer prove as transformative as BoCo five-piece Pet Falcon’s inaugural jam in songwriter and lead singer John Halloway’s basement, and fewer still seem to stick around and grow the way their friendship and love for music has.
“For me, it was like a switch,” Halloway says. “[Our drummer] Matt Agnello has seen that change in my personality — going from just hanging out, doing fun stuff, to now, I just can’t shut up about music.”
Despite their rising trajectory over the past year — Pet Falcon went from these hallowed basement sessions to local open mics and then to booking opening slots at the Fox Theatre in that short time — Halloway and Agnello couldn’t have imagined being where they are today. In large part, that’s because they met their now-bandmates via Craigslist ads, a serendipitous strategy primarily guided by vibes.
“When it came to finding the guys, it really wasn’t about technical skill,” says bassist Maximus Montano, one of the lucky Craigslist finds. “I think it really is about personality and willingness to collaborate. It’s putting aside ego and working together to create and play to our strengths, to create this holistic product that we can put on a pedestal and show people. So, it’s not, ‘Oh, are you the best guitarist?’ It’s, ‘Are you fun to hang out with?’”
In the end, it worked — the guys have a full summer schedule, between a single drop each month and a slate of shows they are entirely stoked to play.
“This flavor of indie post-punk sound we bonded over, it’s always very danceable,” Halloway says. “So to really be a little bit looser on stage and shake it a little bit, and seeing the audience get into it like that — I love that part.”
Pet Falcon’s Summer Sonics
- “Gut Wrench” by Pet Falcon
- “LSD” by Skegss
- “We Could Walk Together” by The Clientele
- “When You Know You Know” by The Beths
- “Afterlife” by Sharon Van Etten
ON THE BILL: The Speeks with Pet Falcon, The Sanct and Indigo. 8 p.m. Saturday, June 21, The Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20
Pulse Ctrl
If you’re lucky enough to have heard (and danced your damn heart out to) Denver techno-house duo Pulse Ctrl on the decks after midnight, you wouldn’t believe the pair met DJing weddings and corporate events.
“It was really limiting in the creative aspect,” says Erin McMahon, one half of Pulse Ctrl. “I love to make people sing, but I think stepping out of the wedding and corporate scene really let us lean into more of the underground rave scene, which we both really wanted to get into.”
Despite the creative constraints, the job did give them one crucial resource — a warehouse full of top-of-the-line sound equipment, with no audience, no demanding brides and no rules. Between that prime space to perfect their sound and other connections to the nightlife scene (McMahon previously worked as the events director for Boulder’s late, great DV8 Distillery) McMahon and their musical partner, Jovanna Bjelanovic, started to build a community of queer dance music lovers just like them.
“We started an event series at DV8 called Pulse Controlled, which kind of rode the line between the queer and rave music scenes,” McMahon says. “Those two music communities have a lot of the same values, especially since house music is rooted in queer culture. It’s really cool to be able to kind of play this game between the two of them that I don’t think really exists right now in the Denver scene.”
Pulse Ctrl maintains a residency at Denver’s X Bar, and despite DV8’s closure, Pulse Controlled lives on at Denver’s Two Moons Music Hall where they and their tight-knit community of queer ravers continue to offer space to those historically excluded from Denver’s large (and growing) club music scene.
“I think it’s really powerful to bring these communities together,” McMahon says. “That’s the whole essence of it — we stand for love, community and togetherness. That’s what we really love about and why we want to continue doing what we’re doing.”
Pulse Ctrl’s Summer Sonics
- “Polite” (feat. Malokyo) by Return of the Jaded, Malokyo
- “The Days” (NOTION Remix) by Chrystal, NOTION
- “Thr33 6ix 5ive” by HoneyLuv
- “Can’t Get Enough” by J. Worra, Hayley May
ON THE BILL: Pulse Controlled by Pulse Ctrl w/ DJ Bravo, Acid Cowboy, MaceFaceKilla, and jaspr. 9 p.m., Saturday, June 7, Two Moons Music Hall, 2944 Larimer St., Denver. $15
Yasmine Emani
Sometimes, artistry feels inevitable; like no matter which direction a person’s life was going to go, they were somehow always going to end up creating. When Denver-born R&B artist Yasmine Emani’s silky vocals and rich harmonies float through your headphones, that feeling of serendipity strikes.
“Even though I’m still early in my career, I’m not early in my passion,” Emani says. “I am deeply, deeply tied and tethered to the work that I do. It’s like my birthright to feel passionate about what I’ve been creating.”
Each element of Emani’s music feels like an ornate building block, and when everything falls into place, you’re transported to another world. Take her most recent, more traditional, SZA-esque release “Go Crazy,” compared to 2021’s western-tinged emotional epic “In the Dark” — they’re completely different, but clearly kindred.
“People have a hard time kind of naming it, and that’s something I take a lot of pride in,” Emani says. “As an artist, I don’t long to be categorized. I just long to be felt.”
Five years into her career, Emani’s musical flowers are blooming everywhere. Later this summer, she’ll be gracing the stage at both Denver’s Underground Music Festival and the Black Arts Festival. She’s also in the middle of creating a full-length album full of collaborations. To that end, Emani says her lyrical voice is inspired by the same instincts that have created a steadfast community in Denver’s music scene.
“When I was making my attempts to build artistic community and family out in the Denver scene, I just saw how the environment operated, without my energy a part of it yet, and seeing how I could add to the rich vibrancy that already existed,” she says. “That’s how I created a community: by respecting that it existed before me, so I knew how to opt into it.”
Yasmine Emani’s Summer Sonics
- “Trip to Heaven” by Yasmine Emani
- “Go Crazy” by Yasmine Emani
- “Le fix” by RM47
- “DISCO HOT TUB” by Brittany. Renee. Beckett
- “Come Again” by Ms. Boogie
ON THE BILL: Colorado Black Arts Festival. Friday, July 11 through Sunday, July 13, Denver City Park West, 1700 City Park Esplanade. Set time TBA. Free
Ritmo Cascabel
Poland isn’t necessarily known for its Latin-American influence. Nevertheless, the Denver-based outfit Ritmo Cascabel found the rowdy, packed venues they played across the pond on their month-long European tour to be a hospitable place for their brand of “cumbiadelica,” blending the Colombian-born tradition of cumbia with psych-rock flourishes.
“We were so well-received there, better than we thought we were going to be,” says co-frontman Raul Sanchez. “Poland loves cumbia.”
One of the band’s two percussionists, Sanchez says there was a learning curve in bringing together the two halves of their singular sound. A drum set used for heavy metal is a galaxy away from a tambourine or hand drums used in cumbia, a musical tradition based in specific rhythms and instruments.
“We all, together, learned a new language, a new set of rules,” Sanchez says. “We’re still very much learning how to do these things as we kind of delve deeper into other Latin-based genres; like, nowadays, we’re doing a whole lot more salsa and incorporating that into our cumbiadelic sound.”
Ritmo Cascabel’s trajectory is sky-high, in part because of the way they’ve been able to effortlessly infuse Latin influence with rowdy rock into an uber-danceable amalgam that mirrors Denver itself.
“Our background in traditional rock music definitely gives us a heavier sound at times — we’re trying to mitigate that to make our sound a little bit more authentic, but we also kind of like the fact that it separates us from other, more traditional bands,” Sanchez says. “As musicians who are trying to grow into this already very established sound, we are trying to respect it while staying true to ourselves.”
Ritmo Cascabel’s Summer Sonics
- “Rosas” by La Oreja de Van Gogh
- “Caminando” by Los Frontera
- “Sur Ma Bossa” by Courrier Sud
- “Te Quiero y Me Miento” by Carin Leon, Diego El Cigala, Chanela Clicka
- “Despierta y Cree en Mi” by Sacramento
ON THE BILL: Underground Music Showcase. Friday, July 25 through Sunday, July 27, various locations on South Broadway, Denver. Set time TBA. Weekend pass: $150+
SPELLS
Many of us never shake that insatiable desire to be who you imagined you could be as a kid. For Denver rock mainstays SPELLS, nothing embodies that desire more than the thrill of a really good house party.
In that spirit, SPELLS frames their sets in a way that does justice to their inner teenagers and their noisy, unshackled brand of rock — wherever they can, they ditch the stage and opt for venue floors.
“I think that communal nature gets lost as you get older with music, and we definitely wanted to keep that energy and spirit alive with SPELLS,” says singer Ben Roy, also known by his SPELLS stage name, Little Stevie Shithead. “It is a communal experience. It belongs to everybody.”
In Denver’s tight-knit scene, first impressions and tight connections last. So, when after almost a decade, SPELLS parted with their frontwoman Lauren Shugrue in 2022, they knew exactly who to call. The rest of the five-piece had never heard Dawn Knock sing, but they had seen her and her platinum blonde mohawk at their shows for years and knew she was the one they wanted.
“This was my trying out for the Beatles moment,” says Knock, a.k.a Dusk Monarch. “I came to a practice, we went through a couple songs. I’m such a goob that they loved me, and that was it.”
Contrary to the title of their 2024 album Past Our Prime, SPELLS remains busy as ever. They’re playing Denver’s Underground Music Showcase later this summer with an abundance of releases over the past several years to rock out to. Until then, they know as long as they bring their unfailing energy, the community will continue to show up and rage with them until the walls cave in.
“To me, Denver has never really had a sound, it’s always been an attitude and an ethos — a party vibe, with mixed bills,” Roy says. “We’ll play with metal bands, we’ll play with strange, bizarre, avant-garde rock. No one’s afraid, just as long as you bring the party, you bring the energy and the good vibes.”
SPELLS’ Summer Sonics
- “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys
- “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama
- “Starships” by Nicki Minaj
- “Feels Like Summer” by Childish Gambino
- “Biggest Part of Me” by Ambrosia
ON THE BILL: Underground Music Showcase. Friday, July 25 through Sunday, July 27, various locations on South Broadway, Denver. Set time TBA. Weekend pass: $150+
Brotha Nature
Run-of-the-mill use of a looper pedal is common at your average open mic — designed to record and play back musical phrases in real time, it’s an easy way for rising musicians to achieve a fuller sound without the need for a full band. What is rare, however, is for an artist to rise above and beyond, expertly using the device to span genres and instrumentals.
Spokane-born, Denver-based rapper Brotha Nature’s use of the looper is a sight to behold. It feels not like a replacement for a full band, but a true means of expressing all the artist has to offer, including trumpet, rap and backing beats. It’s an art he perfected alongside his DJ and production skills after moving to Denver mid-pandemic.
“The live looping stuff is pretty much just an extension of my mind,” he says. “My sound has gotten a lot more quality, a lot crispier, my emceeing has grown exponentially, my trumpet playing has gotten way better — just all facets have leveled up immensely since I’ve been out here.”
In a time when the pandemic brought the music world to a screeching halt, some artists like Brotha Nature, whose real name is Eli Dyer, found motivation and an opportunity to make his long-cultivated dream of pursuing music a reality.
“I was just really, really not trying to just be stagnant at all,” Dyer says. “I've been producing, DJing, practicing, so when everything melted off, the feeling was, ‘OK, we're back. Like, we're super back.’”
From tiny venues like Lion’s Lair to Red Rocks, where Dyer played with electro-funk artist Opiuo [when?], Brotha Nature’s energy and presence is electric. Even as he releases albums like the recent A Deeper Purple, an ode to his hometown of Spokane, it’s the energy of Denver’s unique and diverse scene that keeps him inspired.
“From the bands, to the jazz scene, to the 140-dubstep scene, to the house music scene, there's just a lot of stuff going on everywhere,” Dyer says. “People are trying new stuff all the time over here. It’s global in itself.”
ON THE BILL: Brotha Nature & Friends. Time TBA, Thursday, July 31, The Black Box, 314 E. 13th Ave., Denver. Price TBA
Brotha Nature’s Summer Sonics
- “4 Heroes” by Brotha Nature, Lilac City Dynamics
- “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison
- “Tar” by Hudson Mohawke