Drowning Pool: A night at The Summit

Drowning Pool: A night at The Summit.
by Scott Barker

We had the chance to see Drowning Pool on tour in support of their latest self-titled album the other night. The band was coming off a three month hiatus and came to town to celebrate St. Patricks day with KBPI. After going 1-1 at foosball with some lucky KBPI contest winners, and waiting for the five opening acts to warm up the crowd Drowning Pool was ready to smack Denver right in the face, and Denver LIKED it. Drowning Pool is known for their in your face, aggressive rock as well as their soul wrenching and melodic ballads. They didn't disappoint on this official night of Leprechauns and green beer, and the energy they gave off was palpable as the crowd rocked all night long with the hard luck band from Texas. Drowning Pool is on their third vocalist thus far, having lost their first lead man to an unexpected death from an undiagnosed heart condition and their second when he cited "personal reasons" on the eve of a hometown show. Luckily for Drowning Pool, the old saying third time is the charm has a ring of truth to it in this case, and Ryan McCombs appears to be here to stay. Drowning Pool on St. Patrick's day took a tried and true formula of kick-ass rock and excellent musicianship and reminded everyone in Denver why they belong in the upper echelon of hard rock acts. If you had the luck O' the Irish with you on March 17th, you were at the Drowning Pool show, and you got rocked green style with DP.

Pics by Matthew Zinke

Trust Company Interview

Chattin with Trust Company, who are one of my fave bands, in their tour van about the new album and why you should never eat ham that's been floating in the cooler for 3 days.

Interview with Travis from The Human Abstract

Darkest Hour at the Marquis

The Atticus Metal Tour 3 hit the Marquis with headliners Darkest Hour and wicked awesome support acts like The Human Abstract. Lens ninja Matthew Zinke was on site to snag up a bunch of cool pics.

T-Shirts 4 Tomorrow: Wants to Thank All their Fans and the CMB Crew

T-Shirts 4 Tomorrow had the amazing opportunity to work with Colorado Music Buzz in the CMB Bandwagon/ Best band in Denver contest! Working with Chris, Groovey, WARGOD, Stu, and all the people that were involved was an experience that will never be forgotten! Over 70 awesome screaming fans made their way out to Summit Music Hall to take part in the show case! Unfortunately, T4T fell a few votes short of advancing, being beat out by eventual overall champions James and the devil. T4T wants to thank all of their fans for coming out and making this an awe-ing experience for the band!

 T-Shirts 4 Tomorrow were, thanks to the fans, the winners of the online voting portion of the competition. For winning, they received 16 hours of recording in Cherry Sounds Studio, and a photo shoot with Stu Kennedy at SKFUNPHOTOS.comThe photo shoot was AMAZINGLY FUN, as the guys and Stu hung out down town in short shorts and knee high sock's getting some cool photos that you will all reap the benefit of March 19th!


above -- Stu receives a Special thank you for a successful photo shoot!--

Ethan from T-Shirts 4 Tomorrow says "From beginning to end, this whole experience was something unforgettable for us. From the voting process, to the show, to the awards we are still receiving, it was just awesome!" The boys in T4T really felt like rock stars with the "red carpet" treatment that CMB gave them. They were especially excited about the video interview part with Groovey! "It was something we all dream, and talk about doing" says Ethan "We felt like rockstars. We always youtube interviews with our favorite bands, just this time we were the band!"


 
Keep an eye out for upcoming T-Shirts 4 Tomorrow events! They will be releasing their EP Midnight Marathon: March 19th at the Marquis Theater. Soon after the T4T boys hit the road to Gunnison, CO. to play along for long time idols, REEL BIG FISH! Make sure your going daily tobattleofthebands.com to vote for T-Shirts 4 Tomorrow to be a part of Warped Tour 2011!!!!
 

Darkest Hour interview

Groovey sort of interviews Darkest Hour but it's basically just festive good times. Darkest Hour swears a lot so don't teach your kids how to speak using this video.

COLD WAR KIDS 3/8/11, Ogden Theatre, Denver

Playing to nearly sold out crowd at the Ogden; Cold War Kids came through with a strong show built of fan favorites such as "Hang me up to Dry" , "Hospital Beds" and "Santa Ana Winds" to name a few!









Making sure to add in a mix of songs from their newest Album "Mine Is Yours". featuring songs such as "Royal Blue" , "Skip the Charades, "Louder Than Ever". Cold war kids gave the house an overall great evening of a soulful rock along with an easy likable stage presence.

Links to learn or listen:

Band Web

Social:

March 2011 cover - James and the Devil - BW2 Winners!

Bandwagon 2 Finals Slideshow! Enjoy and props to all the Bands in the Contest!

BandWagon 2 Finals! - slide show

Straight Line Stitch Interview

Less Than Jake at Summit Music Hall

Stu Kennedy of skfunphotos.com was at the sold out Less Than Jake show this past weekend and got some seriously wicked shots. Here a few of them be:

The Wedding Singer - Aurora Fox Theater

The Aurora Fox is pleased to present the regional premiere of The Wedding Singer - The Musical Comedy (with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy) running February 11 - March 6, 2011 (Feb. 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26, March 4, 5 at 7:30 pm and Feb. 13, 20, 27, March 6 at 2:00 pm). Tickets: Adults - $24/Seniors and Students - $20/Groups of 10+ - $18. Not appropriate for young children due to adult language and situations. For reservations contact The Aurora Fox Box Office at
303-739-1970 or order tickets online: www.AuroraFox.org.

Based on the hit movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, The Wedding Singer celebrates the 80’s in earnest. Nominated for five Tony Awards, and with a score that pays loving homage to the pop songs of the 1980s, The Wedding Singer offers three weddings, a bar mitzvah and a zany trip to a Vegas chapel of love, keeping things hopping in this affectionate look back to the days when hair was big, greed was good, collars were up, and a wedding singer just might be the coolest guy in the room.

Robbie Hart (Ben Dicke) is New Jersey's favorite wedding singer. He’s the life of the party - until his own fiancée (Amanda Earls) leaves him at the altar. Broken-hearted, Robbie proceeds to make every wedding as disastrous as his own. Enter Julia (Brianna Firestone), a sweet, girl-next-door-type who befriends Robbie and wins his affection. But Julia is about to be married to a slimy Wall Street shark (Travis Risner), and unless Robbie can pull off the performance of the decade, the true girl of his dreams will remain nothing more than a dream.

The Fox is excited to welcome special guest Emmy-nominated Director/Choreographer Mandy Moore back to Colorado for this production. Ms. Moore has been a choreographer and guest judge on FOX’s hit dance show, So You Think You Can Dance for the past 6 seasons. She has also appeared on television shows such as The Drew Carey Show, Malcolm in the Middle and That '70s Show, as well as the films Austin Powers and Bubble Boy. In addition to So You Think You Can Dance (for which she earned an Emmy Nomination during Season 3), Mandy has choreographed for several television shows including American Idol.

Specializing in jazz and contemporary dance, she also worked for Celine Dion on her Taking Chances concert tour. She currently teaches at the Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles.

Mandy and her sister Missy Moore (a local actress, theatre arts instructor, fight choreographer and Assistant Director for The Wedding Singer), both from the Denver area, are pleased to be teaming up together to bring the retro splash and color of the 80’s to the Aurora Fox stage, including several outstanding production numbers, and a few fun surprises.

THE CAST:
Ben Dicke* as Robbie Hart
Brianna Firestone as Julia
Sue Leiser as Rosie
Piper Arpan* as Holly
Amanda Earls as Linda
David Nehls* as George
Robert Michael Sanders as Sammy
Ensemble: Travis Risner . Noah Lee Jordan, Rob Costigan*, Benjy Schirm, Danny Harrigan, Steven Burge ,
Michelle Sergeef*, Ashlie Amber Harris, Jennifer Gilliam, Andrew Fisk, Emma MacNeil, Wyatt MacNeil
Band: David Nehls, Jason Tyler Vaughn, Scott Smith, Tag Worley, Robert Michael Sanders
* member of Actor’s Equity
Directed/Choreographed by Mandy Moore, Assistant Director – Missy Moore, Music Direction by David Nehls, scenic design by Charles Dean Packard, costume design by Meredith Murphy, lighting design by Nick Kargel, sound design by El Armstrong, Props design by Katrina Niemisto, and Stage Management by Equity Stage Manager, Lindsay Sullivan.

February 11 – Opening night party (post-show). Eat, drink, mix and mingle with cast/crew/staff and fellow Fox attendees following the opening night performance.
February 13 – Renew Your Vows at The Fox! During intermission, we’ll have an officiant onhand to re-marry love-struck patrons who will receive a special “I got married at the Fox” certificate and a photo of the ceremony. A great gift for that special “Valentine”. There is no charge to participate in the vow renewal ceremony. February 18 – Free Beer Friday. Enjoy a beer on the house before the show!
February 19 – 80’s Karaoke Contest (pre-show). Bust out your inner-Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Poison, or Whitesnake for this fun 80’s sing-off. The winner gets to sing with the band following the show.

Saturday's Met Opera in HD: "Nixon in China"

This Saturday, February 12, American composer John Adams makes his Metropolitan Opera debut when he takes the podium to conduct his 1987 opera, Nixon in China. The performance will be seen in movie theaters across America, courtesy of the ongoing Met in HD series and its partnership with Denver's Fathom Events. The opera begins promptly at 11:00 Mountain Time, with a running time (including intermissions) of about four hours.

Colorado venues will include several Denver-area Regal Cinemas (Downtown Pavilions, So. Colorado Blvd, Greenwood Plaza, Colorado Mills), AMC Theatres (Westminster, Highlands Ranch), and Cinemark Theatres (Aurora, Boulder), as well as movie complexes in Fort Collins, Greeley, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Durango. Check local listings for your nearest location.

This Adams opera is appearing for the first time on the stage at New York's Metropolitan. The work received its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera (one of its commissioning agents) and deals specifically with a single historical moment, the momentous face-to-face meeting between Richard Nixon, the sitting American president, and legendary Chinese ruler Mao Zedung. Four other main characters are depicted in the opera (libretto by Minnesota poet Alice Goodman): First Lady Pat Nixon, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Jiang Qing ("Mrs. Mao"), and Premier Zhou Enlai.

Appearing as Nixon is baritone James Maddelena, the man who created the role nearly 24 years ago. This is a reunion of sorts since the producer of the Met's debut, Peter Sellars, was also responsible for the Houston premiere. The remaining cast includes soprano Janice Kelly [Pat Nixon], tenor Robert Brubaker [Mao], soprano Kathleen Kim [Jiang], bass Richard Paul Fink [Kissinger], and baritone Russell Braun [Zhou].

Composer Adams is known for his minimalist musical style, and the score to Nixon in China is straight out of his most minimal period. A review of last week's opening night performance by New York Magazine columnist Justin Davidson cites, "the importance of a transformative score that demonstrated the full range of what Minimalism could accomplish." The concept that minimalism has a "full range" seems incongruous, but the music does create a surprisingly fulsome sound behind the singers.

Anyone who has come of age in the decades since Nixon's historic 1972 visit is probably puzzled by all the hoopla. But China was seen then in the role of the great unknown, a Communist giant so intent on its own internal vision of ethnic cleansing— a twenty-plus year orgy of the subjugation of its intellectual elite, even to the point of mass murder on a near-Stalinistic scale— that it had virtually no political or economic links to the outside world during that time. The China of today, with its Western-style industrialization and modernity, is vastly different from the country Mao and his cronies had ruled with an iron fist. Some historians claim only a Republican president like Nixon could have bridged the gap with a Communist regime and survived what might have been another "Red" hunt, had a Democratic president made a similar effort. Others liken Nixon's efforts to those of Commodore Perry in the 1850s, when a Shogun-dominated Japan finally opened its doors to trade with the West.

The events depicted in Nixon in China occasionally seem as distant from us as the world of the Genoan doge appears in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. But the music serves to remind us that this is truly a modern work, no matter how much librettist Goodman tried to create a timeless story of the clash of two cultures.

BW2 Semi-Final lineup - VIP and all Access tix avail!

Casey James Prestwood and the Burning Angels

Join us for an hour of classic country at the next installment of Parker Library's Live Local Music Series, 2pm on Saturday, Jan. 29. Check out Casey James Prestwood and the Burning Angels on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-exqKC-yqs

BandWagon 2 Semifinal Schedule!!

DISCO BISCUITS Play at The Ogden Theatre, Denver 1-15-2011

photos By: Stu Kennedy
Colorado Music Buzz

Bandwagon 2 Show line-up!

click here to view the larger version of this

Local MC Rabid releases Remix of Chris Brown's "Dueces"

Local hip hop artist has started releasing weekly remixes, mixed at Side 3 studios with producer Frank Azzaro. While Rabid is still working on his next release, these clips give us a taste of his uncanny creativity. Check it out!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMOQp2_Cwzg&feature=player_embedded


Bluebird Theatre January 1, 2011
w
303 Movement
Madison Guthrie
Rabid
Aim2miss

Wheelchair Sports Camp - Upcoming Show!

Are you burned out on holiday music yet? I know I am. A person can only handle so much "Grandma got ran over by a reindeer," before you start wishing you could switch places with that grandma.

If you want to get out, relax a bit before the real insanity of the season strikes, check out Wheelchair Sports Camp at Old Curtis Street Bar on December 23rd. They'll be performing alongside the High Tops, 3two, and Amateur Ape Crew.

Old Curtis is located at 2100 Curtis Street in Denver.

Even if you can't make it out, drowning in eggnog as you are, make sure to vote for Wheelchair Sports Camp or whoever your favorite musician may be for the Colorado Music Buzz Bandwagon contest. Finally, check out the Buzz interview with WSC in this month's issue.

Steel Panther at the Ogden

The 80's metal comedy awesome that is Steel Panther played the Ogden on Friday. The hair was flying and the Spandex was...dexing I guess. There was easily a full thousand in attendance who shared in the laughs and the amusing anthems of the Panther. The Ninja Priestess herself, Aeon Cruz, was there to snag a whole bunch of imagey goodness.

Rob Halford and Philm at the Ogden

One of Colorado's best photogs Jason Paul Roberts hit up the Halford show for some pics. The show was ludicrous and full of legends including Mr. Halford and Dave Lombardo from Slayer whose new post hardcore side gig Philm opened the whole shebang. Here's some of the wicked goodness.

Chris Daniels video on Channel 9

Have some tissues handy...

We love you Chris.

Watch video here

Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds 12/9/10.

Tonight,

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds played an amazing show at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield Colorado. I hope you enjoy the photos and for those of you who went to the show ..... Please give your words of feedback on the experience. the C.M.B wants to know!



















Thanks for visiting and taking a moment to share!

Photos courtesy of Stu Kennedy
COLORADO MUSIC BUZZ MAGAZINE