Ticket Giveaway + Special Edition Snobcast: 15th Annual Westword Music Showcase

Once again Denver’s quintessential culture weekly, Westword, has culled the city’s most important bands for Denver’s biggest one-day music event–with 50 bands over ten stages in less than twelve hours. Below you will find a special edition Snobcast made in order to showcase a few handfuls of this year’s bands playing the 15th Annual Westword Music Showcase.

And the kicker?!? We’re giving away free tickets to the show!! Just email us at godonnybrook@gmail.com with the reason we should pick you, and you could be added to our super secret guest list. While you wait for a response, go ahead and listen to some music (the playlist is down below).

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I find it interesting that Chain Gang of 1974 will be kicking things off on the main stage for the second year in a row. With all the kudos thrown at Chain Gang in the past year, I would have thought they’d get a spot later in the day. Maybe not on the main stage, but something in a club–especially considering the main stage starts two hours earlier this year than last (12pm). But hey, I guess it gives us a really good reason to show up promptly to this one-day music buffet.

Speaking of good reasons to show up early: The Pirate Signal following Chain Gang on the main stage. These rappers are Denver’s answer to groups like the Cool Kids, Kidz in the Hall, or Lupe Fiasco.

My personal lineup will most likely include these highlights:

2:00 – 2:45 – Houses (Curious Theater)

3:00 – 4:00 - A Place to Bury Strangers (Verizon Wireless Outdoor Stage)

4:00 – 4:45 – the Knew (Bar Standard)

5:00 – 5:45 – The Rouge (La Rumba)

6:00 – 6:45 – To Be Eaten (Broadways)

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One group that will both draw a large crowd and draw a lot of blank stares is The Fluid, playing an hour set starting at 5:35. I expect that many festival goers will have no idea why this band is on the main stage, but the joke will be on them because these Denver old-schoolers might be the foremost must-see band of the day. The Fluid formed in Denver back in 1984. They put out their first album Punch ‘n Judy on local Rayon Records. While that was a big album for the small punk movement in Denver at the time, it was their second album Clear Black Paper, released in 1988, that would become a footnote in music history for being the first non-Seattle band to sign to the label and the fourth album from the Northwest upstart record company. The band put out an EP and three other albums between’89 and ’93. Since the band’s reunion in 2008 for the Sub-Pop Records 20th Anniversary Festival they have played a handful of shows including a couple here in Denver and out in New York. Choosing this band as one of this years headliners was a remarkable idea.

One of the things I enjoy the most about this long-running music showcase is that they don’t have to go for the most obvious headliners. Rather than going for the act-of-the-minute, Westword will pull in a band that sits on the fence between mainstream and cult following (ie. Drive-By Truckers, Dinosaur Jr.) or even go for a completely left-field, old-school crowd-pleaser (ie. Arrested Developement, Violent Femmes). This year is no different, with Built to Spill rapping up the main stage at 8:25-9:50.

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“Electric Dirt”    Foals vs The Chain Gang of 1974* thehoodinternet.com
“Letters”    Meese    Our Album Year
“Big Dipper”    Built to Spill    There’s Nothing Wrong With Love
“Crossing the North Sea”    Houses    Houses
“Silent Bed”    Hello Kavita    And Then We Turned Sideways
“Rubber Dub”    Achille Lauro    Achille Lauro
“He Really Got Through To Advertising (Cacheflow Remix)”    George&Caplin** Advertising Remixes
“Metal Body”    Bela Karoli    Furnished Rooms
“By Yourself”    The Knew    Boom Bust EP
“Little Sisters Of The Poor”    The Swayback    Long Gone Lads
“Don’t be Peaches”    Everything Absent Or Distorted (A Love Story)    The Great Collapse
“Imaginary Contracts”    Ian Cooke    The Fall I Fell
“I’m A Sinner, You’re A Saint”    Action Packed Thrill Ride    A Looseleaf Script
“Expect the Worst”    Overcasters    Revolectrocution
“Lost Limbs”    Lion Sized    EP
“Set In Stone”    3 The Hardway    Set In Stone
“Hey 52″    The Hollyfelds    Black Heart Blue

*Obviously a mashup. The Foals will NOT be playing but I love what the Hood did with this Chain Gang song.

**It’s Cacheflow who will be at the showcase, unfortunately not George&Caplin