Tiny photos (and videos) of big bands!

Blind Pilot!

The Head and the Heart! 

The Shins! @ Red Rocks!
They had to start over on their very first song. Have a look:

James Mercer has shuffled the lineup of The Shins over the years, so much so that they look and sound like a different band from the one from the days of "Chutes Too Narrow" and "Oh, Inverted World." That made it more fun to listen to Blind Pilot and The Head and the Heart than The Shins last night. Still, "New Slang" sounded fantastic, with the audience cooing along on the chorus between the monoliths of Red Rocks creating a warm cocoon of sound. They mixed old and new. They played a cover of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," and former members Neal Langford and Marty Crandall came on stage to play during one encore. It was a beautiful spring night.

j. viewz

Have you all seen this stop-action j. viewz video yet?

Milo Greene at the Larimer Lounge

photos by Thomas Peipert

A night before opening for Civil Wars, Milo Greene visited the Larimer Lounge on Tuesday to play their first-ever show in Denver.

The band's album won't be available til July, but they brought along 2-song EPs, posters and T-shirts to sell. The beauty of Milo Greene is in the (mostly) acoustic instruments, banjo picking, and tight harmonies.

 

The small room was a great place to see these multi-instrumentalists up close and hear everything with clarity.






In a rare appearance, Sweet Tooth Meat Tooth (with Hayley from Snake Rattle Rattle Snake and others) was the moody mellow opener. (We hear they're playing again July 8 at the Museum of Contemporary Art)

Sweet Tooth Meat Tooth, photo by Thomas Peipert

Then Milo Greene came on, with these wacky vertical plastic light sticks with little bulbs strung through them positioned around the stage like trees. It was a full room back by the stage, and the crowd sang along to songs like "1957" and "Don't You Give Up on Me." The quintet lent their four-part harmonies to a cover of Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago." They've performed the Sufjan cover live before, but the Denver version featured Robbie with the most death-metal shaking of jingle bells on a Sufjan song ever. Here's video of "Silent Way."



They also did a Wilco cover ("A Shot in the Arm") with Marlana on lead vocals. At the end, the band's merch guy emerged from the back room where he'd been accidentally locked for the whole show. Good times! The band members stuck around to talk with fans, drink with fans, sign stuff for fans and generally be interesting people.

 

And Milo Greene will be back in Denver Aug. 10 to play at the Hi-Dive! For cheaps! $10/$12

Leftover Salmon

photos by Thomas Peipert

Leftover Salmon's first recorded studio album in 8 years comes out Tuesday. Last weekend the band had a block party on Santa Fe between 7th and 8th in Denver to celebrate.

People filled the streets for beers, snacks from food trucks and 3++ hours of Leftover Salmon playing live music, and amazingly, the rain held off. Scramble Campbell painted a canvas live on stage in the tradition of Denny Dent (we miss Denny Dent!)

photo by C

Afterward, the band signed autographs and mingled with fans at Space Gallery to help raise money for Conscious Alliance, with Gipsy Moon providing live entertainment (Vince Herman's son plays mandolin in Gipsy Moon).

photo by C

Some comments from Vince Herman here
And more photos from Thomas here

Mariposa

The Butterfly Pavilion not only lets you walk among lots of colorful butterflies, but it also has a little area where you can watch butterflies emerging from cocoons (if you have good timing and are patient). There are also cases of dead butterflies, which might sound morbid, but look how beautiful they are.

 (photo by Thomas Peipert)

Thomas had a question, and Mary Ann at the Butterfly Pavilion promptly responded. Learn along with us:

Hi, I received a post card from you with the question:

Q: Are the pinned butterflies treated with a preservative or lacquer?

A: No the butterflies and other invertebrates that we display here at the Butterfly Pavilion are not treated with anything on their bodies to keep them preserved. Butterflies and other insects have an exoskeleton that is made of chitin, a hard and sturdy material. When an insect dies it will maintain its shape for a long time and if pinned and spread in a display like you see at the Butterfly Pavilion, the insects can stay, for the most part, intact for 100’s of years. Over time colors will fade but the exoskeleton can keep its rigidity. In order to maintain these types of displays with pinned insects in them we do need to treat the containers with pest deterrents that feed on the dead insects on display. Dermestid beetles are a big pest to these types of displays so museums can use moth balls, fumigant boxes with paradicholorobenzene and/or dicholorvos tape. All of these pesticides repel these beetles and keep the insects intact.

Denver Zoo

Last week for national volunteer week, some Denver attractions let their volunteers visit each others' sites for free. So we went to the Denver Zoo and saw a capybara, the world's largest rodent, which was hilarious for some reason. Also, we saw this funny yellow fish:

Gov Ball NYC

Need a mix for this morning? How about one from Gov Ball NYC 2012 artists?

Listen to it here. With Beck, Explosions in the Sky, Built to Spill, Freelance Whales, Modest Mouse, Chromeo, lots more

New White Rabbits vid

This is "Temporary," from White Rabbits.

Jewel

Jewel played for free at the Convention Center over the weekend as part of the women's NCAA Final Four in Denver. It was just her and two acoustic guitars, playing for a few hundred people. She started off with an a cappella version of "Over the Rainbow" and then went into "Near You Always."

She asked for requests from the audience but had to pass some over because she couldn't remember all the words. She did play "Carnivore," which isn't on any records, and a ditty about Denver that she wrote. Also "Hands," "Foolish Games," "Who Will Save Your Soul," "Meant for Me," "Violet Eyes." She finished by yodeling.

See Lucero! See Jewel! For free!

Lucero is doing an acoustic set(duo) at Twist and Shout tomorrow, 3/30, at 6:30 p.m.

As part of NCAA women's final four action in Denver, Jewel plays at the convention center 3/31 at 5:30 p.m. if you get there early enough to get in

Silversun Pickups

The Silversun Pickups' new album is on its way May 8. You can listen to the single "Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)" now: