The King is alive and well in “All Shook Up,” a show that collects 24 of Elvis Presley’s well-worn songs in service of a comforting small-town love story. Think of it as “Grease” for the ’50s nostalgia set.
The crowd-pleasing Broadway musical, known as a “pop-sical” in the theater community, will hit Denver for a two-week stint in late December. Its retro-rock plot concerns a young girl who falls in love with the Presley stand-in as he breezes into town with his “hip-swivelin,’ lip-curlin,’ sexy song singin”‘ antics.
Unlike Presley’s censored performance on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1957, the show features little that could be considered objectionable, at least by today’s standards. Just sit back and enjoy the heavily practiced renditions of “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Jailhouse Rock” and “Blue Suede Shoes.”
Single tickets for the Dec. 20-31 performances go on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday. ($15-$65, TicketsWest.com)
Snow Patrol languished in indie-rock obscurity until U2 chose it as a 2005 tour opener, instantly propelling the band into the global spotlight. Sure, the Irish group had their devoted followers before that, but nothing spells publicity like a nod from famous fellow countrymen. The vanilla-rock band will play Channel 93.3’s “Not So Silent Night” at the Fillmore Auditorium on Dec. 5 with Single File and The Frequent Sea. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. ($25, Ticketmaster)
Pat Metheny looms large on the contemporary jazz scene, boasting 23 Grammy Awards over a three-decade career. Yet the guitarist’s hallmark is throwing fans for a loop with his frequent stylistic excursions. Tickets for Metheny’s March 17 show at the Paramount Theatre with Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. ($49-$69, Ticketmaster)
Tech N9ne returns from a four-year album hiatus on Nov. 7 with the appropriately titled “Everready.” The Kansas City-based hardcore rapper plays the Fillmore Auditorium on Jan. 6 with Blaze. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. ($25, Ticketmaster)
The Chieftains have aged gracefully over the past 43 years, retaining fans of their traditional Irish folk songs while creating new ones with each world tour. Tickets for their Jan. 16 show at the Paramount Theatre go on sale at 10 a.m.
Saturday. ($44.50-$64.50,
Ticketmaster)
The Sounds mine the same retro-new wave vein as many of its contemporaries, but their Swedish buzz band does it better than most. Tickets for their Nov. 28 show at the Gothic Theatre go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. ($15, Ticketmaster)
