Denver’s indie rockers returned last weekend from their holiday in Texas, the South by Southwest music festival in Austin. Within days, the city’s electronic-music community started packing up for the Winter Music Conference, a huge, five-day gathering of DJs, producers, industry types and fans in Miami that began on Tuesday.
Perhaps it’s why this weekend’s club scene is relatively quiet – everybody’s partying it up in steamy Florida.
But one of Denver’s DJs is going the extra mile – or extra thousands of miles – to play shows in both Miami and Denver this weekend.
Kostas K will spin during the Winter Music Festival, then jet home to Denver in time to man the decks with his DJ partner, Kevin Alves, at Vinyl (1082 Broadway) on Saturday.
All that traveling is necessary when a DJ lives in Denver, far from the usual electronic-music meccas of New York, Chicago, L.A. and Miami, says Kostas, also known as Kostas Kouremenos, owner of DC10 (940 Lincoln St.).
“I’ve been DJing since 1997 on a professional level,” says Kouremenos, a native of Greece. “Doing events and playing around the world, meeting all these people, really helped some doors open. You have to be very persistent and keep pushing yourself.”
Kouremenos has a set of his usual progressive and electro house planned for his visit to Miami club Area 51. Then he’ll team with fellow Denverite Alves and his electro- house beats for Saturday’s show at Vinyl.
“The reason we’re doing a lot of collaborations (lately) is we’re working on an album together,” Kouremenos says. “It’s basically about 11 original tracks that we produced and wrote.”
The two record under the names Gift and Kostas K, and a few early samples of their work are available on their label’s website, mirrorimagerecordings.com.
“Something clicked in our production skills and we came up with some pretty good products,” says Kouremenos.
Once back in Denver, it doesn’t stop for Kostas K. He’ll be performing March 31 at the seventh annual Caffeine Music and Arts Festival in Littleton. Saturday night’s party might be an excellent opportunity to catch him and Alves for future “I-knew- them-when” bragging rights.
Velvet nights
It’s hard to top a name like “The Velvet Elvis.” Try saying it aloud – it rolls off the tongue as easily as “fluffernutter.” Then consider seeing Denver’s own Velvet Elvis in person next week when he performs three shows for an upcoming DVD.
The show, called “The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” features all of Elvis’ original Sun Studios songs, plus tunes by Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly and Hank Williams. The Velvet Elvis will also tell stories about the early days of rock, as only he can.
The first show, for boppers 21 and older, is at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Bluebird (3317 E. Colfax Ave.). Tickets, available at ticketmas ter.com, are $8 in advance and $10 the day of the show.
The next two shows, at the Aurora Fox Theater (9900 E. Colfax Ave.) March 30-31, are for all ages, and kids are invited to attend. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 the day of the show. They are available by calling 303-525-5840 or e-mailinginfo@colfaxavenue.com. Both performances start at 7:30 p.m.
Kathleen St. John is writing about night life in 7Days while Kat Valentine is on maternity leave. Reach her at kathleenstjohn@gmail.com or at 303-954-1568.
