Heart
Saturday, Paramount Theatre
It’s great to say that Heart was a trailblazer for women in rock, but today’s female hit-makers sound nothing like them. You really can hear traces of Janis Joplin, Tina Turner and Patti Smith on the radio these days; not so much Ann and Nancy Wilson, despite a quarter-century of catchy success.
The singer Pink might be an exception. Her act relies on the kind of amped-up, gal-power vocals that propelled Heart. But, let’s face it, she doesn’t have the hair.
And hair does matter in the Heart world. If the sisters’ bodies and voices have changed, their long and frizzy coifs have remained the same. The band’s enduring energy relies as much on Nancy’s frenzied lock-flipping as it does Ann’s piercing vocals.
That makes Heart not so much a nostalgia act — they are still vibrant, terrific, hot — but an act whose music is frozen in time.
Their gig at Paramount Theatre on Saturday played out just as it would have in 1976, 1986 or 1996. The audience was filled with the same people it was back in the day. The hits were delivered expertly but most often as advertised on the recorded versions that fueled multiplatinum sales. There’s no hint that sonic styles have changed around this group; they are as uninfluenced by new music as it is of them, and they played as if growling, guitar rock is all that matters.
There were the early hits in the 90-minute show like “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda” and the later smashes like “These Dreams.” There were few new tunes, little banter, only rare twists (a cover of The Who’s “(Love) Reign O’er Me”). Throughout the night Ann sounded great, as usual. At 58, she’s still one of the best singers around . Ray Mark Rinaldi
Hercules and Love Affair
Friday, Beta Nightclub
Beta’s Friday-night staple, Noise!, has built an attractive and plentiful following over the past few months with appearances from indie dance acts like VHS or Beta, the Rapture and others.
The evening’s turnout for Andrew Butler (of Hercules and Love Affair) was the busiest I’ve seen.Throughout Butler’s set, the dance floor was bursting with blissful kids as the throwback disco vibe was in full effect. The Boney M. cover of Bobby Hebb’s classic “Sunny” was a highlight of the night, strings and horns streaming out from the speakers nicely as beats and rubbery bass lines blended together in the continuous song story.
Butler’s DJing effectively sent warm waves of friction-inducing, dancey pleasure over the large crowd. And any DJ who keeps playing after the ugly house lights come on is awesome in my book. Bree Davies
Achille Lauro
Thursday, Hi-Dive
I always look forward to shows at the Hi-Dive, a mainstay in the center of Denver’s hip Baker neighborhood. The venue never fails to feature sets of local talent, and Thursday night’s headliner Achille Lauro is a solid example.
As the band started its set, Achille Lauro’s Luke Mossman played the opening chords of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge” and then quickly stopped, laughingly reassuring us that they “weren’t going to play that song — although it is a good song.”
The spirit of that song served as a slight hint for what we were about to hear. The five-piece band, one of the most exciting acts in Denver, has a recipe for music that begins with a smoky, loungecore mood. On top of that is a mixture of smooth jazz and light techno, and riding beneath that are slow, looping bass lines and jazz progressions from the guitars — often drenched in echo and mixed in a way that leads the listener to succumb to a comfortable release into drowning.
As they began their set with the coyote-howling of “Card Board Divas,” the band was joined by virtually everyone in the audience. And it’s no wonder. Their sound denies classification, although it often sounds like a mashup of Portishead, Sunny Day Real Estate and a David Lynch soundtrack. It inspires a feeling of being poured into an abstract expressionist painting, enveloped in swirling thick, oily color. Billy Thieme
Indigo Girls
Wednesday, Soiled Dove Underground
The crowd at the Soiled Dove on Wednesday, culled from KBCO listeners, cheered loudly with each song and story from Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, a.k.a. the Indigo Girls.
The night started with Ray on mandolin and Saliers on acoustic for the country-kissed “Yield,” one of the band’s best songs from the past 10 years. The duo played without a backing band as they moved into the new single, “What Do You Like,” a Saliers-fronted song that works better as a full-band song. Fans of Ray’s solo work were pleased to hear Saliers introduce “Driver Education,” a track from Ray’s solo “Prom,” into their set with the note that it’s made the final cut for the new record — in slightly rearranged form. The song loses some of its edge in the context of the Indigo Girls, as it likely has to in order to appeal to the band’s core base. Regardless, it was still a highlight of the short, 10-song, 50-minute performance. Ricardo Baca
