Through heat, hangovers and headbanging, the saw record attendance in its 10th year. The festival’s talent buyer Ben Desoto estimated upwards of 5,000 concertgoers walked South Broadway over the course of the four-day event that closed Sunday night.
The number may have been higher. Between the bystanders who gawked at bands playing in more than two dozen venues for free, the Baker neighborhood residents who got no-charge access wristbands and the musicians who played as well as watched their co-headliners, it may have been double that, according to organizers.
“By far, the most successful year, hands down,” Desoto said Sunday.
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Part of the festival’s success can be attributed to the addition of more national acts to this year’s roster. Desoto stressed that while bands like the Flobots may be tied to a major label, the organizers still consider everyone in the 300-band lineup to be an independent artist, playing music a notch — or several notches — out of the mainstream.
And at its heart, the fest was clearly a celebration of the Denver scene. When Mayor John Hickenlooper introduced the Flobots at their headlining performance Saturday night — to the largest single audience in UMS history — he brought that notion home.
“Forget Austin, Texas,” Hickenlooper said. “I’m sick of hearing about Seattle or Portland. It’s happening right here in Denver.”
Jim Norris, 3 Kings Tavern owner, said that he was in attendance for the first and third years of Austin’s South By Southwest music festival, an event that serves as the unofficial model for Denver’s UMS. Norris, who has been active in the UMS since its inception, attributed this year’s success to a “great” vibe, adding that his staff did not have to remove a single patron from the venue all weekend.
And this, after a high-octane mosh pit swept the hardwood in front of the 3 Kings stage during the much-anticipated (and feared) reunion of rowdy rockers Machine Gun Blues on Saturday night.
Lead singer Aaron Collins ripped down a lighting fixture, destroyed an organ and stripped to his underwear before the show’s end, and still, Norris was all smiles on Sunday afternoon.
“I’ll pay $200 to tell a story like that,” he said.
Norris cited the economic benefits the event has brought to South Broadway and wishes, in future years, that festival sponsorship can shift away from large corporations, calling the strip between Third Avenue and Alameda Avenue “rabidly independent.”
While clinging to its independence and underground nature, the UMS, now almost a teenager, has caught the attention of “the other side” of the industry. Chuck Morris, president and chief executive officer of AEG Live Rocky Mountains, said Sunday the current local music climate reminds him of his early days as a promoter in the 1970s.
Morris kick-started the Denver music scene in that era booking shows at the now-defunct Ebbets Field rock club. In a discussion led by Denver Post theater critic and UMS founder John Moore, Morris commended the festival’s commitment to area musicians and acknowledged his company’s Mile High Music Festival prides itself on booking five to seven local acts annually.
“If new bands don’t come up, I’m out of business,” Morris said.
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The UMS Q&A: By Lynette Zilio, The Denver Post
Name: Christine Stirling
Q: Why are you hula-hooping?
A: I’m what you would call a garage/closet hula-hooper. I rarely do it in public, but this seemed like a cool place to do it. All my friends are coming with hula-hoops too.
Q: Is this your first time at The UMS?
A: Yes, this is my first time.
Q: What do you like about The UMS?
A: Watching live bands is amazing. The energy is good, and itap a nice day too, which is good for live music.
Q: Whatap the best band you’ve seen so far?
A: Bela Karoli, the Italian chicks who performed at the Irish Rover. They were amazing. (Editor’s note: They’re not actually Italian.)
Q: Favorite Denver band?
A: Epilogues. I’ve known them since they started. I also love the Flobots.
Q: What are you most excited about this weekend?
A: Just freedom, music and hula hooping.
***
Name: Carolyn Michaels
Q: First time at The UMS?
A: Yes. Itap always been on my radar, but I’ve never committed to tickets. I went to the Westword Music Showcase, but this is definitely better. I’m pleasantly surprised.
Q: What do you like about The UMS?
A: There’s this great community feel to it. There are so many strangers, but itap a great way to meet people and learn about bands without the commitment. Itap non-committal fun. I like that there’s something to do every day.
Q: Whatap the best band you’ve seen so far?
A: Houses. I had been meaning to see them play. I geeked out when I saw them this weekend at one of the bars.
Q: Favorite Denver band?
A: Fellow Citizens, but I’m biased because my sister is in the band. I also like the Don’ts and Be Carefuls.
Q: What are you most excited about this weekend?
A: I’m excited to just have a fun, relaxing weekend and be with my friends.
***
Name: Nate Gross
Q: Do you always wear a sailor hat?
A: No, only to music festivals. I wore it to South by Southwest in 2007.
Q: First time at The UMS?
A: No, this is my fourth time.
Q: What do you like about The UMS?
A: The local music aspect. I always tell people that my favorite thing about Denver is this weekend.
Q: Whatap been the best band you’ve seen?
A: Trees has been the best band so far and Nathan & Stephen. I was like a 14-year-old girl when they came on.
Q: Favorite Denver band?
A: My favorite Denver band is Nathaniel Rateliff.
Q: What are/were you most excited about this weekend?
A: Seeing Nathaniel Rateliff, Nathan & Stephen and Cannons.
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UMS essay, Day 4: By Cassandra Schoon
By day four of this year’s UMS, I was wishing I’d had the forethought to take a “before” photo of myself. Before three non-stop days of beer, rock, street food and heat exhaustion… just to see how rough an affect the festival had wrought. It had been a long few days but nevertheless, I found myself walking into Moe’s Bar B Que at 4 p.m. for yet more of the sweet brutality The UMS had to give.
We caught the tail end of Vitamins before grabbing sandwiches and enjoying the Don’ts and Be Carefuls. The Vitamins’ fun, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s-ish sound functioned as a musical hair of the dog to get me into full swing for day four. And the Don’ts and Be Carefuls brought the visibly fading crowd to life for a dance-y, original set. Nothing like a little synth to get the blood moving again.
Keeping with my mission to catch up with bands I’d heard great things about (but hadn’t actually heard), we headed onto Hi-Dive for Sonnenblume. By this point (5 p.m.) crowds were still small so we were able to chill in the back of the space to take in their fuzzy, vaguely-’90s-rock.
The narcotic combination of late-afternoon sunshine, Mexican beer and space rock was amplified by Bela Karoli’s dreamy set at the Irish Rover. Time for something a little harder, we decided, and wandered into 3 Kings for some Alan Alda. Like an espresso shot dropped into a Guinness, they did the trick. Their sound had gotten broader, deeper and just better since the last time I’d seen them. The Peña set that followed was even better still. Between these guys, Kingdom of Magic, Tauntaun and Trees, I foresee great things for Denver metal.
We quickly stopped by Astrophagus at Hi-Dive (a trumpet player? Awesome!) and settled into a spot at the Goodwill parking lot to finish out the night. I was glad to see Nathaniel Rateliff has fleshed out his solo act and was able to stop by on his tour. For an old-school Born in the Flood fan, it was great to hear his voice in front of a band again. We turned away from the stunning Denver sunset to face the Groove stage for Ian Cooke, who was also flanked by a band (but, for me, to less of a positive effect… I think I like him better when he live-loops by himself). After grabbing a buffalo dog from Biker Jim’s and debating meat choices with Brer Rabbit from Flobots, I finished the night with the Autumn Film’s sweet, piano-driven pop.
Though there was much more to see and hear, we simply could do no more. By my unofficial count, I had seen around 20 bands and had spent an accumulated 22 hours at The UMS. My feet hurt, my body cried out for sleep, and my hand was smudged with four days of stamps. Finally at home, with a sense of bittersweet accomplishment, I took off the wristband.
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UMS essay, Day 4: By Billy Thieme
One impossibly acceptable truth: four days and nights of anything might be just about too much. This is what I found myself thinking last night as I carried pieces of a guitar, smashed onstage at the 3 Kings Tavern by a member of the local band Gangcharger, from venue to venue at the end of the best rock festival in the west. After over 300 bands had played their hearts out to thousands of Denver’s music lovers, the effort at the end looked still unfinished, still full of promise, melody, pounding rhythms, desperate screams and wild howls. All of that formed the beginnings of memories that will never fade.
As I took in the beautiful dream-drone of A Shoreline Dream, one of the festival’s last acts, I couldn’t help but reflect on the highlights of the long, pregnant weekend. I’d seen Denver’s Flobots greet a Goodwill parking lot filled with what looked like over a thousand fans, and seen other bands greet less than 20, with almost equal fervor. The UMS had proven itself to be the answer to a beast of a question: Where and how do I, as an artist, band or performer, find my own peeps? And that answer is: right in your hometown, right down the street.
As I watched bands like the Pawn Ticket Trio, The Don’ts and Be Carefuls, Lust-Cats of the Gutters, Maudlin, Smile Smile, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Mighty 18 Wheeler play out the last day, I couldn’t help but feel both amazed and proud of what our town has to offer to the national musical landscape, and to the world. Itap nothing less than tremendous.
Wrapping up such a significant and epic four days is no easy task, and the memories will no doubt continue to percolate to the surface for years to come. Suffice to say that the upshot is something like this: If you lay it down, and you know itap honest and passionate, your music can take almost any shape and still be accepted, even lauded.
And Denver — Austin, Brooklyn, Portland be damned — is one of the places to lay that sound down, and see who hears it. Chances are, all the fans you need are right here.
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