A new biopic is about to hit the streets in early February, and it’s subject is Denver’s fervent music scene — or at least a small, but significant portion of the burgeoning music culture in our town. “Denver Undiscovered,” a smorgasbord of Denver bands still playing, recording and gigging as 2011 began, will premiere to the general public on February 4th at the .
The film was first shown (still in a less-than-perfect condition) last Friday night at Illiterate Gallery to a nearly packed house full of band members and other local stalwarts, and was generally very well received. Still, to be fair, it’s necessary to point out that many in the audience that night are also featured in the film.
The film is essentially live footage of each band — much of it shot at the 2010 Denver Post Underground Music Showcase — interspersed with interview footage, wherein the band members themselves are given a chance to say pretty much anything they want, with a focus on their Denver band experience. Of course, opinions vary, but most bands are quick to point out their overall satisfaction with the music scene here, and their gratitude. The true highlight of the film, and what should convince fans to see it (maybe many times), is of course the music. All the bands are well represented with samples of their respective sound, and the resulting overall picture forms a pretty exquisite, varied and accomplished soundscape.
While “Denver Undiscovered” does a good job at portraying part of the Denver music scene, it’s still only a small part. Many of the featured bands tend to play warehouse shows at independent venues like , house shows and other independent organizations, but the film does not feature a large part of the scene filled with bands that generally play more traditional venues. Of course, the featured bands form a significant part of what Denver offers musically, to be sure, but the film runs the risk of aggrandizing this portion as a larger and more significant part of that offering than it truly is.
That’s definitely not intentional in any way, though, said Dane Bernhardt, the film’s director, when I asked him about his viewpoint on that potential risk: ” so many talented bands in Denver right now . . . that to define a particular ‘sound’ or ‘scene’ as being ‘the Denver sound’ or ‘the Denver scene’ would be an affront.”
“Ultimately, it was who made themselves available for interviews within a certain framework of time and who we had access to that made the cut. We missed out on some really fantastic bands, but we’re hoping this is just the beginning of our documentary process,” Bernhardt added. “We certainly don’t want people to think that ‘Denver Undiscovered’ imagines itself to be definitive, but rather a snapshot of of the local scene.”
The collaborators’ production company, Crazy Horse Studios, plans to continue the coverage started in the film — a process that so far has taken more than two years to complete — in a series that will periodically appear on local music website SpeakerSnacks.com, as well as in venues going forward.
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Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s explorations at , and his giglist at .
