SPELLSԻScott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox are our picks for the best shows around Denver this week. See you there, and if you don’t make it out, follow our music musings on and our selfies on . Oh, our editor has a Snapchat, too. Add “dylanacious” to see him make musicians puke rainbows mid-solo.
SPELLS — Nov. 12, Three Kings
What’s in an album? Four years into its Denver punk quintet SPELLS haven’t needed one to build its reputation as one of the city’s most competently manic rock bands. Fronted by comedian Ben Roy (of comedy troupe The Grawlix and the IFC sitcom “Those Who Can’t”), the band both faithfully shoulders the high-tension crank of its punk forebears (its penchant for matching shirts is a callback to uniformed ’90s punk outfit Rocket from the Crypt) and is very much its own playful beast. And as of its show at 3 Kings Tavern on Nov. 12,, they’ll be album-less no more: $7 will get you in the door, or for $15, you get a ticket and a copy of the band’s long-awaited debut full-length, “Staying In is the New Going Out.” Tickets via .
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox
Imagine, if you will, a 1920’s jazz band that’s come unstuck in time. That’s more or less the premise of Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, an ensemble of singers, string and brass players and a drummer that pull modern pop songs back to simpler, bygone eras. Pianist Scott Bradlee spearheaded the project in 2009, after uploading jaunty ragtime covers of ’80s songs by the likes of Bon Jovi and Journey onto YouTube. Six years and millions of views later, Postmodern Jukebox sells out theaters and event centers like Broomfield’s FirstBank Center, where they’ll play on Nov. 12, with the ease they turn Outkast’s “Hey Ya” into Gastby-age fodder for the Charleston. Tickets are $39.50 to $67.70 via .
