BadBadNotGood and John Paul White 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 . If you do, mind .
BadBadNotGood, Jan. 13, Gothic Theatre
There’s a motif in the new, Oscar-buzzing musical blockbuster “La La Land” that jazz is dead to kids these days, killed off by clunky electronic dance music and interlopers like Kenny G, who laid it to rest in the waiting room at the dentist’s office. If that’s where you stand, BadBadNotGood would like an evening of your week. The twenty-something Canadian quartet bobbed above the surface with a cover of a song by oddball rapper Tyler, The Creator, a paragon of one of today’s zillion fringe youth cultures. “IV,” its latest album, is as thrilling as jazz once was, smashing discordant genres and ideas together like a sandbox full of unruly kids. Catch them on Jan. 13 at the Gothic Theatre. Tickets: $25-$30 via .
John Paul White, Jan. 19, Bluebird Theater
Considering the name, maybe John Paul White’s acoustic duo The Civil Wars was fated to tear apart. In 2014, the singer-songwriter’s relationship with Joy Williams, his musical counterpart, mysteriously soured as the project was just starting to reach its potential, and group dissolved soon after. “Beulah” is White’s first solo album since the break, a testament to what he brought to his last project, and through its alternating crumble and swagger, evidence of all he still has to offer as a sole musical head-of-household. Catch White at the Bluebird Theater on Jan. 19. Tickets are $15-$17 via .
