I Heart Music

When thinking about fun things to do in Colorado, my mind usually goes to all the awesome outdoor activities. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Denver also has some amazing cultural events. And since we're a pretty big city, we also get a lot of great music acts coming through. Over the last few months, we've been able to check out a few different groups, from large popular bands to local artists who we actually know.

The first of our series of concerts was back in April when we went to see one of our favorite bands for a second time. Since the last concert, fun. has completely exploded in mainstream music. I'm sure anyone reading this has heard their recent hit from their new album, "We Are Young." While I'm very happy they're having so much success, I definitely miss the days when no one knew who they were (because I'm hipster like that). But they still put on a really good live show, just with a few more audience members.

After the opening act, Sleeper Agent...

Sleeper Agent was pretty good.

Then it was time for fun.!

Rocking out at the Ogden!

My favorite part of the show was when the whole back-up band left the stage, leaving just the three main members. They played my favorite song ever ("Be Calm") with a sort of unplugged vibe. Super cool.

While we'll continue to love fun. despite their massive mainstream success, their surge in popularity is certainly making it difficult to keep seeing their shows. Apparently, they recently announced an upcoming show in Denver, and sold out before we'd even heard about it. Guess we'll be waiting for the next time round.

A couple weeks later, I got to have a girls' night out at a concert with my buddy Melissa. We went to see Ingrid Michaelson in Boulder. She's a very "girls' night out" type of artist, and that's cool.

The opening act, Harper Blynn, was also pretty cool:

Then Ingrid rocked out. She played some songs with her back-up band and others alone on her piano. The whole band even came out front and sang a song a cappella. And she told some pretty funny stories, too.

Our final music event of the spring was a CD release party for Instant Empire, a local band whose lead singer happens to be an old co-worker of Matt's. The show was at a cool little pizza place/live music venue called The Walnut Room. It was a little hipster, so it was entertaining watching all the people drinking PBR in their flannel shirts. Then I realized that I was wearing skinny jeans, thick-rimmed glasses, and my Zooey Deschanel bangs, so I totally fit right in with the hipster crowd. Oh, well...

Anyway, the show was awesome, and it was super cool to know someone in the band. Of course, they had a lot of their friends and family there to support the release of their CD, so a lot of the audience knew the band... but we were still super cool.

See? Super cool.

Rocking out. And eating out.

Random lemur that seems to be their mascot...

It was a fun night, and it certainly made me want to see more live music in Denver. Luckily, we have a couple fun cultural/musical events coming up!

fun. Times

We've kind of had a run of awesome concerts lately, starting with the two-day Mile High Music Fest in August, followed by Ben Folds, and now fun.! I think it's pretty awesome because I love music.

Last weekend, we went to see one of our new favorite bands, fun.. Their name is a little confusing, but they actually call themselves "fun." with a lower-case f and a period. I promise, I'm not making this up. It made things a little confusing when I told people I was going to the fun. concert. Anyway, I call them one of our new favorite bands because they've only been around for a couple of years, but I feel like we've been listening to them for much longer. That's because Matt and I have loved the lead singer's former band, The Format, since college. The song that really got us into their music was the title track off their album, Dog Problems. It's pretty ridiculously awesome. If you don't believe me, have a listen.



I've always loved The Format's music because of the epic, storytelling quality that they consistently utilized. I feel like I travel through various emotions and states of mind as I listen to each song. The Format combined many musical elements to create really good music, which seems to be more and more scarce in our modern culture.

When we heard that The Format had broken up, it was pretty disappointing. Luckily for us, the lead singer quickly formed fun. and I have been listening to them ever since. Here's one of their songs from their new album, Aim and Ignite.



I tell you this history of one of my favorite bands in order to prepare you for the remainder of this post, which is all about the awesomeness that was the fun. concert.

Umm... they forgot the period. Lame.

I took pictures of our tickets because (a) I was excited, and (b) the Fox Theatre sucks at organization and we stood outside in the cold for an hour - I was a little bored. It made me angry, but I was still excited.

We got inside just as the first of two opening acts was starting.

The first opening act. It was a guy whose name started with a "J." He was kind of cool, but obviously, not very memorable.

The second opening act (though they played a really long set) was Steel Train. This was when they mellowed down for a song. The rest of their set was crazy, with lots of jumping around and excitement. Unfortunately, jumping around makes pictures look blurry, so this is all I got.

Finally, it was time for fun.!

fun.

Awesome.

So excited.

The band put on a really good show. The epic quality of their songs worked really well onstage, and the lead singer's theatricality, along with the other musicians' talent and passion, added to the whole show. Most of the audience in the small venue knew all of the words and sung along the whole time. In fact, the musicians struggled a little with keeping up their energy in the high altitude, so the audience was encouraged to help out! It was a great show, and I hope to catch them again the next time they come to town.

So good.

I guess you could say that fun. was fun! Ha!