19 DECEMBER 25-31, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | FIND MORE MUSIC COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MUSIC Take Note THE BIGGEST STORIES ON THE DENVER MUSIC SCENE IN 2025. BY EMILY FERGUSON In 2025, we said goodbye to one of the city’s favorite music festivals – but we also saw the rise of a new, independent venue. A notorious club owner went to jail, where new bands gained the limelight. Here are the biggest music stories of the year, news both good and bad. Disgraced Venue Owner Behind Bars Jay Bianchi, one of the Denver music scene’s most controversial fi gures, was ar- rested in April 2024 and charged with six counts of sexual assault and one for unlawful sexual contact. After a three-week-long trial and a week of deliberation this fall, the jury found him guilty of fi ve felony sex offenses involving three women; he will be sentenced on January 23. Bianchi had been active in the jam-band scene for two decades, opening Deadhead watering holes like Sancho’s Broken Arrow (which closed in 2022) and So Many Roads (which closed in 2024). The greasy-haired, scrawny bar owner already had a terrible reputation that included punching his em- ployees and attempting to attack a band later that same night; he also had a history of raping women he’d drugged, as his convic- tion confi rmed. Your Mom’s House Seized by City Your Mom’s House has been hit by at least nine wage claims that employees have filed with the Colorado Department of Labor since January, when Jillian Johnson took over majority ownership of the venue; musicians also claim they haven’t received payment for their performances. While Johnson said she bought her majority stake in YMH with the goal of amping up its punk roster, the venue has shifted its focus to more hip-hop shows, and at least one event promoter claims Johnson has made racist comments. On December 17, the city seized the venue for unpaid taxes. You Mom’s House had been on rocky footing since March, when a dispute over a liquor license between Johnson and owners of the Pearl took an ugly turn. Then in April, former co-owner James Bedwell filed a lawsuit charging that Johnson fraudulently took the venue from him. Federal Theatre Opens The Federal Theatre became the area’s newest independent music venue when it opened at 3830 Federal Boulevard on September 19 with fanfare and fi erce cultural pride: The free show featured two of Denver’s top Latin bands, Los Mocochetes and iZCALLi. The theater had opened as a cinema in the 1920s and closed in the ‘70s, with a church utiliz- ing it as a space for over a decade until January 2023. That’s when Oriental The- ater owners Scott Happel, Peter Ore and Andy Barcaw stepped in and brought the 650-capacity space back to life. “We need to provide fun places for people to come,” Happel told us, “and we need people to want to come out and have a good time.” The Northside certainly obliged, and we look for- ward to many more shows at this community-oriented venue in the year to come. Project 70’s Hardcore Debut Although there had been whispers about Project 70, no one could have anticipated its wild debut this fall that had us wishing it were open year-round. The pop- up venue is the latest project from Anschutz Entertainment Group, which also created such venues as Mission Ballroom, and it arrived in September with a bang. Located under the I-70 overpass at 46th Avenue and Humboldt Street, next to the Denver Coli- seum, Project 70 debuted with a hard-core celebration that included performances by Turnstile, Mannequin Pussy, SPEED and Jane Remover, as well as a half pipe with pro skaters, food trucks and a giant mosh pit. More shows followed, including a rave with drum-and-bass producers Chase & Status. “One of the joys of live music and the live experience is getting something new and different,” Don Strasburg, co-president of AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, told us. “Bringing the opportunity to explore new places to dance is our mission. We want to constantly evolve and create dynamic experi- ences for the entire community.” Underground Music Showcase Goes Under It was the end of an era: When the Under- ground Music Showcase announced it would cease after 2025, we were a mess. The festival had been one of the highlights of a Denver summer for 25 unforgettable years, and the last event was colored by both nostalgia and a no-holds-barred attitude to make the absolute most of it. The swan song included perfor- mances from major groups like DeVotchKa, which was at the festival’s early iterations, but the main pull was the local bands and musicians that continue to make our scene so strong, from Dressy Bessy, Cheap Perfume and the Velveteers to Rootbeer Richie and the Reveille, Horse Bitch, Monica The Great, Jaiel and Velvet Daydream. All in all, the festival’s end came with a reminder: We’re lucky to have a scene that’s thriving year-round, and for the cost of one weekend pass to UMS, you can still buy a ticket to a weekly local show throughout the year. Five Points Music Festivals Lost and Found This was our fi rst year without the Five Points Jazz Festival. The event had been a city favorite since it began in 2003, bringing people together along Welton Street for a celebration of the neighborhood’s historic jazz roots. When Denver Arts & Venues announced that the fest was ending, it said it would be replaced with the Five Points Jazz grant program, which “supports jazz performances and jazz-related activities in Five Points, both to celebrate the history of jazz in the ‘Harlem of the West.” And Five Points has a community that shows up for music, which was evident when the Drop 104.7 stepped in to support the Juneteenth Music Festival, also on the brink of cancellation, bringing on headliner Juvenile and keeping the event free. In Sep- tember, the Hi Points Festival debuted, a multi-venue, day-long event along Welton Street that celebrated the musical legacy of Five Points as well as late, legendary bassist Charles Burrell. More New Festivals Make Their Mark Hi Points wasn’t the area’s only new music festival. One of our favorites was In- diewood, a collaboration between Swallow Hill Music and Downtown Englewood that provided a full day of music, vendors, food trucks, art installations and more in June. It marked Swallow Hill’s return to the festival world since the pandemic had shut down its Blues and Brews and Brewgrass fests, and it was a sold-out success, with the crowd smil- ing through sets by Barbara, Sunstoney, Yarn, Rootbeer Richie and the Reveille, and Kiltro. There was also the Colfax Carousel Punk Fest, organized by Tom Dodd and Ryan Heller, of Denver band Tuff Bluff. The fest fi lled the Lion’s Lair, the Squire Lounge and Tight End Bar with eighteen local bands in a punk-rock celebration that invigorated a portion of Colfax Avenue that’s been hurting since the Bus Rapid Transit project construc- tion began. Denon Moore, business director of the Colfax Avenue Business Improvement District, said the festival would “lift the en- ergy level back up on Colfax,” and it sure did. Further afi eld, Field of Vision hosted its inaugural event at Meadow Creek in Buena Vista this summer. Helmed by King Giz- zard & the Lizard Wizard, perhaps the best contemporary rock band in the world right now, the three-day event was a major success, pulling in fans around the globe. It was also tinged by tragedy, after fan Matt Gawiak suf- fered cardiac arrest during the fi rst evening of the festival and passed continued on page 20 The fi nal Underground Music Showcase happened this year. MUSIC JORDAN ALTERGOTT (@JORDANALTERGOTT)
