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It's really a shame that so many people in Denver are so unaware of the awesome bands in their own town.
Sure, you've got your tight-trousered hipsters who stay abreast of what bands are playing the Larimer or Hi-Dive, and your occasional sorority girl going to see her roommate's boyfriend's band. But your average Mastodon concert-goer has no idea that local sludge-core act Kingdom of Magic, for instance, will blow his or her cotton socks off with equal triple-rectifierage at a quarter of the ticket price. From the angular prog of Wetlands to the sweet vaudeville harmonies of Paper Bird to the goth-country Baptist sermonizing of Slim Cessna's Auto Club, there are awesome bands in this town to satisfy the nichiest of genre cravings.
But if you're into melody-driven indie-pop like I am, then you should have been at the Gaza Relief Concert last Friday, where Hello Kavita, Ian Cooke, and Joshua Novak played to support the cause.
Because if you weren't, boy, you missed out.
The concert, which included the three bands and four speakers, was put on by the Association of Human Rights Students at the University of Denver's Korbel School of International Studies, the purpose being to aid MECA, the Middle East Children's Alliance, in delivering food and medical supplies to the people of Gaza.
A 40-square-mile area, Gaza is the most densely populated chunk of land in the world, and is the fastest-growing. Inhabited mostly by Palestinians and occupied by Israel, it's also a notorious conflict zone; the fighting that broke out in December left 1,400 Palestinians-including 400 children-and 13 Israelis dead. Because of overbearingly tight Israeli security, it has been almost impossible to get supplies into the devastated area. The student association and MECA, in part through the concert, are trying to change that.
But, you know, yadda yadda. I came for the bands.
First up was Joshua Novak, a singer-songwriter who performs with a two-piece backing band, bass and drums. And when I say singer-songwriter, I mean that only as a literal descriptor, because Novak's singing and songwriting comes with none of the warbly lameness that term implies.
Novak has a Thom Yorke lilt to his voice, and there is definitely an element of Pablo Honey-era pop-Radiohead to his catchy, interesting songs. When I caught up with him after his set, I was disappointed to learn that he didn't have anything recorded with him, because I'd have bought it on the spot. I've seen Novak a few times before, and every time I do, I'm reminded how much I like his songs, and how good he is on stage.
He plays guitar and piano, sometimes simultaneously, and his style of playing a right-handed guitar left-handed is always fun to watch. His singing is, and there's really no other way to say it, beautiful, and he's got the songwriting chops to back it up. For its part, his band is tight and professional-I was especially grooving on the drummer's expert shaker-playing (the drummer, by the way, also plays a synth).
Next up was Ian Cooke, who I could say without exaggerating is my favorite musician in Denver-and he's up there on the list of musicians from anywhere else, too. Cooke plays cello (and sometimes piano, but not at this show), performing usually solo and using loop pedals to dub his cello playing and vocals onstage, in real time.
His music is so different and authentic that it's hard to describe-Freddie Mercury by way of Fred Astaire performing the soundtrack to a period film set on the English Moore with a chamber orchestra is as good a place as any to start. Cooke's songs are unconventional and winding, but always anchored in sweet, catchy melodies that, coupled with his distinctively gorgeous voice-one of the best voices, no bullshit, I've ever heard in person-absolutely soar.
There's a sly sense of humor to his lyricism and vocal affectation, and not in a smirky, ironic kind of way. Rather, it's a knowingness, a melancholy joke we all get to share. Watching Cooke play is like watching someone who's good with kids pull a quarter from behind a child's ear-as if Cooke knows it's all an illusion-and maybe we do too, but we're delighted all the same.
The last act was Hello Kavita, the one honest-to-goodness conventional band of the night. The five-piece plays laid-back rock n roll with a classic feel to it, reminiscent of Neil Young or Tom Petty-in fact, the band played a cover of Petty's "Something in the Air." Because of its firm pop footing, and not just a little because of singer Cory Teruya's sincere, unaffected voice, I was also reminded of Belle and Sebastian. Like all the other performers this show, HK's set was tight and well-executed, and the band's lead guitarist notably lays down some ripping solos that nevertheless connect with and augment the soft and sweet atmosphere.
Despite that it took place in something akin to a gymnasium, and that the vocals were never once loud enough the whole night, and that the audience mostly sat in chairs or lingered around the food tables in back (the perils of playing to a scholarly crowd), this was a great show. In fact, it was one of the best I've seen in some time-and I'd put that up against a national act any day.
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