A few posts ago we discussed the amazing, female-fronted folk duo out of Sweden, First Aid Kit. Well if amazing, female-fronted folk is your thing, then you need to head to our downtown location this Saturday as two of the best folk musicians Denver has to offer will be playing — they just so happen to both be female. 

We’ve mentioned here several times that we love Lizzie Huffman, but let’s just remind you of that one more time. The Seattle bred songwriter continues to grow and mature with each performance and her potential stretches as far as her impressive vocal range. 

Chella Negro is relatively new to the Denver scene and a new friend of Illegal Pete’s, but we hope she sticks around. Her music and voice give a nod to classic folk musicians like Joan Baez while coming off as fresh and contemporary. 

This will be a great night for music in Denver but specifically a chance to see some of the most beautiful folk music available today. 

Mixtape Monday 5-14-12 featuring American Tomahawk, Flashbulb Fires, Old Man Markley, Trampled By Turtles, more!

We will be doing our best to feature a new mix tape every week featuring songs by acts either playing an Illegal Pete’s or playing a show that we are sponsoring. As you can see, there are lots of great songs by Trampled By Turtles, American Tomahawk, My Body Sings Electric, The Photo Atlas, Old Man Markley, Street Dogs and lots more.

Please tune in each week and if you would be so kind, please share it with others. Thanks. #Mixtapemonday

While originally slated as their CD release show, turns out our friends in The Photo Atlas need a little more time to complete their latest masterpiece. So this show, this Friday at the Hi-Dive, will not celebrate anything other than amazing music, good times and great friends. 

Also featuring, Il Cattivo, The Dirty Few and Peña, this show’s lineup will be diverse but will remain high energy and rocking throughout the night. 

Ill Cattivo, featuring former members of Planes Mistaken for Stars and Black Lamb, takes the blistering energy and aggression that these bands always showed and interjects sincerity and melody. They sound a bit like…Planes Mistaken for Stars…with the singer of Black Lamb singing…but only a little. Set to release a new album of their own, and with a couple of new members, the band continues to be trendsetting and cutting-edge. 

With the amount on instrumental bands swelling as of recent, Peña can always claim to be doing it before the influx, starting the band way back in 2005. Although the amount of shows these gents play has decreased over the years, they still write beautiful, soaring melodies with complex finger tapping leads, solid rhythms and mathy breakdowns. 

Switching from the beautifully complex, to the blissfully simple, The Dirty Few play party-starting garage rock with very little pretense but a whole lot of energy and fun. 

Want FREE tickets to this amazing, all-local rock show?! Email us!

Illegal Pete’s had 2 really great nights of parties for our 2nd Annual Starving Artist SxSw Showcase. We had 18 incredible acts (17 from Colorado) perform over 2 nights at Peckerheads. Luckily, local filmmaker, Kim Shivley, film, coordinate, and edit tons of great footage to put together this incredible recap video. Please take a look and if you would be so kind, share it with someone. Thanks to everyone who made our 2nd annual party in Austin such a great time.

FREE BEER FRIDAY – COURTESY OF ILLEGAL PETE’S [Denver off the Wagon]

Take a good look at this photo, then visit the above link to see the list of beers available at Illegal Pete’s. If you correctly email the name of the beer in the photograph, you could win a FREE pint of beer good at any of the 5 Illegal Pete’s locations. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. Good luck.

Thanks to our friends at Denver Off the Wagon for hosting this contest and working with us to celebrate Colorado Craft Beer.

Last week, we had 1 correct guess out of about 40. The correct answer was Hazed and Infused, Dale’s Pale Ale, Fat Tire, and Hoss. Good luck this week! We will pick 10 winners.

Illegal Pete’s has partnered with PBR to produce a one of a kind Pint Glass for the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls. The limited edition (limited to 500 glasses which is photographed above) will be sold at Illegal Pete’s for $5 and that purchase will include a 16 ounce PBR. Half of the proceeds from the sale of the glasses will benefit the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls.

On Friday, May 11th, come join the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls at Illegal Pete’s Downtown to help kickoff this very special collaboration. The kickoff party starts at 8pm. All 5 locations will have pint glasses for sale starting tomorrow!

Meet, drink, and show your support with the Roller Girls, PBR, and Illegal Petes.

What: Rocky Mountain Roller Girls / PBR Pint Glass (Pete’s Pints)
Where: Our downtown location, 1530 16th st.
When: Kickoff Party, Friday, May 11th from 8 to 11 pm.
Who: Rocky Mountain Roller Girls at Illegal Pete’s
Why: To help support the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls who we sponsor and back fully.

One of the perks of being a restaurant that caters to musicians is that we are constantly finding new and intriguing artists and then getting them to play in our stores. Our latest discovery, that we are proud to present this Saturday at our downtown store, is Ft. Collins’ You, Me and Apollo. 

The brain child of front-man Brent Cowles, the band takes a soulful and loungy approach to music, combining it with a progressive punch. Cowles’ engaging falsetto is an immediate  eye-opener, shouting high and passionate over the bluesy framework. 

This show will be a refreshing and impressive spectacle and not one to be missed. 

This show will start at 9pm and, like all of our shows, is FREE!

In light of Tom Gabel’s controversial announcement  that he is coming out as a transgender and will live out his remaining days as Laura Jane Grace, we here at Illegal Pete’s would like to remind everyone that this person, regardless of name or gender is an amazing musician who should be judged as such. 

Against Me! have set the standard for punk-rock bands over the last decade and this decision neither solidifies or tarnishes that. This decision was undoubtably difficult for Tom. We only hope Laura Jane Grace approaches music with the same tenacity and fire she showed in the early days of Against Me!

This week’s Pete’s Picks, while far from Against Me!’s best album (that distinction belongs to Searching for a Former Clarity) is being celebrated and should be reexamined, as the lyrical content pointed to this change all along. What we once thought was metaphor, can now be viewed without very much hyperbole.

Songs like “Trash Unreal,” once thought to be told from the perspective of a female protagonist, now seem more apparent that Gabel was talking about himself and his own feelings about who he thought he really was. 

The most glaring and obvious lyrics come from the song “The Ocean,” where Gabel sings, “And if I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman/My mother once told me she would have named me Laura/I’d grow up to be strong and beautiful like her…”

Ooooh, that’s what he was talking about!? Well, why didn’t you just say so?!

Against Me! have always been a great band. Hopefully Grace chooses to move forward with her musical career regardless of name, gender or unwarranted criticism. 

Illegal Pete’s will donate 20% of all of TONIGHT’S business from 4 – 10 p.m. to help Fundraise for the Columbine PTA. If you or someone you know goes to Columbine or you just want to support Columbine elementary, please come in tonight. This will only apply for sales done tonight between 4 and 10 and only at our Pearl St Location: 1447 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302.

Thanks for considering to come in.

The Wynkoop has released a special beer for Create Denver week, Catalyst Ale. Read about it here. If you are around this afternoon, they will be tapping the beer at 5pm at the Wynkoop. If you miss out on it, we will be getting a couple kegs at our downtown location. The cool thing about this beer is that every bar that has it for sale will donate a dollar from every beer sold to support Create Denver. Hope you can make it down today and if not, know that we will have it on tap at our Lodo location.