Live Video: Denver at Mississippi Studios, 1/18

Denver live at Mississippi Studios on Friday, Jan. 18.
By MATTHEW SINGER

Looking at Portland's Denver—yes, that's an odd construction, I know—you get an idea of what they might sound like: large mustaches, pearl snap-up shirts, cowboy boots, an ever-present bottle of Jim Beam. If you say, "alt-country," well, you'd be wrong. Denver, in fact, plays straight-up country—boot-scootin' honky-tonk that doesn't look back longingly at a dustier time in American history but actually seems to live inside it. Which is somewhat surprising, considering the band is a project of Eric Earley from Blitzen Trapper, a group that, in its twangier moments, often romanticizes a place and time it never convincingly embodies.

Regardless, Denver is rising locally, and if this video from last week's Mississippi Studios gig, of the band performing new song "A Way Out," is any indication, its next record—scheduled for release this summer—should be a killer.

Thanks to Generator for the clip. 

Denver from Mike Parziale on Vimeo.

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