I took a pause from the non-stop nuptial bliss to hit some shows here in town last week. With the new wife (the word still cracks me up) and a handful of Australians in tow I hit the second night of the Big City Summer Fest. Due to some liquor law speed bumps the entire schedule was somewhat discombobulated. Sixties garage rock legends The Invictas kicked off our journey in the former Tiki Bob's hollowed-out carcass. The band has boundless energy but its gotta lay off the golden oldies, goddammit, and stick to that beautiful Mersey beat, go-go twistin' rock 'n'

Thursday night I joined the teensters and scenesters at The Club @ Water Street to catch The Hedrons, a female punk rock quartet from Scotland. The band played raw and snotty punk to the half-filled joint with the same energy most bands reserve for a full house. They were cute but genuinely ballsy. They looked like they could drink and fight. So while bands like The Donnas are in the ladies' re-applying lip gloss, The Hedrons are gonna be at the bar stealing their boyfriends. Or beating them up.The four lasses seemed a little taken aback by the crowd's lack

Lucinda Williams' Thursday, July 19, performance with the legendary Charlie Louvin has been moved from the High Falls Festival Site to The Main Street Armory, 900 East Main Street. I guess promoters were afraid Lucinda's haunting Americana was gonna make the sky cry. (Or perhaps it was the threat of severe thunderstorms. Who knows?) The show is still free, doors at 5 p.m. Be there, square.

Before we trip over ourselves looking for adjectives to describe just how bad the sound was at Lucinda Williams' Thursday night show at the Main Street Armory (the rain location for Party in the Park), let's remember: it was free. I will say, however, had I not known a lot of the songs, I would have had a hard time telling what the hell was going on. Cool layout and atmosphere, but they might wanna accoustify this joint some.Williams kicked it off narcotic and slow, but bailed on that approach as the band kicked into "Lonely Girls." Didn't nobody wanna

Interpol's concert last week at the Harro Ballroom was the first show for the band since the release of its new album, Our Love to Admire, but the band still played incredibly tight on both the new and the old songs. Really it's had plenty of practice with the new material; it has been in rotation for most of the band's dates this year.The band has always had a knack for great opening songs, and they led off with the creepy, building, "Pioneer to the Falls," setting a mood that only shifted slightly for the rest of the night. Lead singer Paul Banks managed to affect

If I were allowed a couple of crazy wishes, I'd ask the genie for a band like The Isotopes. I'd keep them in a hutch, next to the blue-and-white china and the crystal champagne flutes. I'd get them out like a marble chess set, whenever the urge hit me just right.I remember reading about them a while ago and thinking, What? Go-go dancers? Pocket protectors? Now I say, "Go-go dancers and pocket protectors! What more can you ask for?"The Isotopes were the perfect gang to, as a fellow Boulderfest After Hours attendee put it, "Pop the cherry" of Boulder's new