Krooked Drivers with Mux Mool, Marcelo Moxy, Fisk and Special Guest @ The 1up Colfax (6-14-14) [Review]

Review By: Justin D'Amico


Saturday night the 1up Colfax in downtown Denver, Colorado was overtaken by banging beats from Super Best Records. Krooked Drivers headlined with a bevy of big time support including Mux Mool, Marcelo Moxy, Fisk and surprise guest Michal Menert threw down too! Super Best Records came through huge with a stacked line-up representing the label proud.


The 1up Colfax is an arcade, a bar, and now also a music venue. There are arcade games surrounding the perimeter of the front room and also a huge variety of pinball machines too. The stage area and dance floor is in a separate back room with a capacity of about 300-400 people. Even more arcade games are placed in a small hallway directly off to one side of the dance floor too. For shows with live DJs the live music is pumped into the front room, making it so people can play arcade games while jamming out. Both the front room and the back room have a full bar and there is also an outdoor area used as the smoking section and for cooling down. The 1up is one of a kind, and a great place to check out whether or not there is a performance in the back room.

The live music for the night was kicked off by Fisk a Denver based producer who makes chill glitch-hop beats. Its always hard to get the room warmed up, especially with a ton of arcade games distracting the crowd from dancing. Fisk did a really good job and he was able to get some of the people to lounge with him in the back room early in the night. Check out Fisk on bandcamp here for some of his chill beats.




Next up was Marcelo Moxy one of the few DJs left live mixing using vinyl. Marcelo Moxy is out of Boulder, Colorado but he also represents New York and LA. He spins a bunch of sub-genres with a sort of disco feel tying it all together. Marcelo Moxy spun a smooth set bringing even more people into the stage room.

Mux Mool would take the stage next switching it up to a more hip hop style of music. Mux Mool creates his live set with a laptop and a sample machine. He hits drum samples and other sounds he has cued like a live drummer uses a drum set. Mux Mool was one of many artists in the house last Saturday at The 1up Colfax who is a part of the Super Best Records label. During the second half of Mux Mool's set is when Michal Menert popped on stage. While Mux Mool finished up his set the crowd gathered to see Michal Menert setting up for a special set.

Michal Menert is a Super Best Records artist and he is also part of Pretty Lights Music. He is very talented, and it was incredible to get to see him perform in a smaller venue. Michal Menert did just a short set but he crammed it full of new music, and he also rapped for a song which is going to be part of an upcoming release. Michal Menert was a completely unexpected delight to see perform. Michal Menert will be a performing next at the Sonic Bloom Festival coming up this weekend in South Park, Colorado.


Headlining the night of Super Best Records artists was Krooked Drivers, a duo of DJs - Maddy O'neal and Donnie Dalbora respectively. They came out strong bumping Denver glitch hop, and dancing with hard deep head-bobs. The room was full and the vibes were right, everyone got down and danced for their set. Krooked Drivers have great energy live and it's always fun to see that when watching a DJ set.  





Super Best Records really went all out for this show and the crowd was really appreciative. The 1up Colfax is open everyday from 3:00PM - 2:00AM. Even if their isn't a band playing it's a perfect place to hang and have a drink while feeling nostalgic playing classic arcade games and pinball. Keep up with the music schedule at The 1up Colfax for future concerts by following the official Facebook page here.

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RE:CREATION @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom and The Other Side (Review) [6-7-14]

Review by: Justin D'Amico

Saturday night was one of the funnest times I've ever had at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom and The Other Side in Denver, CO. Euphonic Conceptions and Cervantes' put on a dual venue event dubbed Re:Creation with a huge line up. Marty Party headlined in the Masterpiece Ballroom with support from Snublock, Unlimited Gravity, and Ana Sia. The Other Side featured Late Night Radio with a special set to celebrate his new album release. The openers on The Other Side were Reed MT, Mikey Thunder, JK Soul, Artifakts, and Mux Mool. Cervantes' was bumping the whole night.

The Other Side opened up a bit early with a patio set directed by Mikey Thunder and JK Soul from 7:00-9:30. For Re:Creation the back patio area was used for a BBQ pit as well as a third stage to start the show. The patio area was busy with most of the crowd hanging out there early on in the night. The awesome wooden stage structure is now covered with a beautiful canopy. The patio is a great spot to go and converse with friends without having to scream over the music.

First up in the Masterpiece Ballroom was Snublock, a Denver dude representing an original Nintendo controller cap - my kind of guy. He got things started with what he calls his left field hip-hop and future beat music. Snublock is someone to keep an eye on, he is making some really cool new music a bunch of which is up on his official soundcloud page here.

Over on The Other Side there was another Denver native and turntable mix master, Reed MT. He makes all of his music by sampling vinyl records and he also preforms with two turntables and a mixer, the old school and highly respected way of doing things. His finished mix comes out to be a smooth hip-hop beat and with carefully timed interesting samples placed within accordingly. Following Reed MT was Artifakts a young producer hailing from Wisconsin with a chill down tempo glitch hop style. Artifakts was a perfect fit with all of the acts on The Other Side.

For the most part the majority of people were hanging out on The Other Side until one specific turning point, Unlimited Gravity taking the stage in the Masterpiece Ballroom. Unlimited Gravity completely filled the room within ten minutes, it was pretty remarkable. He was in rare form going extra hard on stage and the people couldn't help but join in and dance. The most notable part for me about Unlimited Gravity's set was how he was able to transition from glitch hop into drum and bass, two genres which are typically not mixed back to back. All of his transitions were seamless, and it was an insane set to watch and dance along to. You can stay up to date by liking and following Unlimited Gravity on his official facebook page there you can find links to his other social media outlets as well.

Ana Sia followed Unlimited Gravity switching up styles to house music, but she does it differently than many other DJs. For her set Ana Sia uses only two CDJ machines and a mixer, no laptop. She then loads music onto flash drives to create her live mix with. Ana Sia was completely killing the room with a fresh set, but for whatever reason about half way through her time she watched one of the CDJs short out and go blank! She could no longer transition between songs! This was detrimental having no back-up CDJ in the booth, and Ana Sia was forced to quit her set early. It was a bummer because Ana Sia was on point.

This led to a boost in the population of The Other Side, but not for long as Marty Party came out early. Some of the people stayed and jammed out with Mux Mool the last act before Late Night Radio. Mux Mool does mostly hip-hop and glitch-hop with a bit of funk mixed in, he was really good live. Mux Mool is not only a musician he also creates some awesome artworks, check out Mux Mool's official website to have a look at his galleries.

Late Night Radio with A.C. Lao

Late Night Radio had an exclusive set planned for Re:Creation because it was also a record release party for his new album Soap Box. Late Night Radio headlined with nearly a two hour set on The Other Side. He makes music that is full of soul with many deep layers and complex melodies blended. For the second half of Late Night Radio's set he was accompanied by live drums. The drummer was the same guy who played with Michal Menert at the Winter Warmer Festival a few months back, his name is A.C. Lao. Definitely go check out the new Late Night Radio album Soap Box if you haven't already. You can stream Soap Box on Late Night Radio's official soundcloud and you can download it here on bandcamp for whatever you would like to spend, it's a name your price download.

Marty Party took the Masterpiece Ballroom stage around 11:45 about a half hour early from what was scheduled, and he was expected to close out Cervantes'. It was going to be an extra long set  for Marty Party with very little down time being on stage alone. Luckily for him Ana Sia was itching to get back out there, even with only one CDJ available she formulated a plan to help Marty Party. Ana Sia re-took the stage, and for the last 45 minutes of the Marty Party set there was an exclusive tag team between the two! Using the one working CDJ and a mixer Ana Sia would cue up a song to blend with Marty Party's set and back and forth they went. It was a lot of fun to watch Marty Party and Ana Sia adjust and learn each others technique. They were feeding the crowd with incredible music and amazing vibes, it was all smiles through out the entire room.




This was a crazy night at both sides of Cervantes', but it all worked out in the end. It was so much fun to get to see a completely new combination of musicians on stage together. Big ups to Marty Party and Ana Sia for putting on an outstanding impromptu tag team performance. Also make sure to check out the new Late Night Radio album Soap Box that just dropped.

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