It’s hard when you’re listening to a favorite podcast and your favorite band comes up in the conversation — and it’s apparent that no one really knows much of anything about it. Such was the case when the subject of John Doe and his band X came up on a recent episode of “Armchair Expert” with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman.

Years ago, I surveyed music experts around the country for a poll that determined X to be the most influential U.S. punk band in history outside of the Ramones. X, I wrote, “was Los Angeles’ spectacular enlistment in the international punk music revolution. X brought a fresh, intelligent voice of angst and rebellion to a burgeoning scene defined to that point by the party-time anger of the Ramones in New York and the anarchy of the Sex Pistols in Britain.”

I wanted to jump into my cell phone and out onto the hosts’ armchair to tell them all about Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper’s uncommon connection to the band. For years, whenever X would play Denver, you could count on the then-mayor slipping into the Lion’s Lair at midnight to catch a solo John Doe set, or bopping along to the music on the side of the Bluebird Theatre stage.

When X visited Denver in 2009, the mayor had the whole band over for lunch. Later that night, while introducing the band at the Bluebird Theater, Hickenlooper called X “the greatest rock ‘n roll band of all time.”

Doe also has more than 100 film and TV acting credits, most recently in “Quantum Cowboys.” He played opposite gun-slinging singer Neko Case as estranged lovers in University of Colorado Boulder film professor Geoff Marslett’s masterful and wholly original animated film labor of love.  

So why did the frontman adopt the anonymous names X and John Doe, the Armcherry hosts wanted to know? Well, I am here for them: Doe, born with the Czech name John Duchac to Illinois librarians, first assumed the moniker of the unidentified man — either hospitalized, dead or wanted by police: John Doe. He then adopted a band name that signifies the unknown factor in mathematical equations.

Anyway, the legendary, 48-year-old band is coming back to Colorado to play the Oriental Theatre on Wednesday (July 19). I’ve extended so-far shockingly unacknowledged invitations to Shepard and Padman (and Hickenlooper, for that matter) to come to Denver and see the show.

Tickets are $30-$250 at orientaltheatre.com.

Cherry Creek Theatre seeks $50,000 infusion

Cherry Creek Theatre, a mid-professional local theater company that on June 15 learned of its personal-best 10 Henry Awards nominations (recognizing achievements in Colorado live theater), has sent out a life-or-death S.O.S. to its supporters.

“There is no other way to say this: Cherry Creek Theatre is at a financial crossroads,” Producing Artistic Director Susie Snodgrass wrote in an email this week.

The company, which stages three productions per year at the JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center, was founded in 2010 by Mark and Maxine Rossman, who retired in 2020. Attendance has been higher than projected over the past year, Snodgrass said, but it’s an old truism: “Ticket sales alone cannot support live theater,” she said. 

Snodgrass is moving forward with plans to stage “Sondheim on Sondheim” from Oct. 27-Nov. 19 — but the mountain to get there is tall.

“To help save Cherry Creek Theatre, our goal is $50,000,” she said. “The future of our theater is currently hanging in the balance.”

Red Rocks coffee-table book re-released

Local rock authority G. Brown on Tuesday updated, upgraded and re-released his 2016 coffee-table book, “Red Rocks: The Concert Years,” distributed through Publishers Group West. The book provides hundreds of photos and excerpts from 200 interviews including Stevie Nicks, Jimmy Buffett, the Grateful Dead and Nathaniel Rateliff. Historic performances dating to 1906 are chronicled including the Beatles’ appearance in 1964, Bruce Springsteen’s first-ever outdoor concert in 1978 and U2’s career-making 1983 video shoot for “Bloody Sunday.” Hall of Fame guitarist Carlos Santana wrote the foreword.

“Red Rocks is not just dirt and stones and sky,” Santana wrote. “It’s a temple, a shrine. It’s the same setting that the Greeks performed in at the beginning of civilization, and it definitely has the sacred American Indian spirit — you can feel the vibe. There is nothing like playing at Red Rocks.”

While much of the performing-arts community struggles to return to pre-pandemic attendance figures, a record-shattering 1.54 million attended ticketed events at Red Rocks in 2022 — up a full 32% over the record set the year before. Red Rocks was most recently in the news for the June 22 hailstorm that pummeled Louis Tomlinson concertgoers, sending seven people to the hospital and injuring 100 more. Rain, as you might imagine, has made for some legendary evenings at Red Rocks, like the 1981 Springsteen concert in a torrential downpour. We remember that night a little differently, but I can confirm that when Springsteen played the first few bars of “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” the day-long torrent did (briefly but gloriously) come to a stop! The book is a great trip back in time (at least to try) to remember some of the best nights of our lives.

More labor woes for Central City Opera

It’s been a rough year for Central City Opera regarding a number of labor disputes. On June 28, the union representing U.S. singers, dancers and staff working in opera, choral performance and concert dance, released a scathing statement charging Central City Opera with illegally subcontracting dancers, who are covered in the American Guild of Musical Artists’ collective bargaining agreement but have not been signed by CCO to union contracts. In short: CCO wants to subcontract dancers, “as if they wanted to subcontract their accounting department,” an AGMA statement said. There are all kinds of other incendiary charges and counter-charges, but the bottom line, the union says: Without the same contract protections afforded to singers, those dancers hired to perform in Central City shows are left vulnerable and unprotected, and subject to minimum compensation rates and housing benefits.

“This will be made right,” the statement said. “But we must acknowledge that the summer is short, and a lot of damage is happening in (real time). Unfortunately, these processes take time, and the dancers are suffering in the meantime.”

Mayor Johnston’s inauguration party

Isaac Slade (former lead singer of the Fray), Flobots and The Motet are headlining Denver Vibes, a celebration of Mike Johnston’s inauguration as Denver mayor, from 5-10 p.m. Monday (July 17) at the Wynkoop Plaza at Union Station. Festival co-chairs Bobby LeFebre (Colorado’s outgoing Poet Laureate) and State Rep. Leslie Herod are promising 12 live bands and DJs, local artists, food vendors and other small businesses. It’s free but you are asked to RSVP at denvervibesfest.com

The Sunset has its groundbreaking

In Colorado Springs, groundbreaking took place Wednesday on the controversial new 8,000-seat amphitheater on the city’s north side called The Sunset. Notes Live has inked a 10-year deal with AEG Presents to operate the concert venue, which has targeted an opening of summer 2024.  

‘Critter Fixers’ are Denver-bound

Doctors Terrence Ferguson and Vernard Hodges, longtime stars of the Disney+ TV show “Critter Fixers: Country Vets,” are coming to Denver with a new show called “Vet for a Day.” They say it’s in response to the reality that just 2% of veterinarians are Black. The Critter Fixers are using “Country Vets” to encourage more young people of color to explore the veterinary profession.

“We know all the kids can’t get to the Critter Fixers – so the Critter Fixers are going to the kids,” said Hodges.”

The Denver visit will take place Monday (July 17). Organizers are not publicly saying where, but students ages 12-16 are encouraged to apply to participate (it’s free) at cfvetforaday.com. To date, more than 450 students have been matched with mentors in the veterinary profession.

Briefly …

Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe has named a new Board President: Scott Wilson, owner of Gallery 6 at 918 W. 8th Ave. …

Denver’s only Asian-American theater company, called Insight Colab, will present the world-premiere play “Bi-Passing,” a collection of short stories exploring the work of AAPI women writers, from Friday through Monday at the People’s Building, 9995 E. Colfax Ave., in Aurora. Tickets at insightcolab.square …

It’s time for City Park Jazz’s fourth annual Brass Band Extravaganza starting at 6 p.m. Sunday at City Park. Bands include Guerrilla Fanfare and Bourbon Brass Band.

And finally …

Perhaps you noted Denver native Annaleigh Ashford’s first Emmy Award nomination on Wednesday, as a supporting actress in a limited series for Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendales.” Ashford, a graduate of Wheat Ridge High School, played the initially timid wife of Chippendales founder Steve Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani). But the world of risqué dancing was not entirely new to the proudly clean-cut Ashford. When she first moved to New York out of college, she took a job as a go-go dancer for DJ Lady Starlight. Back then, she went by the name Hollywood Starr. “With two r’s,” Ashford says. “Ewww.”