Take a rock on the wild side. Colorado is filled with lesser-known places to see live music. Here is a small sample of some.

You know about Red Rocks. You’ve heard of Ball Arena and Fiddler’s Green. (Those were rhetorical questions.) But people are always coming and going from this state like rush hour.

We have a ton of places to see live shows, some new and some historic, but that doesn’t mean they are known by all who call Colorado home.   

How about we take a tour of the upcoming concert season by taking a tour of our lesser-known venues, with a suggested show or two for each? Yeah? Let’s rock.

Junkyard

Full stop: I had zero clue that we have a 12,000-capacity outdoor concert venue called Junkyard located halfway between the 6th Avenue overpass and Meow Wolf off Zuni Street. Turns out, we have since 2022. And that it was developed by Meow Wolf, which may explain my obliviousness. (I confess, I suffer from a general Meow Wolf obliviousness.)   

Junkyard sits on an open-air paved blacktop and is surrounded by shipping containers that serve as bars. It’s most often used for rock, metal and EDM shows. It was a listing announcing an Aug. 19 Lil Wayne retro show that caught my eye. Looks like it’s run by Live Nation and is known for having a high stage, food trucks and those signature, shipping-container bars.

The photos look like an old-school backyard kegger – there’s no easy parking, the entrance lines are long and you’ll get baked if you’re out in the sun because there is no shade. But it sure looks like fun.

Other big names on the upcoming calendar include Yellowcard (May 20), Nas & the Roots (Aug. 25) and Godsmack (Sept. 9). For your GPS, type in 2323 W. Mulberry Place. Info at thejunkyard.com.

Mishawaka Amphitheatre

Another lesser-known Colorado gem that’s a legend to those who know it is the Mishawaka Amphitheatre. “The Mish” is a historic 1,000-capacity outdoor music venue, restaurant and bar located in Bellvue, a charming little rural town nestled northwest of Fort Collins at the mouth of Poudre Canyon.

As a Colorado native, I am seriously and shamefully late to this party, because “The Mish” has been hosting concerts for more than a century. The riverside viewing area is an open space with no fixed seating, and the photos look spectacular.

Two upcoming shows that caught my eye are Blind Pilot (opening for John Craigie) on June 26, and Band of Horses (Aug. 7). I first heard about Blind Pilot in 2007 when the then-new Portlanders were famously touring the West Coast by bicycle while pulling their instruments in trailers. (Their bikes were stolen outside San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art.)

Info at themishawaka.com

The ​​Ivy Ballroom

The Ivy Ballroom is an intimate boutique concert venue located within the Surf Hotel in Buena Vista. It’s a 300-seat venue situated on the banks of the Arkansas River, 120 miles southwest of Denver. The venue offers high-end sound and lighting in a space designed with European-inspired elegance. Concerts are all-standing on a concrete floor, though sometimes chairs will be put down depending on the act.

Credit to my pal Ricardo Baca for this tip: “It’s incredible, with a bunch of side doors that open up to a patio that’s right on the Arkansas River and beautiful mountain scenery,” he said.

Coming up: Dragondeer, 7 p.m. April 18. Info at tickets.surfhotel.com.

Ubisububi Room

When they say “limited seating” at the Ubisububi Room, they mean it. As in, 35 seats. The Ubisububi has been hosting intimate concerts and comedy shows out of the basement of The Thin Man Tavern (2015 E. 17th Ave.) for more than 20 years. It’s tight. And it’s tight.

Shows are presented by Mountain to Sound and tend to feature a subterranean, “MTV Unplugged”-style vibe, with 100% of ticket sales generally going directly to the artists.

Coming up at 8 p.m. Friday at “The Ubi” is extraordinary Denver indie songwriter (and first responder) Anthony Ruptak, with Josh Dillard.

It’s a little trippy making your way to the back of the Thin Man, turning and clomping down the weathered wooden stairs before ducking your head through the doorway of The Ubi. It’s like a sonic rite of passage that many of Denver’s most revered indie rockers have crossed.

Ruptak shared his intimate story of addiction and recovery with Denver Gazette readers in 2023. Memorably said: “There are really intense stories around us everywhere, all the time – but usually we tend to just avoid looking at them.” Tickets $15 at zeffy.com.

Also at The Ubi: “Ubisububi Underworld” is a bimonthly stand-up comedy showcase on the second and fourth Thursdays.

The Roxy

There’s also some sunken-treasure sonic goodness going down in the intimate basement of the Roxy on Broadway (554 S. Broadway) – where capacity is a comparatively luxurious 45.

Marty Jones, Colorado’s king of beer-soaked Americana and rocking roots music since 1997, has launched (with the equally legendary Baggs Patrick) a live music series called “Songwriters at the Speakeasy.” It takes place from 7-8:30 p.m. on the second and third Tuesdays of each month.

Two goals, says Jones: “To feature the unsung songsmiths, from veterans to upstarts, in the area. And to give folks like me and Baggs and our peers a quiet listening-room gig that is free of chatter.”

This past Tuesday’s installment featured alt-country god Jim Dalton, frontman for The Railbenders. The set featured “Leprechano” (very seasonal for St. Patrick’s Day) and “Quiet Song,” which, as Jones tells it, “lightheartedly chronicles the frustration of performers and fans with people that talk during listening shows. As the hilarious and right-on-the-nose song progressed, the buzz of conversation began dropping. The song passed through a wonderfully winking key shift and then its final verse, and as the song ended the room was once again … quiet. Followed by big applause. It was clever, magical, musical conjuring of the highest order, the very finest kind.”

Next date: April 14.  It’s free, with a passed hat for performer donations. More at martyjones.net.

TACAW

The Arts Campus At Willits (TACAW) is a stunning place to see a concert, not only because it is located in the beauty of Basalt (just south of Glenwood Springs) but because it is a 10,000-square-foot, net-zero nonprofit performing-arts center that hosts everything from concerts to comedy to theater to film, with a capacity of 245.

The complex additionally features an outdoor amphitheater and “Listening Lawn.” The program director is Kendall Smith, who for years ran Denver’s Underground Music Showcase (The UMS).

Coming up March 25 is Donavon Frankenreiter and his Ask Me Anything Tour. He’s the professional surfer dude who is known for his laid-back vibe and longtime friendship with Jack Johnson. Info at tacaw.org.

The Listening Room

Theatergoers have been enjoying stories of all kinds for going on 34 years at the intimate Bas Bleu Theatre in Fort Collins. But since launching “the Listening Room” series last year, Northern Colorado music lovers have gathered in droves to listen to the songs and stories of area songwriters who appear in rotating slates of three. It takes place the fourth Tuesday of each month and returns March 24 with Eva Rose King, Christian Roberts and Taylor Shae.

It’s all very thoughtful, cerebral and social, a living-room kind of communion that seems made for NPR. It’s the brainchild of John Snyder and Christine Alice. Tickets are $25 at basbleu.org.

The Tank

For a real rock on the wild side, take a road trip to Rangely, a quiet town of about 2,300 located 200 miles northwest of Denver not too far from Dinosaur National Monument.

The Tank Center for the Sonic Arts is a former 60-foot-tall steel water tank that has been repurposed into a nonprofit recording studio and concert venue that is famed for its extraordinary, lingering acoustic reverberation.

Simply put: The Tank is a monumental steel cylinder that, like all physical objects, resonates when stimulated.

“Ferromancy” is the name of two “sound cycle” concert events slated for June 19-20 that will celebrate the summer solstice. Neal Johnson and Alan Watts have spent three years developing their concept for this Tank performance, all rooted in the question: “If the Tank told a tale of its past and present, what sonic details might it share?” 

Read more at tanksounds.org.

John Moore is the Denver Gazette’s Senior Arts Journalist. Email him at [email protected].