Three days of music and more to promote outdoor industry is moving to Auraria campus

This weekend’s Outside Days festival will deepen at least two iconic bands’ long roots in Denver and its surrounding areas. Notably, Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips, whose Saturday night appearance will mark the band’s 20th wild and hopefully wonderfully weird Colorado concert.

Coyne and his heartfelt Oklahoma indie-rock brethren have performed here alongside a menagerie of human stuffed animals. Coyne once arrived on the Red Rocks stage by rolling atop the heads of adoring zealots from inside a Gyllenhaal-sized plastic bubble. They’ve played a couple of times alongside the 80-member Colorado Symphony.

My best friend and his wife were so aligned with Coyne’s belief that happiness is a choice and that life is a profoundly beautiful — if temporary — experience that they gave one son the middle name Coyne. Elder and baby Wayne met in person at an in-store band appearance at Twist & Shout Records. I was one proud godfather.

The Flaming Lips will perform a festival-friendly iteration of their “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” 20th anniversary show on Saturday at the Outside Days festival in a new location – on the Auraria campus. While festival sets are tighter than their standalone evening shows, the Lips’ recent 2026 festival appearances indicate we will be hearing massive staples like “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1,” “Fight Test,” and their evergreen closer, “Do You Realize?” (But feel free to expect other greatest-hit anthems as well, including “She Don’t Use Jelly” and “Race for the Prize.”)

What will be weird for the Lips community is watching this particular show without multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, who left the band in late 2024 because of addictions. He was considered by some the musical backbone of “Yoshimi.”

When I switched from covering sports to the arts – 25 years ago last month – the very first interview I pulled off with an artist was a 24-year-old engineer named Chris Walla from the intriguingly named band Death Cab for Cutie.

The rising Seattle hipsters, who took their name from a scene in “The Magical Mystery Tour,” would be opening for John Vanderslice at The Cat, a short-lived music venue that played a vital role in Denver’s underground music history around 2000-01. Death Cab was one of many bands that played The Cat before they hit the mainstream. For Death Cab, that came in 2005 with the release of “Plans.”

Death Cab, more than most bands of the day, proved that quiet, emotional and self-produced rock music could achieve massive mainstream success without losing its alternative roots. That’s thanks largely to frontman Benjamin Gibbard’s aching lyrical prowess and infectious melodies. Well, that and having songs included in episodes of massive hits like “The O.C.” and “Grey’s Anatomy” back in the day when most everyone was still watching the same TV networks.

At the time of my interview, I almost surely asked to speak to Gibbard, who remains the public face of a band that had begun as his own solo project in 1997. But I’m sure I was equally geeked to be offered Walla instead. Walla, who had been friends with Gibbard at Western Washington University in Bellingham, offered to help him record the songs. Later, in order to play live, a band would be needed.

Walla stepped out of the craziness of that year’s South by Southwest music festival for a bit to take my call, and he was a charming interview subject.

“We are making a living doing this on an independent label, and that’s fantastic. I can’t think of anything better,” said Walla, who two years before was able to quit his Seattle day job at Starbucks to become the band’s full-time producer. “It feels like I’ve moved from one Northwest punch line into another,” Walla told me. (My first gold quote, thank you very much.)

I bring all this up because a few days after the article ran in The Denver Post, I received a kind letter in the mail – from Chris Walla’s appreciative mother. That kind of thing just rarely happens.

Alas, nothing gold can stay. Walla officially left Death Cab for Cutie in 2014 after 17 years to start a new life with his wife in Trondheim, Norway, where they still reside. The lineup heading to Auraria this weekend is Gibbard, Nicholas Harmer (bass), Jason McGerr (drums), Dave Depper (guitar and backing vocals), and Zac Rae (keyboards).

The group is gearing up to release their 11th studio album, “I Built You a Tower,” on June 5, via ANTI-Records. You can also celebrate the new album release at a local listening party that same day at Twist & Shout.

Another huge name at Outside Days will be Saturday headliner My Morning Jacket, an indie-rock band with major jam-band tendencies. Also: Cage the Elephant and Dawes. Bands with local ties will include Brothers of Brass, a classic New Orleans brass-band that began as a chance meeting between two street performers on the 16th Street Mall; Wildermiss, a Denver indie-rock trio now based in Nashville; and self-described Queer stripper N3ptune.

Beyond musical performances, the Outside Festival exists to promote the outdoor lifestyle, adventure and cultural experiences. There will be plenty of keynote speakers, panels, TED-like Talks, and presentations by elite athletes, environmentalists and outdoor industry leaders.

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

OUTSIDE DAYS/Music lineup

• Friday (May 29): Wildermiss (5 p.m.), Japanese Breakfast (6:15 p.m.), Goth Babe (7:45 p.m.), Death Cab for Cutie (9:30 p.m.)
• Saturday (May 30): Brothers of Brass (2 p.m.), Karina Rykman (3 p.m.), Eggy (4:15 p.m.), Dawes (5:45 p.m.); The Flaming Lips (7:15 p.m.), My Morning Jacket (9 p.m.)
• Sunday (May 31): The Mañanas (2 p.m.), N3ptune (3 p.m.), Girl Tones (4:15 p.m.), Grouplove (5:45 p.m.), Tash Sultana (7:15 p.m.), Cage the Elephant (9 p.m.)
• Information: outsidedays.outsideonline.com