When Yonder Mountain String Band gets the chance to play in Boulder, Colorado, they don’t pull any punches. The supposed “warm-up” show at the Boulder Theater the night before New Year’s Eve was filled with high-energy performances and dazzling musicianship that left the capacity crowd satisfied and happily exhausted by the time the music stopped at 1:30.

The legend of the Delta Blues is a somber story. Its grandfather died at the age of twenty-seven under debated circumstances. The legacy that Robert Leroy Johnson left Mississippi was a new style of guitar playing and singing that would eventually become the predominant defining form of American roots music. Nearly every style of American-born music can be structurally traced back to blues. Jazz and Rock ‘n’ Roll is blues music, and wouldn’t have been birthed without that foundational backbone.

Ryan Adams played a free show last night at the Boulder Theater in support of Barack Obama's re-election campaign. The packed Boulder house was politely quiet throughout the entire hour and a half solo acoustic set. Nowadays Adams likes his shows intimate and free of distraction and the crowd respectfully abided, for the most part. "Thanks for choosing Boulder," a fan yelled.

Dr. Dog is one of those genre-defying bands whose sound is difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t heard them before. There is no other band that they can easily be compared to. It’s indie rock mixed with 60’s psychedelia, splashed with some punk and funk and soul. The result is a delicious musical cocktail, as anyone who attended their show Tuesday at the Boulder Theater can attest to.

Rattling floorboards and seats caused by the stomping of a rowdy crowd is a common occurrence at sporting events. Such a regularity becomes rather out of place at a concert venue however, as was the case for The Head and the Heart’s sold out Boulder show. Hollers and whistles accompanied the vibrations during the set, at its finale, and held out through to the encore.

It’s no secret that Boulder is a hotbed for bluegrass music. The area has spawned popular bands like Leftover Salmon and Yonder Mountain String Band, who might not be considered bluegrass in the traditional sense but certainly share an appreciation and admiration for the genre that undoubtedly influenced them.

So let’s get one thing straight. I am not a 20-something hipster tapping in to live twitter feeds from garage bands in Prague. I am not an old-school rocker with high off-road mileage and a septum tattered by blow. I am, like most of my middle-aged friends, a victim of an embarrassing epidemic that’s sweeping the nation. Musical Impotence.

The electronic and instrumental duo, BoomBox, played a vibrant, sold-out show at the Boulder Theater on Friday September 7, 2012. Known for being spontaneous and eclectic, BoomBox tailors each show to the crowd, the venue, and the evening. Their music is indeed impromptu and limber, yet they still produce a polished and thoughtful sound.

It was some lucky night. I got to see M. Ward perform at the Boulder Theatre. He has a new album out, A Wasteland Companion. It’s safe to say that Ward is devoted to his craft. Wasteland is Ward’s seventh studio LP since 1999. Some of Ward’s other work includes a successful side project, She & Him, with Zooey Deschanel on vocals.

It was a quiet night in Boulder when this suave duo from the late amazing band LCD Soundsystem came to Colorado’s favorite indoor venue, the Boulder Theater. This dj set by James Murphy, who did it all in their previous band (drums, vocals, programming, piano, synthesizer) and Pat Mahoney who played drums and percussion for them, was very anticipated.