Colorado has a reputation for having a population of active, happy people doing active, happy things in their beautiful state. It’s also known for hippies. Lots and lots of hippies. Filling the air with the scent of incense and B.O. and the awful sound of jam bands.
On paper, it doesn’t seem like a place that would have any kind of punk or hardcore scene at all. But much like how it somehow produced both John Denver and Lauren Boebert it is full of contradictions and not only has a scene but a thriving one. We scoured Colorado from the eastern plains, over the Continental Divide to whatever it is on the west side to find some of the best bands that call it home. And yes, I know John Denver wasn’t actually from Colorado but get the fuck out of here with your facts.
Angel Hair
Somewhere between art rock and screamo lived Angel Hair. They were an awesomely weird band and the fact that they were from hippie-ass Boulder and not the screamo headquarters of San Diego makes them even weirder and more awesomer.
Christie Front Drive
Even though they were only briefly active, Denver’s Christie Front Drive were a major influence on the midwest emo scene of the ‘90s. There’s an infamous story of them being offered a major label deal and declining it only to suggest their emo colleagues Jimmy Eat World. I want to believe it’s true. They also made our list of the 50 best emo songs of the ‘90s.
d.biddle
Duncan Barlow spent his youth in Louisville, Kentucky playing in quite a few notable hardcore bands like Endpoint, Guilt, and By The Grace Of God. But as an adult, he moved to Denver, got himself a fancy new hat, and began d.biddle fusing a type of alt-country with stringed instrumentation and emo.
Descendents/ALL
Ok, yes Descendents are famously originally from southern California but they moved to Fort Collins in the mid-’90s and Bill Stevenson started his recording studio The Blasting Room there where every Descendents and All album has been recorded for over 25 years. So I’d say that makes them a Colorado band. So suck it, California. You can have Blink-182.
Faim
There have been a lot more female-fronted political hardcore bands lately. It’s almost as if on a daily basis our society slips further into a Handmaiden-esque dystopia which for some reason has made a number of women angry, go figure. Keeping the flames of the discontent burning is relative newcomers Faim. Their brand of raw, politically-charged hardcore serves as a soundtrack to smashing the fuck out of the patriarchy.
Fear Before The March of Flames
There came a time in the early 2000s when the math-y, hectic style of hardcore started to reach embarrassing lows (remember those fucking “crabcore” bands?) But there were some bands still holding it down and destroying stages and eardrums. Fear Before The March Of Flames was one of those bands.
The Gamits
The Gamits have had quite a revolving door of members throughout the years with main songwriter and singer Chris Fogal serving as the only member who has been around since the band’s inception. 25+ years on The Gamits continue to be the centerpiece of Denver’s pop-punk scene.
Nathaniel Ratliffe and the Night Sweats
Probably the only band on this list your mom approves of. And while they may sound like a cross between Sam Cooke and the sound of a craft distillery opening, they have deep roots in the indie and punk scenes of Denver. We dare you not to toe-tap along to their denim-drenched jams.
Native Daughters
Not only do instrumental riff lords Native Daughters have not one, but two, drummers, both drummers play upfront live. They do a post-metal style much in the vein of Pelican and Isis but with the percussive elements taking literal center stage.
Omega Point
Omega Point recorded the first four songs of a concept album in 2003 and then took a brief twenty-year hiatus. They reformed in 2023 and recorded the remaining songs combining elements of black metal, mathcore, and the story-telling aspects of Slint.
Planes Mistaken For Stars
Oh look, yet another Colorado band that made our top 50 emo list. Sure seems to be a lot of emo bands from Colorado. Not really sure why. You would think with all that sunshine and fresh air there’d be nothing to write sad songs about. Sadly both guitarist Matt Bellinger and frontman Gared O’Donnell passed away in 2017 and 2021 respectively.
Primitive Man
The heaviest band on our list and possibly the heaviest band from Colorado ever. These dudes ain’t fucking around. This is the band on this list that your mom approves of the least.
Small Dog Frenzy
Even though their name might make them seem like a juvenile pop-punk band with songs about farting on your mom or whatever, this three-piece from Boulder was pretty serious. Their driving melodic guitar riffs coupled with Aaron Hobbs’ distinctive voice made them stand out from the other emo-tinged bands of the time. Two of the members would later form the more austerely named Acrobat Down.
Snake Rattle Rattle Snake
The hardcore world was first introduced to Haley Helmericks with her backing vocals on Open Hand’s “Tough Girl.” She would later bring her deep atmospheric voice to form the dark-wave-infused Snake Rattle Rattle Snake and much like the actual rattlesnakes of the Colorado landscape, SRRS’ music feels like it could attack if you fuck with it too much.
Vaux
If you went to basically any show that happened in the early oughts you probably saw Vaux play. They toured extensively including several hauls on the unending hell that was Warped Tour. They eventually signed to Atlantic Records subsidiary Lava and recorded an album with the single “Are You With Me” which got traction with its video and was even in the end credits of the not-great John Travolta movie From Paris With Love.
While “Dawn of the Dead” is probably the best of the Romero zombie movies, “Day of the Dead” serves as a meditation on how different personality types deal with the end of the world, and how none of that matters because the military is a bunch of dickheads.
Dayton may be the ‘Birthplace of Aviation,’ but no one really cares about that anymore. Arguably more exciting is the fact that Dayton is the birthplace of Brainiac (or 3RAN1AC if you want to be a dick about it). Before their five-year run was cut tragically short by the untimely death of lead singer, Tim Taylor, they pushed the envelope on nearly every subgenre of punk and hardcore in existence. The band’s out-of-control sound has been cited to have influenced countless bands including, but not limited to; Nine Inch Nails, The Mars Volta, The Blood Brothers, and somehow even Muse (when they were good, we assume).
Among the first wave of punk acts to emerge in the late ‘70s, Dead Boys from Cleveland made their mark as one of the most chaotic and violent groups of the fledgling genre. Not unlike the multitude of Ohio residents who have never left their hometowns, the original iteration of the band would ultimately fall apart after releasing only two albums. An event equating to an unfortunate waste of a mountain of potential. Still their influence and legacy lives on, spawning sporadic reunions as a fresh lineup has been teasing new music since 2017.
Have you ever wondered what System Of A Down would sound like if they consisted of just a cello player and a drummer? Quit dreaming and listen to Cincinnati’s very own Lung. Performing as just a two-piece, the band manages to craft a lush and chaotic sound thanks to Kate Wakefield’s shredding effects-driven cello and operatic voice. Drummer Daisy Caplan holds down the fort with thudding dramatic beats. Together they make a racket so righteous you’d think they were from a respectable state.
Genre-bending pioneers and horndog legends Nine Inch Nails originated as the brainchild of Cleveland’s Trent Reznor. Despite Ohio’s legacy of agricultural innovation, Nine Inch Nails is largely responsible for popularizing and propelling Industrial Rock into the mainstream, though you would be apt to not mention that in front of Reznor or a farmer. The next time you listen to ‘Closer’ alone in your car like a depraved psychopath, consider how truly challenging it must have been for Trent to overcome such instilled Midwestern reservation to deliver the sex jam of the century.
A full two years before the masked metal band Slipknot emerged, Mushroomhead was already ahead of the curve regarding their costumed concept. In fact, the commonalities between the bands coupled with the suspected plagiarism committed by Slipknot lead to a chaotic feud that erupted in a violent 1999 tour-stop in Mushroomhead’s hometown of Cleveland, OH. As Slipknot took the stage, a horde of angry concertgoers began pelting the band with anything they could get their hands on, including (allegedly) a padlock that struck bassist Paul Dedrick Gray square in the face. All of this is apparently water under the bridge as each band claims fandom of the other, but one thing remains clear: Don’t fuck with Cleveland or you’ll get the padlock.
Columbus’s All Dogs formed as a bit of a supergroup featuring members of local legends, Delay, Saintseneca, and Slaughter Beach, Dog. Their sugary hooks mixed with their vulnerable lyricism made their debut album, ‘Kicking Every Day,’ an instant hit among those yearning for the next pop-punk explosion. While the band would essentially disappear for eight years after that review, rumblings in their camp have suggested a comeback may be on the horizon.
You don’t have to be a divorced middle-aged Dad to thoroughly enjoy The National, but it helps. Though technically formed in Brooklyn, New York circa 1999, the original lineup of the band was comprised entirely of members that claim Cincinnati as their home base. Since Brooklyn already has enough bands, we likely won’t get too much pushback here by rightfully claiming them for the Buckeye State. With captivating lyrics and delicately produced backbeats, The National remains one of the most revered contemporary alt-rock bands among very sad Midwesterners, and likely will for years to come.
This one is probably pretty obvious considering their massively popular and genre-defying single “Ohio Is For Lovers.” While Hawthorne Heights in no way invented or pioneered Midwestern Emo, we want to give Ohio a win here and fill our comment section with inflammatory retorts, so we’ll just go ahead and say it: Emo music did not exist until Hawthorne Heights released ‘The Silence In Black In White,’ making Ohio not just the birthplace for modern Emo, but the entire genre as a whole.
