The Knew knows rock

The Knew knows what it takes to make a great rock and roll band.

A playful sense of humor, catchy riffs, well-written songs and a confidence in what the band is doing can equal up to something great. The Knew, a Denver-based rocking four-piece, have these abilities down and are on their way towards becoming something special. 

The members in the Knew met each other while students in Boulder. The band took a while to settle before finding its groove around their 100th show, said drummer Patrick Bowden. Over the gigs, the Denver band’s sound evolved into a fusion of blues, country, rockabilly and punk. 

“I think honestly, the more and more you play, the more confidence you get,” Bowden told the Denver Daily News.

When the band takes the stage, lead singer and guitarist Jacob Hansen sings like a shaking, slightly intoxicated indie-rocker dude picking up a cute hipster chick at the bar. Placing more emphasis on emotion than enunciation, Hansen’s words aren’t always decipherable, but you can feel what he’s trying to get across. 

Lead guitarist Tyler Breuer is consistently engaging to watch live. His simple but memorable riffs explode into a fun, passionate rocking frenzy when he’s feeling frisky during a show. Bowden and bassist Tim Rynders keep the beat like effortless, goofy cool rock stars—in a good way—and round out the dynamic four-piece.

Local successes

The Knew have achieved local critical success and have been bringing in solid audiences since they released “Holladay” in 2007.

“The band quietly became one of the most exciting live acts in the state,” wrote Ricardo Baca of the Denver Post.

“Those who haven’t seen the band yet are missing out,” said Sean Cronin of Westword.

However, Denver still isn’t nationally known as a first-class city for music. As a result, being big in the Mile High City, which is hours away from any other worthwhile big music market, doesn’t make touring and making a career out of music easy.

The Knew recognize this and are trying to reach beyond the local music scene. The band has hired a promotion company to try and get their music on college radio stations throughout the nation. Their sloppy, rollicking songs seem like a natural fit for college airplay, and their attempt will likely see some success.

“It’s important to try new things but not completely change things,” said Bowden. “We’ve always combined a lot of different genres and still kept the Knew sound.

The Knew w/ the Swayback, Hawks of Paradise, and the Nicotine Fits

Where: Larimer Lounge

When: Friday, 9 p.m.

Cost: $8

Information: TheKnew.com

Add a new comment... Spammers: links do not work and our site gets monitored for spam daily and your comments will be removed -- please do not spam our site!

Your Name:

Your Email:

Title:

Comments:

Please copy the characters from this image into the box below. All characters are either numbers 1-9 (not zero) or letters (upper and lowercase). If you cannot read this image, you can click it to try a different image (most browsers). Otherwise, submit the page anyway and try again.

Image Text: