On Tuesday night, Arrow de Wilde conjured up the rebellious attitude of Iggy Pop and the mysteriousness of David Bowie at the Larimer Lounge in Denver, CO. The 6’3” lead singer of the Los Angeles band Starcrawler appeared in a bikini top and tight white pants making the crowd take immediate notice. She is the daughter of photographer and film director Autumn DeWilde and drummer Aaron Superske (who has played with Father John Misty and Elliot Smith). Guitar player Henri Cash was sporting a rock and roll hot pink suit. He provided harmonies and guitar shredding with an attitude.

After mesmerizing the crowd for a few songs, de Wilde spotted a cool young couple. She demanded that the two come closer to the stage. The singer wanted them … to be … right … where … I was … standing. I stood aside agreeing that they were much more appealing than an old guy at the show. The couple were kind enough to pose for a picture (see below).

After the blow to my ego (not really), the band played through the lack of oxygen (de Wilde and Henri Cash were breathing heavily) in the Mile High City. The smells from the intimate audience setting at times were too intimate. At one point, de Wilde asked the crowd, “Who farted?” They played material from their three albums (so many great songs in their catalog for such a young band). The beautiful melody of Stranded from their latest release was a definite standout. Their Ramones cover of Pet Cemetery was highly theatrical with de Wild acting like a zombie while singing, “I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery/I don’t want to live my life again.”

The band changed to a country theme when Henri Cash switched to an acoustic guitar. The tune No More Pennies even had Henri Cash exchange versus with de Wilde. Henri’s brother Bill Cash, wearing a Bill belt buckle, changed from rhythm guitar to the pedal steel truly capturing the genre change.

Before the encore, my instincts kicked in and I headed even further away from the stage. That’s when Starcrawler started into a slow blues buildup of Chicken Woman. The song eventually exploded into the sounds of thunder while de Wilde stage dived into the crowd inciting a mosh pit. After de Wilde disappeared from the scene of the crime, Henri Cash played an impressive guitar solo in the middle of the mayhem. He eventually made his way through the crowd ending up by the bar. It was a remarkable way to end the show.

Mike Trujillo from the power trio The Trujillo Company thanked the crowd for coming out on a school night. Drummer Leny Trujillo (they are not related) and bass player Mark Hibl (still not related) proceeded to start the night of music playing original songs with a Black Sabbath like darkness. Beside the impressive guitar playing, Mike Trujillo’s voice stood out during the quiet moments. He even led the crowd to sing happy birthday to Hibl who appeared to be thrilled to spend his special day on stage.

When Mike Trujillo switched to his Gibson Les Paul, the band shifted to a higher gear. This got the crowd cheering and nodding along. The guitar player handed a pick to a kid near the front of the stage making the youngster’s night (maybe year). The Trujillo Company will be hitting the recording studio in two weeks.

See you at the next show. I’ll be the one in back avoiding the farting, mosh pit, and “humiliation” near the front of the stage.