Hometown For The Holidays: Photos of Iolite & Redlands

Obviously, I love local Denver music, and especially the celebration that is Hometown For The Holidays. KTCL Channel 93.3 hosts an annual contest that encourages submissions from Colorado bands, who are then narrowed down to ten finalists for us to choose from. The top three play a concert together at Summit Music Hall and two different prizes are announced. There is the Performance Award – gauged by applause – which was narrowly won by former finalists Pandas & People. (Seriously, Nerf had to use a noise-measuring app to figure it out.)

Hometown For The Holidays 2016 Winner

Then there is the Song Contest winner, who will open next year’s Not So Silent Night. Redlands took that prize for their song “Big Talk” and have had a steady stream of shows since then (Next up: February 4th with Shatterproof).

DJ Alf holding the sign for Redlands during HTFTH 2016.

One of the surprises of the contest was newcomer Iolite. She has been compared to Lorde and/or Banks for her haunting song, “Bloodstream.” Apparently, she wrote and recorded it just weeks before submitting. Even more incredible, she killed it live. As much as I like Redlands, I was honestly shocked that she didn’t win, given how much everyone was talking about her song. Well done, kid! I look forward to hearing more from ya in 2017.

Iolite Concert Photos

Redlands Concert Photos

As always, many thanks to KTCL Channel 93.3 for throwing the best “Denver Band Holiday Party” we could ever have.

Their next event is Keggs & Eggs (#Keggs12) on the morning of St. Patrick’s Day with Bryce Fox, Bishop Briggs and American Authors.