DENVER — If you’re struggling to find a concert worth seeing within the confines of Denver, you’re not trying hard enough. It may be just as likely that you aren’t familiar with the city's rocksteady music scene—a nightly endeavor brought to life by the sum of its parts, under humming neon moons, in dank side alleys, and bathroom walls littered with stickers.

There are the mainstays, of course: The Ogden and Bluebird Theater have been blowing the roof off Colfax Avenue for decades, Gothic Theater doesn’t go a week without a show that makes you go “woah” down in Englewood. Mission Ballroom boasts the best indoor sound system I’ve maybe ever heard, and Fillmore Auditorium has a concert schedule that’s as polarizing as its giant dazzling chandeliers.

Its beating heart, however—chambers, valves and all—is the independent music spaces, free from the regiment of an entertainment corporation, carrying a torch of a scene not long gone, but waning in an era where a couple companies run the roost.

They’re the places that the cool bartender with a “303” tattoo at your watering hole off 13th Street waxes poetic about—beacons of light and sound whose low end thumps ooze through high-set windows and onto the sidewalk outside, a loud reminder that, despite what your pessimistic friend from a much bigger city may say, the city still has a soul.

The Hi-Dive never needed much. It’s a couple thick, blue brick walls, a couple thin, red neon signs, and a marquee displaying diveisms like “WE ARE NOT THE DIVE INN” or “IF I COULD SEE ALL MY FRIENDS TONIGHT.”

It’s been busting out cheap drinks and jams from every corner of the music world for 23 years. A wise man once said that simple truths in music just don’t go out of style. The Hi-Dive has a few of those: Consistent, affordable tickets, and drinks are a great way to win over your community, and absolutely no genre is off limits.

Lip Critic, chaos manifest in electropunk form, performs there on June 2. Exactly one week later, TsuShiMaMiRe—a killer Japanese female rock trio—takes the stage. And a week after that, Midwife, the self-described “Heaven Metal” project of Madeline Johnston, will fill its humble confines with droning magic.

So long as new, exciting acts continue sprouting from their subgenres, the Hi-Dive will prevail. 

Lion’s Lair does for Colfax what Hi-Dive does for South Broadway, but on a more local scale. You’ll seldom find a musician or performing act on their upcoming events page who doesn’t call the Centennial State home.

Its big, boisterous sign is impossible to miss on Denver’s main drag, and inside, they’re doing local podcasts (“Laxin at the Lair”), open mic comedy, karaoke, and a litany of musical performances: Denver hardcore band Chew Thru is bringing the house down on June 2, and later, on June 27, The White Moms are bringing bringing some rap to its cozy corner stage. 

Globe Hall, an unassuming hole in north Denver, adds good eats to the mix. If you can get yourself a resale ticket or two, a night of barbecue food and tunes by Racing Mount Pleasant, an ever-excited rock outfit, would make for an immaculate night on June 13.

Lost Lake is yet another Colfax joint, holding down the avenue's eastern front, and Larimer Lounge legitimately doesn’t go a night without some sort of worthwhile event in its moody black box venue. 

Support independent music venues. A night at one of these staples won’t burn a hole in your pocket. It’ll feature great conversation. Vivid memories will grow from their linoleum floors and into your hippocampus—it’s the nature of these places.

Some days you’ll love it, other days you’ll wish it didn’t catch the corner of your peripheral vision, but as simple a truth as there is: They’ll be there, brick and mortar, inviting you to celebrate community from the crack in their front doors.