There comes a time in some artists’ careers when they’re no longer simply playing for the room: they’re defining it. This weekend, over three frigid nights in Denver, Kitchen Dwellers manifested a series of performances that in no uncertain terms showcased their bona fides, their command over stages of different size and scale, and the loving and loyal community of friends, fans, and peers they’ve spent nearly a decade cultivating the galaxy grassroots way.
Between two nights at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom and a massive third show at the Mission Ballroom—their largest headlining show to date—the Dwellers proved they can harness the grit of a sweat-soaked club as well as they can fully utilize the high-production spectacle of a theater. Beyond the music, this run felt like a band purposefully paying it forward. By featuring past collaborators and rising talents like Jammy Buffet, Silas Herman & The Tone Unit, Lindsay Lou, and Mountain Grass Unit, the Dwellers weren’t just taking a victory lap: they were actively curating the future of the scene they’ve helped build.
Night one at Cervantes began with Jammy Buffet, the rapidly rising jam band who performs all covers, most of them written or performed by the late great Jimmy Buffett. To the uninitiated, this might seem like a lark, but as the Dwellers have demonstrated time and time and time and time again, they’re massive fans of the Mayor of Margaritaville. Lead singer and guitarist Bob Barrick charismatically led the five-piece band through a series of songs you know by heart, as well as some you don’t. Lead guitarist Brendan Mayer, son of longtime Coral Reefer guitarist Peter Mayer, steered the band into some spacier jams, supported by multi-instrumentalist Mickey Lenny, who brought his jazz background to bear as he played keys, trumpet, and an electric wind instrument. Drummer Tyler Gwynn brought the thunder behind the drum kit, staying in step with the newest member of the band, the legendary bassist Zeb Briskovich, who joined after founding bassist Andrew Cooney recently left to join Andy Frasco’s band.
While much of the crowd seemed a bit puzzled by the Parrothead lore—save for that one particular music writer enthusiastically performing the “Fins” dance—the band worked in tracks like “Ramblin’ Man” and “Scarlet Begonias” to bridge the gap between classic island escapism and modern jam band music. Dwellers’ bassist Joe Funk got in on the action, donning island gear and no shoes as he led the band through a version of “Cheeseburger in Paradise” that brought the house down.
Related: Kitchen Dwellers Announce April Pacific Northwest Tour With Two-Night Montana Finale
The Dwellers opened their first set with the atmospheric “Prelude”, the opening track from 2024’s Seven Devils, transitioning to “Cabin Pressure” before leaning into “Paradise Valley”, the longest jam of the first set. Towards the middle of the set, they executed their first signature “sandwich” of the run, where they play part of a song and insert other songs or jams in the middle. They sandwiched “This Time” between two parts of “Foundation”, moving on to play “Living Dread” and rocking hard on the one and three (traditional bluegrass often emphasizes the two and four). The highlight of the first set came towards the end of the sandwich, when guitarist Max Davies leaned into the rhythm and hinted at Radiohead’s “The National Anthem”. The rest of the band quickly followed suit, with banjo wrangler Torrin Daniels screaming the lyrics into his banjo’s pickup for the first—but not the last—time during the run.
The band began the second set with a 40+ minute sandwich that featured a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “No Expectations” in the middle. The crowd cheered as mandolinist Shawn Swain played the opening melody to “Unwind (Paradiso)”, returning to the first song of the set to bring the sandwich to a close. (Somewhere during this stretch, an enthusiastic fan set off a welcome confetti cannon.) After professing their sincere love of Jimmy Buffett, the band performed “A Pirate Looks at Forty”—a Buffett original that Jammy Buffet did not play during their set—and invited Gwynn to join them on drums to close the set. Gwynn is an absolute beast behind the kit and provided the perfect percussive backbone to augment the Dwellers’ metal-leaning tendencies. The temporary five-piece band performed “Katabatic”, from the Dwellers’ so-named recently-released EP, and closed the second set with the country-leaning “Sundown”, from 2022’s Wise River. The five returned for an encore of Davies-led “Letter Bound”, wrapping the show around 12:15 a.m. It was metal as fuck.
View this post on Instagram
Setlist: Jammy Buffet | Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom | Denver, CO | 1/22/26
Set: Volcano, Fins, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, Great Filling Station Holdup > Ramblin’ Man (Allman Brothers Band) > Great Filling Station Holdup, Why Don’t We Get Drunk?, Cheeseburger in Paradise [1] > I Will Play for Gumbo, The Pascagoula Run, One Particular Harbor > Scarlet Begonias (Grateful Dead) > One Particular Harbor
[1] Played with Joe Funk on lead vocals
Notes:
All songs by Jimmy Buffett unless otherwise noted
Setlist: Kitchen Dwellers | Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom | Denver, CO | 1/22/26
Set 1: Prelude > Cabin Pressure > Paradise Valley, Cadillac Cowboy (Chuck Pyle), Foundation > This Time > Foundation > The Living Dread > The National Anthem (Radiohead) [1] > The Living Dread
Set 2: Unwind > Muir Maid > No Expectations (Rolling Stones) [2] > Muir Maid > Unwind [3] > Ole Slew Foot (Johnny Horton), A Pirate Looks At Forty (Jimmy Buffett) [4], Katabatic [5], Sundown [5]
Encore: Letter Bound [5]
[1] Verse sang through banjo mic
[2] “Peace of Mind” (Yonder Mountain String Band) quotes
[3] “On the Run” (Pink Floyd) teases
[4] Played with lyric change to: “Gotta go fishing, down at Cervantes again”
[5] Played with Tyler Gwynn (Jammy Buffet) on drums
Cervantes was packed from the very beginning on Friday, the second night of the run. There were many familiar faces in the crowd, including many members of the Dwellers’ Facebook fan group, the “Dish Pit.” Silas Herman & The Tone Unit opened the evening with a set that offered a promising glimpse into the next generation of bluegrass talent. Herman is no stranger to the Dwellers, who had previously tapped the mandolinist to sub for Swain during his medical leave in the summer of 2024.
Herman, whose father Vince co-founded Leftover Salmon, is a talent on the rise and has assembled a top-notch band to support him. The group opened with “Daybreak”, a recently-penned Herman original. (He shared that he’s been having a songwriting renaissance since the birth of his son three months ago.) Longtime collaborator Jack Cloonan (guitar), along with Matt Cantor (bass), Sam Armstrong-Zickefoose (banjo), and Carson McHaney (fiddle), round out the Tone Unit. They played their hearts out through a series of songs and jams that showcased their bluegrass chops, as well as their ability to rock and willingness to take risks and lean into other genres. Herman can pick with the best of ’em, and he displays a level of intention that lends a narrative nature to his leads. He and Cloonan also demonstrated outstanding songwriting chops, including Cloonan’s “Dive Bars”, co-written with Texas songwriter Mike Morman, and Herman’s sentimental “Whatever Train”. The band closed the set with a Middle Eastern rondo lite before returning to the tune that opened the set, Dwellers sandwich style.
The Dwellers walked out to Outkast’s “So Fresh, So Clean”, bringing a bit of swagger that set the stage perfectly. The band came out swinging with “Shadows” before Funk, rocking a Jammy Buffet shirt, offered an earnest rendering of “Pendulum”, with what seemed like the entire audience singing along to every word. In the subsequent “Gypsy”, the band began to introduce what would become a long list of teases. It was cool to see how Daniels keyed into Davies’ guitar melodies and gradually built a jam around them. The band soon offered what might have been a thematic nod to Herman’s “Whatever Train” by performing Fred Eaglesmith’s “Freight Train”, which they’d teased in “The Crown”. Herman and Cloonan then joined the band for a pair of traditional bluegrass tunes that turned into some good old fashioned head cutting as the band traded fours to close out the set. It was a display of technical play that proved exactly why these names are currently dominating the modern bluegrass conversation.
The band opened the second set with “Five Candles”, which began with an OG vocal intro, and soon featured a rowdy cover of Old 97’s “Timebomb”, Rhett Miller’s nod to mental health challenges, a topic that appears in some of the Dwellers’ own songs. The band delivered a “Visions of More” sandwich that referenced “Covered Bridges”, a tune they had played moments prior. It showed a band that is deeply “in it,” referencing their own musical choices and setlist flow in real time. They closed the night with a fun, high-energy take on Scissor Sisters’ “Take Your Mama”, leaving the crowd exhausted but ready for the big stage the following night.
Kitchen Dwellers – “Take Your Mama” (Scissor Sisters) – 1/23/26
View this post on Instagram
Setlist: Silas Herman & the Tone Unit | | Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom | Denver, CO | 1/23/26
Set: Daybreak > Raleigh & Spencer [Traditional], Steam Powered Aeroplane [John Hartford], The Hallways > Dive Bars [Jack Clooney and Mike Morman] > Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow [Carter Family], Whatever Train, Back for More > Hummingbird > Daybreak
Setlist: Kitchen Dwellers | Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom | Denver, CO | 1/23/26
Set 1: Shadows, Pendulum > Gypsy [1] [2], Driftwood > The Crown [3] [4] [5] > Freight Train (Fred Eaglesmith) > The Crown, Woods Lake, June Apple (Traditional) [6] [7] > Whitehouse Blues (Traditional) [6], [7]
Set 2: Five Candles [8] [9] > Wind Bitten > Timebomb (Old 97’s), Covered Bridges > Visions of More [10] > Stand At Ease > Visions of More
Encore: Take Your Mama (Scissor Sisters)
[1] “Pendulum” teases
[2] Played with lyric change to: “Pickin’ a banjo in a new fangled band”
[3] Played with lyric change to: “Go Pack”
[4] “Pretty Daughter” (Bad Livers) tease
[5] “Freight Train” (Fred Eaglesmith) teases
[6] Played with Silas Herman on mandolin
[7] Played with Jack Cloonan on acoustic guitar
[8] Played with OG vocal intro
[9] “Birds of a Feather” (Phish) teases
[10] “Covered Bridges” tease
If the Cervantes show was packed with hardcore Dishwashers, the Mission show featured a broader audience. The jump from the intimate confines of Cervantes to the 4,000-cap Mission Ballroom was both visually and sonically massive, and the production proved a more significant undertaking in every way. Lighting Director Matt Allmond met the challenge of painting on the larger canvas with a rig that transformed the room. Allmond brings a consistent product to Dwellers shows, whether in a 150-cap room or a massive theater, and at the Mission, he did so with degrees of awareness and nuance that matched the energy both on and off the stage.
Mountain Grass Unit opened the show, demonstrating their deep traditional roots while beginning to borrow pages from the Dwellers’ book of spacey, weird noise. Most of their set stayed in traditional bluegrass land, featuring both originals and covers (in a testament to their craft, it wasn’t always clear which was which). Mandolinist Drury Anderson, guitarist Luke Black, fiddler Josiah Nelson, and bassist Sam Wilson all are at the top of their game in traditional bluegrass, and they began to explore the effects-colored sounds that are hallmarks of the Dwellers style. They made a wise decision to cover Phish’s “Back on the Train”, which is well-suited for the bluegrass treatment, and made an even wiser choice to close their set with Widespread Panic’s “Ain’t Life Grand”, the perfect ending note for the Denver crowd.
The Dwellers walked out to Phish’s “Cavern”, a nod to the much larger room they would play for the third and final night of the run, where the music matched the scale of the lights and the energy in the room. They opened with “Drowning (…Again)”, which they would sandwich with “Comet”. From there, they played Swain-penned “Madison”, the only tune from the Katabatic EP to feature vocals. Throughout the set, technician Dan Long/Long Dan provided able assistance in the face of a handful of small technical issues. Soon after, they performed “Mimas and Ida”, the third and final track from the EP (unlike the recorded version, this live rendition did not feature trumpet work by Eric “Benny” Bloom, of Lettuce fame). Next came the clear highlight of the first set: a three-song sit-in from past Dwellers collaborator Lindsay Lou, whose mesmerizing vocals added a transcendent layer of elegance to the Dwellers’ own vocal harmonies. Lou left the stage, and the Dwellers closed out the set with “Drop Tine” into “Letters to Sheena”.
Kitchen Dwellers – “Hemlock” Debut – 1/24/25
The second set was a thing to behold, providing the perfect way to cap off an uplifting trio of shows. The band opened with “Hemlock”, a new, highly emotional tune that landed well with the crowd, still acclimating to the new tunes from Katabatic. From there, they went on to perform a series of songs that ran from one right into another, featuring tunes from Ghost in the Bottle and Seven Devils. Before closing the set, Daniels strongly expressed his opinions about recent events in Minnesota and encouraged attendees to let their legislators know if they are not in support of H.R. 4213.
Kitchen Dwellers – Torrin Daniels Speaks Out, “Throwing Stones” (Grateful Dead) – 1/24/26
They followed this with a massive, epic “Throwing Stones” to close out the set. They returned to the stage and concluded the run with a “Chilly Water” encore featuring the Mountain Grass Unit. It was a high-energy, roof-raising Widespread Panic tribute that felt like the only appropriate way to end a weekend of this magnitude. Seeing both bands on stage, trading licks and pushing the energy to its breaking point, was the ultimate “paying it forward” moment.
Kitchen Dwellers With Mountain Grass Unit – “Chilly Water” (Widespread Panic) – 1/24/26
This Denver run was a metaphor for the Kitchen Dwellers’ evolution. Cervantes reflects the grit and the hardcore fan culture that got them here, the small room energy where every person in the building feels every word and every note. On the other hand, the Mission shows where the band is headed: a future defined by larger venues, epic production, and a sound that is capable of filling any room in the country. For now, the Dwellers have solved the “size” dilemma by simply playing both kinds of rooms. They’ve shown that they can honor their influences, support the next generation, and scale their stage show without losing their soul. For those who were there, it felt like the moment the Kitchen Dwellers officially entered their era as a premier headlining force in the American jam scene.
View this post on Instagram
Setlist: Mountain Grass Unit | Mission Ballroom | Denver, CO | 1/24/26
Set: Opus 57, Cicada Song, Earthquake > Squirrel Hunters (John Hartford), Boxcar, South Woodridge > Hey Mama, Back on the Train (Phish) > Reuben’s Train (Traditional), Where I Land > Amos Moses (Jerry Reed), Jericho > Uncle Pen (Bill Monroe), Shoot the Gun, Ain’t Life Grand (Widespread Panic)
Setlist: Kitchen Dwellers | Mission Ballroom | Denver, CO | 1/24/26
Set 1: Drowning (…Again) > Comet > Drowning (…Again), Madison, Broken Cage > Mimas and Ida, The Crow and the Raven (1), Here We Go (1) > Little Maggie (1) > Drop Tine > Lean on Sheena
Set 2: Hemlock > Ghost in the Bottle > Seven Devils > Ebeneezer’s Winter > Seven Devils > Mountain, Throwing Stones
Encore: Chilly Water (Widespread Panic) [2]
[1] Played with Lindsay Lou on vocals
[2] Played with Drury Anderson, Luke Black, and Josiah Nelson