The Underground Music Showcase (also known as UMS or #UMS2014 on Twitter and Instagram) is almost upon us! I really love festival season here in Colorado that is kicked off by FoCoMX in April and continues with Denver Day of Rock, Westword Music Showcase, Big Gig, UMS, Riot Fest and I’m sure some others that I’m forgetting. UMS is no exception!

Starting on Thursday, July 24th, UMS kicks off at 8pm and continues through Sunday, July 27th at midnight. There are over 400 local and national bands playing over 4 days down on Broadway in Denver at more than 20 venues. That’s right 400 bands!

Single day passes are $35 and only sold that day, but if you buy a 4-day pass before July 23rd, you can get all four days for only $50 (goes up to $75 after 7/23)

SpokesBUZZ Official UMS Day Parties

Don’t forget to RSVP for the Official UMS SpokesBUZZ day parties taking place on both Saturday AND Sunday at the Irish Rover! You do need a UMS wristband to get in, but it will be worth it. Here’s the lineup for SpokesBUZZ:

Saturday Lineup:

11:30AM – Doors
Pandas & People (12PM)
Eldren (1PM)
izcalli (2PM)
The Yawpers (3PM)
Wiredogs (4PM)

Sunday Lineup:

11:30AM – Doors
Qbala Music (12PM)
The Echo Chamber (1PM)
Post Paradise (2PM)
Gasoline Lollipops (3PM)
Shatterproof (4PM)

Introducing FanPlan.info

Last year Aimee, Bryan and I made an easy to read and use spreadsheet to help us navigate UMS, as well as properly tweet to the bands.

My biggest pet peeve for festival websites and apps is that they NEVER tell you the band’s Twitter handle. I want to tweet my love to the bands and tell the world who I love. I hate having to sit there and google to find their handle while they are playing, because I look rude with my head down, cell phone up, so we came up with a solution. This year we made it even better (well Aimee and Bryan were the ones that made it pretty and mobile friendly).

You may have seen the three of us tweeting with the hashtag #fanplan at events like FoCoMX, Westword Music Showcase, Denver Day of Rock and Firefly Music Festival, and now we’re ready for UMS! Since it is a website, there’s no need to download anything, and since it is text based, it will load much quicker than those photo based apps and websites! Not only do we have all of the bands Twitter handles, but we’ve gathered the venues as well so you can tweet your location with ease!

You can view FanPlan.info by day and sort each day by time, band or venue. The app auto sorts by time and the bands that have already played get grayed out so you can easily see who is coming up next.

Don’t Forget Protection – Noiselace

UMS is the perfect venue to wear Noiselace! Most of these venues are packed and LOUD, but when you’re walking in between venues and don’t need your earplugs, you can easily snap the magnet back together and wear your Noiselace as a necklace until stepping inside the next loud venue.

Don’t have your Noiselace yet? Order today at www.Noiselace.com and we usually deliver to Colorado the next day. Not enough time? Tweet at @MonikaRun or @Noiselace and we will have some on us at UMS to help you out!

So, who is going to UMS and which bands do I *need* to see this year?

Give me your suggestions! I can’t wait to discover some new bands and meet some new friends.