returns for its fourteenth show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Saturday, April 23, it could almost be a homecoming. Not only did founding members Luke and Jesse Miller grow up in Lakewood, but the scene here has welcomed the jamtronic band with open arms since it debuted in 1999.
According to the Millers, the shows are 60 percent improvisational, 40 percent planned."But there are different levels of improvisation," Luke explains."There might be points in a composed piece where one instrument can improvise and there are other parts that are more open-ended, so we know we're going to go in one general direction.
Lotus's members also draw inspiration from bands such as Talking Heads, Tortoise and Underworld."We're all pretty big fans of electronic music, too," Luke adds."We even look to producers like Floating Points and Four Tet and taking these ideas of something that might be created not for a band, and how can we translate those ideas onto live instruments and really make something new with it. That's a theme that's followed us all these years.
Last year, the band played more Red Rocks shows than it ever had in a single year of performances at the legendary venue."We got a few extra in last year because of the limited capacity; we did four shows, so we upped the count a little bit," Jesse says.