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ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS
DENVER — It’s not every day people receive an invite to meet John Wick. But for the Denver-based rock band The Trujillo Company, the invitation confirmed they are exactly where they’re meant to be.
Actor Keanu Reeves recently hand-picked the band to open for his own band, Dogstar.
“We bought him cupcakes,” said Mike Trujillo, lead guitarist and singer for the band. The Trujillo Company performed in August of 2023 with Dogstar at the Marquis Theatre in Denver.
“Legendary character, legendary person, you know? To be on the same lineup with someone that you've admired for basically my entire life. It was special to know that not only were we good enough to play with them, but they chose us to play with them,” Mike Trujillo said.
This year, the band is playing the Underground Music Showcase in Denver, which is co-owned by Two Parts and Youth on Record. The Trujillo Company will perform two shows during the UMS, at Bar 404 on Friday, July 26th at 11:00 pm and Saturday, July 27th at Sportique at 10:00 pm.
“The way that I describe it [UMS] to people is it's kind of like the South by Southwest of Denver. If you want to get a sense of what the Denver music scene is, you come to the UMS. You will get to see such a wide array of music,” said Mike Trujillo.
People are surprised to find out that Leny, the band’s drummer who shares the same last name of Trujillo, is not related to Mike. Leny, who started playing drums at four years old, met Mike at a birthday party. They played one jam session and formed an instant connection.
In 2021, Mark Hible seamlessly joined the band. Mike and Leny like to joke that Mark is an honorary Trujillo.
The band’s set at the Marquis included five songs from the new album (which will be called 4 Arrows and is set to drop by mid-2023), as well as their 2020 single “Follow The Leader”. Opener “Dad & Me” is about those tough relationships with the father figures in our lives. That was followed by the title track from the new album, “Deeper & Deeper”, and “Circles”, which is about repetitive patterns of greed and corruption. Next came “Follow The Leader”, which is always a crowd favorite. The set closed with “Down Below”. It was full tilt, from the word go.
Mike is an energetic and charismatic frontman who loves getting up close and personal with the crowd. Multiple times during a set he’ll step to the very edge of the stage for solos (see photo below). Following gigs he loves to interact with the crowd as he’s breaking down his rig, and at the merchandise table. As he told me after the gig, “I loved that after the set the kids from the front were asking me about my guitars and what kind of pedals I was using in my rig, because that was me at shows growing up. It’s all about that connection.”
Denver Entertainment Hub - Local Talent Spotlight by Rick Witt - Novemeber 12, 2022
One of the coolest parts of my job covering live music is when an opening act for the artist or band I was sent to cover completely knocks my socks off. It doesn’t happen that often, but when it does it makes me feel like I just found buried treasure.
This happened most recently back on October 11, when I covered the LA-based band Starcrawler at the Larimer Lounge in Denver. The opening act that night was a local threesome called The Trujillo Company. I was at the venue early enough to hear The Trujillo Company go through their sound check, and I realized early on that these guys weren’t just another opening act.
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