Club Notes: Your Sweet Return pays tribute to Jeff Buckley

Jeffery Hyde Thompson is a big fan of Jeff Buckley and he wanted to honor the late performer's birthday.

That's why Thompson formed the local Buckley tribute band Your Sweet Return. The group will be playing a special showcase at the b.side lounge Wednesday, and the act will be joined by Boulder favorites Gregory Alan Isakov and Dechen Hawk for the event.

"Jeff Buckley drowned back in 1997, so it's become traditional to play tribute shows around his Nov. 17 birthday," Hyde said. "He was one of the most talented artists and he had a lyrical sensitivity that's unparalleled.

"It was a complete tragedy that he only put out one studio record. Since he died, people have been telling me that our styles were similar. I finally decided to put together a tribute band and I hope I'm equal to the task."

Hyde and his band will spend the birthday bash playing all the tunes off Buckley's Grace. Your Sweet Return also will play tunes collected on Buckley bootlegs and posthumous releases.

"We're going to see where we can take the band from here," Hyde said. "We might not limit ourselves to exclusively playing Buckley tunes. We might do something like play an entire Radiohead album in the future, but tonight we're playing all Jeff Buckley."

The opening set for tonight's tribute show will feature Isakov, Hawk, Ramaya, Kendra Current and Katy McNeill performing Buckley tunes.

Zechs Marquise

Marfred and Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez have a learned a thing or two about the music business from their brother (and Mars Volta player) Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

Now Marfred and Marcel have started their own band called Zechs Marquise. The group's been creating its own buzz and opening shows for acts such as Daedelus and Busdriver.

Zechs Marquise is a prog-rock outfit and the band features hazy, psych-laden tunes. The group's touring behind its new CD, Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare, and on Wednesday the band brings its modern-rock sounds to the Old Curtis Street Bar in Denver.

"Our music has a definite psychedelic feel to it," Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez said. "It's intense, but it's very groove-oriented. We made our first record ourselves and sold it from the Web site, but we had a lot of time to make, Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare.

"The music really breathes on this new record and it has lots of space to move. We like to give the live sets a different feel when we go out to perform. The live shows are definitely energetic and aggressive, but it's controlled -- this is three guys playing their hearts out."