“Real quick,” Mk.gee said to the crowd at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium on Saturday, kicking off a rare bit of stage banter. Mk.gee, real name Mike Gordon, is a man of few words — he doesn’t do many interviews, and can usually be seen onstage showing off his unique style of guitar-playing beneath a fog machine and strobe lights, his wavy brown locks covering his face. So when the 28-year-old does speak, listen up. It’s about to get real.
“This is an amazing night,” he said. “This is a celebration.”
He was right. Mk.gee was about to begin Rolling Stone Presents: Gather No Moss, a multi-city rock & roll tour. And nothing says rock & roll like the historic Denver Fillmore — where the Who and the Grateful Dead once played — with a sold-out show by Mk.gee, the innovative guitarist whom Eric Clapton once compared to Prince.
Around six p.m., the line of fans that was wrapped around the block quickly filed into the 3,900-capacity theater. It’s been almost a year since Mk.gee (pronounced “mick-ghee”) was last in Denver, when he was on tour for his breakthrough album, Two Star & the Dream Police. Plus, it’s only his fourth show of 2025, so there was a feverish anticipation in the air. Standing in general admission, the crowd passed around fan-made Mk.gee stickers and bobbed their heads to a pre-show playlist that featured classics (the Stone Roses’ “I Wanna be Adored,” the Replacements’ “Unsatisfied”) and deep cuts (Bob Desper’s “Dry Up Those Tears”).
The evening began with a killer set by SEES00000 (pronounced “see-so”), who opened for Mk.gee last year. The Los Angeles DJ and producer won over plenty of Mk.gee fans on that tour, so he received a warm welcome (and some requests for his recent vibe-heavy single, “T00STEP,” which he eventually played). He performed selects from 2024’s If I Promise to Miss You, Will You Go Away, like the trippy opener “00000(:’D)” and the pulsating “RAL2222.” After his set, he walked out from his setup to the front of the stage, handing out his set list to one lucky fan.
Next up was Black Noi$e (unlike Mk.gee and SEES00000, no tricky pronunciation is required), a Detroit-based producer and DJ who has toured and collaborated with Earl Sweatshirt, including the hypnotic highlight “Mo(u)rning.” He capped his euphoric 45-minute set with a special send-off: “Hey Denver, I fuck with y’all!”
Part of Mk.gee’s appeal is that he’s impossible to pin down. Ever since he blew up with Two Star & the Dream Police — collaborating with Justin Bieber and Bon Iver and performing on Saturday Night Live — critics have been racking their brains trying to identify his sound. Is he experimental indie? A little bit soft rock? Maybe even a little Phil Collins, particularly on the devastating Nineties banger “Can’t Turn Back the Years”? Tonight, looking out at the jam-packed venue, it’s clear that it doesn’t really matter.
Mk.gee took the stage around nine p.m., backed by guitarist Andrew Aged and multi-instrumentalist Zack Sekoff. The 15-song set was bookended by the one-off single “ROCKMAN,” serving as the intro and outro to Mk.gee’s hazy, enigmatic universe. “Honey/Just shut up and ride,” he sang. “Wherever you are/I want it on fire.”
Mk.gee tore through almost every track on Two Star, and “ROCKMAN” wasn’t the only repeat. He’s been known to revisit the sparkling “DNM” in his set — sometimes even a dozen times in one evening — and tonight was no different. He delivered it not once, not twice, but three times, teasing the crowd in between tracks. “We’re never gonna do that again,” he said. “It’s not gonna happen. You guys are all high.” (Speaking of high: the fog machine reached its peak during “Breakthespell,” when a stellar cyclone of smoke formed onstage, its layers tightly wound in a circular motion. An amazing night, indeed).
“How are we feeling?” Mk.gee asked the crowd. “No, how are we actually feeling?”
For the encore, Mk.gee returned to the stage for “Alesis,” a Two Star highlight that will stay in your head for days. “Why me, or better, why you?” he sings over distorted, fuzzy riffs. If he performs this one a dozen times in the future, we’d be more than happy. For the final “ROCKMAN,” Mk.gee brought SEES00000 and Black Noi$e back onstage, making it a full circle moment.
Gather No Moss will stop in Chicago next, with the Beaches headlining the Salt Shed on Aug. 29. Wet Leg will lead the bill the following month in Nashville, on Sept. 23 at Marathon Music Works. On Oct. 16, MJ Lenderman will headline Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre, the final stop of the rock & roll tour. But it all began here at the Fillmore in Denver, with Mk.gee and his magnetizing music. We can’t think of a better way to kick it off.
