For Brock Kilgore, a more than two decades-long journey in both academia and the music industry has brought him full circle, combining his passion for music and his role as a professor at Colorado State University Pueblo.
In addition to teaching history and geography courses at the university, he is leading the Media and Entertainment course, Concerts, Events, and Festivals. He has integrated the class’s role in the local Steel City Music Showcase, which is taking place for its second year on April 11-12.
Based on Denver’s Underground Music Showcase, founded by Kyle Hartman, Steel City Music Showcase debuted Downtown last year and was spearheaded by Nathan Stern, an owner of Pueblo’s food hall Fuel & Iron. Hartman is the talent buyer for Steel City Music Showcase. Stern met Kilgore at a nearby coffee shop and decided to collaborate with Kilgore’s class within the Department of Media and Entertainment.
Kilgore grew up in Black Forest, Colo., and found an interest in punk rock music at 12 years of age. His experience within the industry started at 17 when he worked in a local radio station in Madisonville, Tenn.
“I did an hour-and-a-half long punk show in the middle of the day, a couple of days a week,” Kilgore said.
After working in the student radio station at Liberty High School where he attended, he worked as the culture editor for the student newspaper at the University of Colorado, Colorado Spring (UCCS), writing concert reviews.
“When I was in college, one of the first guys I met in the first class I took was a guitar player for the band that I actually ended up taking on tour,” Kilgore said.
That band was called Boondoggle and Kilgore worked as its tour manager, setting up gigs and traveling across the country when he was a year into his graduate work at UCCS.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t use something that I learned while I was on tour with them,” Kilgore said.
In addition to his early tour management experience, Kilgore managed the Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wis. for several years. He returned to Colorado Springs after his father passed away. Kilgore went back to UCCS to get a second bachelor’s in history and to finish his master’s degree, which ended up getting him his job at CSU Pueblo about 10 years ago.
Now in its second year, his Concerts, Events, and Festivals class brings in students to get hands-on experience working in real-life scenarios. The class emphasizes the technical skills needed in the live music industry surrounding lighting, sound and talent-buying.
“The one rule that we have in the class is that the show must go on. Nothing at all can get in between the audience and the show. That’s the only rule that I have and that’s the one thing that big picture we think about, because we might be having trouble with lighting, but we can’t interrupt the show to go fix that in any way that the audience could ever notice,” Kilgore said.
Other students in the Department of Media and Entertainment are involved in the Steel City Music Showcase outside of Kilgore’s class. These students are part of SOCO Student Media and are representing CSU Pueblo’s role in the event. According to Kilgore, the university was a large sponsor of last year’s showcase, and it is the second-largest sponsor of this year’s.
This year’s showcase has evolved and improved based on last year’s feedback from students helping with the event. According to Kilgore, the biggest piece of feedback he received from last year’s event was that there weren’t enough Pueblo musicians. This led Kilgore to reach out to his friend at Analogue Books & Records, Jesse McCoy, who wrote down 13 bands on a sticky note for him.
“I gave that to Kyle and all 13 of those bands got on to the Steel City Music Showcase this year. So, we really listened to what Pueblo had to say and then went to this year with that feedback,” Kilgore said.
This year will feature five stages Downtown, each having its own sound and groupings of genres. The outdoor CSU Pueblo stage is located at La Bella Union Plaza on Union Avenue and features food trucks. Local musician Cody Cozz will be performing at this stage.
The Neon Alley stage is a new location this year. Kilgore believes this stage will be one of the more fun stages because it will feature musicians and bands that do not fit in other genres of music.
Another stage will be at La Favorita bar, which will be an indoor singer-songwriter stage. This venue will be for people interested in attending a more intimate setting. The fourth stage will be at the Gold Dust Saloon and will feature some metal and punk. The fifth stage is Presley’s, which used to be Phil’s Radiator Service and was a concert venue in Pueblo for a long time. Boondoggle, the band Kilgore managed, played there on New Years in 2000.
Students at CSU Pueblo can receive free tickets online through the university’s ticketing website. Kilgore hopes to see students show up to the event to support the local music scene and to experience “the coolness of Downtown.”
For Kilgore, it’s more than just teaching; it’s about helping the next generation of music professionals understand the passion and perseverance required to thrive in an ever-evolving industry. As the Steel City Music Showcase continues to grow, Kilgore’s class will continue to play a key role in shaping the future of live music events in Pueblo.
