Steel City Music Showcase returns for the second year with new stages, new acts

As the sun set on downtown Pueblo, the buzz of neon lights firing up in Neon Alley were accompanied by the sounds of rock and roll, folk, country, hip hop, heavy metal and punk rock.

More than 40 bands and artists took five stages spread out across five stages located off of Pueblo’s Historic Union Avenue on April 11-12 as part of the second Steel City Music Showcase.

This year’s event saw around 1,300 people attend, an increase from around 1,000 last year.

Along with a larger attendance, the Steel City Music Showcase featured new stages, new acts and new perspectives.

The aim for all organizers involved? To make the showcase bigger, louder and sustainable for years to come.

SCMS goes non-profit

One of the biggest changes to the festival happened behind the scenes. The organizers of the event created a 501(c) non-profit to run the event.

They created a board of directors featuring Tyler Shown as president and creative director; Quentin Hagewood as vice president and lead sound engineer; Nathan Stern as secretary and festival director; Nikolaj Brons-Piche as treasurer and DJ; Dynelle Abeyta-Maestas as a board member and marketing manager (CQ); Brock Kilgroe as a board member and Colorado State University Pueblo leadership; Kyle Hartman as a board member and talent manager; Olivia Abeyta-Maestas as a board member and musician; Gillian Brown as a board member and photographer; Taylor Voss as a board member and sponsorship coordinator; and Jacob Rivera as a board member and marketer.

“The thought behind (creating a non-profit) is we want (the festival) to be its own thing,” said Dynelle Abeyta-Maestas. “Last year we filtered it through Colorado Fuel & Iron. But we thought, ‘Hey, why can’t we be our own festival and our own project?”

Abeyta-Maestas said that becoming a non-profit also opened the door for bringing in more sponsors. Keeping the money made from ticket sales inside the organization would also help future budgets of the festival.

Becoming a non-profit, Abeyta-Maestas said, also made the festival feel more like a community event.
“We’re doing this for Pueblo and for the community itself,” she said. ”Everyone on the board works in this space and we just wanted to give back. We wanted to do it in a way that highlighted the music and downtown.”

New sounds and stages highlight SCMS

This year’s event featured three new stages: one in the heart of Neon Alley; one at La Favorita; and the other at Presley’s (the former home of Phil’s Radiator).

The stages replaced Sacred Bean and Colorado Fuel and Iron stages that highlighted the festival last year.
The CSU Pueblo stage, located at La Bella Union Plaza and the Gold Dust Saloon remained from last year’s event.

“We added three stages and one of those is Neon Alley,” Abeyta-Maestas said. “All the neon lights and everything are going to be on during performances and we have a lot of space there for bands and great vendors.

“Neon Alley is one of the most iconic spots in Pueblo, right? So why not have a stage there?”

In addition to new stages, organizers of the event wanted to expand in sound, too.

Last year, 30 bands and artists performed during the festival. In 2025, 43 bands performed. Folk, pop, country and hip hop acts once again graced the five stages on Union Avenue. The festival expanded its repertoire this year, adding more country and hip hop acts as well as adding punk rock and heavy metal bands to the mix.

The heavier bands performed at Presley’s, bringing a nostalgic feel to the former Phil’s Radiator, which once was a haven for punk rock and heavy metal shows for well over a decade in the early 2000s to mid 2010s.

“This was a really good opportunity for (Presley’s) to kick off the festival,” Abeyta-Maestas said. “It really brings that nostalgia to people who used to go to shows there.”

Presley’s featured heavier bands like Sonic Vomit, Panpsychism and Thirteen Plagues.

Pueblo punk and alternative group Mineral Palace closed the first night at the venue. For frontman Jesse McCoy, the performance was a homecoming of sorts.

“The last time I set foot in here was the last show I played with my old band here 10 years ago,” McCoy said. “I started playing shows here when I was 16. I had my 21st birthday party here. It’s really crazy. It’s really cool to be here.”

McCoy helped bring a wider variety of rock and metal acts to this year’s festival. McCoy and Kilgroe are friends. Kilgroe approached McCoy about Mineral Palace playing the showcase and asked for other band suggestions.

McCoy runs Bedfire Records, an independent, DIY music label in Pueblo. McCoy gave Kilgroe a list of 13 bands. The talent booker for the showcase then booked all 13 of those groups.

“I thought we needed to get more Pueblo bands on the lineup and I especially wanted to get more heavy bands,” McCoy said. “I think this year was a step up (from last year). I think next year is going to be even better.”

Brons-Piche steps up as festival treasurer

Brons-Piche became friends with Shown a few years ago while they were both working at a music festival. Shown was documenting the show, while Brons-Piche was working as a financial manager for one of the show’s acts.

The two quickly hit it off. Fast-forward to now and the two are roommates in Denver. Brons-Piche is the treasurer on the SCMS board and worked as a volunteer at least year’s event.

He said Shown brought him and has inspired him to continue building the festival.

“Tyler is super-inspirational,” Brons-Piche said. “He’s so dedicated to the community. I don’t know where he finds the battery to do all these things. He’s so passionate about Pueblo and wants this community to grow and to bring people together.

“I’m so happy to be part of it.”

“That’s a really special thing with this event where students get real, hands-on experience. It’s really important for us to create these experiences and they’ve been a huge part of this.”
Nikolaj Brons-Piche, treasurer and DJ

Brons-Piche has served as a financial manager for many bands and artists across the country for the last several years. While he’s never helped organize a festival, his experience working with talent has proven to be invaluable.

“I’ve been doing a lot of budgeting and kind of forecasting to understand what things cost, like stages and talent,” he said. “We’ve expanded stages in a big way with Neon Alley. It costs a lot of money to create a sage. We’ve made a big push this year to get better sponsorship dollars. It’s been really important to see the community support.”

The showcase also saw more vendors in the forms of food and beverage trucks. Neon Alley featured alcohol vendors, which required procuring a liquor license.

With so many moving pieces, Brons-Piche said, it has been important for he and the other board members and volunteers to work as a cohesive unit.

“It takes a lot of people to pull this off,” he said. “It’s very daunting, but it’s just been a lot of fun to be part of this team.”

The festival’s treasurer said the CSU Pueblo students who volunteered have also played a huge part in the festival’s success.

“Shout out to the students and CSU Pueblo,” he said. “That’s a really special thing with this event where students get real, hands-on experience. It’s really important for us to create these experiences and they’ve been a huge part of this.”

Inaiah Lujan returns to the stage at SCMS

The 2025 Steel City Music Showcase marked a return, of sorts, to live performances for Pueblo music staple Inaiah Lujan.

Lujan, the founding member of The Haunted Windchimes and in/Planes, had not performed live on a big stage since 2019.

He returned the first night of the Steel City Music Showcase as a solo act, performing original songs and even improvising music live on the Neon Alley stage before finishing the set with his sister Chela’s band The Hardly Nevers (who opened the evening on the Neon Alley stage).

“It felt really good,” Lujan said. “Playing in Pueblo tends to be more nerve wracking than playing anywhere else because I know so many people and I want to put on the best show that I can. I had a nice ease back into it performing with the Hardly Nevers backing me up.”

Lujan was planning on touring and had recorded a record’s worth of music when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. As the world shut down, Lujan took a break.

After playing music live, touring and recording for the majority of over 20 years, Lujan said, it was time for a break.

“There was an opportunity to get off the train which had been rolling since I was like 13,” Lujan said. “The pandemic awarded me time to step back.”

Lujan became a graphic designer and also took up filmmaking and film photography. The break also allowed him time to grow and work past some personal turmoil.

The Pueblo native went through a divorce, was diagnosed bipolar and got sober during his stage sabbatical.

“There were so many things happening in my personal life and I just wanted to feel like I could manage it all,” Lujan said. “I started going to therapy and I started getting medicated.

“There were so many things that had to be taken care of and those things took priority.”

The singer songwriter continued to write music, drawing from his turmoil as inspiration.

“I wrote through a lot of that whole process,” Lujan said. “I realized I could never stop playing entirely.”

Lujan played smaller, more intimate shows before deciding it was time to get back onto the big stage.

The Steel City Music Showcase served as Lujan’s comeback.

“I feel ready to be back on stage because I feel good having built a routine and a way to care for myself,” Lujan said. “Prior to this, I was self-medicating. I was using drugs or alcohol to keep something going and my body was breaking down. So now, to be back and do it in a health way, with a clear mind, doing music just came naturally.”

Lujan plans to release new music and play shows as they come. The shows, Lujan said, have to make sense for him to do mentally, physically and spiritually.

“My sister and I are doing a duo set at Meadow Grass Music Festival Memorial Day weekend,” Lujan said. “I’m just trying to not jump on tour or anything like that and take gigs that make sense.”

For more on Lujan, visit inaiahlujan.com.

What’s next for the festival?

With year two in the rear view, organizers will look ahead to the Steel City Music Showcase’s future in 2026.

The event has already been a positive for local organizers and musicians.

Lujan, who has spent over 20 years in Pueblo’s music scene, said the showcase is a win for Pueblo artists and the city.

“It’s a good way to celebrate our culture here and to turn people onto it,” Lujan said. “I hope in time it grows and we can get more people — not just regionally — but nationally.”

Abeyta-Maestas said the plan is to continue to grow and make the festival sustainable.

She envisions creating a Pueblo Chile and Frijoles Festival-like event, with more vendors and more stages.
“Ideally it would be so cool to have the showcase all the way down Union,” Abeya-Maestas said. “This was modeled after the Underground Music Showcase in Denver. We want it to be rocking like that. We want local businesses to get involved, too.”

For Brons-Piche, moving forward means perfecting many of the processes already in place.
He said that to sustain success, organizers and volunteers must work to streamline organizing and running the festival.This includes getting more people to purchase tickets in advance and to continue to build crowd growth each year.

“Let’s perfect the way we have here and make this a can’t-miss event,” he said. “Then once there’s some serious momentum and everybody knows it’s coming and every year people are buying tickets weeks and weeks in advance, that’s when we’d make a bigger next move.”