The Show(case) Must Go On!

"All I know is, we're leaving," Abella says of her impending plan to bolt from Colorado with husband Kevin Kauper. "We're selling our house. We're selling everything we own." After wrapping a calendar of local gigs in late July, the two intend to leave for parts unknown; at the moment, their semi-realized itinerary includes stops in New York, Norway and New Zealand. "We feel we need to shake off this town before we settle someplace else," Abella explains.

Armed with edgily honest material that encompasses both wit and heartache, the singer performed solo in the Denver area from the early to late '90s. To bolster her prickly-soft vocals and hooks, she recruited a backing band in 1999, an outfit that has since included "a rotating cast of characters," she notes. ("People have different needs," she says of the high turnover rate.)

The current lineup -- at least until Abella rips up her fourteen-year-old roots -- includes ex-Rainville bassist Matt Sumner, drummer Chris Budin, guitarist Gerry Hundt and keyboardist Judy Brady. For lower-key sets, the singer teams with violinist Jennifer Kavanaugh. At the Westword Music Showcase, Abella's brother/longtime musical collaborator John -- who produced her glittery, gritty full-length debut, What Happened to the Girls?, last year before fleeing to Los Angeles -- returns to her side on guitar for one night only. Catch Abella while you can. -- Eric Peterson

ACCIDENTAL SUPERHERO
NOMINATED IN POP
9 P.M., LA RUMBA
Many Internet-driven pockets of the recording industry took a hit with the dot.com crash, but some bands have taken the e-baton and run with it. And few have raced faster or covered more ground than Accidental Superhero. The Colorado Springs-based quartet has logged more than 400,000 downloads off MP3.com -- often charting amid the likes of Eminem and Avril Lavigne -- and amassed an e-mail list of 500,000 fans.

"Most of us are tech nerds," says vocalist Jonathan Kuiper, "except Jeff [Woods, AS's drummer] -- he's a pro golfer." As such, the members of the eight-year-old band, rounded out by guitarist Chris "Cornbread" Willard and bassist Sean Mulholland, took to the Web the minute they finished their second full-length album, Full Circle, last year. "It did well by word of mouth," Kuiper says. "It just snowballed."

"We embraced the whole Napster/KaZaa thing," he adds. "I don't think artists are going to be able to change how stuff is pirated nowadays." Thus the band's strategy remains largely the same as it ever was: doing it themselves -- writing, self-recording and self-releasing a brand of polished, affecting rock anchored by industrial-strength guitar riffs and boosted by soaring pop hooks.

Accidental Superhero, which has a national tour slated for the end of the year and a third album in the works, has had its share of offers and rejections from labels big and small. But a tour to New York last fall proved to be an educational, if somewhat jading, experience. "The more you learn about the music industry, the more you see behind the curtain," says Kuiper. "There is no wizard. It's not necessarily what you thought it would be. We realized we could do a lot of it on our own." -- Peterson

AGAINST TOMORROW'S SKY
NOMINATED IN PUNK
5:30 P.M., ACOMA CENTER
Mike Stephens of Against Tomorrow's Sky recently left an old friend for dead on the side of the road in the middle of the California desert. What's more, he shows no signs of remorse for his actions. In fact, he'd probably do it again if it meant another potentially amazing gig was on the other side.

The Colorado Springs-based quartet -- composed of guitarist/vocalist Jeff Fuller, bassist Mike Nipp, drummer Shawn Stafford and vocalist/guitarist Stephens -- was baptized by fire when its '78 Econoline van bit the dust in the middle of the desert on the band's first tour ever. "I can laugh now, but at the time it wasn't so funny," says Stephens. The group stopped for gas in Bakersfield, California, on its way from Sacramento to Anaheim. Unbeknownst to the bandmembers, the gas station had mistakenly put diesel fuel in its unleaded pumps. Had it not been for the kindness of a handful of strangers who pitched in to help out, the players might still be stuck somewhere in the middle of the Mojave. Fortunately, they made it back home. The van did not.

Sounds like enough to dissuade most bands from giving it another go, right? But this one can't wait to get back on the road.

"We've done really well in Colorado Springs. We've built up a cool little following, and we're just trying to do that everywhere else," says Stephens. "And we know that it doesn't happen overnight."