Denver - Rockin'? Or utterly lame?

[HypCo]

You will be surprised how many girls there look like Ozzy.

That's the word. I also heard Pueblo chicks look like Ian Hunter.

[wayne kerr]

I stumbled thru Denver a few times and here's what I remember I liked:

1) The Satire
2) Streets of London
3) The Apples in Stereo
4) The Mayan Theatre
5) Slim Cessna's Auto Club
6) Jay Munley De Dar He
7) This brewery by the tracks where my homeboy knew the bartender and I never left a bar more wasted in my life with as much money in my pocket
The Library
9) The scary girls referenced in an earlier post
10) Some mountains or something like that

Here's what I remembered I didn't like:

1) All the hippies
2) All the hippies
3) All the hippies
4) All the hippies
5) All the hippies
6) All the hippies
7) All the hippies
All the hippies
9) All the hippies
10) All the hippies

And oh yeah, Boulder is a pretty little town too. I especialy love all the dredlock kids who beg for change on the mall wearing Doc Martens and then go get into their Land Rover Discoveries. I believe they call them trustafaraians! Ummm... there's a great Indian restaurant there tho... by the bike shop...

SB

[wayne kerr]

You will be surprised how many girls there look like Ozzy.

Or at least Kelly!

SB

[The Scum]

I moved to Denver two years ago, having lived in Wyoming, and on both coasts.

From one perspective, it's where the midwest ends, and from the other it's where the west begins. They're jumbled up together...liberals and conservatives, hicks and yuppies, sheep ranchers and hi tech folk...

Denver feels kinda like Atlanta to me, lots of sprawl. High tech was booming, but it's hurting now.

My take is that the music scene is reasonably healthy. The all-ages DIY scene always has something going on, if you can track it down (Monkey Mania, Rosehill Grange Hall, Garageland). There are good small rock clubs (Lion's Lair, Cricket On the Hill, 15th Street Tavern, The Climax & Larimer Lounge), with varying degrees of hipsterism. There are good jazz & blues joints (Ziggies, El Chupultapec, the DNote). There are a bunch of old movie theatres that have been turned into mid-sized clubs (Azatlan, Fox, Boulder, Bluebird, Gothic, Ogden), which seem to share between local & touring acts. The Colorado Symphony is pretty open to new music.

There are a handful of country bars, and LOTS of suburban stripmall heavy metal places. The jam band thing is waning a little: one of those clubs changed names & formats to a rock bar, and the big one has been booking all across the spectrum recently. The area north of downtown that used to be artsy is rapidly becoming yuppified, with about a dozen fratboy bars near Coors Field, and the old warehouses being converted into yuppie lofts.

I've performed with 3 different acts since moving here, with no lack of opportunities to play. No real obstacles keeping you out of the smaller clubs, and perseverence being to key to moving beyond that. Just like anywhere.

I don't know that there's much of a "recording scene" here. The big rooms are struggling, some of the smaller places appear to be booming. Lots of people with a small protools setup asking $20 an hour, and from reading the ads, it looks like a lot of them specialize in hiphop. Some of the better small rooms rely on word of mouth. I know 3 or 4 respectable "home studios" within about 10 minutes of my home...

Byron Jacquot

[MechaGodzilla]

Wow, talk about quick response! ...Gives me a lot to think about.

I guess the verdict overall is, move if you like mountains and heat, and have job-potential, but not for music reasons.

Of course, therein lies the issue; I've never had a professional job as of yet, save retail (I'm only 21), so wherever I move, music and recording are my priority. Seattle seems to have a bit of a glut of recording engineers, but it is a great town for music, it's true. ...And I have no problem staying in Seattle, of course. I love it here.

Any suggestions? Somewhere less crowded than Seattle, more musically-inclined than Denver?

Anyway, thanks for the input.
Peace,
A

[eeldip]

Somewhere less crowded than Seattle, more musically-inclined than Denver?

Anyway, thanks for the input.
Peace,
A

duh.. portland. good luck finding a job though! but you can buy a house with a lower middle class sort of income, so when you do... you are set.

also, check out pittsburg. its the new portland.

[d.olivier]

pitsburg the new portland? i thought it was baltimore!

[wayne kerr]

No. Baltimore is the new Lawrence which is the new Madison which is, of course, the new Cleveland which is the new New York which is the new Albuquerque which is the new Abilene, which is the OLD Portland. So, in a sense, you are correct.

SB