Club Scout

At about 1:55 a.m. Saturday, 34-year-old Thomas Jones was shot to death in the parking lot outside of Lotus (1701 Wynkoop Street). The crime is still under investigation, but reports have groups arguing outside the upscale club. Five hours later, the lot was still cordoned off with yellow tape rather than velvet ropes, filled with dozens of cars that had been parked there while the shooting took place. That made the vehicles part of the crime-scene investigation, according to Detective John White, and they weren't released until all evidence was collected. Which made for one nightmare Let Out in taxi-starved LoDo.

Club Rubber, which was initially slated to take place every Saturday night at the Church (The Beatdown, May 19), will debut at Tabu(1222 Glenarm Place) this Saturday, July 30, and become a monthly event dubbed Rubber Red Ruby Lounge. "A lot of things that were supposed to happen didn't happen," says John Huntington, explaining the move. "I decided it would be best -- and they thought it would be best -- if we just split ways. The Church people are very spread out with Vinyl, Funky Buddha -- you know what I mean? The thing I have over at Tabu, they're very focused on Rubber. Rubber is their number-one thing. I get 100 percent of their attention, and that's what I need to pull off a great production. I'll get to be creative again."

Although Huntington is reluctant to reveal specific details of the night, "You're going to have your mind blown," he promises. "I don't want to give it away. It's going to be very sexual, very sexual. It's going to be Club Rubber and Pimp & Ho at its finest. Be prepared to be blown away. You're going to see a lot of people with very little clothes on."

Conveniently, Tabu is located right above the Diamond Cabaret, in the former home of Alley Cat. "Don't forget, the same people who own Tabu own strip clubs in town," Huntington adds. "They're making it mandatory for every single dancer who isn't working that night to be at the club. So you're looking at 250 exotic dancers in one room at one time."

Considering that Tabu holds just under 500 people, it looks like Rubber will bounce back just fine.

Heartthrob (10175 East Hampden Avenue) has been transformed into Catamaran Liquor Stand, "an outrageous, nautically themed, out-of-control party," says host Joe Frankel. "The timing is right, because there are no party clubs left in Denver."

Frankel, erstwhile owner of the Baja Beach Company franchise, opened Heartthrob five years ago when he retired. With the Cat (as he calls it), he's returning to his beach-club roots -- with a few tweaks. The space has been divided into two rooms: the Retro Room, with a vibe similar to Heartthrob both musically and aesthetically, and the main room, where the waitstaff is clad in bikinis and jams, and dances on the bar with customers. And that's not all: This room also boasts confetti cannons, a full-sized shower in the middle, a queen-sized waterbed built into the bar, and something that's sure to blow everyone's skirt up: a high-speed fan mounted into the floor.

"It's just basically 'Let's go to a nightclub and have some fun,'" Frankel explains, "instead of 'Let's go to a nightclub and be serious.' That's it. Period. It's exciting to see that people still have party in them." -- Compiled by Jen Padgett