Playing guitar may not seem like a lot of work, but it's a real workout. I've played my fair share of gigs, and whether the show lasts all night or is just a half-hour set, by the time it ends, I'm usually a big, dripping ball of sweat that wants to hit the sack immediately.
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Cocktail Revolution was really working it on Saturday night at the new Blue Moo'd Lounge (5950 South Platte Canyon Road), a stylish joint that's dubbed itself "Littleton's House of Jazz & Blues." The musicians pushed through a killer take on Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" with the tenor sax blowing his ass off, as well as a super-funky take on Stevie Wonder's "I Wish," but they just couldn't convince anyone to get out on the spacious dance floor. I was tapping my fingers on the bar and nodding my head to an instrumental version of Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman," and the couple next to me at the bar was getting into the music as well — but a lot of the other people in the joint were more involved in their conversations than they were in the music. And this band deserved better. The Blue Moo'd has the potential to be more of a listening room than a place where music is merely in the background.
And judging from the talent the Moo'd is bringing in, acts like Hazel Miller and Jack Hadley, this place is serious about its music: It's booked Fusion Juice Jazz Project on Friday, September 11, and blues with the Lethal Lisa McCall Band on September 12. It's also serious about service: The three bartenders were doing a bang-up job keeping the drinks flowing. And the bathrooms were the cleanest I've seen at any place in town.
Club scout: The Bianchi brothers, who own Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom, Quixote's, Sancho's Broken Arrow and Owsley's Golden Road, have sold Dulcinea's 100th Monkey (717 East Colfax Avenue) to one of their bartenders, Pete Penzastadler, who will reopen the club as Pete's Monkey Bar in mid-September. "The place is nice and beautiful," Jay Bianchi says, "but it needs love and attention that only a new owner can bring. We have been reluctantly trying to sell it for a while, but sometimes we need to be coaxed kicking and screaming to the table."
Singer-songwriter Sean Morse has introduced a different take on open mikes at the Ubisububi Room, which is below the Thin Man (2015 East 17th Avenue). Starting at 9:30 p.m. each Monday, Morse runs an Inside the Actors Studio-style interview with a local or touring singer-songwriter. Questions from the audience are encouraged, and for the open-mike section of the night, Morse encourages musicians to bring any or all instruments; he wants to foster the "join the fun" pick-up-and-play-along aesthetic.
Finally, the Corner Office (1405 Curtis Street) recently started an industry night on Mondays. From 9 p.m. to midnight, DJ Sweet T spins old-school, hip-hop, electro-funk and more, while the bar pours $2 16-ounce PBRs and $3 shot specials.
