I dropped by the Rear Inn Lounge (4991 West 80th Avenue in Westminster) on a recent Wednesday and stumbled on a roomful of kickballers. There had to be at least a dozen teams there, the players all wearing their team's colored T-shirts, drinking pitchers of beer and playing beer pong and shuffleboard. All this, while Roxy Music's "Avalon" played on the jukebox. It was a bit jarring to the senses.
Things got weirder when this guy sitting at the end of the bar said something into the wireless microphone he was holding. I had no idea why he had a mike, and I couldn't hear what he was saying, but as he spoke, he pointed a remote control at a deer head on the wall and made the head move. Or maybe that deer head moving was just a coincidence?
A few minutes later, the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" came on; I'd rather have my eyes propped open Clockwork Orange-style and be forced to watch Gigli on repeat than hear that song again. But the music didn't get better when the kickballers jumped up to do karaoke, which the Rear Inn hosts Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Two gals butchered Digital Underground's "Humpty Hump," and then three people from the same team did Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" — a version so rough I couldn't even figure out what the song was until the chorus. I started drinking even faster when four guys did the most un-sexy version of Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex U Up" possible, sucking down beers through Michael Bolton's "How Can We Be Lovers" and the B-52's "Love Shack" before a gal offered a serious take on Stevie Nick's "Landslide," which had people in the crowd singing along.
Kickball is hip; these songs weren't.
Club scout: On Saturday, October 17, DJ Bedz, now in his seventh season as official DJ for the Denver Nuggets, is celebrating his birthday at Sutra (1109 Lincoln Street) by throwing a fundraiser for Safehouse Denver, an organization that helps protect women and children from domestic violence. Sutra will donate 20 percent of bottle-service sales that night to Safehouse. Also on October 17, Falling Rock Tap House (1919 Blake Street) will host its third annual Fresh Hop Celebration from noon to 5 p.m. This is your chance to try fresh hop ales (seasonal ales brewed the same day the hop is picked from the vine) from regional breweries like Deschutes, Oskar Blues, Full Sail, Ska Brewing, Sierra Nevada, Great Divide and more; $20 gets you a commemorative glass as well as well four tokens, each good for one beer.
