Spare a Dance? Live Music and Bowling Collide at Broomfield Venue

Before Dani Grant and her husband, Matt Hoeven, took over the Mishawaka Amphitheatre outside Fort Collins in 2010, the couple owned Chipper’s Lanes, a chain of bowling centers in northern Colorado and Broomfield that also have laser tag and arcades. Earlier this year, they brought bowling and live music together at 830 North, a music venue inside the Chipper’s Lanes in Fort Collins, as well as 2454 West inside the Greeley facility.

“It was a natural partnership for us, given our interest in live music and bowling-based entertainment,” Hoeven says. “We’ve had a lot of fun crossing the bowling experience with the live-music experience. We know folks all over Colorado and beyond will want to bowl and dance with us.”

The duo just announced that another music venue, 100 Nickel, is opening inside the Chipper’s Lanes at 100 Nickel Street in Broomfield.

Carly Shields, talent buyer and production manager for the venues, says that the sound systems at all three are the same kind used at Mishawaka. “It’s really powerful and it's really crisp,” she notes. “You really can't hear the bowling over the music, and the artists on stage can’t hear the bowling, either. So it works out really well, because you've got people all along the front up at their lanes, also close to the stage. They can hear the music perfectly. They can also bowl. It's been a really fun combination.”

The stage at the 250-capacity Broomfield venue will be set about two feet over three bowling lanes on show nights, which will be Wednesdays through Saturdays, and broken down for nights that are popular for bowling leagues, which are normally Mondays and Tuesdays. For those who want to check out the concerts but don't want to bowl, there’s a large bar area above the lanes where people can watch the bands.

While Shields says she books a lot of jam bands, bluegrass and Americana acts in Fort Collins and country, punk and metal bands in Greeley, she thinks that Broomfield will welcome all of those genres and more. Because people will be bowling during shows, she won’t book a lot of acoustic shows, focusing instead on high-energy music.

Shields sees the three music venues inside Chipper’s Lanes as a way for bands to start building followers and gradually work up to playing at the 950-capacity Mishawaka.

El Javi with Ghost Town Drifters will open the venue on Friday, January 7; for more information, visit chipperslanes.com.