Meet 8008135!, the House Band at New Venue BurnDown

The members of BurnDown's house band 8008135! gather around the camera, twisting their faces into playful grimaces and cupping their chests in a pose that resolves any lingering confusion on how to pronounce the group's name (if you're still stuck, put those numbers in a calculator). And while the resulting photo, covered in neon hearts and sparkles, seems to be the only image of the band that exists online, it perfectly encapsulates the group's energy: carefree, fun, and more than a little goofy.

The band is vocalist and keyboard player Roni Zagoria's newest musical endeavor. She moved to Boulder from South Carolina in 2007 and brought her passion for funky jam bands and bluesy tunes with her. The southerner has always been involved in music in some capacity — she started scribbling original compositions in notebooks as a sixth-grader, and by the time she was in college, was riffing on a keyboard and belting melodies in DIY bands she formed with local buddies.

Writing music "has always been a source of catharsis for me. It has always helped me be able to vent about anything, so it's hugely important to me," Zagoria says. "For me, it feels the same as writing in a journal for everyone else. It's just a really healthy, awesome, creative way to get things off your chest."

She moved to Denver in 2012 and created the funk, rock and jazz band Zagriculture (she has a thing for interesting names) with bassist Josh Smith, drummer Dominic Fante, trumpeter Joe Zimmet, guitarist Joel Justice and saxophonist Nicolas Killeen. She lovingly refers to the group as her "original music project."

But her longtime commitment to Zagriculture doesn't stop Zagoria from jamming with new groups. In early 2021, she met up with former bandmate and drummer Andre DuBose (they both had stints in the ever-evolving Dr. Paws and Friends), bassist Karl Summers and guitarist Jonny Gutierrez from psychedelic funk band Dog City Disco for a low-pressure rehearsal that transformed into the start of a new band: 8008135! (aka Boobies).

"I was just forming little side projects here and there to stay gigging and keep it fresh — hence Boobies," she reflects. The name's old-school calculator origin is a reference to the ’90s-era soul, hip-hop and R&B the party band covers.

"It's one short word, and it's boobies, so it's going to catch people's attention," Zagoria says with a laugh. "And we get to yell 'Boobies!' throughout the whole set. It's pretty fun, and I wear a boobie shirt every gig — like a shirt with two alien heads on the boobs or something.

"It's just silly," she continues. "It's really lighthearted. Not just the band name, but the whole project. We rehearse and everything, but we don't take ourselves too seriously."

In 2022, Zagoria, who is always plugged into the Denver music scene, caught wind of an upcoming local venue, BurnDown. The building at 476 South Broadway was formerly home to a flower shop and beloved year-round Christmas store called LeGrue's. LeGrue's had been a Denver staple for fifty years until the space was purchased by the Sparks family in 2018. By 2022, owners Reed Sparks and Alex Vickers were hard at work transforming the space into a three-story restaurant, bar and music venue.
The name BurnDown is a reference to a fire that ravaged the property in 1978. The center of the building collapsed, leaving a gaping hole that was later repurposed into a three-story atrium. Singed beams and exposed brick have since become a staple of the space, adding a unique flair that honors the structure's storied past.

Zagoria got in touch with the team at BurnDown, which was eager to bring her musical stylings to the venue's small stage. "[BurnDown] was like, 'Yeah, we want your band to play here at some point, and I was like, 'Okay, cool. Who's running your music program?'" she recalls. The answer was no one, so Zagoria stepped into the vacant position, taking her fifteen years of experience in Denver's music scene and a lengthy list of connections with her.

Her official position is "in-house music operations manager," a lengthy title for a role that ultimately boils down to talent-buying and managing live performances. It's her first music-management role, but to no one's surprise, Zagoria loves it.

"It's been a really cool new adventure, especially from always being a musician and experiencing things from the musician side," she says. "Since I'm a musician, I can bring that perspective to the role, too.

"I'm able to understand where musicians are coming from and know what musicians and bands are looking for as far as relationship with the talent buyer, relationship with the venue...money, the perks," she adds.

Zagoria also had a hand in adjusting the acoustics of the space, a challenging project that took a significant amount of trial and error. The open-concept atrium, combined with the venue's hard surfaces, created a nightmare of booming, bouncing sounds that she fought to wrangle. Since the first ear-splitting performances, Zagoria, with the help of professional sound techs, has strategically placed speakers, soundproofing foam and rugs around the space, perfecting the stage setup and finding the acoustic sweet spot.

"We're dialing it in, and it's sounding really good these days," she says. "I think we finally have a volume level where people can still enjoy their experience and...the live music, too."

She knows firsthand what it's like to perform on the BurnDown stage — after all, 8008135! is on the venue's calendar for every last Saturday of the winter months.

"It's a really unique place to perform, structurally speaking," she says. "It's a really cool vibe because the stage is overhanging the first floor, and even though there's a gap in between, you're still playing to a bunch of rowdy people who are just trying to have fun and party."

BurnDown opened in May 2023, and Zagoria has kept the venue's stage packed with a rotating list of local talent. She's a lover of psychedelic jam bands, instrumental jazz and what she fondly refers to as "weirdo stuff," though the venue has mostly staged everything from party bands and bluegrass to rock, funk, R&B and pop. Anything that Zagoria and her self-proclaimed "hippie ears" enjoy makes it on the roster — as long as it vibes with BurnDown's usual clientele.

"We are locally focused, musically," she says. "I try to book a lot of local bands that are on a scale of not-very-well-known to well-known, just depending on what they bring to the table.

"I feel really good about being able to provide musical opportunities to not just friends, but the whole Denver music scene," she concludes. "We bring in people from out of town, too. It's really cool to get to know some different bands from other states, and things of that nature. Onward and upward — I'm super excited for the future."

8008135!, 9:30 p.m. Saturday, March 2, BurnDown, 476 South Broadway, burndowndenver.com.