Rockstar Music Hall Opens Inside Celebrity Lanes on NYE With Live Music and Bowling

Robert Koontz, a principal partner of Centennial company Kelmore Development, knows the formula for an ultimate entertainment experience: live music and bowling.

"There's a very famous venue in New Orleans called Rock’n'Bowl, and they probably set the pace that bands and rock and roll and bowling can all go together," Koontz says. "A lot of other people around the country have picked it up. More recently, there's a venue out in New York called Brooklyn Bowl that has done it very successfully. I was just stunned at how large the music venue is and how big of a crowd they actually had in there. I mean, it's New York-sized. It's amazing."

Koontz has employed the potent combination before: Kelmore Development is also the company behind Pindustry, a  massive entertainment complex in Greenwood Village that mixes bowling, food, live music and arcade games. The game-lovers' haven, which opened in 2021, was the first installation of the Arapahoe Entertainment District, a project that was designed to revitalize a rather dull stretch of Arapahoe Road.

"I had traveled around the country looking at different entertainment and bar-tainment concepts, and there's a lot of really good ones...but a lot of them are singular in their activities," Koontz says. "So what if we put together a whole collection of activities? And that was the vision behind Pindustry."

Pindustry's mixed-media entertainment has been a dazzling success that Kelmore Development is eager to replicate. So when the laser tag arena nestled in Centennial's Celebrity Lanes slipped in popularity, Koontz jumped on the opportunity to revamp the space, transforming it into the Rockstar Music Hall.

"The Centennial and south Aurora and north Parker submarket really love live music," Koontz says. "And there aren't very many nice or newer venues of any kind in that submarket. It's a very robust area with high densities of population and traffic, so we thought it's natural to put live music in there."

During the day, Rockstar Music Hall will be a game room and possibly a private event center, with a cornhole arena, ping-pong and darts. But on Friday and Saturday nights, the cornhole bean bags will be collected, the darts stowed and the ping-pong tables wheeled from the room, transforming the space into a modest, 3,000-square-foot concert hall. Live music will play from 7 to 10 p.m., and a DJ will spin tracks from 10 p.m. to midnight while maintaining a family-friendly atmosphere. Tables and chairs will be scattered throughout the hall, and an upper balcony will give audience members a chance to see the stage from a bird's-eye view.

Like its name suggests, the music hall will diverge from the flashy ’80s dance bands that are so popular at Pindustry and lean into the classic combo of bowling and rock and roll. But Koontz is open to experimenting with other genres, and wants to "see what the market seems to like the most and let the market tell us," he says.

Eight pop-art-style murals line the walls, showcasing the brightly colored likenesses of such musical greats as Jimi Hendrix, Taylor Swift, Elvis Presley, Beyoncé, Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, Paul McCartney and Pink. Large screens emerge from the ceiling, and the stage against the back wall will be the same 12-by-24-foot size as Pindustry's.

Although renovations began a little over a month ago (last week the site was still an active construction zone), Rockstar Music Hall is set to open on Sunday, December 31, at 9 p.m. for its first Celebrity New Year's Eve bash, with bowling, games, food and, of course, live tunes. HomeSlice, a popular Denver dance band, will be the evening's feature entertainment.

Although HomeSlice will christen the brand-new venue, the official grand opening is set for January 6 from 7 to 10 p.m., with the 6 Million Dollar Band on stage.

Rockstar Music Hall will primarily stage local acts, although Koontz says the venue might pick up a touring band here and there. Because of Pindustry, Koontz and Kelmore Development are already very familiar with the local Denver music scene, making the hall's January lineup easy to set. The next month will showcase acts that range from throwback dance bands to country and rock cover bands. Groove 'N Motion, the Grind, Blinker Fluid, Whiskey Road, Thumpin' and the Chris Jackson Band will be among the first to play at Rockstar.

"It's just exciting to see such a diverse venue — and in that southeast market — open up," Koontz says. "It'll be great to have the bands in there and the energy of live music.

"What we're learning is that suburbs love live music just as much as the urban crowd does," he adds. "There aren't many venues out here in the ’burbs, so offering it up has been rewarding."

Celebrity New Year's Eve Party, 9 p.m. Sunday, December 31, Rockstar Music Hall, 15755 East Arapahoe Road. Tickets are $10.