Best jazz club 2000 | El Chapultepec | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best jazz club

El Chapultepec

The magic of El Chapultepec is hardly a secret. The small, smoky rectangle of a club has a long history of hosting both local and traveling jazz greats, and owner Jerry Krantz's involvement with and interest in Denver's lively jazz scene is well known. Over the past several years, the Pec's location in the heart of LoDo has pretty much served as a guarantee that the place will be jumpin' no matter what night of the week it is, even if the people clamoring for booths and bar space couldn't tell Thelonious Monk from Mickey Mouse. No matter: Even when relegated to the standing-room-only sections of the bar, a person would be hard-pressed not to feel the energy surging through the place. Whether it rises out of the consistently excellent duos, trios and quartets that grace the stage night after night or expresses itself in the lively exchanges that take place between the folks on the floor, it's there.

Readers' choice: El Chapultepec

Best blues club

Brendan's Pub

There's a world going on underground at Brendan's Pub, Denver's subterranean home of the best in local and national touring blues musicians. The windowless, smoky space has the authentic charm of an out-of-the-way Chicago bar, and when the acts take the small corner stage, it's clear that what Brendan's lacks in adornment, it more than makes up for in consistently superlative musical performances. The food -- usually ordered directly from the cook through a little kitchen window -- ain't bad, either. Order up some fries and shoot a round of pool during soundcheck, then settle in for an evening of down-and-dirty sounds.

Best blues club

Brendan's Pub

There's a world going on underground at Brendan's Pub, Denver's subterranean home of the best in local and national touring blues musicians. The windowless, smoky space has the authentic charm of an out-of-the-way Chicago bar, and when the acts take the small corner stage, it's clear that what Brendan's lacks in adornment, it more than makes up for in consistently superlative musical performances. The food -- usually ordered directly from the cook through a little kitchen window -- ain't bad, either. Order up some fries and shoot a round of pool during soundcheck, then settle in for an evening of down-and-dirty sounds.

Best after-hours club

Club Synergy

Club Synergy continues to be the best place to stop after the bars close and your buzz hasn't worn off yet. DJs Amtrack, Quay, Foxx and Pepper keep the folks on the dance floor moving into the wee hours. A safe haven for Denver's insomnia-prone clubgoers.

Readers' choice: Amsterdam

Best after-hours club

Club Synergy

Club Synergy continues to be the best place to stop after the bars close and your buzz hasn't worn off yet. DJs Amtrack, Quay, Foxx and Pepper keep the folks on the dance floor moving into the wee hours. A safe haven for Denver's insomnia-prone clubgoers.

Readers' choice: Amsterdam

Best new club

Bash

Formerly the Blake Street Baseball Club and then the LoDo Music Hall, this location on the corner of 19th and Blake has suffered a bit of an identity crisis over the past few years. Luckily, the place has been reborn as a dazzling new club with an emphasis on DJ and dance music. With its new lighting and decor (the metallic dividers in the restrooms are futuristic and fun), a new sound system and multimedia toys like mounted video screens suspended in high corners, Bash is a welcome addition to the LoDo clubscape.

Readers' choice: Bash

Best new club

Bash

Formerly the Blake Street Baseball Club and then the LoDo Music Hall, this location on the corner of 19th and Blake has suffered a bit of an identity crisis over the past few years. Luckily, the place has been reborn as a dazzling new club with an emphasis on DJ and dance music. With its new lighting and decor (the metallic dividers in the restrooms are futuristic and fun), a new sound system and multimedia toys like mounted video screens suspended in high corners, Bash is a welcome addition to the LoDo clubscape.

Readers' choice: Bash

Best disguise of a playground as a concert venue

Wonderground

Cindy Wonderful of Rainbow Sugar is the namesake behind this elusive new warehouse space on Denver's northwest side -- and she's one of the primary loony luminaries you're likely to see doing time in the kissing booth or smashing up the tiny computer modules that dot the Wonderground stage like orchestra floodlights. A breeding ground for both bizarre and bold works of underground music, Wonderground has hosted performances from local and touring acts that prefer a free-spirit performance environment to clubs and other venues that are likely to frown on, say, bandmembers stripping naked on stage. Like its prankster predecessor, Money Mania, Wonderground has become an asylum for sonic sycophants, burlesquian buskers and others heartset on making a musical mockery of themselves. There may not be any Cheshire cats roaming around, but it's a wonderland, all right.

Best disguise of a playground as a concert venue

Wonderground

Cindy Wonderful of Rainbow Sugar is the namesake behind this elusive new warehouse space on Denver's northwest side -- and she's one of the primary loony luminaries you're likely to see doing time in the kissing booth or smashing up the tiny computer modules that dot the Wonderground stage like orchestra floodlights. A breeding ground for both bizarre and bold works of underground music, Wonderground has hosted performances from local and touring acts that prefer a free-spirit performance environment to clubs and other venues that are likely to frown on, say, bandmembers stripping naked on stage. Like its prankster predecessor, Money Mania, Wonderground has become an asylum for sonic sycophants, burlesquian buskers and others heartset on making a musical mockery of themselves. There may not be any Cheshire cats roaming around, but it's a wonderland, all right.

Best way to kill time before a show at the Bluebird

PS Lounge

At first glance, you might not figure this smallish tavern as the place to glean some knowledge of U.S. history. But request a light from one of the friendly staff behind the parquet bar and -- voilà! -- you're presented with a matchbook biography of JFK, LBJ or even Herbert Hoover. Yet presidential trivia isn't the only thing to keep you busy while you wait for the box office at the Bluebird Theater -- located just across Colfax -- to open. This cash-only, no-tabs-please bar serves up some of the strongest spirits in town, as well as regularly hosting some of the characters that give East Colfax its roguish charm. As an added touch, all ladies receive flowers, compliments of owner Pete Siahamis. Chivalry is not dead at the PS, and neither is the notion that vice still has some virtue.

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