Venue of the Month-Appaloosa Grill

Jenn Cohen | July 1, 2013 | 0 Comments

by Ryan Edwards

I’ve always believed that some of the best venues are hidden–not easy to find. Those bars are often referred to as “dive bars.” But sometimes, the best music venues are right in front of us. The Appaloosa Grill is one of those bars, located on the 16^th St. Mall across the street from the Pavilions. Not only is it in a prime location, it’s also a bar that dedicates a lot of its time and energy to giving Denver another solid live music venue.

I stopped in on a few random nights to check out the music scene this bar delivers, and why it can pull in a crowd night-after-night, seven days a week. Tommy Knoxville’s is a blues band that plays at the Appaloosa Grill every Sunday night. Made up of many musicians who play several different instruments, I had the privilege of sitting down and talking to guitarist Matt Hendricks, a Chicago native who moved to Denver back in October and has been playing at Appaloosa Grill since then. While I sat down with Hendricks I asked him about the audience, the stage, the staff, the drink specials and his thoughts on the venue.

Hendricks loves the audience, because it’s usually full of people who are eager to dance, and there are always new faces, with a majority of the crowd consisting of tourists, or people on business trips looking for a bar to grab a drink. The stage is tight, but they make it work, and the Appaloosa Grill has a sound guy and a good PA system. Hendricks thinks the staff is amazing, because they take care of their musicians any way they can; often hooking them up with drink specials and food. As for Hendricks overall thoughts on the venue, “Five stars, really, just two thumbs up, I love this place.”

After that night, I went in again on a night that I thought would be slower; however, it wasn’t. Greg Schochet is a guitarist who plays for the band Hi-Beams, but on this night was filling in and playing for the band Impromptu, a Gypsy swing band. Schochet agrees about the audience being upbeat night-in and night-out, as well as the stage being tight, yet having decent sound. Schochet also heavily appreciates the staff, “There fantastic, very supportive of the live music.” And his final thoughts on the Appaloosa Grill? “It’s a really up and coming music venue.”