- Little things matter.
Denver's City Hall recently played host to Damian Lazarus and Jamie Jones, stopping in Colorado on their Rebel Rave tour. I had never been to City Hall, but heard good things. I was also interested to see Jamie Jones for the first time and to see Lazarus again—at the third venue I've seen him play in Denver. We arrived just after 11:00 PM on a snowy Saturday, to the second floor of the building that houses City Hall. Once we made our way up the plywood stairs, we found ourselves in a large open room that was evocative of a nice loft of an old barn. High ceilings, exposed wooden beams and a small bar tucked in a corner. Plenty of room to bounce in the open, and an ample lounge-type setting in the back of the room to converse. The current scene of Denver's (wild west) medicinal marijuana laws provided flashes of aroma. Low light, with one of the brick walls hosting a projection and a floor about 1/4 full made for a cozy start. "Well, it's not a cheesy superclub," a friend aptly pointed out.
Louis Marr, the organizer of the night (MetroAmerican), was wrapping up his set and passing the act to locals Scott Everett, Tess and Trip Coffin to tag for the remainder of warm-up duty. Tech house with pace was the bill of fare and the crowd happily engaged with it. Jamie Jones came on about 12:30 AM after a delay in set up. The Welshman continued into tech house territory, with more attention to the basslines and a bit of depth to his sound. It was a solid set that never boiled over, leading into Lazarus who played eclectic, diverse, thicker and trippier. A few breaks thrown in, burlier synth lines, it was fittingly the best set on the night.
Back to the little things. The sound was dreadful. Muddy and undersized for the venue, it really plagued every artist on the bill, especially the headliners. Apparently a bigger rig fell through, but it was the scourge on the night for me. One hanging light. A worker apparently thought it was too dark by the bar and kept an annoying light on for most of the show. Which would have been fine, if it didn't also illuminate half the dance floor. The break between the main party and the after-hours didn't help. If there was ever a public venue that was set up to make the early closing time in Denver irrelevant, it's City Hall. It should be simple: Party until 2:00 upstairs, walk downstairs and party till 6:00. Instead it was closer to 3:00 by the time we (maybe 150 people) got back into the club, after being ushered out in the snow for almost an hour.
Luckily, music was on in the dark confines, with locals Angel Castro and Digital Disko re-heating the partygoers and eventually team Lazarus/Jones bumped the night into morning. They, among everyone there, seemed more comfortable in the new setting and looked to be enjoying themselves. A bright spot to end a night that, had the potential for the extraordinary, but leaned more towards the ordinary.