BOULDER COUNTY MUSIC VENUES

THE STORIES BEHIND ICONIC BOULDER COUNTY MUSIC VENUES

By John Bear

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOULDER THEATER

LIVE MUSIC WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC STRUCK IN 2020. FORTUNATELY, LIVE MUSIC IS ON IT’S WAY BACK THROUGHOUT COLORADO AS THE WORLD OPENS BACK UP.

WHETHER YOU’RE HOPING TO ATTEND CONCERTS WITH GUSTO OR YOU PLAN TO PROCEED A BIT MORE CAUTIOUSLY INTO THE LIVE MUSIC SCENE, YOU MIGHT BE CURIOUS TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF SOME OF BOULDER COUNTY’S MOST ICONIC VENUES. AFTER YOU LEARN THE BACKSTORIES OF THESE VENUES, BE SURE TO VISIT THEIR WEBSITES FOR THE MOST CURRENT LIST OF UPCOMING CONCERTS AND SHOWS, AS WELL AS ANY COVID-19 RULES AND PROTOCOLS.

Dickens Opera HOuse 300 Main street, LOngMOnt 303-834-9384

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William Henry Dickens, a distant relative of the author Charles Dickens, came to the Longmont area in 1860 and built the Dickens Opera House in 1881 on a tract of land given to his father by President Ulysses S. Grant. Dickens wanted to imbue the area with a sense of culture and constructed lavish sets inside the building, which has also housed a college, a bank and numerous other businesses throughout the past century and a half, according to the current owners. The Dickens 300 Prime Restaurant is also housed in the building, downstairs from the venue.

tHe FOx tHeatre 1135 13tH street, BOuLDer 303-447-0095

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The Fox Theatre is the premier music venue on University Hill in Boulder. Rolling Stone Magazine once voted the venue the fourth best live music spot in the country, according to its website. The building came up in 1926 and went through a slew of owners before the current owner bought the building in 1994. It has housed a variety of businesses. In 1960, a fire destroyed much of the building, which was later remodeled.

BOuLDer tHeater 2032 14tH street, BOuLDer 303-786-7030

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Like the Dickens in Longmont, the Boulder Theater began its life as an opera house in 1906. Billboard sign owner James Curran opened the theater and used it to stage operas, musicals and movies. The Fox Theater Company bought the building in 1935 and the art deco design that currently graces the theater dates from about this time. The theater has gone through several owners and it is still used for musical performances. The Boulder International Film Festival also uses the space- actually, BIFF uses the Boulder theater as one of its main venues for showing movies all throughout the festival, not just the red carpet event according to the theater’s website.

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Located on the Chautauqua National Historic Landmark in the foothills of west

Boulder, the auditorium hosts numerous concerts throughout the year from artists like Indigo Girls, the Jayhawks and David Crosby. The city of Boulder owns the site and leases it to a non-profit. The area is the entry point to the iconic Flatirons that rise above the city, and the buildings on the site date to the late 19th Century, according to the landmark.

DEAD & COMPANY AT FOLSOM FIELD. COURTESY PHOTO

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Although it’s the playing field for the University of Colorado Buffaloes football team, Folsom Field has a storied, and sometimes controversial history of live music. According to the University of Colorado, the stadium first became the stage for a large concert featuring The Byrds and the Steve Miller Band in 1969. Music was briefly stopped at the stadium after a loud Van Halen concert in 1986 and again in 2001 when Dave Matthews Band went over their time limit. Music returned in 2016 with a much celebrated appearance by Dead & Company, a reconstituted version of The Grateful Dead.