Cervantes Celebrates 10 Years

Jenn Cohen | February 1, 2013 | 0 Comments

by Joel Center

Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom has been a staple in the Colorado music scene for nearly ten years now, and on January 18 and 19, they plan to throw a celebration of that fact. Cervantes and its complimentary venue The Other Side (formerly Quixote’s) have, since their conception, been a priceless asset to the Denver music scene. Formerly owned by an enthusiastic deadhead named Jay Bianchi, the door-to-door venues earned a reputation as one of the hottest places in town to see some live jam bands. The bar was stocked, the rules were lax, and everyone in attendance was guaranteed a great time.

Years of raucous success had taken its toll on Cervantes and Quixotes; furniture had become torn and unbelievably putrid, the sound system picked up the habit of releasing gut-wrenching whines and moans that no speaker should ever have to endure, and the deadhead atmosphere was losing relativity amongst the youth. At the beginning of 2010, Bianchi sold the venues to Scott Morrill and Duncan Goodman who completely revamped the place. A new, modern sound system was put in, most of the ratty old furniture was thrown away and replaced, the psychedelic walls were exchanged for a more minimalist style, the name Quixote’s was tossed in favor of The Other Side, and suddenly a new genre could be heard pumping out of the property most nights of the week: Electronica.

Since the change in ownership, Cervantes has earned back its former reputation as one of the hottest places to be in Denver. They have ebbed and flowed with the electronica craze with uncanny intuition and just the right amount of professionalism. Now, just because they are one of the first venues to come out of the mouth of your typical electronica fanatic doesn’t mean they don’t still book a decent variety of musical styles. Almost as if to prove this to the critics, they booked a band for their tenth anniversary weekend that has been an integral part of not only the Cervantes scene, but the Colorado music scene: the Motet.

The Motet has been around since before Cervantes, and has taken the stage there dozens of times. As they prepare to do so again this weekend, they will have some surprises to unleash on their fans. On Friday the 18^th, the Will Bernard Trio will be opening with Will Bernard himself sitting in with the Motet on the guitar. On Saturday the 19^th, Chicago’s groovy funkadellic Zeppelin cover band AfroZep will be opening the night, and the Motet will be welcoming back their old tenor sax player gone superstar, Big Gigantic’s Dominic Lalli. Even if you’ve never experienced everything Cervantes has to offer, there is no better time to start than this weekend’s tenth anniversary show. Events like these always sell out in advance, so get your ticket stat!