When the 1stBank Center opens for business tonight, welcoming Phil Lesh and Bob Weir’s Furthur to Broomfield for two sold-out shows, there’s a lot on the line.
Sure, there’s the business of it all. Promoter AEG and venue manager KSE have spent more than $1 million on this mid-sized suburban arena renovation.
There’s also the history. The room failed as the minor-league, sports- first Broomfield Event Center.
There’s the name drama. The AEG-KSE partnership, Peak Entertainment, debuted its plans for the Odeum Colorado months ago, only to rename the 6,500-seat, music- first room with a corporate sponsor weeks later.
But as Peak shows off its new room, it’s clear what they’re most excited about. They know they’re reopening an arena. But they’re trying to make it feel like an intimate theater.
“All of these walls, they used to be white — all of them,” Jeremy Stein, lead designer at the 1stBank Center, said earlier this week while walking through the arena’s cavernous, warmly red hallways. “And: They’re small touches, but do you see the bathroom signs? And the window treatments?”
Stein was charged with the impossible task of making an arena personable, approachable and intimate. A partner at Boulder-based entertainment company Madison House, he has plenty of experience, including his extensive history with the String Cheese Incident and his work on the Rothbury Festival in Michigan.
Sold-out crowds will see the fruits of Stein’s work tonight and Saturday, when Lesh and Weir of the Grateful Dead take the stage, but here are some preliminary thoughts.
The 1stBank Center looks best from the floor, which can be sold as reserved seating or general admission. With its artful, spherical lanterns overhead, the space feels a lot like the Fillmore Auditorium — a compliment considering its size, nearly twice that of the Fillmore.
The connection is no surprise given that the 1stBank Center is the brainchild of Chuck Morris, the AEG Live Rocky Mountains boss responsible for the Fillmore remodel back in his Live Nation days.
“We’re not trying to be the Fillmore light or the Fillmore heavy,” Morris said earlier this week from his Denver office. “We’re trying to be something different. And that’s no knock on the Fillmore.”
As you get closer to the stage, it becomes clear that you’re in an arena. The 40-by-60-foot stage is massive, as is the production rig that hangs above it. Masking the backside of the arena is an impressive 130-foot screen that arches over the stage like vampire fangs. More than $500,000 in projection equipment will illuminate that screen with custom images chosen by the venue or artist.
As you move up into the bowl of generic, blue stadium seats, the venue loses much of its charm. Though it feels like the Fillmore on the ground, it can’t help but feel more like the Pepsi Center higher up. The 1stBank Center’s obvious advantage: those seats are on one level, compared with the Pepsi Center’s three levels.
Morris had this comparison handy: The Broomfield arena’s farthest seat is approximately 60 feet closer to the stage, and 50 feet lower, than the farthest seat at an average North American arena.
But when you’re sitting in an arena seat, you’re still sitting in an arena seat. And while that’s good for older music fans who regularly decry the lack of seating at the Fillmore Auditorium and the Ogden, Bluebird, Gothic and Fox theaters, it’s bad for younger fans who want to stand closer to the action (though it deserves to be noted that many of the shows at the 1stBank Center will be general admission, even in the bowl of seats).
It’s clear that Stein and his staff are paying attention to the small details: art deco-inspired bathroom and section signs. Ceiling lamps in addition to recessed lighting. Giant disco balls hanging next to the illuminated chandelier balls. Faux-framed pictures of the Rat Pack, Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain and others.
“We’re going for the club atmosphere, that out-for-the- night experience,” Stein said.
Stein knows that you won’t likely forget you’re just off one of the state’s busiest highways, and he was realistic with the names of his arena bars. The first-level Roadhouse 36 Bar overlooks not-so-scenic U.S. 36 — as does the second-level Bridge Point Bar. The Mountain View Lounge does have something of a mountain view, but it will be a club-level amenity at many shows, given its location near the suites.
A trip to the 1stBank Center won’t carry the charm of a visit to the Paramount Theatre. But if Peak Entertainment pays as much attention to the issues outside the room, such as access to exits and parking infrastructure, as it has those inside, then its goal of a better arena experience will become a reality.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com; Twitter @RVRB
FURTHER, FEATURING PHIL LESH AND BOB WEIR.
Jam band. 1stBank Center, 11450 Broomfield Lane in Broomfield. Friday- Saturday. 8 p.m. Sold out. 866-461-6556 or
