But within those confines are wildly divergent experiences for rock stars, drag queens, comics, authors and other stage performers at the area’s best indoor and outdoor venues.

At the Hi-Dive, layers of graffiti and spare, ratty furniture give the South Broadway club a punk-rock authenticity and sense of history. By contrast, Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s green rooms offer sprawling hangout spaces for world-famous artists, with on-site catering and accommodations for both bands and their crews (or fans, as the case may be after shows), as well as unique natural sandstone formations.

New spots try to shake off their paint and construction dust by starting traditions. That often includes signing autographs on a wall to mark an artist’s visit, as Dazzle jazz club has been doing since it reopened in a custom space at the Denver Performing Arts Complex last year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, only a few them actually have green walls — and those tend to be the less rock-ready spaces. Think the Tattered Cover on East Colfax Avenue, with its calming, low-light green room for touring authors about to read from their work. At Comedy Works downtown, local and national stand-ups, including Dave Chappelle and Sarah Silverman, mingle before shows and mentally work their routines. But those are color-coded exceptions.

David Weingarden of Z2 Entertainment, which books Chautauqua Auditorium, 10 Mile Music Hall and other venues, prides himself on his company’s upgraded and well-maintained green rooms, as has long been the case at the gorgeous Boulder Theater and modest but powerful Fox Theatre, as well as Fort Collins’ busy Aggie Theatre (which just received its own upgrade).

Perks often lead to positive press: When mega-comic Bret Kreischer visited Loveland’s Blue FCU Arena in February, he was treated to a golf simulator and whiskey tasting, which Kreischer praised on his social media accounts.

We surveyed metro area venues to get a sense of what Denver looks like from the inside — when artists have only a few hours in town, and their main impression of the Mile High City is a windowless room, however well appointed. Here are just a few.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Simply playing the venue is a career-high achievement for many artists, and the backstage experience is similarly epic. Side-stage “barn doors,” carefully guarded, lead to underground tunnels that break off into green rooms, a dining room (complete with rolling popcorn machine and snow cone dispenser), and other spaces.

Water seeps through rocks in the largest green room into a tiny gutter, which can create surprising tableaus. When Macklemore and Ryan Lewis headlined a Winter on the Rocks event there, all they cared about was getting their picture taken next to it, said venue manager Tad Bowman.

“The water had seeped in and it turned into this frozen waterfall, and it was beautiful,” Bowman said. ” I remember them saying ‘We’ll never play anywhere else where there’s a frozen waterfall in our dressing room! ‘ ”

When James Taylor visits, he’s known to hang out in the egalitarian dining room where crews and local stagehands also eat from a small catering kitchen. It’s a safe, subterranean space.

Paramount Theatre

This 94-year-old gem in downtown Denver has a well-preserved, Art Deco look that contrasts with its utilitarian backstage. However, up the stairs and through a narrow hallway, the green rooms are comfy havens that can also be easily reached through the alley (where most performers enter, and fans wait after shows) while crews load in.

They’ve been recently updated, according to Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which owns and operates the venue. Wall-mounted film reels that mark its history as a classic movie house are joined by modernist fixtures, deep blue walls and perks like a Pop-A-Shot machine.

That contrasts with other KSE venues, such as Ball Arena, which feature handsome but generic dressing rooms that cater to both sports-league and artist needs, from the Denver Nuggets to the Eagles and Bad Bunny, with puffy couches, a bar and a wall-sized photo of downtown Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

Fillmore Auditorium

The Fillmore’s green rooms are beautifully moody and old-school, with the feeling of cloistered backstage space — or, in this case, under-stage space.

The Capitol Hill venue has a long history, formerly as Mammoth Events Center and as a skating rink that took advantage of the building’s wide, wooden floors. Major refreshes over the last decade have brought more bathrooms and slicker styles to the green rooms, which general manager Joe Petrie was proud to show off recently to a Denver Post photographer.

In its warm and womb-like design, the red walls, murals, chandeliers and stuffed couches are joined by a wall with the names of past performers, ranging from Bob Dylan to Ms. Lauren Hill, Denver’s Nathaniel Rateliff and Troye Sivan. Any recent visitors have also had access to backstage table tennis and pinball to pass the time.

Sunset Amphitheater

Colorado Springs’ newest, biggest concert venue is set to debut Aug. 9-11 with shows from Colorado’s own OneRepublic. But owner JW Roth said his upscale dressing rooms will go beyond the usual perks.

“We’re calling it an artist compound,” he said. “They’re broken out individual rooms with showers, there’s a beautiful kitchen, outdoor patio with grills and flattops, and they can order off the menu at our seafood restaurant and chophouse — which isn’t open just yet.”

Views make a difference: As with the main venue, the green rooms include outdoor spaces that look upon Pikes Peak and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Artists tend to remember that, Roth said, and it helps to lure them back for more shows.

Ogden Theatre

As one of Denver’s most revered theaters, the 1,600-capacity Ogden Theatre has welcomed thousands of touring acts, locals, famous actors and directors into a backstage space that, until recently, needed more than a little love and care.

Now, brick walls, rugs and a classic Galaga cabinet, as well as a flatscreen TV, immediately jump out, as do the handsomely askew lampshades that seem to be a signature of any green room. It was recently renovated to account for a boiler that loomed over the room, owner Doug Kauffman has said, and is in its best shape yet.

Herman’s Hideaway

This legendary South Broadway venue has changed hands a couple of times since the pandemic, but also enjoyed major upgrades to lighting, sound and other necessary features. That includes a trio of brand new green rooms, which owner Mike Roth is happy to crow about.

“We moved them from the nasty dungeon-basement to upstairs,” he said. “Only two bands could really fit down there, but now we have three rooms and two bathrooms, which cost probably as much as the new sound system.”

Indeed, Herman’s green rooms are tidy and cozy, with soft couches, refrigerators, coffee and tea machines, flatscreen TVs and even a safe for valuables. And, hey — actual green walls!

Mission Ballroom

One of the country’s most technologically advanced venues also boasts one of its best green-room setups.

Opened in 2019, the AEG Presents-owned, RiNo-located venue is an artist’s dream with state-of-the-art dressing rooms that include TVs, record players and curated LPs (courtesy of nearby vinyl manufacturers Vinyl Me, Please), navy blue walls, natural wood, pop-art paintings, mid-mod fixtures, and mirrors with lighted strips on either side. It’s a hip addition to a hip neighborhood, and one that may herald more sponsorships and brand placements in green rooms.

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On Tuesday, the club announced it would host the national kick-off for Sarah Silverman’s latest comedy tour, “Grow Some Lips!,” with four performances on Jan. 20 and 21. The tour is playing much bigger venues in subsequent cities, including the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall in Washington, D.C.; Atlanta Symphony Hall; the Chicago Theatre, Seattle’s Paramount Theatre and New York’s Beacon Theatre.

Tickets, $50 apiece, are on sale to the public starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 9. All four shows — at 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20, and Saturday, Jan 21 — will take place at Comedy Works’ Larimer Square location, 1226 15th St. in Denver.

Silverman follows Chappelle but also comic Ali Wong, another acclaimed stand-up who has regularly headlined theaters around the country, in playing Comedy Works’ modest stage. Comedy Works owner Wende Curtis has long cultivated close relationships with mega-comics, including Chappelle, the late Joan Rivers and George Lopez, and her club enjoys a sterling reputation in the industry.

“I prefer an intimate crowd,” Silverman told The Denver Post in 2014, shortly before playing Red Rocks Amphitheatre as part of the Oddball Comedy Tour.

Silverman, the Emmy-winning veteran of TV shows such as “Crashing,” “Masters of Sex,” “Mr. Show with Bob & David” and her own “Sarah Silverman Program,” has lately been taking on her former, loose-lipped persona that tried to dismantle taboos about race, sex and other topics with self-consciously shocking language.

An avowed liberal, she has also expressed alarm at online cancel culture, as she called it, while trying to “make right” past offenses such as on her Comedy Central series.

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Chappelle, who has sold out Red Rocks Amphitheatre for his birthday shows in the past, visits Denver on and off to play surprise shows at Comedy Works — which also instantly sell out. He came up playing the roughly intimate club and has a friendship with owner Wende Curtis, he has said.

That’s why he likes to choose such a tiny venue in relation to his audience draw, working out new material in the same way that big comics often visit New York’s Comedy Cellar. It’s also why he often only gives fans a few minutes’ notice before they need to buy tickets.

RELATED: Denver 2022 comedy guide: From Amy Schumer to John Mulaney, the best stand-up at Red Rocks, clubs and more

Ticket prices for the pair of shows — at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesday — were likely commensurate with Chapelle’s stature ($156 each during the last around, and available first to Comedy Works subscribers). They went on sale at 10 a.m. today (Monday, Oct. 10), , and sold out in less than an hour. Prices were not immediate available.

As with past shows, Chappelle is asking patrons to leave their cell phones at home. He has been instrumental in testing the Yondr technology, which puts audience members’ cell phones in magnetically locked bags until the show has concluded. Other comics, such as Chris Rock, have gone on to use it at much larger Denver stand-up shows, including at Bellco Theatre.

“Please leave your phones in your cars or at home,” Comedy Works officials wrote. “Everyone is subject to a pat down. Anyone caught with a cell phone inside the venue will be immediately ejected and no refund given.”

RELATED: Denver’s desperately needed 2022 comedy revival is here, and not a moment too soon

Chappelle’s jokes have sparked controversy in recent years as he’s repeatedly hammered home , mocking the fundamental notion that gender is fluid. He was tackled during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Security guards chased and overpowered the attacker, and Chappelle was able to continue his performance while the man was taken away in an ambulance, according to the Associated Press.

Employees of Netflix, which regularly airs his new specials,  of his views in October. In February, Chappelle announced that his classic sketch series, “Chappelle’s Show,” would return to Netflix after Comedy Central . Netflix then said it would release this year executive produced and hosted by Chappelle.

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NBC News reported that the Los Angeles Police Department early Wednesday said the man was carrying a fake gun with a real knife blade inside it. LAPD media relations made no official announcement of an arrest in the hours after the attack, and did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for details.

Chappelle was performing his standup routine at the amphitheater as part of the “Netflix Is a Joke” festival when the man rushed on stage and tackled him. Jamie Foxx was in the wings of the stage and Chappelle thanked him for responding to the attack. Chris Rock was there as well, and jokingly asked if the attacker was Will Smith.

Chappelle was attacked as he was wrapping up a routine in which he talked about how comedians have to worry more about their personal security in the wake of this year’s Academy Awards ceremony where the Oscar-winning actor slapped Rock on live television in reaction to a joke about his wife.

“The comedian had literally just said he now has more security because of all the uproar from his jokes about the Trans community,” tweeted Buzzfeed News reporter Brianna Sacks, who attended the show. She tweeted that “while the attacker was getting beat up,” Chappelle “made a joke about him probably being a Trans man.”

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