Definition of a dive bar! We went there for live music, a good friend of mine was playing some Chicago Blues and we had a blast! The people were cool, the bartender was extremely cordial, and we had a good time.
I wish we didn't live so far, or else we would be back more often.
Here is a video to see how they get down on open mic night!
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYQz-TF7utb0&s=8791bb269e50d55c958046d7c8b92c21b322921295a7865d4cb20814fb8048a3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/w…</a>
I'm well-known among my friends for my old-lady-isms: big hats, old furniture, a pink bathroom, a Cary Grant crush, my use of the phrase "going steady," etc., and I wear my grandma panties with pride (well, not literally). But the one characteristic I wish more of my age group shared is a love for thick, hot, sexy, authentic blues. In a perfect world, Ziggies--especially being in home-to-the-uber-hip Highlands--would be filled to the brim with boys in Buddy Holly glasses and Black Keys T-shirts, but for some reason they're in Boulder experimenting with electronic Matel toys while their girlfriends are wearing hot pants at the Red Rocks Panic shows. Or a whomp-whomp worse, but you get my point.
So, there's my rant and my only problem with Ziggies: It's not full enough, at least not on the nights I've popped in there. However, there has been a crowd of devoted, dancing 40-to-50-somethings appreciating DAMN GOOD BLUES MUSIC when I stop in for a drink. Sure, I guess I'm being hypocritical because it's not like I live there or anything, but I just keep wishing the whole time that more folks recognized that this is the real deal.
The bartender is as cool as the play lists she puts on during set breaks. They serve Hurricanes and Abita. And they host sweet, tangy blues every night of the week. They did, however, charge a $5 cover last time I was there on a Friday. Not sure if that holds true every night of the week.
In case you didn't get it: GET IN HERE NOW AND LISTEN TO SOME REAL MUSIC. This is as good as it gets.
BEST BLUES JAM 2009 & 2011
SUPER clean and respectable crowd of music lovers. Â Abita beers on tap, full bar, table service during shows and jams from the bartenders, great sound system, extremely welcoming venue for all walks of life. Â
Jeans and tees, suits and ties, hipsters, swing kids, blues hounds, and cool cats all flood to Ziggies for a nice enjoyable evening. Â I haven't had a bad night there yet! Â
Bring a date! Â Dance, laugh, rock out, or just come to spend an evening. Â Overall, one of the best places I've been to in Denver. Â Small and cozy for a nice evening with great music.
Sundays: Longest running blues jam in Denver. Â Voted #1 by Westword 2011 and 2009
(source)
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Mondays: Open Mic
Tuesdays: Open Jam!
Wednesdays: Sit in Jam with band!
Thursdays: Always a great band
Fridays: Awesome bands!
Saturdays: ANOTHER band!
love this place! I'm not a super huge blues fan, and my husband hates dancing, and we danced our asses off with a group of friends until we closed the place down!
great drink specials, the band was fantastic! (boa and the constrictors, i think) and they apparently have live music 7 nights a week!
all of the staff was super friendly, and there was an eclectic group of people, which we really like. this is definitely a place we will return, and my hubby as actually said he wants to learn how to dance now...if that doesn't sum up how fun this place was I don't know what does :)
This place is a gem on 38th Ave in NW Denver. Â It used to be a little more colorful, but with that came some unsavory characters and an unsafe parking lot. Â
The new owners really put a lot of elbow grease into this place and it shows. Â Its a very comfortable vibe, with great drink/beer specials and a well-placed pool table. Â Happy to see Abita beers anywhere I can find them in this town!
The live music really is the star of this joint. Â The sound system is very good for a bar this size, and the range of acts that they book is decent, with a focus on the blues. Â Support your local music scene and bar owners!
Bonus: Â Snarf's will be opening next door in a few months...
Being out of work has a minor benefit. You can go out on a school night. Â I haven't been to Zig's since it changed ownership. Same kinda vibe, but the cool pictures are gone now though and now there's a patio? They have live music 7 nights a week with different types of open stages sunday through thursday with no cover and then booked performing bands on friday and saturday with a really reasonable cover (most upcoming shows I saw on their calendar were $5.00 or $7.00). The coolest thing about most bars (divey or not) is there isn't that damn cloud of smoke anymore. Time to dust off the cobwebs and get back to woodshedding. I gotta make some dough some how.
Review Source:Live music on a Tuesday night? Awesome!
After dinner at Thai Basil, we just weren't ready to go home. So, we were on a quest for beer and a pool table. A friend suggested Ziggies, just up the street.
Fantastic. Yes, it's divey, but very cool. There was a great band playing blues. The is a kind of pit area where you can sit and watch the band. There are other tables around the bar that are a level higher than the pit. They had a nice long list of drink specials posted around the bar, including a giant belgian wheat for $5 (yay!).
We got some beers and some quarters to play some pool. We definitely got some looks from those watching the band that were not too happy with us playing pool during the show. But dood, come on, it's a bar. We were congenial with them and they dropped the annoyed looks.
Apparently it was some kind of jam night because the band took a break and random people from the audience got up on stage and played together. For being a group of people that didn't seem to know each other, they were pretty good.
I will definitely be headed back here. It's practically walking distance from home and is a cool, chill place to spend an evening. Saw a sign for a patio as well, so may have to check that out when it warms up.
I love this place for its friendly atmosphere. Â First time I walked through the doors, I met the musical genius who was sitting at the bar. Â He promptly got up and proceeded to put on a show - a personal show for my boyfriend and I, who were the only two in the bar. Â
The bartender made great conversation with us, taught us about some new beers and liquors we had never heard of, and eventually we called the musician to come back and join us for some conversation. Â Yeah, the night was dead, but we went back for an open-mic jam and I was so impressed. Â A couple local guys showed up and wowed us. Â
I disagree with Ziggies being categorized as a Dive Bar... it's a step up from that. Â It's clean, friendly, and entertaining. Â I'd recommend it if you're in the area.
Do you love the blues? Frankly, I don't, so I only issued three stars for this hole in the wall that somehow was thrice voted Denver's Top Blues Club. But if you do, you might enjoy heading to Ziggie's to see a few nationally touring acts and a lot of local yokels in their element on a small stage in a crowded bar that really should be dank and smoky, but thanks to the smoking ban, isn't.
Drinks? Blah. Atmosphere? Well, when I mentioned what I was reviewing to my boyfriend, he got that far away look and opined, "I think my uncle had a fistfight with a hooker in Ziggie's once- one or both of them went through a plate glass window before the cops broke it up."
But you probably aren't going for the drinks or atmosphere- you're probably going to check out the blues, and, fans of the genre tell me Ziggie's hits all the high notes on attracting good local and national acts.
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