Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. The parking lot filled and the cars slid into slots along Indian Peaks Road all the way to the highway. Then they lined up on the highway.
The soft opening of the Caribou Room on Saturday night was anything but soft. The downstairs concert hall and dance area and the mezzanine wrapped around the room were packed with hundreds of people having a great time.
At 6 p.m. dinner was served. Hungry folks dug into platters of sliders that were tasty, juicy and very easy to gobble up. It was a diverse crowd. Many long-time Nederland residents showed, saying it reminded them of the good old days when the Caribou Studio was open and big names would come to town and local venues, bars and restaurants became concert halls. None of these places could have held Saturday night’s opening crowd.
As a line of cars turned off the highway and into the parking lot they were guided by Chris Perret and a team of security volunteers who did a great job of traffic control and maintaining room for exiting without any fender benders.
The bar staff worked non-stop trying to keep up the three-deep lines waiting for their drinks. And the bands played on: Caribou Mountain Collective, Mile High Express and Gypsy Cattle Drive.
Henry and Andrea Wheeler, who live in the neighborhood said it was great to see a venue of this quality back in the Nederland area. Barbara Henderson and her daughter Misty Aroyo, a former Nederland High School student loved the music and the concert feeling that appealed to both generation ages.
Erin Hess of Boulder decided the Caribou Room opening would be the perfect place to celebrate her birthday. She created buttons with her face on it for all to wear and about a dozen of her best friends gave her a crowd hug for her birthday.
People were impressed with the workmanship of the building, the strong metal stair railings that assisted people in safe ascents and descents from the balcony to the main floor.
The lighting was amazing, from bright red stripes piercing the stage to glowing greens bathing the musicians to psychedelic patterns that roamed over the band and then over the crowd, amping up the dancing energy.
Caribou Room owner strolled through the crowd receiving accolades for his creation, the largest high end music comeback since the 1970s.
