Colorado is known for its mountains, ranches and ski slopes, for its beer and in a good season, its football. Boulder is famous for the university and the Flatirons, where scholars, outdoorsy types and partiers unite to form a powerful high-altitude hybrid with just enough brains and a little too much brawn. But Denver, the state’s municipal hub and the most populated city in Colorado, has long been accused of possessing about as much cultural singularity as Rodney Dangerfield. And for a while, the accusers could have been right. But lately, somewhere within the giddy-up and the git-er-done cowboy swagger is growing a small glimmer of actual urbanism, of cultural diversity and musical miscellany.

One aspect of this slowly changing reality is the buzz surrounding the electronic music scene in Denver, which has increased to a dull roar over the past year. And contributing with all its might to the mayhem is Beta Nightclub , located near the 16th Street Mall on Blake Street in what used to be Rise. Opened in the spring of 2008, Beta is owned and operated by the founders of Beatport.com, one of the prevailing websites for electronic music downloads online.

Besides eco-friendly operating and building practices (a welcome novelty in the admittedly wasteful club-culture) and feng-shui inspired interior design, Beta was the first club in North America to install the Funktion-One Dance Array 4 Speaker Stack System. A mouthful for even sound engineer-types (potentially the only people who can fully understand its capabilities), laymen and musicians alike nonetheless agree that the system creates an isolated pool of sound and an engulfing, captivating experience on the dance floor. Combine that with owners who are tapped into the pulse of the international electronic music scene, and suddenly Denver is the place to be to experience live techno.

New Year’s Eve Weekend—Deadmau5 at Beta

There’s nothing dead about Deadmau5, aka Joel Zimmerman from Toronto. He’s been voted Producer Of The Year by DJ Magazine, received 4 accolades at the Beatport 2008 Awards and Best Electro DJ at the Ibiza 2008 awards. What’s even more remarkable is that Deadmau5 is just one of the many top-notch acts Beta has lured to Denver in recent months. At the New Year’s Eve weekend event on Saturday, January 3rd, both Beta and Deadmau5 lived up to the hype—mostly. Zimmerman’s beats were clear, entrancing and perfectly balanced on the Beta system, and catchy tunes like “Not Exactly” and “Slip” were played to album-quality perfection.

But some aspects of the night missed the mark. For instance, isn’t the point of dance music to, well, dance? Beta optimistically—or desperately—oversold the night, and the dance floor was at times so packed, the aforementioned pool of sound became a puddle of sweat and irritated jostling for space. And seeking reprieve at one of the many seating areas throughout the 2-level club was near impossible—even empty couches were blocked off as VIP lounges. Furthermore, Beta’s decision use their visual space, projections and lighting for blatant self-promotion was a bit tiresome and seemed to prioritize capitalist drive over art, music and entertainment.

Overall, Beta is doing good things for Colorado’s musical diversity and the electronic break-beat and house subcultures. If it remembers to prioritize the people who inhabit and define those scenes, it’ll continue to do so.

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