historic concert hall · $$ · since 1930
Paramount Theatre
A 1930 movie palace on Glenarm that now books comedians and touring bands.
Paramount Theater Denver (5189251636) — Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Temple Hoyne Buell drew this one in 1930, when downtown still had a half dozen movie palaces and this was the grandest of them. The screen is long gone. What is left is a room of just under 2,000 seats with a steep balcony and enough gilt to make a stand-up set feel like an event. Programming leans comedy, Spanish-language concerts, bands too big for the Bluebird and too small for Mission Ballroom, and the odd speaker series. The entrance is on Glenarm, half a block off 16th Street, under the vertical blade sign.
Why go. It is the rare downtown room where the building is as good as the bill.
The Glenarm entrance is easy to walk past from 16th Street; aim for the vertical marquee sign.
A short walk from Paramount Theatre
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American Museum of Western Art
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Ship Tavern
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The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa
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Peaks Lounge
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