ONEFORTHEROAD

The FUNKIEST Floor
Dancing, Whether You Want to Or Not

"No Matter where you have seen a band before, you have never experienced anything like seeing them at Club 8150,” the club’s talent buyer, Crawford Byers, says.
Byers is not boasting, sweet-talking or selling his stage space. What may sound like a sales pitch, and not a very strong one at that, is actually the truth.
    Club 8150 has had a lot of bands come through its hallowed walls, from Dark Star Orchestra to Galactic to The Wailers, but each performer likely would say that a night spent on the stage, or in the crowd, at this rooftop Vail, Colo., haunt is a moving experience. Built on the top of a parking garage in the heart of the tiny ski town, 8150 got its name from the altitude of the beer taps inside, but it earned its reputation from the unique expressions of the dance floor.

Give and Take
    “All it takes is 100 people who are enthusiastic about the music, and the place starts bouncing,” Byers says.
    Just as the deck of a ship has the most sway, the club, located on the top of the parking garage, has more sway than a ground-level building. In addition to this, the wooden floor of the bar has about a 6-inch give when enough people begin to dance. Depending on the weather and how many cars are resting on the subsequent levels below the crowd, Byers says at full capacity (600 people), it feels like you are bouncing a foot and a half.
    “If I have something urgent, and I have to get from one end of the room to the other during a performance,” he says, “it can be quite difficult.”

The Band’s Burden
    The bouncing floor can prove difficult for other reasons, too.
    The band often is bouncing with the audience to some degree, and all equipment must be secured with mountaineering straps screwed into the floor before every performance. “Sometimes I am told it is downright scary being up there,” Byers says of conversations he has had with various drummers struggling to keep the rhythm. 
    “My office is right behind the stage. I am bouncing in my desk chair, the windows are slamming, and the doors are slamming,” he says.

Dark Days Ahead
    “We have had some spells when the place has kind of been let go,” Byers says. “It just hadn’t been given a lot of TLC. But, no matter what, the people still came in for the bouncing floor. No matter what, the bouncing floor sustained us.” However, Vail’s changing economy may soon cast a shadow over the now electric energy of the venue and its core of patrons.
    “Eventually, this will all be torn down,” Byers says. “There is a finite amount of time left, and we are not going to be around forever, unfortunately. There is a lot more money in million-dollar condos in the middle of Vail than there is for a nightclub.” NCB