Bigwheel at Lola's of Denver

As you walk in Lola's of Denver the bar stretches straight ahead on your left with garage-style windows on the backside that separates it from a packed patio outside. Keep walking to the end of the bar and Lola’s opens up to tabled seating with booths peppered about. The cooks are working away on the right side of the dining area which creates an intimate connection to the dining experience. Elaborate, softly lit, metalwork chandeliers hang overhead to accent the sunlight pouring through the windows behind the bar. Lola’s décor is a long shot from the usual Mexican style. Someone was creative enough to twist, cut, weld, and rivet what looks like found objects from an old Mexican farmhouse together to fabricate restaurant furniture that make a cozy restaurant seem strangely familiar, yet something not experienced. Left of the dining area sits the mighty Bigwheel.

I sit snuggled in my booth working on my laptop while Warren G’s ‘Regulate’ and The Articfact’s ‘The Wrong Side of the Tracks’ acapellas are manipulated by DJ Vajra and remixed by the band. I’d say the eclectic décor perfectly highlights Bigwheel’s approach to music. The band takes familiar and unfamiliar songs, cuts and twists J-Dilla style loops to create an entirely new beat fresh out the kick-drum, keys, bass, and Technics. What was once a familiar Hip-Hop anthem is newly twisted and mixed into a sometimes spaced out jazz lick or a salsa fury, but still funked up by the keys and the bass. At another moment you can hear Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech sliced, diced, and flared by Vajra into the back-beat mayhem provided by Dameion Hines on the drums while the melodic bass and piano are slicked out by Charles Parker and Jarod Sarlo, respectively.

The local 30-somethings cure their last night’s binge with Lola’s Sunday specials. I myself have a Modelo w/lime and salt: two bucks. The busy work-staff work hard, and unsurprisingly, with the amount of heads bobbin’ to the music. You can’t ask for a better Sunday. If you’ve never heard Biggie Smalls mashed up jazz-style, then definitely check out Bigwheel at Lola’s. Big up Bigwheel! Bigwheel makes a home at Lola’s of Denver from 2pm to 5pm once a month. In March they do it twice with the next date being March 15th. Also, Check them out at Appaloosa Grill every Tuesday.

The video above is of Bigwheel at Appaloosa Grill, and with different band members save Dameion Hines, with the same flavor as you would see at Lola's.  Enjoy!