October 3, 2016
4:37 p.m.

Yesterday I took my granddaughters downtown to see a show at The Roxy Theatre in Denver, Colorado. The oldest is a huge fan of a Salice Rose, who is a YouTube/Instagram/Snapchat personality. I know nothing about her, really; not my thing. But, you know, the grands like her. So one granddaughter's aunt pitched on tickets and both moms pitched on tickets and I agreed to take them so they were supervised; no way are our babies going downtown alone. Not happening.

What a nightmare.

The Roxy Theatre in Denver is not my idea of a great venue. It's not even my idea of a good venue, actually. I suppose kids like it, but for anyone with a problem standing for hours on end--not a good idea. There's no seating. It's small; if it's as big as a High School auditorium, I'd be surprised. Uneven flooring, poor lighting. Not a great neighborhood, either. Frankly, it looks and feels like a venue for a rave, and I do not want to take my grandchildren to raves!!

Today, I wrote a couple of reviews, because I was very disappointed in having wasted time, money and energy on such a poorly executed program.

For the record, I'm a pretty nice person. I don't write bad reviews just because. It takes a lot to get me to go onto a venue's Facebook page and write:

"Terrible venue. Poor scheduling. Bad security. Rude bartender. All around bad experience. Never go."


I figured short and simple should be sufficient. However, for some reason, they were compelled to answer me: 


"Which show was it that you attended where you had a bad time? We always strive to make sure everyone has a great time when they come to the Roxy. As far as scheduling goes please let me know which show you're referring to because some of the events that take place are by outside promoters who may of changed their production around. I would love to know who was rude to you so I can address this with them. I will personally speak with anyone of the employees that were rude to you to ensure that the people who come after you do not encounter the same issues."  

Okay, nice. It's good to know that they want to know what happened, at least. I'd like to know myself. So, since they asked, I opened the whole can of worms and told them what happened. Because, jeez! Fix this! No one wants to spend time and money, and get this:

"My granddaughters wanted to see Salice Rose, so we went all out and got VIP tickets to her show--a show she NEVER got on stage for. This was advertised on your website as an "all ages" show. By that I assumed that it would be age appropriate for anyone. Not the case! There were several different rappers there in a room filled with a lot of kids, some younger than 12 years old, rapping with very foul-language and sexual lyrics. None of them were actually performing--they were singing, chanting, whatever, with the DJ's pre-recorded material, and half the time didn't seem to even know all the words. Act after act like that appeared, each promising Salice would soon take the stage; she NEVER did--at least not for the VIP ticket holders. Suddenly, after again being promised that Salice would be on stage, a whispered conversation took place between the DJ and some others while the "last song" was being shouted incoherently, and then it was announced that in order to speed up the meet and greet, all VIP ticket holders were to exit the building and go back outside and line up AGAIN--after already waiting in line for over 2 hours. Understand that those closest to the stage--those who arrived early and waited the longest to get inside in the first place--would now be the last out of the building and therefore the last in line! All this without having so much as a glimpse of the headliner they came to see. When I pay $40. a pop for tickets, I expect to see the performer I paid to see actually perform. Whether or not Salice Rose came out after the VIPs exited the building to at least wave at the General Admissions crowd, I have no way of knowing. All I know is that at some point, she was brought outside the back of the building by security, and herded around to the front door through the crowd. If she did any type of performance at all in there for the General Admissions crowd, it was short. As for the VIPS? What? Circling the building is a performance? Nope. At this point there was a lot of pushing and shoving, shouting and yes, crying going on. To say that these kids were disappointed would be an understatement. Then security threatened that if they didn't control their line, no one was going to get back in. To the credit of the CROWD, not the security team, they did indeed control their line. These kids really wanted to at least meet Salice Rose. If this was indeed something that was arranged by an outside promoter, then you should take care never to use them again. These kids expected to see who they came to see. It was a Salice Rose event. They paid to see her! $40. is a lot to pay and then only get see a bunch of really bad rappers they didn't even recognize. I understand the concept of opening acts; short performance followed by long performance by the HEADLINER. And yes, I understand they got to meet her--IF they were VIP ticket holders--but they expected to see her ON STAGE, talking about what she does, doing her thing. The audience for this event was really young, and may not have the experience to know that they were cheated out of a quality show, but I'm an old lady who knows better, and I call foul! This was ridiculous. I don't care if it was an outside promoter--ultimately, it is the ROXY who is responsible for such a poorly executed event. It was a waste of time and money. Also, as a disabled patron, it would have been helpful to know that you have next to nothing in the way of seating. Your website does not indicate that there is no seating. As for rudeness, I don't know who your bartender is, but "What do you want?" is no way to greet a patron. Common courtesy. It goes a long way. I'm VERY disappointed."

And then, because I'm still feeling burned--not to mention that my feet and knees are really, really painful today from all the standing around, getting shoved by teenagers, etc.--I went and wrote this review on Yelp.com:

"Yesterday I took my granddaughters to The Roxy Theatre to see a Salice Rose show. Instead, we were subjected to a number of really bad rap performers who basically tried to out-yell the pre-recorded material the DJ was playing. Most of them didn't know all the so-called lyrics. A show promoted as "all ages" was filled with profane and sexual lyrics, crotch grabbing and all-around no-talent performances. (The audience was pre-teen to teen; very few adults.) The headliner, Salice Rose, never took the stage, at least not for the VIP ticket holders, who were suddenly asked to leave the building and line up AGAIN outside to come back inside for the meet and greet. Therefore, those who had arrived early, waited in line longest and were nearest the stage were now the last to leave the building and the last in line. I have no idea if she at least said hello or something to the general admissions patrons who were left inside. $40. for VIP, and no performance by the headliner? Disgraceful. No seating--as a disabled patron, that would have been good to know, but it's not mentioned on the website. I will never go back, and will never recommend this place to anyone.Terrible."

Do I kind of feel like a mean person now? Yeah, sort of. But not enough of one to delete or take back anything I've said. Because it's true! No one wants to spend a lot of time and money for something and then not get what they paid for! Right?

And you know, it's easy to pass the buck and claim that the other guy--the outside promoters--did it. Maybe they did, but ultimatly, the business is responsible. It is their reputation on the line--the outside promoter left town, man. Took the money and ran! Now the business gets to deal with any backlash.

If there even is any backlash. Like I said in my rant to the venue, this was a really young audience. There were a few parents at the show but mostly Moms and Dads were there dropping off and picking up. It was a daytime event, and I suppose they felt it was safe to do so. (Not me, though. I am not leaving any of mine in that sketchy neighborhood!) I do think if they had known that their kids were going to be told that they had to get out of the building and line up outside a second time, they never would have agreed to leave them there on their own. I know that if I had agreed to leave and come back for my kids and then found out about that part of the program, I would have been furious! It's bad enough having to wait in line for a couple of hours to get in, but to be forced to do it twice for the same event? Ridiculous!

But again--young audience. For many, it may have been the first event they'd been allowed to attend. How do you judge a good performance from a bad one with little to no experience? They might figure it's par for the course and never complain. So what the heck--I'll complain for them.

I don't want to cast too much blame on Salice Rose; she may possibly have little influence on her schedulers. She's not a "star", in the broadest definition of the word. She may have been backstage saying, "But what about me?" How do I know? She was very nice to the girls when they finally got to meet her. They received a photograph of her and were allowed to take one picture--"One picture, one shot, keep it moving!"--with her. but no autographs unless you paid extra. Was that her idea? Again, I don't know. But after disappointing everyone who had come to see her on stage, you'd think she could have insisted on doing at least that for everyone, free of charge.

Nope. No one apologized, no one went out of their way to make things better, no one offered any sort of explanation--nothing.

I personally feel that this young woman owes her fans an apology; promoters aside, it is her reputation that will take any hits. There were a lot of kids there; some were still just happy to meet their idol, but I was in line a long time, and I heard a lot of talk about "unfollowing" and "unfriending". Kids talk. Talk has the potential to make or break. It could get ugly. Someone should step up, admit that mistakes were made and try to make it better. And it should be done as quickly as possible. Teenage girls are a force to be reckoned with. Just saying.

October 4, 2016
12:54 a.m.

I don't like writing bad reviews. I'd rather hope that businesses will work to resolve issues, but as of this time, having submitted to the business my explanation for the bad review, I have heard nothing back from the venue. They've had eight hours.

Yeah, they're probably busy.

Too bad. I've avoided posting this all day. I'm saving now and hoping for some sort of response in the morning. Then we shall see if this gets post, edited, or whatever.

October 4, 2016
8:44 p.m.

More than twenty-four hours have passed, and there has been no response from The Roxy Theatre in Denver. As far as I'm concerned, they've had more than enough time to respond to my post and offer some sort of explanation for the event failures.

I saw only one other bad review regarding this event on their Facebook page--can I be the only person who was appalled by this fiasco? Can that really be true?

Unbelievable!

Whatever. I'm still burning up over having spent a great deal of money--there were three of us with VIP tickets--and over six hours of my valuable time on a venue that didn't deliver what was paid for. I don't appreciate seeing my grandchildren disappointed in any way. So I am posting this and letting the chips fall where they may.

Paula thinks that businesses should take care of their paying customers!

And...goodnight.