Live @ Jack's Owner Launches Rooftop Concert Series in Larimer Square

Live @ Jack's owner Sandra Holman-Watts is booking the music, and Bonanno Concepts is dishing up the food.

August 19, 2020

The stage for the rooftop concerts will be near the yellow walls. Sandra Holman-Watts

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Although Sandra Holman-Watts had to permanently shutter her bar and music venue Live @ Jack’s during coronavirus closures in May, she’s been booking shows seven nights a week on three pop-up stages in Larimer Square, which has been closed to street traffic for the past two months. So far, her Live on Larimer series has included singer-songwriters as well as reggae, blues and jazz acts.

And now Holman-Watts has teamed up with Bonanno Concepts, which operates restaurants Osteria Marco and Green Russell, among others, to launch a rooftop concert series on Thursday nights starting September 3, on the top floor of the Larimer Square parking garage. The space has been dubbed "The Farm," since restaurants have been growing produce there.

For the series, Holman-Watts has lined up acts she booked regularly at Live @ Jack’s, including the Jacob Larson Band on September 3, Hazel Miller on September 10, PG6IX’s tribute to Frankie Beverly and Maze on September 17, Dotsero on September 24, and Hot Lunch Band on October 1. Depending on the weather, she’s hoping to do two encores in October.

“We're working really hard to keep musicians working and keep music lovers enjoying it,” she says. “This is just such a big, beautiful VIP experience up here. And there's more to come.”

Tickets for the shows are $55 per person and include dinner from a different Bonanno restaurant at each show. For an additional fee, guests can pre-order cocktails, wine and other beverages from the rooftop bar; they can can bring picnic blankets or lawn chairs or pay to reserve a two-top table. Each rooftop concert will be limited to 75 people to allow for social distancing.

Holman-Watts says that any additional money she makes from the shows after expenses are covered will go to the musicians' fund she established after closing Live @ Jack’s.

“We really needed to bring that back,” she says, “now that there’s no additional funding through the feds with unemployment.”

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