Rapidgrass plays eTown Hall on Dec. 11

The Golden-born bluegrass band, past winners of the RockyGrass band contest, play a seated December Friday in the converted church on Spruce Street.

Some Colorado bluegrass is best heard outdoors at altitude, in a field above a mountain town. In December you take it indoors, and eTown Hall is a good place to do it. Rapidgrass plays eTown Hall on Friday, Dec. 11, in an eTown Presents show running 7 to 9:30 p.m. at 1535 Spruce St. Tickets are on Humanitix.

The room is small. eTown's own FAQ puts full capacity at just over 200, all seated, first come, first served unless the ticket says otherwise. So if you want a seat close enough to watch the picking, arrive at doors rather than at downbeat.

Rapidgrass started in Golden in 2012, according to the band's Wikipedia entry. Their own bio calls them a high-energy bluegrass band. Mark Morris sings lead and plays guitar, and the lineup also includes mandolinist Alex Johnstone and bassist Charlie Parker Mertens. They have been part of the Front Range scene for years. In 2015 they won the band contest at RockyGrass in Lyons. Three years later, 303 Magazine named them the best bluegrass band in Denver.

They also have their own festival. The Rapidgrass Bluegrass Festival takes over a mountainside above Idaho Springs every summer. This year's edition ran Aug. 14–15 at Mighty Argo's Outpost at Miner's Point, about 8,800 feet up, with the band playing both days. The band has released records at past festivals: according to the band's site, an album came out at the eighth edition in 2017, and *Chamonix Sessions* came out at the 10th in 2019.

In a room this size, there's nowhere for a fast fiddle break to hide.

eTown Hall is a different kind of room from a festival field. eTown, the radio show and nonprofit, bought the old church building on Spruce in 2008 and opened it to Boulder as a music and media center in 2012, as the venue's own history tells it. eTown calls it possibly the greenest music and media center in Colorado. It still has the proportions of a church, and the people on the stage aren't far from the people in the seats. For a band built on fast picking and close harmony, that's an advantage: in a room this size, there's nowhere for a fast fiddle break to hide.

The show also falls at a good point on the calendar: a Friday in the middle of December, after the first real snow and before the holidays take over. Boulder's own bluegrass crowd fills rooms like this one when the music is good.

Get tickets now, because 200 seats won't last long. Then get there early, take a pew close enough to see the hands, and remember the band you've watched in a summer field sounds different with a roof over it.

Sources: Humanitix — eTown Presents Rapidgrass, Dec 11, 2026 (events.humanitix.com); eTown — eTown Hall FAQ (etown.org); eTown — eTown Hall (etown.org); Rapidgrass — bio (rapidgrass.com); Rapidgrass — official site (rapidgrass.com); Wikipedia — Rapidgrass (en.wikipedia.org); Mighty Argo — Rapidgrass Bluegrass Festival (mightyargo.com)