Tim Van Schmidt

This will not be a reggae review.

I recently made the trek up to The Lincoln Cheyenne to see the venerable pop reggae band UB40 and was not only treated to a decent show but was also introduced to a hidden gem of a venue.

The Lincoln is “hidden” because it’s north of Fort Collins, not south like so many of the venues I like to go to in Boulder and Denver. I live over by the old Hughes Stadium and it took 50 minutes from our door to downtown Cheyenne- and while I25 was busy going in that direction, it was nothing like the Mad Max-style crush of traffic going south.

The Lincoln itself reminded me of the Boulder Theater- an old school, even stylish theater converted to a music venue. But maybe The Lincoln is a little more stylish, really, and it is bigger by nearly 250 seats.

For this first visit to The Lincoln, my wife and I took some seats in the balcony where there are rows of hard seats, then rows of comfortable theater chairs. The Lincoln is a general admission music hall so we settled into theater seats, weren’t crowded and could see plenty.

There’s a full bar downstairs and a satellite bar with a limited list upstairs. The merch table in the lobby was not mobbed and made it easy to see what’s being offered.

The Lincoln is well-used, there’s no doubt about that, but I felt comfortable there right away. Even waiting outside was kind of fun as other music fans seemed to be friendly and talkative. A nearby restaurant even walked by offering free pizza slices.

All of this added up to a nice hometown feel, missing from the bigger city venues down the road.

And the good news for blues fans is that The Lincoln is bringing in some good stuff. Originally we had tickets to see guitarist Jimmie Vaughan last Spring, postponed until September 28, but UB40 became our first experience there instead. And before the Vaughan show, blues fans can see Danielle Nicole on August 10.

Music fans, the message here is that The Lincoln is a venue to watch- and it’s comfortable. We had dinner over at the venerable Cheyenne mainstay restaurant, The Albany, walked around the downtown a bit and then enjoyed a great show. Then we were home again in under an hour. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Like the sign says outside the venue: Support Indie Venues. Check out The Lincoln at www.thelincolncheyenne.com.