Wax Trax was like a scavenger hunt for clues to the new world. A person could lose themselves for hours browsing the racks of vinyl. Wax Trax was only the corner store at the time - CD's weren't invented yet. We ditched school all the time and Bill drove us in his mom's old Pontiac wagon down to Wax Trax to buy 7" inch import singles and punk badges. That was it for suburban life 13th & Washington became ground zero. What the people finally heard was the sound of revolution and Duane was out in front of everybody blazing a new trail.Īround the same time my friend Bill Dillion had turned me on to records by the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Souixie. A lot of people didn't know they wanted something different until they heard it. Hearing the music of Throbbing Gristle, the Pistols, or the Clash was like a revolutionary siren to the disaffected. Duane had the first punk/new wave radio show, Sunday mornings on KFML, the first song I heard on that show was ³Transmission" by Joy Division. KAZY and KBPI were paving the way for the arrival of the mullet. At the time Denver's airwaves were dominated with the dinosaur rock sound of Supertramp, Foreigner, Foghat, Kansas, and Genesis. (Michael Roberts Westword article is an excellent history of the business), so I'll just focus on my experiences. Duane Davis is the undisputed Godfather of the scene. The center and soul of punk, new wave, and alternative culture was Wax Trax Records at 13th & Washington. Cheap rent brought musicians, artists, and creative types back to Capitol Hill and some brave souls even ventured downtown to stake out lofts. Many gays began to move in and restore the hold Denver four squares and Mansions around Cheeseman Park. The end of the 70's came the rejuvenation of Capitol Hill making it the epicentre for change. This is only part of the story of the musicians, venues, record stores, cafes, and all the supporting characters that made Denver in the 80's real and vibrant scene for music and alternative culture. Information travelled slowly, and with more credibility than it does today.
To really get the picture of the times it is necessary to suspend disbelief, and travel back to a time, when there was nothing but open space between Westminster and Boulder, before the internet, cell phones, computers, strip malls, mountain bikes, Major League Baseball, Qwest, 500 TV channels, overt corporate homogenization, and all the other things we've become so involved and overrun with in the information age. Denver's economy fell hard in '81 and the resulting economic divide created the perfect environment for an alternative culture movement to develop and flourish. It also brought Hinkley's assassination attempt on the president and the collapse of the Oil Business. With prosperity came an influx of people from all over the United States and things looked really bright.ġ980 brought Reagan to the White House and the hostages home from Iran. Jimmy Carter flopped as President, which helped create the oil boom, bringing prosperity to Denver, which at the time headquartered more oil companies than any other North American city including Dallas. The most notable destruction being the Tabor Opera House which was located at 18th & Larimer. The end of the 60's and early 70's brought urban renewal to downtown Denver and suburbanization to the citizenry, hundreds of beautiful old buildings were demolished to make way for parking lots and high rises. When looking back at the eighties in Denver, one must acknowledge that even though it's not that far back in time, it really was a unique era unto itself. A Partial History of Denver's Alternative Music & Culture in the 80's