Denvoid's Release party

October 6-11 was one heck of a ride. Just for the record, October 6^th is Armed Forces day in Egypt. It was also this day I started my journey back to Denver for the release of Denvoid and the Cowtown Punks via a train ride from Alexandria to Cairo.

I asked the hotel for a 4:30 am wake-up call. Thirty minutes later I was pulling a suitcase through the neighborhood of the Zamalek desperately hunting down a taxi. Ten minutes into my search I caught a cabbie napping in the front seat parked on lone and desolate street. With a couple of respectful but firm taps on his window he was jolted up from his reclined driver’s seat.

“Fil Airport” (To the airport?)

“Ay-wa” (Yes)

“Bit Qam?” (How much?)

“120”

La’ 100 (No, 100)

Ty-ebb. (Okay)

By 6 am I was filling out an exit card and going through customs and security.

When you fly in from Cairo

A five-hour flight to London or anywhere is a cakewalk these days. I used the time to catch-up on movies. Though I have never been a Beach Boys fan, Love & Mercy was powerful and made me appreciate Brian Wilson’s vision where he wanted to take the Beach Boys music. I have since researched Pet Sounds and listened to the album with a different set of ears. The depth of the layers of sounds is astonishing. 

On the other hand Amy, the story of Amy Winehouse was one I had been looking forward to. I was vaguely aware of her background and music, but had been curious about her since her death. The film featured quite a bit of archival and home movie footage to help paint a picture of her profoundly sad rise and demise. The movie should be shown to all aspiring fame seekers.

Your truly. Photo by David Ensminger 

Terminal 5 of Heathrow is one giant maze that leads to a shopping mall. Even the Cairo airport is more efficient. After a three-hour layover devoted to answering questions sent by Tom Murphy from Westword, it was a straight shot from London to Denver. The flight was mostly devoted to sleep and reading, A Wailing of A Town: An Early History of San Pedro Punk 1977-1985 by Craig Ibarra. The pages are packed full of info about bands such as The Minutemen and Descendents, infamous shows, venues, and a whole lot more. So far an excellent read.

18-hours later since leaving Cairo I’m at the counter of a car rental place. The counter person and his partner are laughing at my 13 year-old Nokia brick phone. He asked if it still worked. With a straight face I told him, “In every country except the United States, the best part is it can’t be traced by homeland security or the KGB.” He finished the paperwork in silence while I held in my laughter.

With Joe aka Spike

I rented a house in Capitol Hill near Cheeseman Park for David (editor), Sonny (designer) and I. I needed a larger space to prepare the artwork and package/ship orders. I also wanted a common space for us to spend some quality time together and figure out how the release party was going to unfold.

In the meantime, I did have a chance to jam with my buddy Martin Day at his apartment. He is a killer drummer that I always wanted play songs with. Had wine and cheese with my old college friend, Marta. Invited a handful of folks over to a casual evening of conversation. Otherwise most days (10 plus hours/day) were spent preparing artwork, hustling books, and other menial tasks.

Bryan Wendzel is your tropical home invader.  

David and Dan swapping war stories.

Sonny and Staci on the porch.

The day finally arrived for the event. Fast forward to the evening. Sonny and I hung about 100 drawings from the book. Jif Jiper showed up with the PA. People trickled in and swelled to over 150 throughout the evening. Jif played an acoustic set, The Frantix were up next and belted out a handful of classics. The Buckinghan Squares finished the night. It was the perfect trio. The two kegs emptied within 30 minutes of putting in the taps. Several family members and friends showed up, many whom I haven’t seen in dozens of years. In the end, it was everything I had hoped for.

Emcee duties. Photo by Joe Morgan  

Signing Jen's book. (note: her and her friend Cat are on back cover)
Photo by Joe Morgan.

Much love and appreciation to all who made it out and participated and supported the project. It felt surreal to actually hold the book in my hand and marvel at it. That moment didn’t come until I was on my way back to Egypt the following day. It is finally starting to sink in that I finally completed what I set out to do nearly 20 years ago. Thank you.

Plywood walls.

Making the art show happen

Colin and his adorable family showed up sporting the Chris Shary shirt collection. 

Jill and Jim. 

Frantix with Paul Dog

With Harry and Shawn

Buckingham Squares

Jif with the Squares

with Little Fyodor.

Paul Dickerson 

With Paul Dickerson and Headbanger. 

My ride home! Thanx Ben! 

With Paul Dog and Davey

The crowd. Photo by Oakland L. Childers 

Jif with my brother George in the green shirt. Photo by: Oakland L. Childers 

Frantix. Photo by: Oakland L. Childers 

You know, you can still order a copy or two (they make lovely gifts) and they will be sent out by my right hand man, Matt K. You can order directly here: http://bobrobart.bigcartel.com/product/denvoid-and-the-cowtown-punks-option-1 and receive free goodies or order through Amazon, Alternative Tentacles, Microcosm, and RevHQ. If you’re in the Denver/Boulder area check out Wax Trax, Mutiny Information Café, Kilgore Books, Twist and Shout, Black and Red, Albums on the Hill, Tattered Cover, Capitol Hill Bookstore, Red Letter Books, Trident Book Sellers, and more locations to be added soon.

Related articles:

Westword’s coverage of the show:

http://www.westword.com/music/scenes-from-a-denver-punk-reunion-at-mutiny-information-cafe-7237607

My interview in Westword:

http://www.westword.com/music/bob-rob-medina-describes-the-80s-denver-punk-scene-7220004

The morning after at the Mercury Cafe. Photo by Paul Dickerson. 

Leaked pages of Denvoid and the Cowtown Punks.

Update: Plates are being made and the book will start printing this week. I have been busy contacting distributors and setting up a space on Amazon. Books are expected to be shipped Sept. 21 and arrive a week later. If you pre-ordered, expect mail in 3 weeks. If you still need to order and get some extra goodies you can do so by visiting: http://bobrobart.bigcartel.com 

Mark your calendar for the book release party!
Date: Saturday, October 10 2015
Location: Mutiny Information Cafe 2 South Broadway Denver, CO 80209
Time: 7 pm
Special musical guests: Buckingham Squares and others TBA.

Enjoy a preview of a few pages. 

Marilyn Megenity of the Mercury Cafe

Friends,

Sonny is spending all his free time tweaking the pages and making it look fab. I'm impressed with his progress. Do yourself a favor and preorder the book and get extra goodies in the mail. Last day for me to send out the freebies in THURSDAY before I head off to Egypt. All orders will be promptly sent when I return in October for the book release. You can do this by visiting: http://bobrobart.bigcartel.com 

The book release date has been set.
Date: Saturday, October 10 2015
Location: Mutiny Information Cafe 2 South Broadway Denver, CO 80209
Time: 6 pm
Special musical guests TBA

excerpt of Marilyn's interview. 

Marilyn Megenity

For Marilyn Megenity, the proprietor of the Mercury Cafe, cultivating Denver’s hub for live underground music in the early 1980s was an uphill struggle. She battled landlords and walked a fine line with city regulators to create a space for an organic restaurant as well as local and touring bands to play original music. As a lover of music with a reputation for taking care of bands, her honest and grassroots approach has been the foundation of her success. Although her venue underwent a couple of incarnations until 1990, she finally secured a permanent location that remains in operation today.  

Marilyn circumvented city regulations and accommodated audiences of all ages under the guise that first and foremost the venue was a restaurant. Additionally, she hosted matinee shows, including Black Flag and Dead Kennedys, to make sure budding hardcore youth were able to see their favorite bands.

Since Wax Trax existed around the corner from the original Mercury on Pearl Street, the two entities formed an alliance and consolidated punk rock in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. From 1979-84, monthly calendar dates of the club were jammed packed with events, live and otherwise, to suit those who broke from the mundane nightlife Denver had to offer. Certainly on any given night of the week, patrons were going to experience invigorating and cutting edge culture.

At her new location, she continued with the same ethos: serving local organic fare and providing live music of all genres. I formed a working relationship with Marilyn when I booked touring and local bands at her club from 1990-92. She not only provided a space, PA, doorman, but also counseled me on how to be a fair and honest promoter, for which I will always be thankful.

Forty years later, she is still running her operation on her own terms, and she offers no signs of slowing down.

How did you create a space that would both be a restaurant and a venue for live music?

Landlords kicked me out of Denver a lot. The first time we were at the space on 1308 Pearl. I had hilarious gangster landlords and just before they kicked me out I had been booking local bands, this was 1979. One of doorman suggested doing national acts. Shortly after that, the landlord kicked me out. (Laughter).

What sort of gangsters? Mafioso in pin stripe suits? But more importantly, why did they kick you out? 

The landlords were dealing drugs and making shady business deals. They kept raising the rent on me every week. One time I asked them if they wouldn’t, so I could fix a leak in the roof. The leak was near the electrical equipment, so they kicked me out.

The building sold, and there was a new landlord, so I moved back in 1981. Wax Trax was across the street by then. I knew I wanted to book touring bands, so I put that out there. There were a bunch of local new wave bands I started booking. Barry Fey was really the only other promoter in town at the time for rock and roll, and he wasn't hip to punk. A lot of bands started calling me themselves. If I didn't know who they were, I would call Wax Trax and say, "Hey, do you think I should book this band?" and they'd say, "Yeah, book them!" The bands would sometimes do an in-store thing at the record shop. That’s how we got started.

To see more order the darn book!

Shawn Slater Denver Skins

Friends,

I'm currently in Las Vegas working with Sonny on the layout. Good news is text and images have been placed, Next the fine tuning. Sonny is making the magic happen. Do yourself a favor and preorder the book and get extra goodies in the mail next week. You can do this by visiting: http://bobrobart.bigcartel.com 

The book release date has been set.
Date: Saturday, October 10 2015
Location: Mutiny Information Cafe 2 South Broadway Denver, CO 80209
Time: 6 pm
Special musical guests TBA

excerpt of Shawn's interview. 

What do you think what eventually happened in the Denver scene? At one point, a lot of new kids arrived calling themselves skinhead and had a different take on what you guys started out as?

I don't know where all that came from. It was gradual. It didn’t happen overnight. That second Black Flag show at the Rainbow Music Hall. That was when Gary had all those business cards made -- Support Your Local Skins, the Few the Proud the Nazis. That's when we gave one to Henry, and he jumped off the stage to come after me. That's when Jeff came up and told Henry, "You might get one shot in, but we're going to kick your fucking ass."

Did he back down?

He got back up on stage, said something about it, and that was it. When we were younger, everybody was pissed off at the world. What path were we all going? When we look back to those days we essentially woke up, partied, listened to music, skateboarded, rode bikes, and we didn't care about what was going to happen the next day.

At the time, did you feel that kids involved with hardcore had a lot of energy and did extreme stuff like ride BMX bikes, skated ramps and gravitated towards music like punk.

You gotta look at people that did that sort of thing in Denver. They were outcasts. I moved from Southern California in 1977, and my first day of school in 6th grade I was wearing Vans and someone tells me, "My grandpa wears shoes like that." Right from the get-go at that age, you had your jocks, your freaks, your hicks … I really didn't have that in California, it was like, "Hey, buddy, let's go to the beach." You grabbed your boogie board and went to the beach. At school, they were telling me, "No, no, no, you gotta wear Adidas.” As I got into 9th grade, you had to be a jock, you had to do this ..." Fuck that shit. I remember one of my teachers telling me I was the good jock gone bad. I played football, I played lacrosse, and I followed that fucking norm. One day I got invited to punk rock and realized that this is what I liked. We looked at all the magazines. All the punks skateboarded and BMXed, and that's what we gravitated towards. Look at how many people showed up to the ramps after school. Everyone went over to each other's house and hung out. It was all tight-knit.

Eventually everyone in the scene started grouping themselves. We're the peace punks, we're the skins, we're the hardcore punks, we're the junkie punks ... It was weird that everyone started getting labeled into little groups. During the whole time, I was in the scene, I don't think I ever fought anyone in the scene ... with the exception of one skinhead who was talking shit and got his mouth pounded. If you really reflect back to that time, what troubles really existed within the scene? I remember the last show at Kennedy's, but that was just one big drunken onslaught and everybody tore that place down.

to read more, order the book. 

Brush and ink drawing by Bob Rob (Medina)

Boulder's White Trash: Mexican food and Nazis in the neighborhood.

Friends,

The editing is officially concluded and I fly off to Las Vegas tomorrow to had the flies and images to Sonny Kay, the book's designer. Here's more good news, you can still preorder the book and get all sorts of goodies before I leave for Egypt in 2 weeks. People that have pre-ordered are enjoying their freebies this very moment.

The book release date has been set.
Date: Saturday, October 10 2015
Location: Mutiny Information Cafe 2 S Broadway Denver, CO 80209
Time: 6 pm
Special musical guests TBA

The artwork from the book will be exhibited and avail for purchase.
If you wish to preorder the book, you will receive extra goodies. You can do this by visiting: http://bobrobart.bigcartel.com 

White Trash

The fury of the dual guitar attack of White Trash was born in the fraternity-infested university town of Boulder. The band arose out of the ashes of Annex Red, and later incarnations helped pave the formation of the Fluid.

Louie Largesse, the band’s vocalist, cites being turned on to punk rock by drummer Garry (Garret Shavlik) while working as a dishwasher at Boulder’s legendary Mexican restaurant, José Muldoon’s. “I was a kid, 14-years-old, probably 1981. I tested out of 10th grade, but because of Colorado law I couldn't test out of 11th grade due to my age. I started working full time at the restaurant.” Other band members worked in the restaurant’s kitchen as well. Louie even proclaims White Trash played a show there.

The remainder of the interview will be published in the book.