Punk icons Carioca Cafe, Wax Trax Records grapple with Denver over live music, noise, licensing

Ig Eels used to watch people flock to shows from his band Drink Drank Punk whenever they play Carioca Cafe, the downtown dive bar that has managed to hang on over the past few years despite being surrounded by luxury construction projects.

But without a cabaret license, Carioca Cafe, a.k.a. Bar Bar, can’t allow the punk-rock guitar player and singer’s house band to perform, despite Drink Drank Punk having played more than 100 shows there since 2013, Eels said. In fact, the bar has never had a cabaret license, according to the Department of Excise and Licenses, which is required in order to sell alcohol while hosting live performances.

For roughly a year, owner John Kennedy has followed city guidance on replacing and fixing fire code and other violations, from a new front door to patching a hole in the wall and adding a new, lighted exit sign. He applied and paid for a $1,250 cabaret license more than six months ago, as well as reaching out to the Denver City Council for support and follow-up. His check to the city has been cashed for months.

He has so far not received the license, owing to supposed hold-ups and technicalities, according to music booker and productions manager Rich Granville, who also bartends. Ells also said the extra pressure from District 9 City Council member Candi CdeBaca could make a big difference. Her office has followed up on the bar’s requests, according to emails from Liz Stalnaker, communications director for CdeBaca, that were reviewed by The Denver Post.

“No one really actually seems to know the whole process,” said Granville, who has been exploring options to buy the bar over the last three years. He had just completed another licensing inspection when he spoke with The Denver Post Wednesday afternoon. “(The city) is applying cabaret-license concepts to any sort of dive that hosts live music now, and it’s not always applicable. … We’re just trying to keep the lights on at this point, and we’re lucky we have such a tight-knit crew who are willing to do anything.”

“It’s just absurdity after absurdity,” added Eels, who has also tended bar at the one-story, standalone building at 20th and Champa streets. “There’s no excuse for just dragging their feet like this unless someone is trying to deliberately kill the bar. We have dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s. What the hell is going on?”

While a late-March 2022 police sting netted a violation for underage alcohol sales, a $10,000 fundraiser in May 2022 seemed to put Carioca Cafe on the path toward compliance.

“We’ve scraped by through COVID shutdowns without a fundraiser, but now we really need your help,” wrote bartender Granville, organizer of the GoFundMe campaign.

“It’s costing people so many paychecks and now they’re behind on their payroll,” Eels said. “For me and the band, we’re kind of dead in the water without it right now. I don’t even want to go back to 2-drink ticket circuit, which is most bars, where you just get paid in a couple of free beers.”

Meanwhile, legendary Denver record store Wax Trax is grappling with the city over its own live-music performances. The city received anonymous noise complaints about Wax Trax’s decades-old sidewalk shows — which for the last two years have been weekly, block-party occurrences — and fined the store $250 in March. The crackdown on Wax Trax arrives amid a months-long, larger debate about the value of live-music in Denver.

“We are moving forward with our plans to have three bands play outside on Record Store Day (April 21),” said general manager Pete Stidman. “We’re trying to pull together our neighbors for a meeting on April 18 so we can talk about it, and we just got another hearing with the city with our (pro bono lawyer). … This is a totally DIY, free-of-charge series, and we’ve been putting flyers around the neighborhood so people aren’t surprised.”

“The Department believes that the noise violations are legitimate and that the burden of proof has been established for the definition of Noise,’ ” wrote Danica Lee, director of the Public Health Investigations Division, in February. “The investigation conducted on October 23, 2022, confirmed that the sound pressure levels were above the allowable limits …”

Noise is defined as unwanted sound, and the upper limit of rock bands is about 110 decibels, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration. Wax Trax’s issue is the volume level of its own outdoor shows, which at the city-tested 76.6 decibels sits just inside the noise limits of traffic and commercial trucks rumbling by on the fat 13th Avenue and Washington Street — or about 70 to 80 decibels.

Noise complaints about loud music have also been filed in Denver by neighbors of City Park Jazz, RiNo’s Number Thirty Eight venue, and private, pandemic-era shows on neighborhood porches. Stidman believes his case is one of overzealous enforcement, and he’s confident he can work it out with the city. That differs with the case of Number Thirty Eight, where neighbors have complained of their houses shaking due to live music volumes, according to Westword.

“The most recent fatality is pickleball,” Stidman said with a laugh, referencing Centennial’s crackdown due to noise concerns over the popular sport; no actual complaints have been filed.  “At our February 8th hearing with the city we argued that music is not harmful. It doesn’t trigger migraines and it’s not psychologically disruptive. It’s a public good.”

Stidman fears for Denver’s larger live music scene. New and younger bands need to play outdoor shows and festivals to get a foothold, he said, and he’s seen little change in that at neighborhood festivals and free, outdoor shows, which are required to obtain permits. Wax Trax’s regular series of shows makes it prohibitive to apply for a permit for every show, he said, despite the complaints filed with the city’s Public Health & Environment Department.

“The lady who complained (about Wax Trax) also said she had to drown out our music with her headphones, which indicates she was listening to even louder music on her headphones,” Stidman said of the complaint. “It was a false claim, clearly. But so far the health department is not acknowledging that music can be a public good, so it is treated the same as would be a jackhammer or other nuisance. We’re trying to change that.”

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