Denver Bands Rally to Support HQ With Benefit Concert This Weekend

As HQ continues to dry out after a water main break flooded the South Broadway venue on August 15, the local music scene is busy doing everything it can to help co-owners Scott Happel and Peter Ore reopen sooner rather than later.

With their insurance claim denied, the cost of remodeling the 3,200-square-foot basement space, HQ Underground — including the replacement of a wall that was compromised by the deluge — falls solely on Happel and Ore.

“It is impossible to calculate what the cost of repairs and replacing that which has been destroyed will be,” they shared in a statement last month, which included a line about potentially being closed “for months and months” as the space receives a facelift.

In the meantime, Bar 404, a Broadway sibling, will host a fundraiser on Saturday, November 4, with local bands Clusterfux, Good Family and Ransom Note.

Josh Lent of Clusterfux reveres the HQ venue, which was 3 Kings Tavern for fourteen years before Happel and Ore — also co-owners of the Oriental Theater — took over the space and rebranded it in the summer of 2020.

“HQ is what it is now, but that venue has meant so much to so many people for so many years,” says Lent, also of Chain Reaction Records. “We have to preserve and respect the history of places like this.”

Like Ore, a longtime local concert promoter, Lent and Clusterfux have been part of the local music scene for years. Lent credits Ore with helping him and his band early on, giving them more stability and street cred in Denver.

“Playing the benefit show is important to me and Clusterfux, because we have a long relationship with Peter going back to the ’90s, when I walked into his office and dropped off my demo and some fliers of shows we had played — a very punk version of a press kit,” recalls Lent, adding that Ore helped Clusterfux land on bills with D.R.I., U.K. Subs and Citizen Fish back then.

“It’s over twenty years later, and I consider him a friend; friends help each other out,” he continues. “I hope that people recognize the significance and importance of keeping this venue alive. We need strong independent venues, so let’s pack this show and share the love.”

Similarly, John and Mike McCafferty of punk group Good Family fell in love with the grimy rock bar at 60 South Broadway when they moved to town from Wyoming. “When I first moved here, 3 Kings was one of the first venues I heard about, so I checked it out,” remembers John, the band’s bassist and vocalist. “I was like, ‘I want to play this venue someday.’”

The McCaffertys eventually did, with their former act SlingShot Radio. “The steel troughs of PBR and the people hanging out there — it just felt like home to the two of us,” John says.

Mike, one of Good Family’s guitarists, reminisces about a not-so-sober night and a hazardous load-in that almost cost him an amplifier. “Somebody had to catch my amplifier there because I almost dropped it in the alley,” he remembers. Those memories just add to the rock-and-roll venue, which means so much to so many. Mike adds that people just “want to hear rock and roll,” whether it’s an all-ages matinee or a weekend set with a nationally touring act.

Rusty Deadmond, the band’s drummer, who also plays guitar in longtime Denver punk act King Rat, calls HQ a “Broadway landmark.”

“It can’t not be there,” he says, lamenting how other underground live-music institutions such as Streets of London were shuttered by the pandemic’s financial hit. “We don’t want [HQ] to close up and go away. There’s been too much of that for us old-timers.”

While John echoes Deadmond’s sentiment — “We’re losing our landmarks, our spaces,” he says — he’s optimistic about the fate of HQ and stresses the importance of keeping spots like it alive for the vitality of the local music community.

“It would be nice for that to be around for them like it was for us,” he says about future generations of Denver rock-and-rollers. “If places like that didn’t exist for us, we would have nothing to really aspire to. It’s kind of where we wanted to be.”

He adds that the first time his young son saw him play a live show was at HQ: “He was in front of the stage and one year old, rocking out with a pair of earmuffs on."

All proceeds from the benefit show will go toward HQ’s mountain of costs for renovation and reopening, including nearly $100,000 for equipment that was permanently damaged and destroyed in the flood.

Happel organized a GoFundMe with a $25,000 goal; by the end of October, it had received $7,790 via 104 donations.

The co-owners originally thought they’d be able to reopen in some capacity by mid-October, but that timeline has been pushed back by at least a month, Happel shared in an update to the fundraiser.

“We had hoped to avoid asking for more help, but now that we have exhausted all other means of aid,” he wrote, “we are humbly coming to you, the community, for some financial help in rebuilding and reopening HQ.”

HQ benefit show, 7 p.m. Saturday, November 4, Bar 404, 404 Broadway. Tickets are $10.