This Veteran Troupe of Reggae DJs Has Found a New Place to Spin in Denver

Hands are the primary tools of most DJs. So when Scott Damnit's stopped working, things looked grim.

"After my surgeries, my hands were about as useful as chicken cutlets," says Damnit, the founder of the local DJ collective Denver Vintage Reggae Society (DVRS), which is relaunching at its new home of Your Mom's House at 608 East 13th Avenue on Saturday, February 15. "That was two years ago. I have spinal stenosis, so essentially my own spine was constricting my spinal cord. They had to do a laminectomy and a laminoplasty. When that didn't work, they removed three discs, fused my neck and put in a couple cadaver shims. So I got dead people in me."

Since forming DVRS in 2011, Damnit and his crew — which currently includes the rotating roster of Neni Bernal, Darrin Cassien Choice, Adam Hester and Wes Summerhill — have kept the sounds of old-school, '60s-and-'70s Jamaica alive and thumping in the high, dry Queen City.

But Damnit's surgeries in 2023 left him laid up with no guarantee of a full or speedy recovery. He could barely use the cane he now required, let alone two turntables and a mixer. Then there were months of physical therapy, which Damnit sums up in one word: "murder."

"I had to relearn how to walk, relearn how to even get out of bed," he adds. "Everything you take for granted and don't think about after almost fifty years of living."
 At 48, Damnit is a veteran of the Denver music scene. He moved to Colorado from his native New Jersey in 1995; before that, he spent a large chunk of his teenage years attending punk shows and crashing in squats in New York City's pre-gentrified Lower East Side.

It was there that he found a lifelong love: reggae. In particular, he latched onto the early ska, rocksteady and roots styles of Jamaican music that were embraced by the first wave of English punks such as the Slits and the Clash in the '70s — not to mention the 2 Tone wave of punk-influenced ska, all of which were foundational for Damnit's generation of punks.

Luckily for Damnit, Denver's ska scene was thriving in the mid-'90s. Even newbies who loved Sublime and No Doubt were digging into the genre's past and learning that Bob Marley cut his teeth playing original '60s ska. By the late '90s, various reggae DJ parties started popping up around town, usually at punk bars or DIY warehouses. Damnit grabbed his own stack of vinyl records and jumped in. By 2011, though, he saw the need to tie these loose threads together, and Denver Vintage Reggae Society was born — although at first, it was just Damnit and a contacts list.

"I didn't start it as a DJ thing," Damnit says. "I started it as more of a message board kind of thing, where I would try to keep everyone informed about ska and reggae events happening in town, mostly by group texts. But eventually I felt confident enough in my record collection to start DJing myself."

Under the name Denver Vintage Reggae Society, Damnit recruited additional DJs — including Hester, Summerhill, Tommy Borrero and Jolee Gallegos —  took on a monthly schedule at Tooey's Off Colfax. It turned into a popular, two-year residency. Sticking exclusively to vinyl records, the way Jamaican sound-system selecters did in the old days, Damnit and company brought a welcome site to Denver: people from every imaginable local scene convening with love and respect to dance to classic reggae.

"I tend to like playing the upbeat, major-chord, super happy stuff. I'll even throw some calypso in with the early ska," Damnit says. "Wes is more into rocksteady. I love the story behind rocksteady. There was a heatwave in Jamaica in the '60s, and no one was dancing. The musicians were like, 'We've got to slow this shit down.' And then it went into these darker keys, these minor keys. They're real emotional songs."

After two years at Tooey's, DVRS moved to Goosetown Tavern in 2013. That residency lasted for ten years. During that time, DVRS solidified its standing as the premier shindig in Denver to hear traditional Jamaican music spun the traditional way. Damnit and his cohorts even branched out into a '60s soul counterpart to DVRS called Groove Diggers Soul Club. It wasn't all roses, though: First COVID hit in 2020, followed a year later by the devastating loss of Tommy Borrero, who died in 2021.

Then Damnit's stenosis struck. But after months of physical therapy and painstakingly teaching himself to DJ again — being able to simply stand long enough to spin a set was a struggle at first — he returned to DVRS in August last year. In his absence, Summerhill had stepped up to keep DVRS alive until Damnit could rejoin the fold.

"I was shaky as hell," Damnit says of his first gig back, which took place at the Show Pony. "I didn't really have full control of my hands. So I had to nibble at it and see exactly what I could do. Wes had really been doing the heavy lifting for most of that time. He is a serious collector. He has a lot more contacts. He doesn't have any kids, like I do. He's got a lot more freedom and energy he can put towards DVRS. So really, this couldn't have kept going without him and Adam and Neni and Darrin."

Following a handful of dates at the end of 2024 — including a brief tenure at the Crypt, co-owned by Damnit's old Tooey's host, Priscilla Jerez — DVRS was rejuvenated enough to look for a new home. Serendipitously, local promoter Jillian Johnson had taken ownership of Your Mom's House earlier this year. Up to then, Your Mom's House had been primarily an EDM, funk and hip-hop joint. Johnson immediately opened up the calendar for punk, metal and whatever else might broaden the venue's draw.

Damnit pitched DVRS, and Johnson fielded it. Your Mom's House set Saturday, February 15, as the first date of the crew's new monthly residency. For Damnit, taking up residency at Your Mom's House is a bit of a homecoming.

"I just told Jill that DVRS was homeless, and she was like, 'Okay, cool. Do it at Your Mom's House,'" says Damnit, who deejayed the same room years ago when it was the Snake Pit and had started dancing there in the mid-'90s when the venue hosted Britpop nights. "It was so organic. I've never taken a puzzle out of the box, thrown it on the floor and have it land put together. It was that effortless."
Talking yourself up is as natural to most DJs as dropping a needle. But Damnit isn't afraid to admit that he's feeling a little vulnerable about his new digs, especially after such an unsteady couple of years.

"Your Mom's House is a bigger room than we've ever had a residency in," he admits. "I'm still nervous because I've been out of the game for so long. But I know I have the best people with me at DVRS, so that makes it easier.

"I don't ever want it to seem like the Scott Damnit show," he adds. "It never has been. We're all equal when we walk through that door. Like, specially in this political climate, I want everyone at DVRS to feel safe and included. Reggae is for everyone. I wasn't kidding when I put the word 'society' in the name.'"

Denver Vintage Reggae Society's Foundation Reggae Dance Party, 9 p.m. Saturday, February 15, Your Mom's House, 608 East 13th Avenue. The event is free. For more info, visit yourmomshousedenver.com and facebook.com/denvervintagereggaesociety.