Wide Right is the most punk rock bar in all of Denver in the year of 2021.

The lady is out of town tonight, so I had a hall pass to do whatever I wanted… So I went to the Paramount Theatre and watched one of my favorite writers/npr personalities speak! Super exciting! But before and after the show, I stopped at the best gosh darn bar in downtown Denver, WIDE RIGHT.

It’s a magical place of cheap drinks, great bar food that doesn’t feel hoity toity, and just a great vibe. When I’m there it reminds me of the clubhouse feel that the Triple Nickel Tavern in Colorado Springs had when I worked there…. and that was just the daytime.
I came back after standing in line for two hours to meet David Sedaris. (more on that tomorrow, probably?) I was debating going home, but instead I flipped the Toys for Tots coin that was sent to me in the mail to entice me to donate money.
It has a teddy bear on one side and the United State Marine Corps logo on the other. It seems as good a coin as any to flip and help you decide fate. Obviously the Teddy bear is the HEADS and with HEADS I would go home, and tails, I go into the clubhouse for adventures and open mic night.

I had never been so damned happy to see a Marine in my life as I opened my palm to the USMC logo staring back at me.

I went in and found chaos. It was open mic night, just after a huge show at Ratio just down the street. It was open mic night alright, but tonight in the full moon it felt oh so much more like a party. It felt anarchic. It felt alive.

Wide Right might be the most punk rock bar in all of Denver right now. They didn’t need to have bands playing here or people dressed a certain way! Wide Right is a divey, welcoming, performance arts space.

It’s full of crazy drugged out artists just looking to make strange, weird art. I sat in the back and watched open micer after open micer eat shit. I watched a kid meltdown on stage, and I watched a bunch of really crazy, excited and scared people try to make art in a room full of people who don’t much give a shit.

It was wonderful. It was electric. It was home.

You could feel this creative desperation in the air and it was almost as intoxicating as the house made cocktails ($3 everyday during happy hour)!
Maybe it’s the David Sedaris stories running around in my head, but I came home and felt compelled to write about this magic that I witnessed tonight in “downtown Denver.” It may not look the same, or feel the same… but there are places in this city where magic still happens. There are places here where people can still go chase those dreams, and not be judged. There are places still here in Denver, where you can go and feel like you’re still in your small hometown.

Wide Right is a magical place. It’s a place I want to go to and visit when I have the almighty Hall Pass from the GF. It’s the place I want to try eating shit at stand up again (the few times I tried stand up in the past I was just thrown on shows by a guy with initials for a name who just used me for connections, but that’s a whole other story as well…), and it makes me want to surround myself with people who just want to fucking MAKE STUFF.

I promise, I only had like 3 of those “Spicy” shots. They were good. Meghan makes some mean fucking drink recipes. ($3 during happy hour. 4-6pm every day. That spicy Mango marg was soooo fucking gooooood.)

Congratulations to Meghan and Jeremy. You’re magical people and You’ve made a magical place.

Thank you for sharing that magic with us all.
xoxo

Damian Burford

Damian is the host of Mostly Harmless Podcast. Freelance writings have appeared in Vice, New Noise Magazine, Colorado Springs Independent, Denver Westword and more. Damian is currently bartending and working in music production in Napa, California. These are the adventures of his new life in Napa with his girlfriend Claire. Plus other adventures, writings, interviews and more!

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Sean and Alee Go All The Way

June 16, 2024 No Comments

In 2023, I was invited to be the officiant of my dear old friends, Sean and Alee’s wedding. It was the invitation of a lifetime and I was honored to be the one to bring their lives together. Sean and I both were tearful in the moment, while Alee was ever the dude who made fun of us for being a “bunch of crybabies.” I share this here today for posterity, misspellings and all. Below is the Officiant’s speech (or whatever it’s called). ***YOU MAY BE SEATED.***** Dearly Beloved We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Sean and Alee! So many of us have traveled great distances to be here for this joyous celebration. There is nowhere else we would rather be than right here right now, celebrating this NEU family. Pun intended. Hold for chuckles. The love in this venue is powerful! Can you feel it? So many friends. family. both old, new and those friendships yet to be discovered. Of course Friendship is the cornerstone of any great relationship and that’s where today’s journey begins. Sean and Alee began their life first as friends. They met at College and became roommates. They lived together in a large house, each working towards their futures. Both of them were unaware that their futures were destined to be together. Sean and Alee would stay friends after college. They would go on to start their individual lives, but they stayed close. They were there for each other through thick and thin, growing slowly towards becoming the best friends they were always meant to be. Weddings are intended to be quiet affairs, but if we might break decorum real quick. Can we get some noise from those of us who knew long before they did that these two both were meant to be together? It was so obvious wasn’t it? Obvious to everyone but them! Every story I’d hear, the nicknames or inside jokes from these two said it all… These two were meant for each other. But isn’t that how the greatest relationships are formed? Time. Growth. Dedication. Love. All those qualities existed long before they found their romance. It was those years of friendship that they built the foundation of this love and their future life. Sean works in Security and in the days before I met alee, I would joke, “I wonder what it would take to get that Top Secret clearance to Sean’s heart?” I stopped joking the moment I met Alee. Immediately, I knew she was the key to his heart. They are each other’s Yin and Yang. They bring each other a sense of Balance. Who else experienced the absolute joy when they revealed that they had finally taken that obvious leap into romance? And it was in those early days of this adventure that Sean and Alee invited my love and I on a double date at the Botanical Gardens. We watched as these two danced around each other. Still so nervous of the relationship that was blossoming. These two had loved each other for so long, but what did it mean now? It was in those tender moments in the gardens.. watching as the two of them held hands.. watching them gently explored what this next chapter of their relationship would become… I knew these two would GO ALL THE WAY. Their love grew to the true place it was always meant to grow. Today we are here in celebration of what they have discovered since that afternoon in the gardens. The love in this room is powerful. Look around the room and You can see the love and joy that these two represent, reflected in each of your faces. Not just our love of Sean and Alee, but the love we have for each other. With this love in our hearts, we are helping to build the bond that will carry these two forward into their futures. That love is worth more than any of the wrapped boxes we brought with us today. Those are the real gifts that we bring to this couple by being here today in this joyous celebration. As we continue this ceremony, think of your love of Sean and Alee. Think of your favorite moments you may have of them and hold that love close in your hearts as we welcome these two to their next chapter and adventures unknown. OFF MIC: Shall we begin? Are you two ready? Marriage is a supreme sharing, perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure in life. It is the joyful uniting of two individuals whose care and affection and understanding have flowered into a deep and powerful love. Those who take its vows have their lives blended together into one, as the waters of two rivers are joined when they come together to form an even greater one. The bride and groom have prepared their own vows: —- Alee: Do you take this man for your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this & day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live? Sean: Do you take this woman for your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live? You may kiss the bride! Ladies and Gentlemen.. I present to you… Sean And ALEE NEU!!!

Shannon And The Clams hometown NYE Concert – Napa Valley Register

December 27, 2024 No Comments

A Profile piece on the bandleader of Shannon and The Clams, Shannon Shaw! The piece is about her hometown roots in Napa and how she takes those pieces with her all over the world.

Review: BRINGING OUT THE DEAD (1999 Dir. Martin Scorsese)

August 8, 2022 No Comments

When I was working at a Mom and Pop video store in 2000, the trailer for BRINGING OUT THE DEAD would come on at least once an hour on the trailer tape. The soundtrack for the trailer was “Janie Jones” by The Clash. I was a burgeoning punk rock fan, and it was that trailer that turned me into a CLASH fan. I remember finally taking the VHS home with me to watch, thinking the whole movie must be some kind of punk rock ambulance driver masterpiece! Scorsese and Schrader back again! I loved Taxi Driver! But it’s not Taxi Driver. My 18 year old brain didn’t know enough about film and the movies that inspired this film to get it. I just didn’t think it was that great and thought Ebert, who gave it 4 stars, was a fool. I hit play on it this evening, inspired by Cage’s admission that he thinks this is one of his top 3 films he’s made. It’s always held a special place in my heart thanks to its association with THE CLASH. It looks cool as hell. Maybe, just maybe I’ll like it this time. And damn! It was rad. It’s about Nic Cage, an EMT who hasn’t had a win in months. He’s lost every call he’s taken, and with his his sleep has gone with him. He needs a win desperately, but with each call he goes deeper and darker into the depths of madness in the boroughs of a very stylized NYC. DEAD is a film that rides the shimmer between reality and dream. The film is jarring compared to todays hyper realistic films. The film is often overexposed, or blurry. Nothing feels real. It creates this world that feels very much like those early morning moments, when you’re not quite awake yet. Things still feel like a dream. Instead in Cage’s place, a nightmare. As I watched, I tried to think of the films I could compare this one too, for those who might want to watch it. For some damned reason, I thought of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth first! quickly making the connection that DEAD feels much more like a “modern day” retelling of Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece THE SEVENTH SEAL! The Seventh Seal already has a most excellent re-imagining with Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, which was my honest to goodness introduction to the work of Bergmen! The tale of the Seventh Seal finds Max Von Sydnow as a knight in the times of the plague, who is running from Death. Literally. To slow Death down, the Knight challenges Death to a game of Chess. The game takes days, weeks, months, minutes or maybe seconds. The knight tries to stump and outwit Death at every turn… And as they journey through the countryside and see the ravages of the Plague, we meet those people most need saving. Bringing Out the Dead covers similar ground, but instead of Death taking on physical form, it’s very much alive in the work that Cage does as an EMT in the film. In the Seventh Seal, it’s made ambiguous if the Knight is even alive as he begins his journey and it made for a more enjoyable viewing experience to watch and wonder if this was all just the DMT being released in Cage’s characters brain and him trying to put to rest those he could not save. Really cool movie. Not great, but a lot of really cool ideas and shapes put to real honest to goodness film (this was 99 so that makes sense, but it’s nice to see in the days of over saturated digitalness. The film feels photographed. If you’re into out of your mind psychedelic rides that take on the meaning of life and death, I think you should check out, or at least re-check out Bringing out the Dead soon. It’s currently streaming on HBO Max.