This is the back side of the William I. Spencer building on the southwest corner of Tejon and Cache la Poudre streets, across from Wooglin's Deli. It's really a beautiful building; it's even listed on the National Register of Historic Places. From the front it looks a little like the Broadmoor. I've always loved this building.
When I was in college there was a little nightclub in the basement of the Spencer Building called the Climax Cavern. It was THE place in town to see live music, and since I was friends with practically every musician in town (for better or for worse!), I was a regular at the Cavern. Basically it was just two small rooms, one of which contained the bar, a stage area and a tiny dance floor, the other of which contained the pool table and restrooms. When there was a band playing, the Climax would be stuffed to the limits of the fire code with sweaty, drunk, dancing bodies. It was SO MUCH FUN. Many of my happiest memories are from the few heady months of the Cavern's heyday, listening to punk, surf, ska and rockabilly, drinking 3.2 beer and dancing like crazy until they kicked us out! Some of the best times of my life were spent in that little sweatbox of a nightclub. I'm sure you have a place just like this in your past too.
Unfortunately the Cavern had a bad ending. The very last night of its existence it was hanging by a thread financially. It was wintertime. A friend's band was about to play and there were only a few people in the bar as it was still early in the evening. Somebody threw a tear gas bomb down the stairs and into the club! Now why they would do that is still a mystery to me, but I just remember running with my friend Janet to the bathroom and holing up in there until the police and paramedics saved us. If you've ever been tear gassed you know how awful it is, there's a reason they use it to control and disperse riots! The next day there was the tiniest blurb about it in the paper (which I cut out and saved); just a paragraph mentioning that an unknown person had thrown a tear gas bomb into a local bar. And that was it for the Climax Cavern. Whoever threw that bomb caused the end of an era!
The last I heard, that space down in the basement was a storage area crammed with unused chairs and desks. Too bad.
5 comments:
Fantastic photo, Tamera, love those shadows! Boo hiss to the arseholes who tear gassed the place. Think it could have been the owners, trying to collect on insurance so they could pay off the remaining bills?
My regular bar in college was called Auntie Mae's Parlor - also a cramped basement that was packed tight. Thankfully, it's still open - a friend of mine from waaaay back in the day - the dorms! - owns it now.
www.auntiemaes.com
Auntie Mae's -- wow! Just like the Cavern! Everyone must have a Cavern or an Auntie Maes to remember fondly.
:o)
Great photo. What a terrible end to a cool night club. Have the culprets been caught. Not a great experience must have been very scary.
Mo, it was scary but it was kind of an adventure too! I mean, how many people can say they were tear gassed on a night out?!? It was so long ago, I'm not traumatized about it any more. They never caught who did it but my friends and I had some theories about the culprit (a guy we knew). Oh well. We found another night club to hang out in!
Yes, I remember that crazy night still... it was indeed a night to remember! Unfortunately instead of heading for the door, we ran to the bathroom, if it was a fire, we would not be around to tell the tale! - J
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