Welcome back to the ROX-TV invades Denver series. Tonight in the final installment of the Denver takeover, the ROX-TV and Cruisin The Barrio jet set crew hits a few local eateries, catches some extreme death match wrestling shows, films an episode for Rude Boy’s “The Fix” and ends the glorious night at the “Death By Denver” show at the famous Roxy Theatre in the Five Points.

It was a busy day and the team hit the street, getting it in, and covering as much content as possible. If you are just tuning in for the series, part one dealt with the pre-planning and features of the locations we would visit, blended in with a little local history on the legendary neighborhood of “Five Points”. The second installment covered the actual arrival of the team and some shenanigans in town at local restaurants, head shops, and dispensary action. If you have time please read them first, or work in reverse if you like, but there are no rules here. Everyone is welcome and above all, its about having a good time. If you want to get pissed or hate on someone I’m sure the news is playing somewhere else. So without further to do, we shall jump in where we left off, sometime after 2:30am and a visit to the Muchos Tacos truck….

8:02am

The mornings always come faster when your on vacation or assignment. I suppose it’s the bodies natural reaction to either being in a foreign environment or the fact that time is limited in the setting you find yourself. In my case, I guess it was a combination of both. Going to bed sucks when your somewhere fun and Denver is definitely a cool city to find yourself. As I explained in Part One, I didn’t put a lot of planning into packing and upon arrival in town, groceries didn’t seem to be a priority either. We had a fridge and a microwave, but beyond that, I didn’t feel like buying a ton of food would do any good, considering we were rolling on the fly. We had come to review shops and restaurants, so eating at “home” seemed like a wasted opportunity. Thankfully the city had lots to offer in the form of places to eat, so what the hell.

11:07am Swift’s Kitchen

By 10:30am the ROX-TV and Cruisin The Barrio crew was finally getting hungry. Breakfast food actually sounded rather good by that point so we decided to find a place that could accommodate our desires. From years of preference we all agreed that a nice greasy spoon type joint would be just the ticket. Although I could be wrong, I believe that the Rude Boy suggested “Swift’s Kitchen” but it doesn’t really matter I guess since we were all down for the cause. In a matter of minutes we loaded up into Mosh Pit Mike’s car and hit the road. Swift’s was located at 4300 W. Colfax Avenue.

At 11:07am we found the place and a parking spot waiting for us out front (which is kind of nice considering Denver parking can be a bit of a magic trick at some locations: now you see it, now you don’t). We lumbered out of the car five deep and hit the door. The first thing I noticed from the outside was that the place had a bit of old school charm. It looked like a spot that your grandparents would take you for donuts, while they sipped on piping hot coffee in the early hours. I took a liking to the place immediately and was glad the Rude Boy had suggested it.

Upon entering the establishment, we found exactly what I figured we would. There was a classic old school cooking area with the wheel men wearing traditional “coney style” hats and shirts. The walls were covered with old type posters advertising “specials” and the menu even looked vintage (in a good way). There was about a ten minute wait for a table, which I thought was a good sign. A restaurant is kind of like a tattoo parlor in that being able to walk into an empty place and get immediate service, might be a bad thing. A good tattoo shop will make you wait, sometimes for weeks to get some ink. A nice greasy spoon will have lines. If your tattoo shop doesn’t need reservations or appointments, I’d recommend you find another spot. If you don’t understand…then nevermind.

A nice woman, who was older than me finally seated us and handed us real menus. I was so happy to have a damn physical menu in my hands, I almost lost it. I was sitting in the late eighties or early nineties again, judging from the motif and I was happy to do it. Remember this young people (anyone really) “new doesn’t always mean better”. I ordered a grilled ham and cheese, with an egg on the side. The waitress gave me the eye for that add on and I’m not sure why. Eggs, ham, cheese, and toast have always got along together, I just chose to have them delivered in a different form is all. To each is own I always say, as long as your not hurting anyone or being a jack ass, do whatever makes you happy. I’m no censor.

The food was great and so was the price. For almost the same amount as my un-buttered toast, eggs, and crispy sausage at Atwater in Metro Detroit, five hungry cats ate all they wanted. That’s what I call a great deal. I give the place a five star rating, which takes into account the location, the atmosphere, the food quality, the servers, and the time in which it all went down. No one was rushing us, even when we stalled out for a little bit. If your in Denver on a tough morning, or perhaps a nice one, Swift’s Kitchen is a place to visit.

1:30pm “The Fix” Hosted by Rude Boy

After getting a proper meal in us, we eventually made it back to homebase to freshen up and start working on a plan for the day. Rude Boy was ready to film another episode of “The Fix” which features International Big Time Wrestling stars of the past and present. The program airs on ROX-TV and can be found on YouTube. We turned the Airbnb into a studio and shot the episode in the living room. Rude Boy featured Mosh Pit Mike and Big Chuey on the show and talked about their historic performances in JCW and IBW as well as interesting facts about the tag team champions past.

I posted up in the corner and observed the episode in real time. For fans of wrestling and IBW, the promotion really does offer an amazing array of programs for the viewers. Not only is the “The Fix” a great show, IBW’s “Big Time Memories” series is a forest fire…jam packed with first hand accounts of some of IBW’s most amazing personalities and wrestlers. The series is hosted by IBW Hall of Famers Terry Sullivan and Dave “Super Mouth” Drason and features wonderful pictures and never heard/seen before content. Even if your not a die hard fan, this show is really cool. History preservation is probably the greatest gift we can ever really have, so do your part, and keep it alive.

4:20pm Promo shoot for Mister Happy

Mister Happy had come up from New Mexico to join the ROX-TV and Cruisin The Barrio crew in Denver. DJ Carlito and Rude Boy got behind the camera and started shooting a series of promos for IBW and other upcoming projects. We were looking for a few dynamic angles and actually found them in the alley behind homebase. Like I highlighted in part two of the this series, Denver is a really colorful and vibrant town. There are murals and bombastic graffiti in almost every direction.

As we started looking for a proper spot, we travelled about thirty feet into the alley way and found the perfect back drop. One side of a building was all decked out in artistic flare. Mister Happy, who can be a scary guy, went to work and Rude Boy and DJ Carlito caught all the action on camera. Don’t be surprised if Mister Happy turns up somewhere familiar very soon. If he does, call the police, because this clown is crazier than Pennywise on acid.

8:01pm Preparing for the long night ahead

After a series of blunts and recharging with some dope music from DJ Carlito’s travelling sound system, which would vanish off the earth within hours (perhaps it was the last time the speakers were ever seen by the living), everyone started to get their threads on. We still had a long ways to go and the top two priorities were “Death By Denver” at the Roxy and also to catch Mosh Pit Mike in an extreme death match at “The Watering Bowl”.

Although we were pressed for time and also trying to kill two birds with one stone, we hit the street with our best foot forward and pushed on. With Mosh Pit Mike behind the wheel, we traversed the busy Denver streets, which at times gave me a pinch of anxiety. I’m use to the roadways of Flint, which are usually not bad to travel at any hour of the day. Sometimes I’m the only car on I-69 with a few lanes to spread out. The same goes for I-475 and I-75.

(Author’s note: Although this has been the historical case, the City of Flint is totally tore the fuck up right now, making even cross town travel on side streets rather difficult. In typical government fashion, the roads and bridges were left to rot, until they all needed to be fixed at once, which is probably not the best way to do it. Shit, if you go to Ohio, they don’t have those problems. The roads are smooth and taken care of. The Murder Mitten Road Commission could probably be overhauled completely or replaced for lack of efficiency and common sense).

“The Watering Bowl” Review: 0/5

There are times in my life when I sit back and wonder what the hell people are thinking. It is usually because someone has either done something really bizarre or the shit show is in full on party mode for all the public to see. I had rather high hopes for the “The Watering Bowl” which they describe themselves as “Denver’s Best Patio” on their rather cheap and in-effective website. Located at 5411 Leetsdale Drive, “The Watering Bowl” looked ok from the street with a rather outdated sign that wasn’t “fun or vintage”.

There was seven death match wrestling bouts scheduled with Mosh Pit Mike wrestling as well. I was glad to be there to support him because he’s a pretty dope person. Later on in the night, I would watch him live up to the name 100% in the insane mosh pit at the Roxy. There was time before the matches were set to begin, so I decided it would be a good moment to grab a late dinner. We met a lot of cool people setting up for the wrestling portion of the evening and those people were all really friendly and professional. Sadly, that ended with them because the actual bar staff suffered from selective hearing, pompous attitudes, in-effective work practices, and much more.

There weren’t any seats available at the bar and we had to actually re-appropriate some from other tables in order to sit down. I noticed during this time that the wait line for “a drink” was well over fifty feet long. The line was filled with annoyed and disappointed patrons of the “Watering Hole” (perhaps just hole?) waiting for well over fifteen minutes at some points to get “a beer”. I’ve never been to a bar and grill where serving the patrons came secondary to the staff talking and laughing amongst themselves, doing stupid ass dances at the taps, and pretending that they didn’t suck badly (all opinions, please judge for yourself).

I waited about ten minutes for the “bartender” (guy who spent time behind the counter but didn’t do much) to talk to me and even when he finally came over, he acted annoyed that he had to talk with me. Again, I was miffed by this and disappointed. It doesn’t cost a thing to be nice to someone, especially when that’s what your getting paid to do. If a person doesn’t like their station in life, I suppose quitting would be a decent option. I’ve quit a thousand jobs I didn’t like or didn’t fit well at. There is no shame in it. A person knows where they want to be and where they don’t. The radiant vibes off this guy was that his heart just wasn’t in it.

After requesting a menu, the guy pointed to a bar code on the bar and walked away. No surprise at this point, the bar code didn’t work, so I had to look up the menu online. I was hoping to get a pizza, which the Watering Bowl claimed to have. I wasn’t looking for anything crazy, just a large pepperoni pizza with ham and bacon. After flagging the bartender down again, several minutes later, I asked for a pizza. He demanded a credit card but I had cash and didn’t want to open a tab. I thought the dude was going to have a heart attack. I said “Cash is still acceptable right? but he didn’t seem to understand. The large pizza came out to roughly twenty five dollars and wasn’t very good. The cheese wasn’t melted all the way on top and ham had been substituted with sausage.

A pizza and a pop came in at almost thirty bucks and the most bullshit part of all is that the bartender plopped the pizza down and left. No silverware, no napkins, no plates to speak of. I don’t know how they do things at the Watering Bowl, but there is some expectation for basic items to enjoy a meal. I tried to flag the guy behind the bar several times but he pretended to be somewhere else, I guess because he wouldn’t come back. After ten minutes I was able to flag down the Manager, and ask her for some plates so me and my friends could eat the shoddy pizza pie. The manager said “I’m so sorry, but we don’t have any”. I don’t know how a “bar and grill” that serves food could function without plates or silverware and I asked her what I should do then?

She said “here” and began tearing napkins out of a holder, which all ironically tore in half as she pulled them out. I then watched her comically set the torn napkins on the bar in front of me and said “there you go, so sorry” and walked away. We just laughed at the situation. By now the “drink line” had something like fifty people backed up and the “bartender” and “manager” were laughing and dancing with their backs to everyone, casually pouring drinks at the tap. Two guys came up to the bar next to me and waited for another ten minutes for any service at all. I had a good laugh with them as well. The food was crap and the service was flushable. We decided to head outside to “Denver’s Best Patio” and see how things were going there. The first thing I noticed was that the patio was covered in dog shit, from the cheap gimmick dog run they featured as a selling point. Dogs were everywhere, shitting and pissing, with no one to clean it up. Some of the dog shit was smashed into the fake astro turf, set on top of uneven asphalt. The wrestling portion of the night was cool, but after Mosh Pit Mike was down wrestling, we got the hell out of there….I will never return whether they clean up the dog shit or get plates for the food they sell. Pizza sucked.

“Death By Denver” at the Roxy in Five Points

Finally it was time to experience what we had travelled across the country to see. The “Death By Denver” show at the famous Roxy Theatre located at 2549 Welton Street, in the historic Five Points neighborhood. The anticipation had been building since we booked the flight and Airbnb and now the time had finally come to see the wicked show in person. We set off on foot, rolling down Welton and as we approached I could see a crowd of people outside the venue. We were finally home.

There is something akin to real magic at a live concert and I am always honored to see performers giving their all for the fans. SCUM had put together a banger lineup and the Juggalos had come out to party. Having been in “lockdown” for what seems like forever, only added to the excitement of show, like a ravenous dog about to feast on some fresh kill. The music was bumping and could be heard from the street. I only knew one thing in that special moment and that was I wanted inside immediately.

The staff at the Roxy Theatre were cool as hell and quickly got us wrist bands and into the event. We made our way into the night time atmosphere and were surrounded by droves of LSP and Psychopathic family on all sides. There is always something special about finding one’s tribe and uniting for a stone cold party in a righteous location.

Meeting with Ouija Macc behind the scenes

After a few minutes we were led to a backroom to meet Ouija Macc and exchange well wishes. DJ Carlito, Rude Boy, Mosh Pit Mike, Tre LB, and myself were soon in the presence of Sin City’s own Ouija Macc. After some brief pleasantries, everyone got together and I snapped off a few pictures for the article. From there, Ouija was off to get ready for a killer show and we were off to find a nice spot to watch the anarchy unfold. The Roxy is set up perfect, with a main floor for killer mosh pit action and two side tiers that host tables, before rising a bit for the next seating area.

We found a dope spot and set up shop, but only after the “Modelo” wrecking crew loaded up on the silo’s (twenty four ounce cans). The Rude Boy and DJ Carlito wasted no time in getting arm fulls of their favorite beer. The vibes in the place were right on the money. I had promised my homie Chase Furman aka flintjuggalo810  a red Ouija Macc “Dirtbag” concert shirt and decided to grab one before they sold out.

I moved with just the right amount of speed to purchase the last one. After doing so, I was personally greeted by SCUM himself and shot the shit for a moment before he took the stage. SCUM is the real deal and a dope individual. I was very appreciative for him coming over to talk and told him I would be doing a fire write up on the show for ROX-TV. As we parted ways, I shuffled back down to our turf (Warriors Movie).

SCUM and Insane Poetry hits the stage

There comes a point at every live show where I slip into a different state of being. I guess you could call it a zone perhaps, but it’s a place where I become one with the performance and my surroundings. I am comfortable there and float freely around the room, taking the scene in for all time. When I was much younger, my focus was dead ahead on the stage at all times, but I evolved into a person who really wants to capture the essence of the entire room. Although I’m listening to the music or taking pictures for articles down in front, moments later I could be locked in on the mosh pit, watching the energy explode as bodies crash into one another to the music.

At other times, I drift off to the corners or edges of the room to view the whole scene from different angles, so that I may never forget them. These memories and visual blueprints will provide me with a lifetime of thoughts that I can happily cherish and re-live over and over till I die. Sometimes the pit is cool, and other times the main stage speaks to me, and even further still, I find myself viewing the merch tables and the people running them. Fuck, I even ended up in the bathroom at one point reading all the stickers on the wall.

I treat my concerts like full on interactive experiences and leave no stone unturned or space unexplored. I will say that SCUM and Insane Poetry really had command of the stage. I thought that SCUM’s energy was amazing and his interactions with the crowd made the performance even more memorable. SCUM and Insane Poetry have a great hard hitting delivery. I’ve been to shows where there isn’t much movement, but an LSP show is fast and furious and all the time. They know how to get the house rocking and the Roxy certainly was booming.

Cody Manson joins the party

The show continued to barrel down the highway at a high rate of speed. Cody Manson landed at the party and began rocking the mic as well. The crowd was high energy and the pit was starting to warm up rather nicely. Although I was drifting in the zone, I enjoyed the music. Since Christmas, I’ve only attended two other shows, one being the Big Ballas X-MAS party in Southwest Detroit (with Covid limited audience restrictions) and the Prom Night 25th Anniversary Show in Fort Wayne Indiana. It felt great to be out in public again and I think everyone brought their “A” game including the fans. MFERS were getting lit in the crowd and throwing down drinks like nobodies business. Juggalo and LSP fans don’t fuck around when it comes to having a party. You either know or you don’t.

I’m not sure if I was in a time slip, but the set came to a close at some point. They could have played another two hours and fans would still have been shouting for more. I was balancing my zombie walk zone time with ROX-TV footage time and somehow managed to capture a lot of great images while simultaneously wandering around the venue.

I will say this. The LSP family is very personable and accessible to their fans. I was able to get a picture with SCUM and Cody Manson, which really made my day (Thank you Dirty Harry). There is nothing cooler for a fan than to meet and talk with their heroes and it goes along way in building that lasting loyalty. On top of that, having artists that are cool enough to go the extra mile and snap a picture with supporters is a class act. I commend the Denver scene for that level of commitment to the audience.

Ouija Macc and DJ Chunk blow the roof off

Finally it was time, for the show headliner Ouija Macc and DJ Chunk to arrive for some murderous beats and forest fire lyrical attacks. The crazy MFER from Sin City was in perfect form and combined with DJ Chunk’s brutal skills on the “tables”, the mosh pit finally reached critical mass. The people in the pit were fucking killing it and each other, in frenzied energy bursts of pure ecstasy. Ouija Macc was taking them on an audio ride through some dark and heavy content.

Along with the LSP family, the crowd had also come for this moment. It was then, when Mosh Pit Mike broke into the pit and showed me exactly where that name comes from. Mosh Pit Mike took a serious command of the hectic circles and bodies, bouncing from one side to another. He never lost his footing and seemed to float around like a cloud, where others were sent to the floor or flying wildly out of control to the edges of the chaos. I was certainly impressed with his performance, as I was equally impressed with Ouija Macc’s delivery.

This is the third time I’ve been lucky enough to catch Ouija in the flesh (also at Ballas and Prom Night) and he never disappoints or comes half cocked. The guy is a performer of the highest order and delivers what is expected of him every time with amazing crowd interaction. From what I’ve seen of Ouija, he has no where to go, but to the top and I believe that he will do it soon. Don’t miss a chance to catch him live before he gets any bigger. This cat will probably be going on tours far away someday in the near future and people that didn’t come out to see him will wish they did when they had the chance. Mark my words. As the show came to a close, I felt good about the night. It had been a wild ride, full of dope performances and artists. I was glad that ROX-TV and Cruisin The Barrio had made the trip across the country to see it first hand and couldn’t wait to share the story with the readers.

With the country opening up, we are about to hit an exciting time, when our favorite shows will be available in our home states. I have a feeling that the summer and beyond is going to be one for the books, so get your ass off the fucking couch and support these guys. They deserve it for their hard work and the fans deserve a night they won’t forget. Until next time…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signing Off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer

kidvicious810 on IG