Lion’s Lair Launches GoFundMe for to Survive COVID-19

Not lengthy after Governor Jared Polis introduced that he was banning 250-plus capability occasions statewide final March to sluggish COVID-19, Lion’s Lair co-owner Doug Kauffman shuttered his 105-person dive bar, comedy hub and music venue, even before the state and city mandates closed businesses around the state.

“We made the decision straight away,” he advised Westword on the time. “It should not be a tough one to make, contemplating how dire the scenario is.”

The Lion’s Lair, which Kauffman considers Denver’s oldest constantly working unbiased music venue, was one of many first bars to shut within the metropolis and reopened for a brief interval beginning in June with 25 % capability.

“We have been closed for eight months, aside from a quick six-week interval the place we noticed all of the restrictions and saved issues actual secure for folk,” Kauffman says. “However individuals weren’t going out that a lot.”

Throughout the interval the Lion’s Lair was open, Kauffman says it wasn’t doable to e book dwell bands with 25 % capability due to COVID mandates, and he needed to cancel about two and a half months of bands that have been on the books.

Kauffman says the Lion’s Lair didn’t have room for a patio in entrance on Colfax Avenue, and having one within the alley was clearly out of the query. Whereas he says the landlords have been useful, the venue just launched a GoFundMe to raise $25,000 in back rent and other expenses that have accumulated over the past eight months.

“The Lair has a neighborhood that’s supportive,” the GoFundMe web page states. “LL’s neighborhood consists of people who dwell for this bar. Those that want the bar for help, friendship, expression of music or artwork, and typically you simply want a spot darkish and calm to seize a drink.

“It is simple to be part of the Lair neighborhood, all it’s a must to do is cease by,” the GoFundMe continues. “We drink collectively and luxuriate in our every day conversations with the people who come to say hello, whereas respecting the people who need to drink their drinks alone. There are individuals we see every day that fear us when they’re late. There are others that come to go to, as a result of everybody has a narrative about ‘that one time at Lion’s Lair!’”

Kauffman additionally says the venue’s expertise purchaser, Demi Merritt, will work on getting funding from the $900 billion federal aid invoice Congress simply handed that’s ready on President Donald Trump’s approval. A part of that aid bundle would come with monetary help to unbiased venues and promoters which were crushed by the shutdown.

Since Kauffman took over the Lion’s Lair in 1995, the venue has been internet hosting native and touring acts most nights of the week, together with punk icons like Mike Watt, John Doe and Flipper, in addition to Jonathan Richman, the Blasters, the Black Keys, Slim Cessna’s Auto Membership (which played its first gig there in the mid-’90s) and Jello Biafra’s Extremely Unusual Dance Events. The venue has additionally hosted long-running open-mic nights for musicians and comedians.

The constructing’s historical past dates again to the Thirties, when it was the Playboy Membership and hosted jazz stars like Dexter Gordon and Clark Terry. Then it was a 300-person venue that included the storefront that’s now Finish of Days Tattoo subsequent door. It was later often called the Aladdin Lounge, a reputation it saved till 1967, when John Lyons took over the house and dubbed it the Lion’s Lair.

“I can not consider every other longer-running place that is accomplished music in Denver,” Kauffman says. “We have got to be the longest-running live-entertainment venue within the metropolis.”

To help the venue, go to the Lion’s Lair GoFundMe campaign.