Club 404
Decider looks for local jukeboxes worth dropping our quarters in
Vanessa Gochnour
More Jukeboxing
Where they haven't been replaced by charmless, trend-crunching tune-bots, jukeboxes say a lot about a place—nay, enhance the place. In Jukeboxing, Decider spends some quarters and punches some buttons at Denver bars and venues. This edition takes a look at Club 404.
The Jukebox: An AMI/Rowe CD player packed into a narrow corridor that links the bar and dining room. As you peruse the selections, be prepared to be in the way of passersby.
Price: $1 for three songs, 18 for $5.
Drinkin’ songs: Because his music transcends age, class, and just about everything else, any song off of Johnny Cash’s 16 Biggest Hits is sure to create an egalitarian backdrop of revelry. Of course, once you forge this camaraderie, it’s difficult to know where to go from there. AC/DC’s “Back In Black” is a favorite, but play it too late in the night and you might instigate some unsightly air guitar. Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” provides a nice anthem to sing along with, but unfortunately very few people actually know the words (for example: “Ooh, down inside that right bright light”). And then there’s Fleetwood Mac, whose album Rumours is so infectious it’s the only thing you’ll remember after a night of heavy drinking—especially if “Don’t Stop” is played anytime after midnight.
Nerd jams: The 404 jukebox offers a little something for geeks of several genres. Obscure rock nerds get Hard Rock, a fittingly titled disc that features über-cool groups like The Hellacopters, Glucifer, Thin Lizzy, and Turbonegro. For pop-punkers, there’s a compilation of tracks by Pinhead Gunpowder, The Queers, and The Lillingtons, replete with la-la-la choruses and three-note guitar solos. Those into adult contemporary have a whole album of Simon & Garfunkel hits and, for the occasional art student, Talking Heads' “Stay Up Late” provides adequate fodder with which to launch into extended, drunken, David Byrne-is-a-genius rants.
Mixes: Compilations in jukeboxes always do a nice job of covering all the bases, and the 404 is no exception. Late-night hipsters will surely drool at the Velvet Underground, Built To Spill, and Modest Mouse mix. And who can resist Absolutely Classic Rock as it collects the greatest hair-banging has-beens of all time, from Alice Cooper to Poison to Sammy Hagar? And a series of so-called Nausea comps finally gets it right by putting the seemingly identical groups X and Flight Of The Conchords on the same disc. It’s about time.
Locals: The self-titled debut of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club probably gets played about three times a night at Club 404, since the chorus of “Kristin And Billy” exalts the club with these lyrics: “There’s a waitress named Nonnie at the 404 / She’s heard us talkin’ about you / We’re still here in Denver / I can’t wait ‘til you get here.” Additionally, 16 Horsepower’s Secret South graces the box in all its alt-traditionalist goodness. And a Colorado-only compilation—that inexplicably favors Fort Collins groups—offers a wide arrangement of locals from Wretch Like Me and DeVotchKa to Drag The River and Colorado spoken-word artist Charlie "The City Mouse" Fasano (backed by Memphis’ mighty Lucero).
For closing time: Jawbreaker’s “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both” will clear out everyone but the band’s fans—who will doubtlessly be weeping into their whisky and singing along with the lines, “If you can't be the life of the party / you'll be the death of everyone." The Doors' “The End” is both lyrically and sonically fitting, as it’s hard to stomach a sprawling psychedelic opus that nods to a vicious Oedipus complex. If that doesn’t work, Johnny Cash’s rendition of “Hurt” brings a world of pain that not even alcohol can cure. And whenever a dearth of booze keeps you from healing what ails you, you know it’s time to pack up your quarters and go home.
