The Black Buzzard, the basement music room beneath Oskar Blues Grill & Brew on Market Street in LoDo, closed on October 1 with no advance notice. There was no farewell show. BandWagon Presents, the independent promoter behind most of the room's calendar and the same group behind BandWagon Magazine, had a handful of shows on sale there at the time, with dates booked through the end of the year.

BandWagon booked and promoted the room for almost five years, starting in early 2022. It was a good run, with cold beer and all kinds of music.

The Oskar Blues sign on Market Street in Denver, with The Black Buzzard sign pointing downstairs to comedy, music and shows.
Comedy. Music. Shows. Downstairs.

The nights

The Red Clay Strays came through on a Thursday in 2022. Zach Top played a Thursday the next summer. Both drew modest weeknight crowds. Both now headline rooms many times that size.

Zach Top live at The Black Buzzard.

Zach Top in a white cowboy hat between BandWagon promoters Ely Corliss and Ham Byrd after his show.
Zach Top with BandWagon's Ely Corliss and Ham Byrd after the show.

The touring list ran long: Tanner Usrey, Sunny Sweeney, Radkey, William Elliot Whitmore, Kris Lager, Wheelwright, Truly, Private School, Kat Hasty, Cory Branan, Ryman Leon, and Amy Martin, who released her new album there in September. Comedians John Caparulo and Learnmore Jonasi worked the same stage.

The calendar never settled on one sound. Country and Americana on weeknights. Hip-hop from Palmer Squares and the DNA Picasso and Qoncert showcases. Blues, punk and rock on weekends. Stand-up on Sundays. Album releases, Battle of the Bands rounds and Halloween bills filled in the rest.

Local bands carried a lot of it. Stephen Lear Band played there again and again. Hand Turkey, Magenta Wave, Black & White Motion Picture, Capture This, Johnny Manchild, The Yeah Dawgs, Radio Fluke, Stil Runnin and dozens more filled out the calendar. For plenty of Battle of the Bands acts, it was their first show on a real stage.

The Stephen Lear Band's singer, eyes closed, in a paisley shirt and beaded necklaces under pink stage lights.
Stephen Lear Band.

It was a basement with a low ceiling, a narrow staircase drummers hated on load-in, and a green room papered with old record sleeves. It was a good time.

A band in western shirts plays under blue stage lights at The Black Buzzard as the crowd watches in silhouette.
The Red Clay Strays on the Black Buzzard stage.

Highlight reel

Amy Martin sings at the mic with a sunburst electric guitar at her album release show.
Amy Martin, album release, 2026. Photo: Bela Kershisnik.
A packed Black Buzzard crowd with hands up, seen from the back of the room.
The room on a good night. Photo: Bela Kershisnik.
Private School's frontman screams into the mic, in black and white.
Private School, 2026. Photo: Right Eye Media.
Tanner Usrey belts with an acoustic guitar, in black and white.
Tanner Usrey, 2023. Photo: George Blosser.
Two Hollow Head guitarists face off in front of the drummer under blue and red light.
Hollow Head, Battle of the Bands, 2025. Photo: Paul Gerrard.
Wheelwright sings with eyes closed and an acoustic guitar under the stage lights.
Wheelwright, 2024. Photo: Jason Alfaro / Right Eye Media.
Rodell Duff smiles with one arm raised and an acoustic guitar under purple and orange light.
Rodell Duff, 2024. Photo: Taylor Lyons-Benner.
Truly's frontman in a sequin jacket sings with light trails behind him.
Truly, 2026. Photo: Alexis Quesada.

The people

Dalton Frazier and the Oskar Blues staff ran the bar and the door. Sound engineers kept it working night after night. Tony Mason booked BandWagon's calendar there in the early years, and a long list of BandWagon staff carried gear down those stairs after him.

Tony Mason in a tie-dye hoodie in the Black Buzzard green room, walls covered in record sleeves.
Tony Mason in the Black Buzzard green room.

The Oskar Blues staff learned about the closing the same day BandWagon did.

The bigger picture

The closing was sudden. It was not a surprise.

Restaurants are struggling. Costs are up, and fewer people are eating and drinking out. LoDo has been a hard sell after dark for a while now. A music room in a restaurant basement depends on the restaurant upstairs, and that got harder every month.

Over the same stretch, Moxi Theater in Greeley, the venue run by BandWagon owner Ely Corliss, had its best years. Same promoters, same kinds of bills, different neighborhood.

"Denver's independent club scene is shrinking, and it gets smaller every year. People are drinking less and eating out less, and in a lot of these rooms the restaurant and the bar are what keep the music alive. It's a tragedy what downtown Denver and neighborhoods like LoDo look like today. The city needs to get its act together and make downtown a place people actually want to be at night. Until then, we'll put our energy into the markets that want us there. And if you love independent music, find another way to show up. Buy the ticket early instead of at the door. Get there for the opener. Buy the shirt and the record. Bring a friend who has never been. These venues and these artists need you more than ever."

Ely Corliss, BandWagon Presents

What comes next

BandWagon will still book Denver, but on a much smaller scale. Only a handful of its Denver shows remain on the calendar. The Denver round of the Battle of the Bands moves to The Roxy Theatre on November 13. Ticket holders for cancelled Buzzard shows are being refunded, and there will be no more "cold beer and country music" on Market Street.

BandWagon puts on hundreds of events across Colorado and Wyoming every year, and that isn't changing. Where they happen is. More of them will land in Greeley, Casper and Colorado Springs, along with Fort Collins, Cheyenne and Laramie, and fewer in Denver.