Photo by Leilani Leon
Audio By Carbonatix
On May 16 and 17, the Oriental Theater plays host to Chris Fest, a two-day benefit for Chris Dellinger, a guitarist who’s anchored many of the hardest rocking and most acclaimed Denver bands of the past three decades, including Blister 66. In February, Dellinger learned that Aurora’s Wild Goose Saloon, a venue he ran with Lola Black, his partner in love and music, would close only days after publicly announcing that he had stage 4 prostate cancer. And no, Dellinger doesn’t have health insurance.
Among the many acts and artists who’ve eagerly stepped up to participate in Chris Fest is Luke Schmaltz, the man behind King Rat, a beloved Mile High City punk group that’s been tearing up clubs since the early stages of the Clinton administration. In Schmaltz’s view, the number of folks who’ve stepped up to assist Dellinger perfectly encapsulates everything that’s great about the local rock community.
“I would imagine that the people who were putting [Chris Fest] together didn’t need to do a whole lot of begging to get bands to donate their time,” he says.
An unavoidable conflict prevented King Rat from taking part. “The classic line in a booking conversation is, ‘My drummer, dot dot dot,'” Schmaltz notes, laughing. “Our drummer [Doug ‘Pockets’ Hopper] works for Union Pacific railroad and is gone two weeks out of the month.”
However, he continues, “I’ll be there with bellbottoms on for a solo set. I call it ‘Luke Schmaltz, Songer-Singwriter,’ because it lets you know right away that this is a guy who’s been singing in a punk-rock band for 32 years. I’ll be playing all my super-wordy songs—typically five or six verses that I usually have to chop down to three or four. It’s comedy in iambic pentameter.”
Photo by Stephanie Hopper
Schmaltz’s recollection of when he first met Dellinger is amusing enough to have made it into one of his tunes. “We met at Alibi’s in Glendale in, I believe; 1993. It was my birthday and I’d just moved here and didn’t have any friends, so I just found a club to go to, and when I got there, a big birthday party was going on for Chris, who has the same birthday I do. I was like, ‘Hey, man, it’s my birthday, too. Isn’t that special?’ — which is a cheesy way to approach somebody. Like, oh God, who is this loser? But it was the beginning of a long and much-storied friendship.”
In the years that followed, Dellinger’s musical journey would take a slew of stops. “I don’t know how many bands Chris has had,” Schmaltz admits. “I’d guess over five but under ten. But it seems like everything Chris touches, people respond. People want to know what this guy is going to put out next. His music has a lot of mojo and he knows how to hype shows and get people excited about something that’s not world famous but is Denver famous.”
In the meantime, Schmaltz embarked on a raucous expedition of his own. “I was a singer in a metal-hybrid band called Kubla Khan, but I was losing interest because I wanted to do punk rock, but there were no punk bands hiring singers in Denver in 1993,” he says. “It was all knock-offs of Alice in Chains, Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Then they hired Tony Luke, an amazing guitar player, and when I was hanging out with him in our practice space, he said, ‘What do you really want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to do punk rock.’ He said, ‘I love punk rock! And I can play punk-rock drums.’ So we bought probably a fourth-rate drum kit and I showed him some of my rudimentary punk-rock songs and started looking for bass players.”
He found more than a few over the generation-plus that followed. By Schmaltz’s calculation, “We’ve had fourteen members in 32 years, but only three drummers, which is practically unheard of.”
Photo by Kim Denver
The current King Rat lineup consists of Hopper, who’s been on board for twenty years, plus bassist Anthony DeLilli and guitarist Rusty Deadmond. “We’re working on our eleventh studio album,” Schmaltz says. “We’re not in the studio yet, but we’re writing, because the songs keep coming.”
To pay for recording time, Schmaltz works a surprising day job: He pens newsletters and more for Support After a Death by Overdose, a Boston-based organization, whose mission calls for “increasing the capacity and effectiveness of peer grief support for bereaved people, direct service providers, and people in recovery or struggling with drug use.”
“It’s the hardest, and best, job I’ve ever had,” he says. “It’s imbued with grief and loss. I talk to people about the worst thing that’s ever happened to them in their lives, losing someone to overdose or infection or any other number of situations.”
In the face of these challenges, Schmaltz’s brand of punk rock provides an important coping mechanism. “The humor is how I manage the sadness of it all,” he says. “When I’m done, I have to decompress, and I usually put it into songs like, ‘Burn Me Up and Snort Me When I’m Dead.'”
The balance between melancholy and joy will be a key to Chris Fest, he believes. “We’re all holding our breath hoping that Chris pulls through,” he says. “It’s a deeply serious diagnosis for such an active dude who’s always been in such great shape and is so upbeat. It’s like, ‘Oh man, I didn’t think he was a candidate for that sort of thing.’ But I suppose it can happen to anyone, and the comedy helps offset the heaviness.”
Chris Fest, Day 1, featuring Grunge Lite, Lola Black, HoodRat, Infestation 303, Grind Cat Grind and Luke Schmaltz. 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 16, Oriental Theater, 4345 West 44th Avenue, 720-420-0030. Chris Fest, Day 2, featuring Those Crazy Nights, Trash, Stormescence, Neon the Bishop, Thick Lizzy and Kentucky Straight Band. 4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17, $20-$200.
