By Delaney Schoenfeldt and Julia Nash
As corporations switch their rainbow-variant logos back to normal at June’s end, I want to take a moment to honor Wax Trax’s queer roots. As a newer Wax Trax staffer, I’m intrigued by the historical contexts in which our store started in 1975. And as a queer Wax Trax staffer, I’m especially intrigued by the store’s original founders, and life partners, Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher.
Jim and Dannie ran Wax Trax in Capitol Hill for a few years, during which they shaped Denver’s music scene, before selling to Duane Davis and Dave Stidman in 1978. Then they were off to Chicago, where they started the iconic Wax Trax! Record Label and helped launch many industrial bands like Ministry, KMFDM, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult.
Jim and Dannie died from AIDS-related complications in 1995 and 2010, respectively. I found myself imagining they were, in addition to music industry legends, outspoken gay rights activists, proudly displaying rainbows along record racks, and advocating for Denver’s early queer community. But what I discovered more deeply resonated with queer identity, and how it all stems from just being.
In the U.S., personal queer identity is deeply contemplated, announced, and openly signaled. I, myself, wrote this across from a rainbow flag on my balcony. These identity displays often spur from an initial inability to be out due to circumstance, and a proud embodying after. While there’s several benefits to this outward display, such as community-finding and legislation advocacy, there’s a powerful effect in not centering one’s-own queerness.
Jim and Dannie did this best by showing their value as business owners and community members, and being totally, unabashedly, into music. At a time when prejudice against LGBTQ+ people ran high, they normalized queerness by making people embrace their music sensibilities, and as a result, themselves as people.
I connected with Julia Nash, daughter of Jim and director of Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records, and asked a few questions about Jim and Dannie’s beginnings. She provided important context for their lifestyle, so I decided to share her direct responses.*
From Julia Nash (Jim’s daughter):
I am going to try and explain who my dad and Dannie were, as well as their relationship with each other, in order to help people understand why their legacy continues to resonate today. This may not fit into a convenient narrative, but as yesterday’s counter-culture inevitably becomes today’s mainstream, it is important to keep the Wax Trax origin honest.
To understand how and why Wax Trax happened in the first place, it is crucial to acknowledge who these two founding men were.
-They were human first.
-They were passionate music fans second.
-They were pranksters third.
-They were hustlers fourth.
-Anything beyond that, including being gay, came after.
What I am trying to convey is that Jim and Dannie never announced themselves as being gay. They didn’t hide it, but didn’t shout it either. In the most blunt terms, they didn’t give a fuck.
In retrospect, for many in their orbit, this proved to be much more powerful and life changing than marching in parades or waving flags. Some people find comfort within an established community, and that’s wonderful. However, these two men wanted nothing to do with what was happening within the gay community in Denver at the time. They weren’t stereotypical, they weren’t traditional, they weren’t static, and most importantly, they weren’t afraid.
Let me explain a little more. Jim and Dannie were not oblivious to gay culture of the time and met in Topeka, Kansas at a park known for cruising. They knew the codes and knew what it meant if they were caught, especially in Topeka. They were also painfully aware that being themselves wasn’t something that they could shut off. “Not hiding” was a main reason for moving away from Kansas, and after my dad left me, my mother and brother in 1972, he and Dannie set their sights on a city where they felt they could be themselves. Hello Denver!
In Denver, they went to gay bars (Triangle Lounge, The Broadway, etc), but much of those early years were spent creating their own scene and avoiding clichés and stereotypes. As a result, Wax Trax Records didn’t just sell records, but unintentionally created a family.
From its humble Denver beginnings, Wax Trax was a place that welcomed anyone who could keep up. Music lovers, strippers, gays, punks, drag queens, business men and women, criminals. Anyone who was curious and shared the love for obscure culture or underground music would find Wax Trax, and inevitably find their people.
Today, it’s hard to discover subcultures that are truly in the shadows. However, as others have previously said, “important scenes and movements grow in darkness.” Pioneering moments often happen when no one is watching. This is exactly how Jim and Dannie organically created a place where music fans, who were actively looking for something different, could call home. It wasn’t planned, but as with many things in life, it is the happy accidents that become important.
Additionally, there is a common misconception that the Wax Trax scene (Denver, Chicago, and globally) attracted “misfits.” This implies that these people couldn’t function within the framework of a conventional or traditional group and were cast out. What is often missed, is that the Wax Trax owners, as well many of the fans, customers and staff, didn’t want to be part of these larger and established groups in the first place.
What my dad and Dannie didn’t understand at the time, is how their life and example of not asking for permission and not caring about forgiveness, helped create an early road map. Not because they were gay, but because they were two passionate, unapologetic music fans who happened to be gay. That important distinction served as a blueprint and gave a lot of people navigating the same challenges, comfort and strength.
We are in a time when “pride” is used by some as a marketing tool or a broad stroke that runs the risk of homogenizing. However, it has been our family’s experience that the most powerful moments that can create momentum and shift culture, come from personal fortitude. In the Wax Trax family, this was done by being fearless, passionate and never, never, never apologizing for being who you are.
*Edited for clarity
This whole series has been nothing but fantastic; it reaffirms in me, forty years later, the importance of holding fast to our punk rock roots.
Thank You!
This was a wonderful read about my favorite record store, and something that really resonated with me. I’m openly gay, but most people around me don’t know it; it’s not something I feel the need to broadcast or make a big deal out of, and I don’t really fit outward stereotypes. Nor do I want to be pigeonholed; I want to be seen and respected as a person before being attributed a label. This has come with its own set of challenges, especially since it’s currently pride month, something that tends to feel disingenuous and corporate and limiting to me, and that feeling then isolates me from the community at large–especially when it comes to finding a partner. But hearing about how Jim and Dannie lived gives me a lot of hope for my own future, and has provided welcome reassurance that I can be who I am, which is not crucially dependent on something like sexuality, and find someone who loves me for being myself. Truly, thank you for writing and sharing this with us.
Thanks for sharing this, Ivan. It means a lot to know our founders’ stories live on through our community. As Julia said, we should never, never, never apologize for being who we are.
Hi Delaney. Excellent piece here. I was part of the original WT crowd when it was on Ogden. In fact I knew Jim and Dannie for a few years before that. (You can find me in Julia and Mark’s wonderful doc.) You’ve got it exactly right here. In 1974 we were queer when everyone else was busy being gay, and we were pretty much punk before the fact. Our love of garage rock, girl groups, British glam, 50s rock n roll, John Waters et al put us outside the 70s Denver mainstream, but we gathered similar friends around us, glamsters, oddballs, drag queens, and yes even strippers from Sid King’s (Ming Toy Epstein, where are you now?). We never hid the fact of our queerness. Got attacked by cowboys during Frontier Days once, but it just made us even more unrepentant. J&D didn’t even fit in with the leather Triangle crowd. In the period when wearing your bandana or keys on the left or right projected your sexual interest, I remember Jim wearing bright yellow plastic baby keys there one night. Ha nobody but us got the joke.
Over time the idea of a collectors and rare record store kept coming up, until finally J&D were brave enough to pull the trigger. (Little known fact: we originally went to Kansas City to open it. And THAT is a harrowing and hilarious story I need to write down someday.) The Ogden store did well, enough to move to the larger space on 13th Ave. I soon departed for Cleveland, and then Chicago, and in 1978 J&D came out for a visit, and to look at the possibility of moving there. Within just a couple of days they found the Lincoln Avenue store, and the rest is etcetera. In fact it’s recently been granted landmark status ffs.
Good luck to you. Great to know this side of the legacy of Wax Trax! is known, archived, and celebrated! Thanks!
Steve Lafreniere
Eugene OR