The Q Bar and Lounge opens in Colorado Springs, bringing unity and healing: ‘It felt like a homecoming’
Parker Seibold
More than a year after a deadly mass shooting forced the closure of its popular namesake and predecessor, The Q Bar by the Orbit Lounge quietly opened its doors March 29 inside a funky, mid-century high-rise hotel on Colorado Springs’ east side.
After more than six months of buildup and build-out, it was nonetheless meant to be a low-key affair, a spur-of-the-moment “soft” debut that likely would only appear on the radars of those who were tapped in or really paying attention, said The Q’s co-owner Michael Anderson.
“The general public had, like, a 4-hour notice,” Anderson said, “but we’d worked so hard and waited so long… as soon as we had that temporary occupancy permit in hand we were like, ‘Let’s do this, put it out there, and see if anyone shows up.’”
Show up, they did.
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Anderson recalled looking up from bartending duties last Friday night to see a space full of familiar faces, old friends coming together in a new light and a new chapter, to continue to heal.
“I saw relationships starting to be reconnected and rebuilt, people seeing each other for the first time in over a year in some cases,” Anderson said. “It almost felt like a reunion in so many ways. It felt like a homecoming.”
A homecoming, in a new home.
The Q owners Michael Anderson, left, and Tara Bush work at the bar and lounge, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. Both owners are survivors of the mass shooting and Club Q. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
“This is not Club Q. We cannot recreate Club Q, but we wanted to carry on a new venue in the same vein and with the same purpose Club Q stood for, which is equality, inclusiveness and safety for everybody,” Anderson said.
Anderson and his business partner, Tara Bush, both are former Club Q employees who survived the carnage of Nov. 19, 2022, when a gun-wielding killer opened fire at the city’s popular, and only, gay dance club.
A collage just inside the front door of The Q Bar and Lounge, featuring a painting by Colorado Springs artist Emmett Butler, memorializes the five who did not:
Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance.
Their portraits are framed by notes and mementos salvaged from an outdoor memorial that sprung up at the original club location off North Academy Boulevard in the days and weeks after the mass shooting, along with messages Anderson said arrived from strangers who learned of the tragedy and wanted to express their sorrow and solidarity.
A mural featuring a painting of the five victims of the mass shooting at Club Q — Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance — and dozens of letters in support of the community covers a wall in the entry way of The Q. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
“The only reason we’re here today doing this or talking about this or anything is because of what happened at Club Q,” Anderson said. “That wall is the first thing you see when you walk into The Q, and it’s the last thing you see when you walk out.”
Still, Anderson said he wants those who visit The Q to also understand it isn’t meant to be “a sad place.”
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“This isn’t a place to be reliving that night, but it’s so important not to forget it either,” he said.
The Q channels and expands on the more laid-back aspects of the Club Q vibe, an atmosphere that was the defining trait and appeal for regulars despite the club’s two-decade reputation as a late-night dance spot, said Club Q owner Matthew Haynes.
“Club Q was only a ‘nightclub’ late Friday and Saturday nights. The rest of the time it was basically a lounge,” said Haynes, who owns The Orbit Lounge at the Satellite Hotel, a mixed use residential and business development at 411 Lakewood Circle. “That’s what’s being recreated here (at The Q), is that lounge aspect. It’s a place to hang out and chitchat, to just be with your friends and make new friends.”
A gala grand opening, with ribbon-cutting ceremony and accordant hoopla, is planned for early May.
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In the meantime, The Q is open from 4 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Wednesday, with closing hours extending to 1 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Check the bar’s social media for a schedule of regular weekly events, including trivia, bingo and karaoke (perhaps emcee’d by a drag performer) as well as smaller-scale live performances to come. The space is less single entity than a collection of nooks, one of which features an array of arcade-style games and a coin-op billiards table.
“We’ve got board games, Jenga, cards, just so people can socialize and try to find normalcy again,” Anderson said.
Another new element that will be a regular feature at The Q: enhanced safety measures.
Anderson said he and Bush are working with a local security company, and protocols at The Q include wanding by metal detectors at the door.
“Security has been one of the top priorities for us,” Anderson said. “Especially in Colorado Springs … people in the LGBTQ community need a space where they can go and feel comfortable and safe and at ease.
“That’s all I want for them, and for me, too.”
