Jello Biafra's TentacleFest Makes Its Denver Debut at Levitt Pavilion

The free Rocky Mountain TentacleFest comes to Levitt Pavilion on Friday, August 30.

By Justin Criado August 27, 2024

Alternative Tentacles is ready to take over Denver.

The longtime independent label, started by Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra in 1979, is organizing the first-ever Rocky Mountain TentacleFest at Levitt Pavilion on Friday, August 30. The debut lineup includes labelmates Tsunami Bomb, Kultur Shock, Wheelchair Sports Camp and Dead Pioneers, while Biafra will serve as the event’s emcee for the night. The cherry on top? It’s free.

When it came to bringing the fest to Denver, Biafra, who is originally from Boulder, gives all the credit to Kalyn Heffernan, the founder/rapper of Denver hip-hop crew Wheelchair Sports Camp. The group, which currently includes drummer Gregg Ziemba, has played at the label's festivals in the Bay Area over the years, something that "was such a cool opportunity to connect with all the wacko bands that are with Tentacles," Heffernan says.

"I can see a lot of us touring together and being really close. Of course, it’s like, ‘Have us out there and we’ll have you back here.’ It just feels like a reciprocal thing to do,” she adds. “The more we’ve been playing in Oakland, the more we’ve gotten connected to a bunch of the bands and Tentacles team and [Biafra]. It’s such a cool opportunity to bring bigger people to town.”

Biafra, who visits the Front Range frequently to spend time with his 95-year-old mother, didn’t hesitate to give Heffernan’s idea the green light. “Kalyn brought it to us, and we were gobsmacked that they would put in this much money to put on a free show, and they’re going to let Kalyn bring in a whole night of Alternative Tentacles artists,” he shares. “Hell, why not? Admission free? That’s even better.”

Given Levitt’s reputation for welcoming music of all kinds, Biafra is open to making the Rocky Mountain TentacleFest a regular occurrence, depending on how the inaugural one goes.

“I’m hoping it does become an annual, or semi-annual, event, if we can somehow pull it off. Kalyn told me that Levitt was bringing in Bad Brains every year for a while, so if it’s something they dig, we might be able to return,” he says — as if a festival organized by such a legendary label wouldn’t be a hit with the local alternative scene.

“And who knows," he adds, "maybe more people will show up just because it’s something really cool to do. I give it up to Levitt. I give it up to Kalyn and Gregg. Hopefully this will be the first of a beautiful relationship.”

Biafra and Heffernan met years ago at Wax Trax Records after hours. Biafra would regularly hang out while longtime employee Dave Wilkinson finished up, perusing stacks of 45s and records in search of “magic accidents,” as he calls random records he picks up just because they look interesting.

“I like magic accidents, so I sort through anything that looks interesting, and do I find things? You bet I do,” he says.

But on “one fine evening,” he continues, Heffernan stopped by and handed him a Wheelchair Sports Camp CD. “I assumed it was going to be pop punk or something,” he admits.

The two really connected over their views on political activism. At the time, Heffernan, who was born with the genetic disorder osteogenesis imperfecta, was organizing an ADAPT sit-in at Senator Cory Gardner's office to protest a 2017 proposed health care bill that would have cut Medicaid by $722 billion.

“She told me about helping blockade Senator Cory Gardner’s office when he was going to vote to kill Obamacare. We both lit up like Christmas trees and found our real common ground — direct action, creative pranks, non-violent attacks on people who need attacking,” Biafra shares.

“I think that three-and-a-half-day occupation when Kalyn become the spokesperson for the movement probably played a role in costing Cory Gardner his office a year or two later.”

Then Biafra listened to Wheelchair Sports Camp.

“I admire the hell out of her. Obviously, she was an organizer who kicked ass; then I finally played the CD,” he says. “It wasn’t pop punk at all. It was almost unclassifiable. This is the weirdest hip-hop I have ever heard in my life.”

Heffernan and company teamed up with Alternative Tentacles on a seven-inch release shortly after the music video for 2021 single “YESS i’m a MESS” came out, and the band has been with the label ever since.

“This was out-there enough,” Biafra recalls. “I thought, ‘I can’t sit on the sidelines anymore. I want to offer them the label.’”

Heffernan, who started Wheelchair Sports Camp in 2008, calls fronting the group “the most difficult, rewarding and challenging thing I’ve ever done” as she’s played with a rotating cast of musicians since then. The music has also taken different directions through various side projects, including an Alice in Wonderland theater performance and accompanying soundtrack, curating a Meow Wolf room and Heffernan’s 2019 Denver mayoral campaign.

“The different projects we’ve done have kind of determined the bands and the sounds,” she explains. “We’ve done other projects outside of the band because of the band, but not put out consistent music. We did, but through other avenues.”

While it’s just her and Ziemba at the moment, Wheelchair Sports Camp’s lineup typically grows at concerts, especially for hometown shows. “Now that we’ve been doing more Tentacles stuff and going out of town, it’s been so nice,” Heffernan says of the two-person operation. “We usually fluctuate how many people we play with, depending on traveling.” But expect a full stage when Wheelchair Sports Camp plays Levitt Pavilion.

The Denver outfit is the perfect example of what Biafra aimed to accomplish when Alternative Tentacles came together 45 years ago.

“I started Alternative Tentacles as a way of getting bands who were being ignored some kind of release or at least attention,” he says, adding that other than putting out the initial Dead Kennedys single “California Über Alles,” the label was originally an avenue to properly document early Bay Area punk bands. The scope soon grew to include all music-industry outsiders. “As a record collector and a librarian’s kid, I know the importance of getting records out,” he says.

“Ever since, that has been the main purpose of Alternative Tentacles. We are an outlet for people who want to operate outside of the mainstream, and that includes the underground mainstream; the corporate side of usually poppy punk, where they’ll reject your song if they think it’s too negative or they’re looking for skateboard commercials,” he explains. “A lot of people don’t want to do that.”

And those who are loyal to the label look for, and expect, the weirder stuff. “Like me," Biafra says, "they believe in magic accidents — what they’re not expecting.”

TentacleFest is an extension of that ethos. Of course, Biafra is no stranger to the Denver area, so it makes sense to have one here. Plus, he remains a living encyclopedia of local music history. He can wax poetic about the “watershed moment” that essentially started the Colorado punk scene in 1977, when the Ramones played Ebbets Field. Or he can be spotted digging through crates of vinyl at Wax Trax or Black & Read. And he occasionally deejays at the Lion’s Lair (there are plans to continue that, too).

“A disproportionate amount of stuff that I played at the Lion’s Lair was pulled out of Wax Trax and Black & Read over the years,” he notes.

He’s such a regular around these parts, there’s a rumor that he permanently relocated. “It’s interesting how many people think I live in Colorado and moved back because they run into me that often,” Biafra says with a laugh as his cat, Moon Unit, crawls over his shoulder.

Before TentacleFest, he may check out the Mastodon show at Red Rocks on Thursday, August 29, since he’ll be in town. Then he’ll be back in late September to officiate a friend’s wedding. “Yes, I can legally marry people,” he quips.

Heffernan, whose cat Randy also makes an appearance after spotting Moon Unit, giggles at her friend’s waggish delivery. Biafra could talk about music forever. She knows that, and steers the conversation back to the upcoming festival date, which will reunite the duo.

“Of course," she says, "it’s always just an excuse to get him back across the mountain.”

Rocky Mountain TentacleFEST, 5 p.m. Friday, August 30, Levitt Pavillion, 1380 West Florida Avenue. General admission free; VIP tickets $35.