DS Interview: Tom Dodd & Ryan Heller Co-Founders of Colfax Carousal Punk Fest

If you’re even somewhat familiar with Denver, Colorado, you know about Colfax Avenue. Hell, even if you aren’t familiar with The Mile High City, you’ve probably at least heard about the “longest, wickedest street in America”, a title bestowed upon it by Playboy Magazine in the 70’s due to it’s notorious reputation.

This major East/West corridor is a study in dichotomy. The stretch that runs through downtown Denver is home to The US Mint, luxury condo buildings, glass covered, corporate high-rises and the gold domed State Capitol. To the East in Aurora, the thoroughfare is derelict and has become a hub for the underprivileged communities that have been priced out of the City. Covered with “No Tell” motels, seedy check cashing establishments, dilapidated Dollar Stores, East ‘Fax isn’t going to be featured in any Front Range Visitor Guides.

In between those two points? Just about everything/everybody you could imagine. Tattoo shops, four-star hotels, businessmen, school kids, historic churches, pissed soaked alleys, prostitutes, weed shops, Michelin-recognized restaurants, meth heads, yoga girls, music venues of every size, antique shops and of course, plenty of bars both upscale and divey.

It’s a street that gives “wrong side of the tracks” vibes even though it’s very much on the “right side”. It’s no surprise that the local punk community has gravitated here for decades. It’s a tentpole and without it, the scene in Denver would be nothing like it is today.

In 2025, The City of Denver started the Bus Rapid Transit Project. An initiative that seeks to improve a long stretch of Colfax Ave by adding bike lanes and newer, more passenger friendly bus stops. While well intended, this project has not been easy on the local businesses with the constant construction, detours, lack of parking and restricted access to the sidewalks. Many have already shuttered, others have found creative ways of overcoming the difficulties and many more have tightened their purse strings in an attempt to “wait it out”.

When we heard about this community of punks pulling together for a good cause, we couldn’t ignore it and had to learn more. So, we decided to send veteran DS Editor, Anarchopunk to meet up with Ryan Heller and Tom Dodd, the co-founders of this new festival. And since Colfax and the businesses effected by the construction are a huge part of this story, where better to chat with the guys than some Greg Louganis level dives along the longest, wickedest street in America?

Dying Scene: Thanks for meeting with me, comrades! Tell us about the Festival. How it came about and why it’s needed?

Tom: Ryan and I play in a band together (Tuff Bluff) and we would practice all the time, and obviously play shows together. And there would be nights where we would be playing a show, and some of our friends would be playing a show at a different venue. And I always just thought, it’d be so cool if Denver had, something where all of our friends could play together one night. There’s not really a local punk festival. There’s small festivals that come through, you know, but nothing really local anymore and I’ve just been saying it over the years. And I want to say around this time last year, maybe beginning of this year, Ryan was like, “Dude, let’s just do it.”

Ryan: I think it was when they announced UMS (Underground Music Showcase) this year and it was all the same, man. Like, everyone, all my dudes, were bitching about it, so you know what? We said “Now’s the time. We were talking about this for years. Let’s just go!”

Tom: Yeah, every year when UMS announced their platform to register, I’d sign up. Every single year it’s, “submit answers to all the questions”, and then you don’t even get a response back. They always have the same bands locally or a variation of band members that played in the past years. And we were just like, “Okay, let’s do something ourselves”. And then when we had already started planning it, UMS announced that 2026 was going to be their final year. So we were just like, “Oh, shit! Now a local Fest is definitely needed.” And we, as a band play Squire and Lions Lair all the time. Our old bands used to play Streets of London (now Tight End) all of these great venues on Colfax and with all the construction that is happening, we’re like, “This is where we need to have it”. It was a win-win. We can get all these cool Colfax venues onboard.

DS: You guys also got support from Colfax Avenue Business Improvement District (BID). It seems like the community at large was behind you, more than just venues and bands.

Tom: The BID’s purpose is to help the businesses in their jurisdiction, which starts around Grant and runs to Josephine. So, like this whole stretch (of Colfax). They throw events and help raise funds to assist businesses with grants and filing paperwork with the city. Doing what they can to help. So when we reached out and had our first meeting, they were like, “We’ve never done anything like this. We’re not into the punk scene, but what can we do to help out?”

Ryan: We were like, “We know how to book the shows, but not the marketing and all the other big picture stuff”. Denon Moore and the rest of the folks at the BID did a fantastic job, getting media attention and just raising awareness.

Tom: I mean for me specifically, it’s tough promoting yourself, even if it’s like something that’s for a good cause. When Denon sent the emails out announcing the Fest, we both read them and we’re like, “This is awesome!” because we agree with everything that’s being said, but we couldn’t write that about ourselves.

Ryan: It would feel too self serving, you know? “Two young punks set out to save Colfax!”

DS: Yea, It validates you. If you hear somebody else providing the same kind of feedback, it gasses you up a little bit. That makes you feel better about your cause, and it does maybe allow you then to talk about it a little bit more freely, because now you can say, “Hey, I didn’t say it. They did!” So, in working with them, did you get any insight into the construction issues? Like the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) part of the project? I’ve lived in a lot of cities, and I’ve seen a lot of construction projects, and this one for some reason, just seems like it’s not going well. Did you get any insight into that? Why it’s so problematic and why it’s having such an effect on businesses?

Ryan: I don’t think they know much more about it than the general public knows.

Tom: The Business Improvement District supports the project. So, I’m not speaking on their behalf, but I think part of the problem is how The City is going about it, it’s really crushing the local businesses. But the whole idea of the Improvement District is to help, so I really do think it’s going to be better in the long run. I want to say one of us asked why they decided to tear up Colfax all at once. Why didn’t they just do stretch by stretch? In my personal opinion, that was a dumb decision. And as Ryan said, this has been going on for over a year and now, there’s plans for even more construction. I just heard, that the project got expanded, because now they’re adding a beautification project or something? So, this could potentially continue until the end of 2027.

(*While we were getting set up to record the second leg of our interview, a group of younger folks were sitting at the bar, chatting with the bartender. We overheard them saying that they had come down to Colfax for the first time a week or so ago just for the Fest and they enjoyed it so much that they were back to hang out. They were very excited about the Fest and remarked on how they were so stoked to finally have a reason to check the area out. I’m pretty sure they were paid actors.)

DS: Is this project a sign of gentrification? Can Colfax be gentrified?

Ryan: I feel like it’s always going to be what it is. Like on East Colfax, over by Black and Bluhm (recording studio), they tore down the dollar store, now they’re building giant condos, and it’s like, will people want to live there once they realize where they actually live? I’m not sure, you know. I think Colfax is always gonna have its grittiness, like The City can’t lose that, but I understand your question, yea.

Tom: Over the past few years, The City has done everything they can to move homeless people, and they’re just moving them from place to place, rather than providing real support. I feel like a street like Colfax that has so much history and like, Ryan said, grittiness to it, and they view that as a bad thing. I think in theory, you know, public transit is great for everyone. But you’re seeing developers building all these “affordable housing”, luxury apartment buildings that are literally pricing people that have lived here for so long and people that are moving here out of the area. I think even if it hasn’t been obvious, The City isn’t going to come out and say that, right? But I think deep down, that’s why they do it. The Developers and the City.

Ryan: I don’t know if it’s happening on Colfax. I know there were some laws for new high rise apartment buildings, like they had to have x amount of affordable units, whatever the fuck that means. But I think that only applies to the big ones, So, now Developers are putting up these smaller four/five story buildings everywhere so they can get as much money as they can for the amount of space that they take.

Tom: Yeah. And I always think when they say “affordable”, like, what is the actual affordable rate and who is actually deciding that?

DS: So, this past Colfax Carousal was the inaugural year. What’s the future hold? I know the construction project that we’ve been talking about is at least two or three years out from being completed. Is that as far out as you’ve planned for so far? Do you have any plans beyond that?

Ryan: I think we got lucky that it worked out so well in November this year, because that was just a date that worked for all the bands. So, I think next year we’re going to push it to September. Keep it in the Fall, but earlier and maybe add one or two more venues. I’ve seen things grow rapidly and lose their flavor or just, you know, go to shit. So, we were thinking, if we had eighteen bands this past year, next year we’ll have twenty four or whatever but, I think slow, incremental growth is our goal.

DS: Also if you do it a little bit earlier in the fall that opens up some more possibilities, because now you can maybe do a patio show or something when the weather is nicer.

Ryan: Yea, this year we had two patio acts at Illegal Pete’s, where everyone came to get their wristbands and registration stuff. So, we could expand that into a full four or five bands playing on the patio. They could be a quieter, all ages, family friendly thing.

Tom: That was one piece of feedback we got from a few people. The whole idea of this was to help all the bars specifically because we play in a band and we play at bars, you know? So, we really only focused on booking bars. And then someone was like, “It’d be cool if you had an all ages venue”, and we did but only for an hour of music. So, next year, we’d like to book a spot where kids and families can go or even if we get like, a coffee shop next year.

DS: Talk to me a little about the scene here in Denver. It seems very tight-knit and collaborative which was reflected in the amount of support this Fest got. Is that just how folks in Denver roll or is that more specific to the punk scene here?

Ryan: There are asshole bands here that you just know, you’ll play one show with and be like, “Those guys were dicks. We’ll never work with them again”. I’ve been playing music in Colorado over twenty years so, I kind of had all these people in my phone which again, like, “you suck, you suck, you’re good”. I know who’s reliable and who will bring people in ,so when it came time to start booking, I was like “Let’s start with these people”. Start with the stalwarts, the good people. Then once good people are attached, it gets easier. I think just making it an inclusive thing, working with people that want to help and, share equipment. Everything was backlined by people and everyone was like “Oh, you can use my amp. You can use my drums.” Our friends in The Frickashinas, they didn’t even play this year but they donated a PA for us to use at Tight End. The whole community aspect of it was just so cool.

Tom: I moved out here from Philly, knowing one person. I volunteered at Seventh Circle Music Collective and immediately met everyone I know now through a domino effect. Here we are, not knowing anyone and they were just like, “Come under my arm. I got you.” And for someone who, like I said, didn’t have a car, only knew one person here, didn’t have any reason really, to move out to Denver that meant a lot. You know, it was cool where they were just sort of like, “Don’t worry, we’ll introduce you to people.” I met so many of my friends through the Denver Scene. It’s very community oriented. It really is. And I don’t think I even really thought of it until you see how many people got behind the Festival and how excited the bands got when we pitched it to them. When it was over, I sent an email to everyone, thanking them so much for playing and asking where I could send payment to. People were just like, “Dude, just give it to the businesses. We want these places to stay around.” They wanted to play just to help, you know? It was really cool to see the plan work, too. Illegal Pete’s (our Ticket HQ) said that they had the busiest Saturday night of the year. The Squire said the same. Lions Lair said they had an all time sales record that night. Tight End didn’t give us numbers, but they were so grateful and asked if we wanted to host a quarterly punk show there. I think another big reason that we’re so close-knit is that it’s so isolated in Denver. It’s not like the East Coast, where you can travel two hours to five major cities.

Ryan: It’s an island!

DS: We talked about the lack of local festivals earlier. We get a lot of traffic through Denver with touring bands because everything kind of funnels through Colorado. We get pretty good festivals like Punk in Drublic. But the few local festivals that we’ve had, haven’t stuck around very long. They might pop up every once in a while. But there’s no long-lasting local festivals. Why is that you think?

Tom: I don’t know. What I would assume is that a lot of the festivals that are going on now are more for money and not actually for the music scene itself. And I think that’s different from us, where we actually are just doing it for the music and for the businesses. We didn’t take a dollar for putting this on. I’m not sure. You know, you got like Punk in the Park and other ones that are coming around. And you get a couple local bands on it, which is cool.

Ryan: But the locals play at three in the afternoon. When Less Than Jake plays at nine. Well, cool. That helps…sort of.

Tom: Yeah. And Denver has such a cool local music scene and especially now that UMS is not a thing, maybe people don’t want to go out to see local music. I think that was a part of why I wanted to do the Fest, too. Because I have a bunch of friends that are into different types of punk music but they would only go see touring bands and I’m like “Yo! There are so many good local bands that sound way better than the ones you guys like” not that the touring bands aren’t good obviously.

Ryan: Yea, bands with the same style or in the same genre. Like “You would love this band and they play locally for ten dollars and you can see them five times a year!”

Tom: Festivals can also be draining. You know, you’re out all day, all night. So, we decided to make it just like a long extended show. Rather than three bands, we’ll do six bands but you have to pick and choose. But, it’ll essentially be like you start at 7pm and then it’s over at 12:30am. So, it’s still a long day but it’s not like the first band starts at noon and then the last band is on at 1:30am you know?

Ryan: Yea, like for RKR MTN Ripper, my buds in Flight Kamikaze played at like 4pm but there was another band I really wanted to see at 11pm. And I was like, “Cool, I’m just killing time for five, six hours.” We wanted to make this Festival in our own image, like these are things we can fix. “If you don’t like this band, go across the street, you’re gonna like that band”.

Tom: And our idea of being local to the Front Range. You can have a headliner, you can have a massive crowd, you can have amazing bands just with people from the area. You don’t need a massive touring band to have a successful festival, you know?

DS: Do you think you’ll ever bring touring bands into the fold if it happens to jive with the calendar?

Ryan: I think that’s years out, but hopefully not.

Tom: Yeah, I don’t think so. Because we had eighteen bands and there are hundreds of bands that we have now that are interested. There’s bands that we asked initially that just weren’t available this year. Next year, we’ll do everything we can to get a whole new slate of bands.

Ryan: Church Fire, Spells, Team Non-Existent. All wanted to play this year but couldn’t. And as stupid as it sounds, I think we have a brand now. Most people that bought tickets this year will be coming back because they know what to expect now.

Tom: Also, as much as people are about the community, like Ryan said we have a proof of concept now. We sold out the first year. So, now when we ask bands if they want to contribute, there’s not a hesitation of like, “I don’t want to play at night if there’s only going to be a few people there.” Now, people are pumped about it.

Ryan: We did it our way and we’re gonna keep doing it our way.

DS: We’ve talked a lot about Colfax, a lot about punk. But we haven’t talked about the connection between the two. Why do you think Colfax and the punk scene are synonymous?

Ryan: Well, because, like, the Lion’s Lair for example, that’s the place that gives bands their first fucking shot to play a show in public. Some other places don’t exist anymore, but that one still does. So, it’s a proving ground, for lack of a better word. The first twenty-one and over show I saw was The Dwarves at Lions Lair, before they even had the stage in the corner. The stage didn’t used to be over there. It was just like this side of the bar. So, Blag Dahlia is like on the bar running up and down. Some dude just got naked and they just threw him out on the street! It was cold too! It was probably like November because I had just turned twenty-one in September. I learned so much. You don’t know how to behave in a bar when you’re that young. So, the bartender was like, “What do you want?” And I’m like, “I don’t know, surprise me.” It was like the stupidest thing you could say, especially in a place like Lion’s Lair.

DS: Did you get the trough drink?

Ryan: I don’t even know. Yeah, hopefully they just took the bar rag, squeezed it out. That was literally twenty-three years ago. That place has history and the fact that we helped them have their best sales night ever fucking means a lot.

Tom: I feel like Colfax just has history, you know? And it’s like you said, it’s a melting pot of all parts of Denver. And I feel like that’s what the punk community is too. It’s just all different types of people and that’s like Colfax as a street in general. Like what Ryan was saying earlier, other venues throughout the city, from my experience in the old band I was with, it was hard to play certain venues. You had to know someone and I feel like with most of the venues here on Colfax, they’re just willing to give anyone a shot and willing to give them a platform. Lion’s Lair specifically has had insane bands like The Dwarves and other historic acts dating back to the 50’s and for a local band, it might be their very first show. Imagine if Lion’s Lair was in like Broomfield or something. You know? It’s just like it’s in the perfect spot. I feel like Colfax is the type of street it is because of these businesses that are on it and that brings a wide variety of different types of people to the block.

DS: OK! Last real question: What’s your favorite Colfax story? Everybody has a Colfax story. You probably have some good ones.

Tom: I got a good one. I guess It’s not that crazy. But my old band was supposed to play at Lion’s Lair. And right when we were about to go on (there was like a four band bill) the power went out. But only on the stretch of Colfax that Lion’s Lair was on and only on the southern side. So everything, like Illegal Pete’s and everything across the street was totally on. Everything on Lion’s Lair’s side was black. So, everyone went outside. It was cold out, too. We all went outside and, like I was saying earlier, we would play any show, you know? So, I was like “Let’s go get an acoustic guitar. and we’ll play outside.” By the time we got back, everyone was gone.

Ryan: My story isn’t really mine. I’m sure I could think of that one, but the first one that comes to mind is from my friend Terry. He saw a large black man in a bathrobe that wasn’t tied up. It was just flapping in the breeze and he had a machete. Like right where the laundromat used to be. Just running down the street, dick and balls flailing with a machete, chasing someone for some reason. And it was like, yeah, this is where we live.

DS: Nobody wanted to stop and ask what he was up to, huh?

Ryan: Yeah, well you know, you’d get your head chopped up if you talk to this guy. So, that’s my transitive property story.

DS: Alright, last item of business. I have a Denver themed “This or That”. I’m gonna ask you a question and you choose from the two options. We’re gonna start off easy. Here we go! Better freeway: I-70 or I-25?

Ryan: I-25.

Tom: I-70.

DS: The 70? You’re a fucking madman. I should have prefaced this segment with the fact that there are correct and incorrect answers and the results will be added to your permanent records. And you’re now down one point, Tom. Brian, you’re up one. Next: Denver International Airport. Is it run by aliens or lizard people?

Tom: Lizard people.

Ryan: Agree.

DS: That’s the correct answer. It is definitely lizard people.

DS: Which do you prefer: Texas transplants or California transplants?

Ryan: Can I say neither?

DS: You cannot.

Ryan: I’ll say Texas transplants.

Tom: I’d say California.

DS: The correct answer is California transplants. So, we’re tied 2-2. Next question: Denver Omelets or Denver Nuggets?

Tom: As a vegan? Denver Nuggets.

Ryan: Denver Omelets aren’t good. I agree, Nuggets.

DS: Okay, we’re still tied. 3-3. Next: EastFax or WestFax?

Both: EastFax!

DS: Yea, figured that one would be unanimous. Okay, and this one’s probably going to be a tie, too: Big Blue Bear or Blucifer?

Tom: Blucifer.

Ryan: It has to be Blucifer, right?

DS: God damn you guys! You left it in a tie. All right, well, I guess we’ll leave it that way. You’re both winners in my book, anyway. Thanks so much for your time and for the efforts you put into helping our community. We’re looking forward to the coming years!

Keep an ear out for more info regarding Colfax Carousal 2026 and we hope to see you there!