Provided by Kayla Cook
Audio By Carbonatix
If Tunnel Jumper’s music offends you, then maybe the Denver hardcore scene isn’t really for you.
For whatever reason, cosplaying a crowd-killing chud is becoming cool in red hat-wearing circles, but this local beatdown crew has a message for those types.
“If you’re a MAGAt and you show up to a hardcore punk show, you’re going to get your ass kicked, and we’re going to enjoy doing it,” Tunnel Jumper drummer Adam Frost declares. “Come on down.”
Armed with an arsenal of anti-right rhetoric, Tunnel Jumper is taking aim at the ills of modern-day politics, and then some, on its upcoming debut album, “Half Gone,” set to be released on Sept. 4 via hometown label Mean World Records. The next single, “Homosapien,” drops on Friday, Aug. 21.
“The overarching theme is the state of affairs about where we’re at with things, politically, environmentally, societally,” says vocalist JP Lichtenberg, who’s spearheaded the project since early 2024. “We have some anti-MAGA songs, anti-AI and tech development. I feel like we’ve gone a little too far with that.
“We’re not on the right trajectory,” he adds. “I think a lot of people know that, both political landscape and policies in place with environmentalism. All of that stuff.”
To most, this isn’t a shocking revelation, as the hardcore subgenre, like most alternative forms of music, has historically spoken out against such injustices. Locally, a majority of the bands and fans involved in the scene are of a like mind, too, so that message lands amongst an understanding audience. Luckily, there aren’t many instances of agitation or outright aggression with dissenters.
Tunnel Jumper will perform at a 303 Boards benefit show on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the O. Local groups Acid Sentence, King Rat, Circling Over, MF Ruckus, Takipnik and Battle Sights are also part of the weekend festivities.
Lichtenberg and company — including guitarist Jake Palmer and bassist Justin Redington — have honed in and built upon their menacing metallic sound since their first EP, “Ivory Tower,” came out two summers ago, mixing in more thrash and crossover elements on “Half Gone.” Such heaviness is Tunnel Jumper’s catharsis, allowing the four-piece to paint an “extreme picture,” as Lichtenberg puts it.
Provided by Kayla Cook
“You get to get it out. You can be as hyperbolic as you want, as you feel emotionally. You can really put that to paper and be aggressive with it,” he explains.
As the lyricist, he releases a lot.
“I get to be unhinged with my feelings,” Lichtenberg continues. “I don’t say anything that crazy or twisted, but you can really be picturesque. You can write down feelings, then you can circle it a couple different ways.”
And that always hits harder live.
“That’s the fun part, once we start bringing the songs to light and playing them together in a room with the amps turned up,” he explains. “There’s a visceral piece of it. It gets the blood pumping. It further emphasizes getting the feelings out.”
Frost couldn’t agree more, and for him, that typically manifests in violent acts of musicianship.
“It’s an avenue for me to take out my anger and frustration with whatever I’m dealing with in life, whether it’s my personal life, my work life or just ruminating about the dogshit state of politics, the world burning all around us,” he says.
“The people who have the responsibility and power to change things are not only not doing anything, but taking it even further, and it’s almost like they’re trying to destroy it so that they can rule over the ashes,” Frost concludes. “All of that, to me, translates into beating the shit out of my drums and taking it out on my kit.”
Tunnel Jumper, with Acid Sentence, King Rat, Circling Over, MF Ruckus, Takipnik and Battle Sights, begins at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the O, 4335 W. 44th Ave. Tickets are $22.
