Going for a Ride with Jesus Christ Taxi Driver  

Jesus Christ Taxi Driver is exactly what you would expect from their band title: wild, irreverent and enthusiastic punk rock. From Denver, Colorado, the band took over the Olympic stage at Treefort Music Fest. I spoke with members Ian Ehrhart (guitar and vocals) and Colin Kelly (guitar and vocals) about the band’s upbringing and time on tour. Other members include Miles Jenkins (drums) and Will Ehrhart (bass).

The band found each other in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was desperate… it was a scary time and I wanted to do this again because it feels like my only purpose in life,” Ehrhart said. He found Kelly through Augustus, which is another band in Colorado that he grew up listening to. They were what inspired him to start playing shows.

Boise is no stranger to the band. They said they have a loyal following, having visited about 30 times. For their second year at Treefort, they described it as a different experience from the last. “A lot of our friends are here … a lot more Colorado bands are in this year. So that's been really cool because all of our buddies are up here,” Ehrhart said. “There's a lot of color out here this year.”

I hadn’t seen the band live before and had only just heard their music the day before. The sheer versatility of performance completely took me aback. It was 1 a.m., the last show of the night, but they were wide awake and thriving from the energy. Whether it was the late hour or delirious feelings in the crowd, they stole the show. However, they described it was tough to be working that day, having been out since 10 a.m. “It's really intense. Especially like just walking around a festival all day and being really tired,” Ehrhart said. “I couldn't stop crying for like an hour or two before we started playing, and it was just weird. I think it was exhaustion … it felt very intense, but that's always good for performance, I think.”

The name of the band is the real draw to the music. “[Jesus Christ Taxi Driver] takes on new meaning all the time, and it's interesting that it does because initially, it's just such an irreverent kind of titling,” Ehrhart said. “… Like, we just wrote a song called ‘Jesus Christ Taxi Driver,’ and just in the midst of all of this political confusion and stuff, it took on the kind of version of itself that is like Jesus immigrating to New York City or in modern day, I guess, and then being chased out by the very people that claimed to support him.” 

Listening to the music, you’ll notice a tongue-in-cheek atmosphere in their performance, lyrics and overall attitude.

Given the band’s name and song titles, I was curious about the band’s tie to religion. “We were discussing the idea of spirituality yesterday and how it's been dehumanized by organized religion. Where it's like God is this thing of the sky that is all-powerful, all-knowing and ever-present,” Colin said. “It's just weird that, like spirituality cannot be something simple, like cooking or going to see a show or going on a bike ride or similar things that have a spirit to it.” 

“We’re pretty schizophrenic genre-wise,” Kelly said. For Augustus that may be true, but especially Jesus Christ Taxi Driver. Watching their set, the band moved from punk, country, metal and even some hymnal moments made it on stage. 

“I think it stems from country and blues. It's kind of rock and roll, I guess. I don't know. Rock and roll is what we say. But we have a lot of influences, we like music a lot, so everything kind of seeps its way in,” Ehrhart said. Kelly added that in the post-YouTube era, genre is a hard thing to talk about. He described that it’s hard to pinpoint what their band identifies with. “It's just a really weird conglomeration, so it's always really tough to talk about. We both have different tastes, I would say. But we also have a lot of overlap,” he said. “It's just like this big web of influences. And you don't necessarily have control of how it seeps into how your show goes or how the music sounds. Music is also such an unconscious thing that kind of like works its way into your fingers and into your words and into your voice, so there’s always kind of a concerted effort to make something unique,” Kelly said.

Unique is exactly how I would describe Jesus Christ Taxi Driver. Nearing the end of their set, they traded places on stage and the drummer became a flutist while the band played through an irreverent rendition of a religious hymn.

“If we were doing something else, we would act a different way,” Earhart said. “[The music] just makes me feel that way, it's like catharsis and I just feel the spirit. I like to give permission to the audience to be crazy. Like, I'm making a fool out of myself. You can do whatever the hell you want. Let’s have a good time and just not be nervous Nellie in there. Just let loose and experience life for a moment.”

Jesus Christ Taxi Driver is lively and making an entrance with a whole lot of attitude behind them. If you missed them at Treefort Music Fest, don’t fret. They’ll be making a stop at Quarters at the DLC on April 5.

You can listen to their latest record here.