Cry Coyote, a local punk quintet opened, as well asJoe Buck, bass player for Hank Williams III. He played his Tennessee-styleone-man punk show, including barn-stomping songs like “Demon in My Head” andsing-a-longs like “Hillbilly Pride.”
Next, Antiseen's singer Jeff Clayton took the stage,a confederate flag around his face fashioned like a mask. He had long hair anda beard, a Piggly Wiggly T-shirt and a sleeveless flannel shirt, showing offtattoo -leeved arms.
“Our last show here was at the Unicorn,” he saidreferring to the now defunct underground music venue, “probably shut downbefore you were born.”
They ripped into their blistering song “One Shot,One Kill” and an enthusiastic mosh pit broke out on the beer-slicked floor.
The washboard onstage was there for Clayton to playlike an instrument, but what about the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire? Theaudience soon found out.
“I was talking to some of you before the show, andI'm glad to hear that Milwaukeeis still a wrestling town!” Clayton said, then talked about some of his favoritewrestlers and lamented that “masculinity was going out of style.” The band flewinto a wall of distortion as Clayton gave himself a couple of whacks in theface with the bat, a stream of blood flowing down his face. The crowd cheeredwildly and displayed the goat horns.
For an encore, they called Joe Buck onstage to jointhem in a cover Dr. Ralph Stanley's bluegrass song “Black Eyed Susie,” and thenplayed their pro-carnivore song, “Animals, Eat ‘Em.”
In the grand scheme of things, it was a mellow showfor Antiseen, who sometimes also use fire, explosives, broken glass and barbedwire fences in their act.
Photo by Andy Junk
