Cry Coyote, a local punk quintet opened, as well as
Joe Buck, bass player for Hank Williams III. He played his Tennessee-style
one-man punk show, including barn-stomping songs like “Demon in My Head” and
sing-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 and
a beard, a Piggly Wiggly T-shirt and a sleeveless flannel shirt, showing off
tattoo -leeved arms.
“Our last show here was at the Unicorn,” he said
referring to the now defunct underground music venue, “probably shut down
before 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 play
like an instrument, but what about the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire? The
audience soon found out.
“I was talking to some of you before the show, and
I’m glad to hear that Milwaukee
is still a wrestling town!” Clayton said, then talked about some of his favorite
wrestlers and lamented that “masculinity was going out of style.” The band flew
into a wall of distortion as Clayton gave himself a couple of whacks in the
face with the bat, a stream of blood flowing down his face. The crowd cheered
wildly and displayed the goat horns.
For an encore, they called Joe Buck onstage to join
them in a cover Dr. Ralph Stanley’s bluegrass song “Black Eyed Susie,” and then
played their pro-carnivore song, “Animals, Eat ‘Em.”
In the grand scheme of things, it was a mellow show
for Antiseen, who sometimes also use fire, explosives, broken glass and barbed
wire fences in their act.
Photo by Andy Junk
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