Gig Alert: No Future, Days Off, Bicentennial Rub at the Riverwest Public House
Justin Wettstein
No Future
There was a certain time when hardcore was the nucleus of Milwaukee music: Then, weekly shows at the North Shore VFW, The Globe, and countless basements were commonplace. The members of the hardcore scene were sometimes obnoxious—like members of any scene—but they were a tight group of people who cared about rock ’n’ roll in this city. The focus of local music may have shifted over the years, but hardcore is still vital.
This Friday at 9 p.m., the Riverwest Public House will host a damnably good bill of Midwest hardcore. No Future combines members of some of the legendary groups that have graced so many cursive-font, skull-printed T-shirts over the years, including Since By Man, Decibully, Seven Days Of Samsara, Poison The Well, and Red Knife Lottery. The supergroup is a crazed masthead for new Milwaukee hardcore.
Days Off, from Chicago, will also be on the bill. The group’s latest album, The Threat Of Joy, unleashes a stable of nuts-and-bolts rock ’n’ roll ballads. Songs like “Shake Your Skeleton” combine primal punk-rock bass and drums with guitarwork somewhere in the ballpark of Thin Lizzy, all topped by vocals nearly as deep and heartfelt as Glenn Danzig’s.
The show will also feature local group Bicentennial Rub, a new cadet on the scene. The group’s polished recordings full of distortion-heavy guitars and anthemic, screamed choruses (produced by Howl Street’s Shane Hochstetler) will almost certainly play well live.
