A lot of punk noise could be heard coming out of a small business building on Graham Street, downtown Eau Claire on Friday night.
Abraxas Wax, one of Eau Claire’s record stores, hosted a music show on April 25 featuring three bands: Smoke Free Home, Popstar and Backstroke.
Even though the venue was small, the show had about 70 attendees. In between sets people could browse records or band merch, and Seth, the shop’s owner, handled the sound for the show.
The show started at 7 p.m. with Smoke Free Home. Hailing from Oshkosh, Smoke Free Home delivered a set inspired by classic punk, complete with socially critical song lyrics and ear-splitting sound.
The band includes lead singer Jesse Tubeszewski, bass player Kevin Sonnleitner and Alex Lautenschlager on drums. The band is unique in that it doesn’t have a guitar player.
Tubeszewski said the band leans more towards classic punk because of Lautenschlager’s influence and knowledge. He would name their band’s genre “dance punk.”
‘We describe it as really good.’ Tubeszewski said.
One of the band’s recent songs is called “Three Left Turns,” which Tubeszewski said is about gang stalking. Gang stalking refers to the paranoid and usually untrue belief that a large group or government entity is spying on an individual.
“People dedicate so much time to this thing that doesn’t exist.” Tubeszewski said. “We wanted to capture the paranoia.”
Tubeszewski said this was the band’s first time in Eau Claire, and they were booking shows together with the band Popstar. They have more upcoming shows in Appleton and Green Bay.
Smoke Free home has music on all Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music, and has a new single available on vinyl. They also have punk style merch and t-shirts for sale.
Popstar, a band that hails from Minneapolis, came on after Smoke Free Home and delivered a genre-bending set that could be described as digital hardcore or experimental pop.
The band created a unique sound by running the tracks and vocals through the music software Ableton. They also had AI-voiced messages in the voice of different celebrities repeating phrases like “Listen to Popstar” and “Popstar is the best” between songs.
Lars Oslund, who is both the singer and drummer for the band, said the band had its debut in 2023 and its first release in 2024. They play at a lot of the underground music venues in Minneapolis and have an East Coast tour coming up in June.
The band knew about Eau Claire and Abraxas through their connection with Eau Claire native band Gash. Popstar also has an album and merch available on their Bandcamp.
The headliner for the show was Eau Claire’s own Backstroke, who delivered an explosive set. Backstroke is one of Eau Claire’s up-and-coming bands and started just a little over two years ago.
The band includes Rollie Duerre on vocals, Louis Beaume on guitar, Zach Haig on bass and Adam Gray on drums. They performed a few unreleased singles at the show.
The band is in the process of recording their first album and hopes to release it by the end of the summer. Backstroke’s music is available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Sonnek can be reached at [email protected].
