Antiseen, a brutal punk band from South Carolina, has poured literal sweat and blood onstage for 27 years, rampaging through songs about wrestling, Taco Bell and talk shows, showing little political correctness in their southern-fried punk-rock honky tonk.� The band notably cut an album with infamous punk icon GG Allin, and their “destructo rock” lived on at a show at Mad Planet Monday night.

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