Activity • Operations • Youth Energy
Tue 10/21/25
7:00PM
All Ages
music
$10 ADV // $15 DOS
Show Lineup
Activity
(Brooklyn)
Genre: Punk
Activity are an avant four-piece featuring Travis Johnson, and drummer Steve Levine, both from the band Grooms, bassist Zoë Browne from Field Mouse, and guitarist Jess Rees from Russian Baths. Produced by engineer Jeff Berner of Psychic TV, their debut forms a casually menacing framework for lyrical themes of paranoia, exposed character flaws, and the broader human capacity for growth when an ugly truth is laid bare.
Lead single “Calls Your Name,” establishes the record’s spectral aura with nauseated electronic bells, and a relentless Geoff Barrow-esque drum beat beneath a half-sung, half-spoken lyrics inspired by C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel The Great Divorce. In the novel, characters stuck in a grey, joyless conception of hell repeatedly deny opportunities to be taken into heaven, instead making excuses as to why they should remain in their embittered purgatory states. Allegorically, this speaks to the kind of opportunity for metamorphosis and positive change that’s possible when the depths of disillusionment are reached, an idea which permeates much of the album. Despite recurrent aches of discontentment, each track glows with radiant waves of catharsis while elegantly evoking jubilation and anguish within the same breadth, showing that the two are always around the corner from one another.
Operations
(Milwaukee, WI)
Genre: Indie Rock
Operations was formed by Charles Markowiak and Alisa Rodriguez (Apollo Vermouth) in the spring of 2018 while the duo were playing in the group Sundial Mottos. In Operations the pair split guitar, songwriting, and vocal duties. John Schoneman of slowcore-worship group Haunter was brought on to play drums and Sam Gargulak came in to play bass. Operations have been playing shows in and around Milwaukee since December 2018. Their first album Fog Museum was recorded on Labor Day weekend of 2019 at Jamdek in Chicago, IL and engineered/mixed by Dave Vettraino (The Hecks). The album was mastered by Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Total Control).
Brief Candles
(Milwaukee, WI)
Genre: Indie Rock
One more bio from one more band. One more description of a loud-as-hell indie rock band with a rhythm section built by the gods and guitars so graceful and melodic they make your ears cry. One more comparison to My Bloody Valentine, Pale Saints, Doves, et al, though of course, they don’t compare – they merely lie in the shadow of those influences. Yet another band with a phenomenal rock show, the type that brings audiences to their knees in complete adoration.
Another self-released debut album released in late 2003 receiving rave reviews including a Best Album of 2003 by an indie zine. Another band that relocated from their hometown of Peoria, IL to Milwaukee, WI for a variety of dubious reasons. A sophomore album was released in 2006 on Latest Flame Records with more great reviews, more college radio airplay, and more tours of the west coast, the midwest, and the southwest. One more band that continues to record, tour, and rely on the help of fans and friends. One more band you probably haven’t heard of, but should. One more band to listen to and accept or reject.