Riot for Relief - Punks for Palestine
ZAO MKE/DOWN ON DOWNER - Milwaukee, WI - April 4th, 2025
Written by: Bill Stauber Soik | April 15th, 2025
In the basement of a 102-year-old church on a Friday evening, a small crowd came to enjoy five punk bands from across Wisconsin and to raise money for Palestinian relief.
The concert, organized by the Milwaukee Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter with Down on Downer, was free to enter. Donations from attendees and profits from concessions totaled over $1,500, all of which will be sent to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. The show’s final act, Madison-based Nihilism, even donated the profits they made from their own merch sales to the fund.
Blind Hill opened the show with a set of their own songs, including the ear-worm “Headbanger’s Ball.” For their final song, however, they performed a cover of an infamous track in the punk and rock community.
“Anyone here a fan of Black Sabbath?” Blind Hill’s frontman asked the crowd.
The thrum of cheers filled Wesley Hall, and the band concluded their set with their rendition of “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath.
During their set, Fake My Death started working to stoke the energy in the crowd, with one of the members even throwing himself into the crowd without missing a beat in his own performance.
Between songs, however, one of the group’s three guitarists took a few moments to remind the audience why they were there – to rally support for Palestinians and others around the world.
“It’s never going to stop until we stand up to it like we’re doing here tonight,” he said.
For the third act, In Ropes from UW-Madison blended mosh-worthy guitar riffs and drum parts with slower interludes that let the instrumentals breathe for a moment. Although they were likely the youngest of the five bands, a few of the other groups performing were in the audience cheering them on.
“In Ropes rips,” Fake My Death posted on their Instagram story with a video from the front of the audience.
Perhaps the most memorable set of the night came from Sublet. With songs as long as just a minute and their singer roaring lyrics from a notepad like an enraged preacher, Sublet was the band for mosh pits. But two young boys hopped up on stage as the show’s new frontmen. It was nothing short of bizarre. With Sublet’s intense music, two kids moshing with them on stage made for a fun but strange set.
Nihilism was the final set, and although the crowd started to thin a bit as the night went on, the energy hardly wavered.