Hot Coffin Heats Up High Dive
Milwaukee punk band Hot Coffin have returned to playing shows around town, kicking it off with a vigorous High Dive night on Wednesday alongside Chicago punk outfit Wet Tropics and brand-new Milwaukee punks Murder Generation, the latter of which playing their first show ever. Hot Coffin’s last show in town had been at Cactus Club in August.
Hot Coffin consists of vocalist Chris Chuzles, lead guitarist Christian Hansen, rhythm guitarist Ben Davison, bassist Joe Kanack, and drummer Jon Kraft. The band is signed to Triple Eye Industries and their last album was their self-titled back in 2015. Since then Chuzles came on board as their singer and now the five-piece is amidst a new album dropping soon.
Their original vocalist had been Sean Williamson, who since has relocated to New York.
“He’s an amazing fellow, now a family man with two children,” Hansen said about Williamson.
“Me and (Hansen) were going back and forth in bar talk over trying to start a project together,” Davison said on his inception in Hot Coffin.
“I used to be in a band called Disguised as Birds, and we had done a split 7″ with Hot Coffin and shared a practice space,” Chuzles said. “After Sean left Christian asked me out for drinks and I felt like something was up; I didn’t know what. Then he asked me to join and Hot Coffin was my favorite band in all of Milwaukee, so I couldn’t say no that.”
“So that’s the common thing: (Hansen) takes you out for drinks and pretty soon you’re in a band with him,” Davison laughed.
Hot Coffin’s members have largely been involved in previous Milwaukee projects: Chuzles had been in Disguised as Birds, Hansen was in Whips and Red Knife Lottery, Davison was in Get Rad, and Kraft drummed in Since By Man.
“It’s an incestuous scene, that’s for sure…but in a good way,” Davison said about band overlaps.
Hot Coffin enters the studio in July to record their new album. They play X-Ray Arcade on May 3rd.
