A brief chat with Meat Wave

Chicago punks Meat Wave play Riot Fest at the end of August, so we spoke to the band while they were mid-journey to somewhere in the tour bus (note: we think Chris Sutter said just about everything but we could be wrong due to the road noise).C

Yellow Scene: When did the band form and what was the mission?

Chris Sutter: The band formed in late 2011. We were all in different projects, so we were planning on doing this just for fun on the side. It just felt really good and it took off from there.

YS: Describe the sound…

CS: It’s aggressive punk music, but it’s not like pop-punk or snotty 1970s punk. It’s more aggressive post-punk. We try to make it a little more challenging, but also accessible at the same time. The band name comes from the satirical newspaper The Onion. We stole a headline, which was “Dozens killed in Chicago-area meat wave.” We would always joke about that, so when we were trying to come up with a band name, it seemed like the right thing to do.

YS: Are you looking forward to Riot Fest?

CS: We are. One of the things I’m most excited about is that we never get to see bands of that stature, so it’ll be cool to be there and take in the carnival of it all.

YS: What can we expect from your set?

CS: Some old stuff, some new stuff, and maybe a cover.

YS: When Riot Fest is over, what’s next?

CS: Right after Riot Fest, our record is gonna come out and we’re just going to tour a bunch. So probably from then until the end of the year, we’ll be touring which is really exciting for us.