After getting sonically pummeled Saturday night from the Burning Sons, I needed to ease into Sunday. Lucky for me, Kochanski’s Concertina Bar offers Sunday afternoon concerts. Kochanski’s used to be known as Art Altenburg’s Concertina Bar, Milwaukee’s premiere polka destination. Art’s was one of the many Milwaukee legendary corner bars in the south side polish neighborhood. You had to pay the swear jar, if they caught you cursing in the bar. Under new ownership, Kochanski’s maintains the polka tradition as well as adding rockabilly, surf, country, and garage rock to its musical repertoire. Today was the Dick Satan Trio, a surf/ garage instrumental band from Milwaukee. Except for a few standards like “Pipeline”, this was no ordinary surf band. The band performed originals as well as covers by the Misfits and John Barry. There were some garage sounding elements in the set, reminding me of bands like Impala and Galaxy Trio. Front man Dick Satan said he didn’t like being classified as a surf band, and was working on adding some vocals to the set. I was happy to hear some great instrumental rock and roll while enjoying a few Zwyiec Polish beers on a Sunday afternoon.
