The Frequency

The Frequency Hosted live music seven nights a week for 10 years @ 121 W Main St, Madison WI. Currently in storage. Select shows are 21 and up so be sure to check.
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We’re a live music venue and nightclub hosting a wide variety of local, regional, national, and international acts. We offer drink specials Sunday through Thursday and serve Emil’s pizza.

* DOORS WILL OPEN AN HOUR BEFORE SHOWTIME, GENERALLY. CHECK WEBSITE FOR SHOW TIMES *

You must be 18 and up to attend our shows. All ages with a parent / legal guardian. $3 venue surcharge @ door for those under

21 not included in ticket price.

* BRING A PHOTO I.D. WITH DATE OF BIRTH. NO ADMITTANCE WITHOUT ONE *

We welcome you to The Frequency, where the music always happens at the right time - every night! If you're interesting in performing, send us an email. Email inquiries only: [email protected]

It's Wednesday and I am still barely recovered from the 1st Big Frequin' Weekend. Thank you to the bands, people who cam...
09/10/2025

It's Wednesday and I am still barely recovered from the 1st Big Frequin' Weekend. Thank you to the bands, people who came out, and venues (great hosts). Looking forward to year 2.

Thank you to everyone that came out and watched Hottt Probs, Pink Frost and The Giraffes destroy the stage at Crucible. ...
09/06/2025

Thank you to everyone that came out and watched Hottt Probs, Pink Frost and The Giraffes destroy the stage at Crucible.

Tonight is evening 2 @ Gamma Ray Bar!

Today we meet the man behind the drums, the most important part of the band imo. Dec and Madison Drum Makers - MDM are providing the backline drums for this year's fest. Dec kicks a lot of ass.

MADISON DRUM MAKERS

1) Where are you from, Dec?

Originally from Green Bay. Moved to West Bend after High School to go to MPTC for Screen Printing in 1995. The next year moved to Madison to go to MMI. Have been in Madison ever since.

2) What is the MDM origin story?

Andy Roemer had the idea of making drums for him and his bands. He was playing with a band that was playing FEST is Gainesville, FL so he asked if MDM could sponsor the FEST and they said yes. We needed to build 6 drum kits for them in about 6 months time. We ended up sponsoring FEST for 3 years.

3) How long have you played drums?

I have been playing drums since I was 10 when my Mom got me a drum kit for Christmas. She tried to keep it hidden in her room until Christmas, but I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and saw it in her room. When I woke up the next morning I asked if it was a dream seeing a drum kit in there. I ended up getting the kit earlier than Christmas Day.

4) How many bands have you played with throughout the years, and what bands are you in currently?

From High School I’ve pretty much always been in a band. Starting off with a band called Bee-Knees and Weenies, we did an unsuccessful midwest tour in which our van died and we had to rent a U-Haul to get home. Then was in a band called The Monos as well as a band called Lantz Lamour. Both bands did a short run out to California and back. On this run, we lost a wheel on the trailer and the driver kept driving with it gone. The hub ground down to nothing and we had to ditch the trailer and put everything into the van. After that I was in Things Fall Apart releasing 2 CD’s on Crustacean Records. We also did a few small tours. I am currently in the Warhaks, a working class punk band as well as Iron Metal Jackson, a Thrash Metal cover band.

5) You have a ton of live sound experience. Do you prefer indoor or outdoor venues for drums?

I would have to say I prefer indoor venues. There is no issue of weather, so the show should be able to go on. As far as sound, I think if you have a good sound engineer, they can make the drums sound good indoor or outdoor.

6) Why is the drummer the most important part of the band?

I have heard on multiple occasions that “Your band is only as good as your drummer.” If the band has a good drummer, everything else will fall into place. The backbone of music is the beat, if you have a bad backbone, it won’t stand up.

7) What's the best drummer joke you have ever heard?

What do you call a person that hangs out with a bunch of musicians? A drummer.

8) Are you prepared for a zombie apocalypse?

I am completely prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse, but I cannot disclose any further information.

9) Do drummers care about AI at all?

I asked the AI overlords what they thought and this is what they said. Drummers have complex and varied feelings about AI, ranging from concern about their future to using AI tools to enhance their practice and creativity. AI's effect on drummers is not a simple "care or don't care" issue but a nuanced mix of opportunities and threats. Overall, the drumming community views AI as a powerful tool for musical production and education, rather than a direct replacement for human talent. The general sentiment is that while AI can replicate patterns and enhance efficiency, it lacks the unique human elements of emotional depth, creative improvisation, and stage presence that define a real drummer's contribution to music. The most forward-thinking musicians will likely be those who embrace and adapt to these new technologies, using them to expand their creative toolkit rather than viewing them as a threat.

10) Give us a reason to have hope in these weird times?

A good reason to have hope in these unprecedented, crazy, hectic, exhausting, and frustrating times is to remember we are all community. Music brings all walks of life together, gives us a healthy outlet for emotional expression, and fosters resilience. Go see live music, talk to people, stop hate.

Today, we observe the last band performing the 1st Big Frequin' Weekend, Government Zero. We waited until the last minut...
09/05/2025

Today, we observe the last band performing the 1st Big Frequin' Weekend, Government Zero. We waited until the last minute, the band would probably say it's About Time. Which happens to be the title of their new CD. You can get it tomorrow at Gamma Ray Bar! Thanks to Tim for putting up with me pestering him to play.

GOVERNMENT ZERO

https://govzero.bandcamp.com

1) Verified band members and function?

Grampa Chris - guitar and vocals,
Timothy Zero - lead vocals and guitar,
Conners - bass and vocals,
Jonny 5 - drums and... vocals?

2) Where does the band hail from?

Madison, WI

3) How long has the band existed?

20 fu**in' years!

4) Do you have new music you are promoting?

Yep! Our brand new album, "About Time," available on CD and vinyl (soon)!

5) Did the band ever perform at The Frequency?

Did we EVER! Sorry about the smell.

6) What is the band reading / watching?

T - 80s commercials on YouTube
C - Nerdy sci-fi
J5 - Classy p**n
G - Facebook memories

7) Give us 5 bands we may not know but should?

1. The Takeaways
2. Brash Menagerie
3. Old Goodbyes
4. You First
5. Eddie Ate Dynamite

(Shameless self promotion? That would involve having SHAME)

8) Which band member will survive a zombie apocalypse, and who will be the first to go?

Jonny 5 says he's the first to go. He doesn't want to *gestures at America* but WITH zombies.
Tim will die second. He'll try warding off the zombies with a polite chat.
Conners and Gramps will both be bitten immediately. So.. I guess that counts as surviving?

9) Will AI (not A1) destroy civilization?

(Insert gif of Stephen Colbert crossing his fingers)

10) Give us a reason to have hope in these weird times?

"Life on this planet is rough
So help out the weak if you're tough
And maybe someday man will color the gray
And we'll say to ourselves 'That's Enough'"

Let's Taste the The Jaggernauts, shall we? THE JAGGERNAUTS1) Verified band members and function?-Noel Hanson – Vocals, G...
09/04/2025

Let's Taste the The Jaggernauts, shall we?

THE JAGGERNAUTS

1) Verified band members and function?

-Noel Hanson – Vocals, Guitar
-Jodi Hanson – Vocals
-Chris Ramey – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
-Matt Florence – Vocals, Guitar
-Atom – Guitar
-Dave Schoenrock – Bass
-Joseph Gunderson - Drums

2) Where does the band hail from?

Eau Claire

3) How long has the band existed?

Since 2004

4) Do you have new music you are promoting?

Our new album “Taste The Jaggernauts” on Crustacean Records. Madison is the 2nd date on the “Taste the Blood” tour.

5) Did the band ever perform at The Frequency?

Yes

6) What is the band reading / watching?

Alien Earth, Peacemaker, Duster, Wednesday, Dungeon Crawler Carl and Predator Killer of Killers, Hallowed By Their Name (The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible)

7) Give us 5 bands we may not know but should?

Sloar+Mordor, Giants of Midgard, John Buxton Experience, FMDown, Dressed to Kill

* BONUS BANDS * Additional bands you should know: Babymetal, Cardiacs, Jelani Aryeh, Valerie Coleman, Gnome, Dick Move, Pi**ed Jeans, Cal Hopkin's Amish Armada, King Buffalo, Wh**es

8) Which band member will survive a zombie apocalypse, and who will be the first to go?

All of The Jaggernauts will survive.

9) Will AI (not A1) destroy civilization?

Probably, but to be determined

10) Give us a reason to have hope in these weird times?

Live music

Today we meet The Giraffes. I won't blather on and on about how great this band is. Come see for yourselves tomorrow nig...
09/04/2025

Today we meet The Giraffes. I won't blather on and on about how great this band is. Come see for yourselves tomorrow night at Crucible!

THE GIRAFFES

1) Verified band members and function?

Damien Paris: guitar.
Andrew Totolos: drums.
Hannah Moorhead: bass.
Aaron Lazar: vocals.

2) Where does the band hail from?

Giraffes were formed in 1996 in Brooklyn, and we are all still hanging on to life in the ever-gentrifying NYC.

3) How long has the band existed?

1996 with Damien and Drew playing with Tim Kent on bass. Aaron joined in 2000 on vocals.

4) Do you have new music you are promoting?

We released Cigarette this last year on vinyl. It's been called "thickly compelling," so I guess that makes it more like a camel wide or something?

5) Did the band ever perform at The Frequency?

Oh yes, nothing but love for the Frequency, and I think Damien and Drew still wear their Freq shirts.

6) What is the band reading / watching?

I am finishing Yuri Slezkine's The House of Government, an exhaustive book examining the lives of a few generations of soviet artists and functionaries who all lived in one housing complex in Moscow dedicated to the elect of the soviet Nomenclature. It's amazing. Highly recommend.

7) Give us 5 bands we may not know but should?

Lollygagger
Oomasooma
Fumaca Preta
Last meal
D'NT

8) Which band member will survive a zombie apocalypse, and who will be the first to go?

Damien would for sure survive, I think he'd be stoked for a zombie flood of stumbling gore to come his way. Drew would survive through sheer Greek will and firepower. Hannah would survive by creating a large community of followers and acolytes that will defend her to the death. I am already undead, so....

9) Will AI (not A1) destroy civilization?

No but Sam Altman might.

10) Give us a reason to have hope in these weird times?

There are maybe 900 or so people on earth who truly want things to be this fu**ed up, and there are 9 billion of us.

Let's meet The Known Unknowns. Very little is truly known about this band. See them live 9/6 @ Gamma Ray for night 2 of ...
09/03/2025

Let's meet The Known Unknowns. Very little is truly known about this band. See them live 9/6 @ Gamma Ray for night 2 of the Big Frequin' Weekend!

THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS

https://linktr.ee/theknownunknowns

1) Verified band members and function?

Special Agent Franklin Honeywell - Drums, Vocals
Special Agent Building 7 - Bass, Vocals
Special Agent Quantum D - Guitar, Vocals

2) Where does the band hail from?

Hail comes from the sky, a veritable known known. The Agents are from 3 different locations for security reasons. Madison is the center for chaos and reasoning at present.

3) How long has the band existed?

The experiment launched in 2022.

4) Do you have new music you are promoting?

The band is currently in "The Supervisor" phase, but audio representation has yet to be recorded. We will have copies of "The Worker" available, it was Crustacean Records 100th release. Get it in the resurgent CD format!

5) Did the band ever perform at The Frequency?

The Known Unknowns never performed there, but many of the Agents' previous acts did. Rumor has it one of the Agents owned it.

6) What is the band reading / watching?

Grammar for Smart People. Zombie Survival Guide. Play Like a Man by Rose Marshack. Alien Earth. Any and all Korean zombie related movies or series.

7) Give us 5 bands we may not know but should?

Callous Daoboys. Polkadot Cadaver/Dog Fashion Disco. Mono. Otoboke Beaver. Radkey.

8) Which band member will survive a zombie apocalypse, and who will be the first to go?

We've read the Survival Guide and seen the Korean zombie series and films. We figure if we avoid Korea we should be OK, and if worse comes to worst we will team up with Brad Pitt, solve the problem and find some quarantine island to chill on. If not, bon Appetit!

9) Will AI (not A1) destroy civilization?

Assuming we don't wind up with AI generated A1 sauce, we will err on the side of optimism and leave AI out of our apocalypse scenario preparation. Civilization seems to be doing most of the heavy lifting itself.

10) Give us a reason to have hope in these weird times?

Someday a great Unknown Unknown will reveal itself as a Known Unknown, opening the path to a Known Known of great importance. When people are able to see the truth of this Known Known and make a conscious decision to forbid the ruling class from turning this Known Known into an Unknown Known, hope will reign supreme. For now, the greatest hope we see is rock and roll. A general strike wouldn't hurt.

Today we meet Pink Frost. They are an outlier in the sense that they never played The Frequency, nor are they on Crustac...
09/03/2025

Today we meet Pink Frost. They are an outlier in the sense that they never played The Frequency, nor are they on Crustacean Records. One of the best parts of booking bands is discovering new acts. I saw this band open for The Giraffes @ Liar's Club a while back and have been trying to get them here since. Friday Sept 5th @ Crucible is the date. We are excited to have them!

https://youtu.be/5AZL_ZhGmDQ

1) Verified band members and function?

Adam Lukas Vocals/Guitars/Instigating
Angela Mullenhour Guitars/Vocals/Caterpillar Raising
Nate Furstenau Drums/On Timing
Matt Lemke Bass/Vibing

2) Where does the band hail from?

Chicago

3) How long has the band existed?

For a minute now, but this is the first show with Matt, so we're basically a new band.

4) Do you have new music you are promoting?

Currently putting the finishing touches on a new LP, but still love playing tunes from our last LP Until the Summer Comes.

5) Did the band ever perform at The Frequency?

Unfortunately, we never had the chance. Just heard the legends.

6) What is the band reading / watching?

Stars. Terrariums. Sopranos on repeat.

7) Give us 5 bands we may not know but should?

Flower Travellin' Band. Sybris. Doom Flower. APTEKA. Sasquatch Turf War

8) Which band member will survive a zombie apocalypse, and who will be the first to go?

Think we would just all drink the Kool Aid and be done with it.

9) Will AI (not A1) destroy civilization?

We will destroy civilization fine on our own, thank you very much

10) Give us a reason to have hope in these weird times?

Rock and Roll

As we get closer to the shows, let's get to know some of the bands and people involved. Today we look at the man behind ...
08/27/2025

As we get closer to the shows, let's get to know some of the bands and people involved. Today we look at the man behind Crustacean Records, Sooper Dooper (two major sponsors of the BFW), and many groovy bass lines in The Known Unknowns. 30 years doing anything qualifies as a labor of love, and Chris surely loves music. I can't thank him enough for his help and support over the decades. Come see Chris rock Saturday September 6th @ Gamma Ray Bar.

MEET CHRIS LANGKAMP - OWNER of CRUSTACEAN RECORDS & SOOPER DOOPER.

1) Tell us the origin story of Crustacean Records?

Back in about 1992/1993 I was playing in a band named Crabshack. We had a demo tape and were looking for distributors to carry it in stores. We hooked up with a west coast distributor who wanted to carry our release, but we needed to have some sort of formal entity for checks, etc. Thus, Crustacean records was started as a way to get distribution. Shortly after the formation of the LLC we also picked up distribution through Twin Cities Imports and Dutch East India Trading.

2) How many bands has Crustacean worked with over the years?

Wow, that's a good question. I would say if you included bands with tracks on compilations it is at least 100.

3) Crustacean has always had cool artwork done by Pat Moriarity. How did Crustacean get involved with Pat?

Pat is awesome. Back when we did the first compilation we added a band named Fat Tuesday after the art had been finalized. We made a separate card to put in the case to let people know about the "secret track" Pat did all of the artwork for Fat Tuesday including their first record "Califuneral" on Red Decibel/Columbia. Pat offered to remake our first logo and then we continued to work with him on several releases.

4) What keeps you doing this after 30 years?

For the same reason that I started it 30 years ago and that is really just because I'm all about music. For my day job I also work at a company that creates music packaging for labels, bands and businesses. * editor's note - this company is SOOPER DOOPER *

5) Music consumption has changed greatly over the years. How has this change impacted Crustacean, if at all?

It has completely changed. After kind of laying low with the label the last few years, my friend Darwin Sampson and I are looking at revitalizing the label and are looking at the model. In the early days when physical media ruled it was easy to create a model where we manufactured the product and then sent to stores/distribution. We would keep 100% of money until recoup was met and then split 50/50. That included radio/magazine mailings, fanzine and other newspaper ads. It was a model that we had a lot of success with. In this day and age when any person/band can pay $25 and get on bandcamp/cd baby, etc and get the music out to the world via streams and downloads the question is, in this revitalization, what is it we can really offer? That is what we are currently trying to figure out.

6) Is touring absolutely necessary these days?

It depends on what your goals are. From the view of somebody who manufactures media that is the #1 place where you are going to sell product and get the word out. When people go to see a band play live, and have a good time, they want to support that band and take home a memento, even if they don't have a cd player. I see that bands who play often reorder their CDs multiple times.

7) What does Crustacean have on tap?

In the immediate future we have the new release from Eau Claire band The Jaggernauts. Following that up in the next few months to a year we should see releases from Big, Big Furnace, A Warhawks/Pyroklast split seven inch and a cd from Madison's Gridlock.

8) Are you prepared for a zombie apocalypse?

I am the zombie apocalypse.

9) Will AI ruin or improve music?

I think there is a potential for AI to create many hit songs that people will love, but for me the magic is in the live show and the interaction with people. The band I play in had a gig just yesterday where we had about 100 people singing along and dancing to our music. That's what it is all about, it was pure magic and AI can't replace that.

10) Give us a reason to have hope in these weird times?

Hmm, I don't know the future but I'm certain we can't stay in this corporate manufactured existence for too much longer. Big change will come. In my lifetime I'm not sure, but I have
hope and so should you.

Address

121 W Main Street
Madison, WI
53703

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