Chicago, IL · melodic hardcore · punk rock

The Bollweevils

1 upcoming festival →

Chicago melodic-hardcore vets fronted by ER doctor Daryl Wilson — fast, tuneful, and still ferocious decades on, scene service in every sense.

The Bollweevils came together in Chicago in 1989, meeting through the scene around Naked Raygun. Their first show came after Ken Fitzner sent Naked Raygun a demo tape and the band was invited to open the Metro's ninth-anniversary show; that gig marked Daryl Wilson's first appearance as vocalist.

Their music is fast melodic hardcore: short songs, driving tempos, and choruses built for group vocals, delivered with the urgency of the late-eighties and early-nineties Midwest punk underground.

Releasing through Dr. Strange Records and later Red Scare, the band's July 4, 1995 show at the Metro was recorded and issued as the live album Weevillive; after security turned aggressive with the crowd that night, Wilson declared the band would never play the Metro again. Their debut LP, Stick Your Neck Out, has since been reissued with four extra tracks, and 2023's Essential, on Red Scare, was their first new album in fourteen years.

The group first split in 1996, not long after Wilson completed medical school and became a doctor. Reunion shows followed in 2003 and again in 2006, when the band played the Congress Theater on a bill headlined by Naked Raygun, and it has continued playing and recording since, with its members holding down careers outside music.

Read more

melodic hardcorepunk rock