What was I like in the ’90s? We don’t have time to get into all of that, but I’ll tell you one thing: I dug seeing Little Blue Crunchy Things and still do.
They were everywhere in the mid-to-late-’90s, demanding that Wisconsinites “Set Your Booty Free” with intoxicatingly funky, punky, hip-hop-infused all-ages shows. The LBCT vibe was inclusive, energetic and capable of forcing folks to converge with zero inhibition. With twin saxophones, funky rock guitar, a pair of percussionists, heavy bass guitar and a frontman formed by the rock gods themselves, LBCT delivered the goods night after night.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
While the Crunchy Things stopped performing regularly around 2000, they continue to reignite the fire for special Milwaukee shows. After selling out two nights at Shank Hall last year, the band decided to fill the Turner Hall Ballroom on April 11 for one big concert in celebration of their 35th anniversary.
Prior to their deliriously enjoyable show (see after interview), I chatted with drummer Bill Backes and frontman and lead singer/saxophonist Noah Tabakin to find out what the band “Wanna Letcha Know” about their history and current shows. I would catch the rest of Little Blue Crunchy Things at the Turner Hall show, including bassist Ken Fitzsimmons, saxophonist Bryan Elliott, guitarist Michael Wengler and percussionist Jamie Ryan.
I’m going to go on a full Gen-X rant: In the ’90s, it was anything goes. You guys were like the sweet spot between Minutemen and Morphine. Tight jazz, funk, a little hip-hop in there. Two saxophones! What brought your sound together?
Tabakin: When I’m listening back to our songs: The arrangements are nuts! Different time signatures – this band is heavy! How Bryan (Elliot) integrated that saxophone into every song, adding this cool, reedy element … doubling the bass, doing neat things to increase the texture. The sax is a lead element in our band. Bryan is such a heavy player. Ken (Fitzsimmons) is a beast, just a beast bass player, unreal. His lines are funky, unique.
Backes: We were punks, we were skateboarders. We loved the Misfits. Rick and I had a jazz background – Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. But with the punk background, we definitely were aggressive. Then Noah (Tabakin) came on, he was kind of like an accident. Our first rehearsal was in a basement on Oakland Avenue, and Noah showed up. He was rapping “Wanna Letcha Know,” and that was it. I mean, that guy better show up for the next rehearsal.
Tabakin: Mike (Wengler, guitarist) invited me as a horn player, I showed up with my saxophone. All the beats were so ferocious, so good. I was like “Yo, let me get on the mic.” And we wrote “Wanna Letcha Know” at that first rehearsal. There was a lot of synergy, right music, right time. I was 16 when I was at the rehearsal.
Tell us about the Milwaukee music scene in the ’90s.
Tabakin: The Milwaukee scene was thriving: There was Wild Kingdom, The International Jet Set, The Pacers, and a lot of great local bands. We did our first show at the Unicorn (a long-gone punk club). I was very influenced by Fishbone, Chili Peppers. Funk punk, that’s where we were headed, but I was more hip-hop driven. We did three shows, and then we suddenly had a big draw.
Backes: Wild Kingdom put us on the map. They just put us on the flyer for the first show we did at Shank Hall. We love Shank Hall. Peter Jest at Shank Hall, quick story. I brought our tape to Shank Hall. He listened, he called back and he gave us our first shot. We would sell out all-ages shows (in the ’90s). Shank Hall carries the most history for me as a musician. It’s a really special place.
Living on the East Side of Milwaukee in the late ’90s, the CDs Rhetoric and Owner’s Manual were in everybody’s house. It was always a welcoming vibe at your shows.
Tabakin: There was so much moshing, stage diving … it was so much fun, but our shows gave us a space to let loose physically. There was this fine line between violence and a joyful expression of energy. There was an ethos to it. But it was respectful – there was camaraderie, people picked each other up.
Backes: Did you go to our shows back in the day?
Sure did. I saw you in Oshkosh in 1996, among others.
Backes: When you bring up Oshkosh, that was one of our most debaucherous gigs. We were famous there. You would be surprised, after shows we would split up and see if we could find somebody to put us up for the night.
Tabakin: We would crash at people’s houses. Once I slept in an attic. I woke up getting stung by a wasp.
Backes: I was thinking about the time I jumped off stage at Shank Hall and the whole crowd kind of just got out of my way. I landed on my back. I couldn’t really get back to the song on time. Noah was like, “Hey, let the drummer get back up here.” That was the one and only time I did a stage dive at our show.
Little Blue Crunchy Things was a hard-working band. How did you make time for it all?
Tabakin: Man, we worked. I was in full-time school, part-time job; we rehearsed three nights a week, did two shows a week. We were just full-on. Being busy felt good. I don’t think this would have happened if our manager Daniel Holland wasn’t so persistent, talented and organized. Daniel helped us to get as far as we did. He keeps the torch of Little Blue Crunchy Things alight.
Tabakin: We were doing 150-plus shows a year! We all had real ownership because we wrote as a unit. We were just writing together all the time. Improvised moments come up real time, live. We have a long relationship with really caring people, and it’s like being married to five people and your babies are the songs. That’s what (1999 album) Babies is about.
Any stories from life on the road that you’re willing to share?
Backes: I remember playing at Great Lakes Dragaway and puking on stage because of the rubber burnout from the funny cars. We’re playing to nobody on a hot summer day on top of a hot gravel parking lot.
Tabakin: I saw Ben Harper at the smallest place. We went in and there’s like 10 people. He went up there and destroyed. By himself up there, just giving 110% for just 10 people. It had such a strong effect on me. That’s what’s up. Regardless of who’s here, I go 110%. When you get to the point when you can do a great show to two people, you’ve got it.
Backes: It was really important to me to experience bad shows. You go out in front of nobody, and you play the show. It can be really uncomfortable. But you make it through and you come out a stronger person. I wouldn’t replace it for anything. The situations you can only do by getting out there and living and being a band. The weirdest things. I think we’re better than we’ve ever been.
Tabakin: I agree with that. Right place, right time, right people.
How do you feel about the reunion show and being all together in Milwaukee?
Backes: I never thought we’d be talking about a 35th anniversary show. It seems pretty outrageous to me. But we do it because of the people. The people show up. Our last reunion was sold out two nights in a row. It’s so much fun; it’s what music’s for.
Tabakin: The idea of doing one show, on a personal level, appealed to me. I want the best show to be the only show. I grew up on the West Side of Milwaukee, but I went to Riverside High School. I have a lot of pride in my Milwaukee upbringing. [Tabakin now lives in Savannah, Georgia.] Every time I return, it feels the same but different. It’s an amazing experience to get back together again.
Backes: I get on stage with these guys and it’s like damn! You don’t realize how good everybody is until you get playing. With Crunchy Things, everyone’s so powerful.
Little Blue Crunchy Things at Turner Hall Ballroom – Saturday, April 11, 2026
We arrive to a cheerful crew of LBCT faithful, in a long line extending south on Vel R. Phillips Avenue, all in position to get prime sight lines at Turner Hall and pregame for the feel-good concert of our Milwaukee spring.
The show kicks off with the Little Blue Crunchy Thing’s 2025 documentary, Florence, directed by Aaron Greer. The short doc highlights the creation of “Florence,” the fan-favorite LBCT song that Tabakin wrote in driver’s ed at Riverside High School and later sang in front of his sophomore English class for his “praise poem” assignment. Archival footage of LBCT dazzling crowds in the ’90s, great interviews with the band, Tabakin’s high school teacher and an unsolved mystery or two make the documentary a joyful experience.
When the documentary concludes, my partner, Alie, and I slide forward for a better view as the band enters in LBCT tees and hats to elated cheers. Prior to meeting, it turns out she and I were both at the same LBCT show in Oshkosh, hopping wildly unaware of our future together. Thirty-five years later, we’re still belligerent, still together for whatever’s next, which in this case was show opener “Sugar,” a fresh zap of rap/funk dessert to start our meal of Little Blue Crunchy Things.
As their 1997 song “Hurricane” kicks in, I ask myself how a band so infectious and incredible did they not get as big as Squirrel Nut Zippers? No disrespect to the Zippers, whose hit “Afterlife” was a fantastically menacing mashup of swing, punk and ska, but LBCT was catchy in the same indescribable way: they groove, they swing and confound in a way that leaves you shaking your head, along with other various body parts. I can feel my past self smiling somewhere, likely under the greatest of influence.
Instrumental “Halloween” showcases LBCT’s full century of reach, beginning like a speakeasy sea shanty and building to a freaky steeplechase of saxophones, ska-flavored guitar and thunderous drumming, culminating in a joyous collision of noise. “Too Far” slips some record-scratching in with funhouse synth, providing a bed for Tabakin’s soulful singing, sort of their dark twisted masterpiece off 1999 LP, Babies. From the same LP comes “Cold Day”, a song that makes me wonder how awesome a twin bill of Morphine and LBCT would be, sax low and ominous, like a crime best left unsolved.
As the first set nears its zenith and conclusion, LBCT rolls out “Numbers,” perhaps the most infectious of their tunes, a song that should have spilled out of FM radio alongside 311’s “Down” or “All Mixed Up.” Turn up “Numbers” on your next drive to work or wherever, you’ll be glad to have done so. I would recommend the live version from Owner’s Manual, their 1995 LP recorded live at Shank Hall.
Throughout the opening set, Tabakin keeps the crowd engaged with his unpredictably fluid and entertaining moves. Later, he will climb on board a fan’s back and ride through the crowd, singing his lyrics with characteristic swank and clarity, all the while checking in on his ride, making sure that he was feeling comfortable (consent was sought and given by all participating parties). Note: Dude raps as fast and clear as Slim Shady and could out-sax Bowie.
Set two begins with “Wasp,” rocking with a jazz-funk flow that’s both aggressive and sensual, highlighted by a twisted stinging sax line that buzzes over Turner Hall. “I Remain” hits like Alice in Chains on a Miles Davis Bitches Brew bender, proving why it remains a smoky gem of LBCT goodness. Bassist Ken Fitzsimmons takes the mic for a triumphant “Billy the Kid,” followed by “Babies,” the band’s homage to their own creations that includes a call to the Crunchy Army. During the song, the crowd is asked to raise arms together for “kindness and understanding when this whole Crunchy Army takes over the world.” We join with arms raised because, well, it’s a good idea.
Speaking of good ideas, “Set Your Booty Free” lifts set 2 into cruising altitude, your pilots encouraging you to shout back at the stage the refrain required to get loose on a Saturday night. Original percussionist Cara Davis joins the band on stage to perform “Brown Bear,” a silky smooth duet rapped in tandem with Tabakin. Davis is given a proper homecoming by the appreciative crowd, most of whom are well aware that Davis hasn’t performed the song live in a decade.
By the time LBCT’s should’ve-been-bigger hit “Florence” kisses the crowd, Tabakin sits at the stage’s end, alongside guitarist Michael Wengler strumming coyly, and serenades the crowd with timeless longing. We recall the words written when Tanakin should’ve been learning to drive, who never knew the song would be the vehicle steering a band forward, flipping their lives upside down, leading to a documentary and packed-house reunions showcasing the band’s enduring, undiminished power.
Set 1:
- “Sugar”
- “Hurricane”
- “Pimp Napkin”
- “Snake in the Garden”
- “Freak on the Floor”
- “Halloween”
- “Too Far”
- “Slip Away”
- “London Holiday”
- “Cold Day”
- “Numbers”
- “Rhetoric”
Set 2:
- “Wasp”
- “How Ya Gonna Do Me”
- “I Remain”
- “Hot Tub”
- “Billy the Kid”
- “Babies”
- “Brahman”
- “Set Your Booty Free”
- “Brown Bear”
- “Florence
- “Invocation”
- “Half Way There”
- “Wanna Letcha Know”
- Encore: “War Pigs” (Black Sabbath)
