Wanda Chrome and the Leather Pharaohs “Eleven the Hard Way” 1995. Splunge Records. Hard-driving Milwaukee garage punk in the spirit of the Ramones, MC5, Stooges and Motörhead. We had the incredible opportunity to see Wanda Chrome last night at WMSE’s Local/Live event at Anodyne: they rarely play out these days but were legendary back in the 90’s for their killer hard-rocking performances. I think the last time we saw then was at least 10-15 years ago, probably at Circle A. Almost 30 years in, they haven’t lost a beat: Cliff’s guitar riffs still shred, Joel’s beats are crashing, and Wanda (Marie) is still just so. fucking. cool. – she and her bass give the band its dark and grooving soul.

Wanda Chrome and the Leather Pharaohs live at Anodyne

WCLP performed several of the songs from their debut LP Eleven the Hard Way, which they recorded live at Quarters Rock Palace (a bar in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood – it is most definitely NOT a palace) on April 29th, 1995. (About doing a live LP as their debut Cliff quipped last night during the interview portion “If it was good enough for the MC5, it was good enough for us.”) Some of the highlights from both last night and the album include their cover of Flamin’ Groovies “Teenage Head,” “Jet Black” and MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams.” And while they didn’t play it last night, worth checking out on Eleven the Hard Way is their epic medley “Bo Diddley” that clocks in at close to 10 minutes of pure garage punk insanity.

You can watch the Local/Live performance in its entirety here — we in the audience gave WMSE’s Local/Live its first ever crowd-demanded encore: