On Tuesday, February 18th @ 10AM, DJ Surface Tension hosts two of the founding members of Polkacide, Ward Abronski and Alistair Shanks, for a live in-studio interview. Together, they will discuss what it’s like to play punk polka for detainees.
After 32 years of playing hardcore punk polka, Polkacide performed an official farewell concert ─ “The Last Polka” ─ at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on October 8, 2017. A stripped-down as yet unnamed version of the band featuring frontman Ward Abronski, bass player Alistair Shanks, drummer Johnny Jack, accordionist Aaron Seeman (Duckmandu), and sousaphone players Wiley Evans (Extra Action Marching Band) and Ed Ivey (Rhythm Pigs) recently formed for the purpose of bringing live music to detainees in an ICE detention center. The band played four concerts on Saturday, February 1, 2020 in four different sections of the ICE Mesa Verde Detainee Processing Center in Bakersfield, CA, and is looking into arranging more concerts at other such facilities in the future with a potentially rotating cast of band members.
