An incomplete history of Chicago punk rock (vol. 20)

After just over 10 years together, Chicago pop-punk band Allister is calling it quits and playing their final show tomorrow night at Metro in Chicago. Now I’ve written in much more detail about the band here already, but thought one last run through would be appropriate.

The Allister story begins in late 1996 when guitarists John Hamada and Eric Mueller (that’s me) met in a calculus class at UIUC and realized they shared a love for the Blake Babies and punk rock. Along with drummer/singer Tim Rogner (John had played in a band with Tim during high school) the trio of John (guitar/vocals), Tim (drums/vocals), and Eric (bass/vocals) began playing out in early 1997 and finally settled on the name Allister after discarding names like Phineas Gage and Fall Out Boy (seriously). In December of that same year, the band recorded their debut 7” You Can’t Do That On Vinyl with Phil Bonnet (RIP).

That 7” caught the attention of upstart California punk label Drive-Thru Records who agreed to distribute the record and later signed the band. In 1998 Scott Murphy joined the band on bass while Eric moved to guitar and the band recorded their first full-length Dead Ends And Girlfriends which was released in 1999. Eric left the band the following year and John quit shortly before Allister’s 2002 album Last Stop Suburbia was released.

The band’s lineup changed dramatically as Tim moved from drums to guitar, Dave Rossi was added on drums, and Tim’s younger brother Chris Rogner (also of August Premier) joined on guitar. In the following years, both Dave and Chris left the band and were replaced by Mike Leverence on drums and Kyle Lewis (formerly of Now She’s Gone and Showoff) on guitar. The band recorded one more album, Before The Blackout which was released in 2005 and a Japanese only EP (the band was very popular in Japan) before finally calling it quits earlier this year.

And there you have it. Kyle and Scott continue to play in The Get Go and Chris plays in the band One Black Tooth. All said, this is probably the last time I’ll ever write about this band and those days.

MP3 | Allister – Residential Burglary Dead Ends & Girlfriends
MP3 | Allister – Moper Dead Ends & Girlfriends
MP3 | Allister – Better Late Than Forever Last Stop Suburbia
MP3 | Allister – Somewhere On Fullerton Last Stop Suburbia
MP3 | Allister – You Lied Before The Blackout
MP3 | Allister – Alone Before The Blackout