Frequently Asked Questions

We play the hugest hits from the last truly great era of music: '90s grunge and alt-rock. That means timeless tunes from massive bands of the era like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, and a lot more.

It's kind of a semantic distinction, to be fair. "Cover" bands play their own interpreted versions of songs you know. "Tribute" bands attempt to recreate the experience of seeing the original band. Think KISS tributes with black leather and makeup, or Beatles tributes with mop-top wigs and VOX amps. The difference is, Rustbucket doesn't work on recreating ONE band. We do our best to recreate the songs of an entire era and genre, as close to how you remember hearing them on the radio as possible.

Sorry, but no. We've dedicated ourselves to specializing in '90s grunge and alternative rock. And there are enough massive hits and world-class bands in our corner of the sandbox that we'll never get to them all! But there ARE plenty of bands in the area that DO play a wide variety of rock, pop, metal, country and more. A lot of our friends are even in them. So we'd be happy to recommend some if you're looking for something different than what we've got to offer.

We'd be happy to talk to you about that! We're always looking for new stages to jump on and new audiences to entertain. The easiest way is to email us and let us know what you're looking for, and we'll be happy to discuss our availability.

Unfortunately, the answer to that depends on a very wide variety of factors, such as location, length of the show, production costs and distance from our usual stomping grounds. That said, we're always looking for stages to bring the show to, so please feel free to reach out to us, and I'm sure we can find common ground. 

We CAN be, but — this is another one that depends on circumstances. Fans of '90s alternative rock know that it was a particularly irreverent era that didn't shy away from fearless language and mature themes. And since we do our best to perform and present the lyrics, sounds and thematics of the era's music as they were recorded, we don't shy away from that. That said, we are happy to tailor our set to be a bit more restrained if requested.

The five of us live in various locations in and around the Milwaukee, WI metro area, so "Milwaukee" is the general catch-all for our geography. But we've performed all over southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, and we're happy to talk to anyone who wants to bring this music to their stage!

Requests are a LITTLE tricky. We're a tribute, and doing these songs justice requires quite a bit of rehearsal. So if you have a request at a Rustbucket show, please feel free to grab one of us and ask. We may know the song (but it's just not on our set list for the night) in which case we can bust it out. And if not? We typically consider it a FUTURE request, and we'll do our best to learn it for an upcoming show. Alternatively (ha!) you can drop us a line from the bottom of our Set List page.

We certainly do! If you're helping us out with production and need a tech rundown, you'll find it here. And if that doesn't cover what you need, please feel free to drop us a line with any additional questions.

Chances are, we'd love to. We are all incredibly active in the local and regional music community, and we enjoy supporting other bands. And that extends to sharing stages. So if you're putting together a multi-band bill, we'd be happy to talk to you to see if we all think we'd be a good fit. Hit us up, and let's see if we can make some noise together.

We certainly do! We have t-shirts in a range of sizes ($15), weatherproof vinyl stickers of varying styles and sizes (free!) and often hats, when we think to order them ($20). They're available at our shows. So swing by and grab some Rustbucket swag! 

Hey, you can't win 'em all! If you need to know something we didn't cover here, don't hesitate to send us a message. We'll get back to you as soon as we can.