- Alexi Front
- This glass of Voku Hila is at Local Option, not at Bottom Lounge. Who takes pictures of beer at a Kvelertak show?
At last night’s Kvelertak concert, the bar at Bottom Lounge tapped two kegs from Local Option Bierwerker: a “steam beer” or dampfbier called Dampf Loc and a maibock called Voku Hila. This was no coincidence: Local Option promoted the Kvelertak show heavily. A few weeks ago Local Option brand manager Alexi Front got in touch with the band’s A&R rep at Roadrunner, his friend Dave Rath, so that the bar could put up gig posters around town (including several on its own walls) and give away tickets (including a few at an April 9 event featuring the only keg in existence of Ed Ploog’s It Burns When IPA from Against the Grain).
“We believe firmly in the idea that quality beer and metal work hand in hand,” says Front, “and we wanted to enhance the Kvelertak concert experience for patrons by having our beers available.” All very well and good, but that’s Alexi the brand manager talking—what about Alexi the metalhead? “At Local Option we’ve played Kvelertak pretty much daily for the last six months.”
If you were wondering why a Chicago beer bar would work so hard to get people out to see a Norwegian black ‘n’ roll band playing in somebody else’s club three miles away, right there’s your answer.
