If you’re here looking for the wild backstory on how Wet Possum got its name, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
“It’s an adjective and an animal,” says rhythm lead guitarist Matt Hayes, who gets credit for putting the two together. “Just imagine a cute little possum, cold and alone in the pouring rain in the backyard …”
That’s not just the start of the story. It’s basically the whole story.
Hayes was watching an animated show on Netflix where one of the characters was a high school kid in a band with a silly name. If he was that kid, he wondered, what name would he come up with?
Wet Possum it was – and is.
The Green Bay/Fox Valley cover band that turns every gig it plays into an all-out party of ’90s and ’00s music has become one of the in-demand groups of northeast Wisconsin’s summer music season. It just so happens to be named after a soggy marsupial.
“People remember the name, because it invites intrigue immediately,” said drummer Marshall Zak, a graphic designer who came up with the logo.
Having a band mascot makes for great marketing and feels like an appropriate throwback to the silly fun of the era they capture onstage. It’s a better fit than, say, Swamp Donkey, which they briefly considered, thanks to the bait and tackle trailer of the same name often parked by Replay Sports Bar & Grill in De Pere.
The band gets asked all the time about its name. There is no unauthorized, juicy version they roll out just for such occasions. They’re all pretty PG guys. What you see is what you get.
They describe themselves on the Wet Possum website simply as “five super swell dudes each with a special set of skills instrumental to the success of the group.” Catch lead singer Zach Hibbard, backup rhythm guitarist Jon Tabers-Kwak, bass player Devin Whitmire, Hayes and Zak when they’re not playing Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy” to big crowds at The Sardine Can Block Party, Celebrate De Pere or The Bar on Holmgren Way, and they’re five mild-mannered guys as eager to talk about their friendship as their band. They’ve all known each other since they were 15.
“As far as the five of us having fun and being goofy together, that was there from the start,” Hibbard said. Getting to play music with those friends? “That’s the big cherry on top.”
It’s Blink-182 anthems, themed stage outfits and ‘goofy dance moves’
They’ve all played with one another in some fashion or another over the years before Wet Possum. They noticed nobody in the area was really playing pop-punk and saw an opportunity. They started out as a four-piece and eventually shuffled the lineup to move Whitmire from drums to bass and added Zak as drummer.
They played their first gig in 2019 at Phat Headz, the former rock club on Clay Street in Green Bay they all knew well.
“So it kind of started as a joke,” Hayes said. “‘Oh, let’s get a show at Phat Headz,’ and then it just kind of grew legs.”
By 2021, they were rolling as a five-piece and riding the wave of ’90s nostalgia that had made music of the era popular at the bars and as an alt-rock radio format. They call it being in the right place at the right time.
“The specific comments we always get are, ‘I don’t hear people playing this. This is super nostalgic,’” Zak said. “For us, that is why we decided to play this stuff, even if we weren’t planning on it being a bigger thing when we started.”
People tell them all the time how they remember where they were when the heard one of those Foo Fighters or Smash Mouth songs for the first time.
“Music is such a big part of nostalgia in general, so it’s cool to hear people’s different experiences with a lot of these songs that mean so much to a lot of us,” Hibbard said.
They mix pop-punk anthems fans can’t get enough of, like Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” or “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne, with other songs the band likes to play or people may have forgotten about.
“So we do fulfill their wants with that stuff, but then also we have wants as well to play some of the B-sides,” Tabers-Kwak said. “And even though no one seems thrilled during ‘Short Skirt/Long Jacket’ from Cake, we’re all thrilled.”
Hayes jokes Wet Possum is a bargain compared to catching Green Day – “and you get goofy dance moves and funny outfits.”
Never ones to take themselves too seriously, they have a reputation for making a fashion statement onstage. They often wear some variation on matching outfits, anything from Hawaiian and patriotic shorts sets to Christmas onesies to Teletubbies and bumblebee costumes. They outdid themselves recently by each dressing up in one of Ken’s looks from the “Barbie” movie, with Zak scoring the white faux fur coat.
Amazon is their go-to shopping source, but it’s the Wild West when it comes to what they might wear for any given show.
“It’s hopefully coordinated by the time we get there, but anything before that is a toss-up,” Hibbard said.
Wet Possum hibernates in winter, has a band manager you may know
Their target audience is fans their age or a little older who grew up blasting songs like “Hero” by Foo Fighters or “Basket Case” by Green Day, but the band’s following stretches from kids to grandparents.
“It’s cool to watch parents watch, because they were like, ‘I heard my kids play this when we were driving around.’ I think a lot of other people just like the silly whimsy of us, too,” Zak said.
“The energy is infectious for any age even if the nostalgia isn’t there,” Hibbard said.
Fans, unofficially known as the “Possum Posse,” makes the smaller bar gigs as much of a good time as the sea of people they played to when the NFL draft was in Green Bay last year. They call their shows “just a big friend zone” for whoever comes out.
As playful as their approach is to their live performances and wardrobes, they’re serious about delivering as entertainers, and they work hard at it. Hayes runs sound a lot of times and drives the trailer around. Whitmire does lights, controlling them from the stage.
“Then Marshall, Zach and I are just the muscle to help set up and tear down,” Tabers-Kwak said.
Getting the right people in place to handle social media and merch has been a big part of the band’s growth. They also have a manager who knows a little something about the biz: Hibbard’s dad, Pat Hibbard, was in Green Bay band Eddie Haskel and is a longtime key player at Let Me Be Frank Productions.
“It’s nice to have somebody to ask that already has the answer as you’re asking it,” Zak said.
“Or just updates our calendar,” Tabers-Kwak said. “That’s my bible.”
Wet Possum only comes out to play during Wisconsin’s warm-weather months, so generally April/May through October/November, depending on Green Bay Packers games. The band hibernates in winter to give everybody some time off, as they all have other jobs, and to prevent burnout and oversaturation of the market.
“Come spring, everyone’s asking us, ‘Hey, when are you playing again?’ – and not just our family and stuff,” Hayes said.
While they all check out mentally from the band during their off months to give themselves a true break, the friendships never go on hiatus. A couple of weeks after they all go their separate ways before the holidays, it isn’t long before the “Wanna hang out?” texts start.
It’s that friendship that is the driving dynamic of the band. The self-described “silly guys” who grew up playing in bands, shooting hoops and riding bikes have now seen each other through buying houses, starting families and other life milestones. Whitmire was the first to say it and they all agree: They would rather there be no Wet Possum than to not be friends.
So when you see Zak giggling from behind the drums during the entire show or guitarists laughing at one another, that’s just friends having fun. It’s the same thing they want audiences to walk away with from one of their performances.
“I hope they smile. That’s first and foremost for me,” Hibbard said. “Fun is kind of what we want the takeaway to be.”
Wet Possum’s upcoming summer shows in Green Bay area
Wet Possum had so many shows get cut short or canceled by rain the first half of this summer that fans have joked they may want to change their name to Dry Possum. There are still plenty of chances to catch the band close to home before its winter hibernation. Among the upcoming gigs:
To see the band’s full schedule, go to facebook.com/wetpossumband or wetpossumband.wixsite.com/wetpossum. You’ll also find some fun facts about opossums, the clever work of Hayes, in the band members’ bios.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: How Wet Possum turned a silly band name into a summer ’90s rock party
Reporting by Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
