We are in the middle of a scene. Sure, the Turner Hall Ballroom feels a bit ratty, with paint peeling off the walls and the still-obvious scars of a long-ago fire, not to mention a net stretched across the ceiling in case pieces of plaster give way.
But that’s part of the deliberate charm of the Downtown venue, which has undergone major renovations after lying dormant for more than 65 years. The management strived – successfully – to retain much of its seedy splendor, yielding a uniquely new old venue that really rocks.
And the expectant crowd of twentysomethings sucking Pabst Blue Ribbons loves it. Behind them, as if separated by an invisible barrier, are rows of tables populated by reserved middle-aged folks sipping on cocktails. It’s an all-ages scene and the energy is palpable, even before Milwaukee’s own Maritime takes the stage.
A crunchy, guitar-driven avalanche of sound rips through the room as singer/guitarist Davey von Bohlen, drummer Dan Didier, guitarist Dan Hinz and bassist Justin Klug launch into their first song. A steady audience migration starts. Young and old alike are drawn to the stage by the band’s catchy, upbeat pop anthems.
It’s a great night, not just at Turner Hall, but also for the Milwaukee music scene, which seems distinctly more confident, mature and impressive in recent years.
The bands are better. “The styles of music coming out are much more creative than a few years ago,” says Steve Kerwin, lead singer and guitarist for The Response, a local band. “Being part of that scene really opens your eyes and makes you better.”
And the city is providing more support than before, says Andrew Jonathan, lead singer and guitarist for another Milwaukee band, Northern Room. “You have a variety of clubs and venues hungry to help break new bands and a few radio stations that are adding local acts to their playlists,” he says. “Milwaukee is experiencing the spark of a new music scene.”
For just about forever, Milwaukee has been plagued by feelings of inferiority to the bustling Chicago and Minneapolis music scenes, a sense that Milwaukee is doomed to be a cover band town rather than one creating its own unique style. But there’s a growing feeling that maybe, just maybe, Milwaukee could be something special.
In a recent article for Maisonneuve magazine, Edward Keenan, city editor of Toronto’s Eye Weekly, a prominent indie music rag, projected Milwaukee as the next major “it” city in indie rock. He created a wry formula examining key factors present in major hotbeds of the past decade, everything from economics and demographics to climate and proximity to water (for inspiration). The conclusion: Low rent, a plethora of universities and winters harsh enough to keep musicians indoors practicing made Milwaukee the runaway favorite to become the next great music town. Though this study was a bit tongue-in-cheek, most musicians will tell you that any press is good press – and that its conclusions echo their own hopes for what this city could become.
Uneven History
Milwaukee has had its share of successful and groundbreaking acts over the years. The Violent Femmes achieved cult hero status worldwide in the late ’80s and early ’90s, helping launch the college rock genre. At about the same time, the BoDeans were busy releasing a slew of rootsy, singalong top-40 anthems. Throw in some improbable success stories (Citizen King and Little Blue Crunchy Things) and seasoned veterans (Willy Porter and The Gufs), and you have a pedigree many cities would be proud to claim.
But by the late 1990s, that scene had lost its momentum. Rock-wise, Milwaukee began to look dead.
The resurgence came from many causes. The city’s urban renaissance was a key factor. As recently as the early 1990s, you could hardly find a coffee house in Milwaukee. Today, an influx of young, creative residents and the redevelopment of neighborhoods like Riverwest and Bay View has fostered art galleries, coffee shops and hipster hangouts, reinforcing the rock subculture and helping musicians connect and share ideas.
“Places like the Comet Café and Sugar Maple offer you the ability to build a rapport with people and develop that sense of community,” says The Response’s Kerwin.
Almost incestuously, the Milwaukee rock scene has begun to feed on itself, sparking an interaction of musicians and artists of various backgrounds and talents.
“For a while it seemed everyone was sticking to their niche,” says Kerwin. “But now everyone is intermingling, and that’s when you get these really creative, open types of music that have come to define the scene. As a result, you don’t just end up with the hardcore crowd and the pop-punk crowd and the ska crowd.”
For years, about the only radio station that would play any local music was WMSE-FM 91.7, the station chartered by Milwaukee School of Engineering. “We are just a bunch of volunteers and are indentured to the community and to local musicians,” WMSE station manager Tom Crawford says.
But the advent of another nonprofit rock–oriented radio station, 88Nine Radio Milwaukee (formerly jazz station WYMS-FM), has added a second outlet that plays and features local music. In addition, WUWM-FM 89.7’s “Café Tonight” show plays local music and also does live, in-
studio performances by area bands.
Meanwhile, for-profit radio is getting battered. The rise of the iPod generation and file-sharing has meant listeners can choose and program their own musical content. National radio industry revenue was down 11 percent in the first quarter of 2008, according to a Radio Advertising Bureau report. Big corporate chains whose radio stations play formatted music may need to reach out to the local communities they serve to help drive ratings.
One station doing this is WLUM-FM, Rock 102.1. Recently, Milwaukee band
Fever Marlene became the first unsigned band since The Gufs to have a song added to its regular rotation. Deejays Kramp and Adler feature a Milwaukee band in-studio every Friday, while Suzanne Sando hosts “The Scene,” a weekly hourlong show
dedicated to locals. “We really want our bands to succeed, and we do our best to make sure that happens,” she says.
Also, the club scene has gotten more vibrant. Milwaukee has long been a stop for unheralded smaller touring bands – from indie groups at the Cactus Club to hardcore bands at Shorewood Legion Hall – but until recently, the city was seen as an optional off-date between Chicago and Minneapolis for more prominent artists. That culture changed as the Pabst Theater enjoyed a renaissance under the leadership of its executive director, Gary Witt, with subsidies from philanthropist Michael Cudahy. As the Pabst began aggressively booking national acts, it increased the Milwaukee music scene’s prominence and also gave local groups a chance to open for big-name bands, offering exposure and legitimacy that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
Witt and Cudahy went on to strike a deal whereby Witt books acts for the Riverside Theater. Next came a community effort to renovate the Turner Hall Ballroom. After it was gutted by fire in 1941, the upper level of this Downtown gem, situated across the street from the Bradley Center, sat empty and unused. More than 65 years and $3.2 million later, the Milwaukee Turners have joined forces with the Pabst Theater. Witt is booking acts at Turner Hall and a city landmark is rejuvenated, giving local bands a high-profile club where they could land dates to play.
Clubs like Mad Planet, Shank Hall, Stonefly, Vnuk’s Lounge, the BBC and the Miramar Theatre have also played a pivotal role in nurturing local talent. WMSE music director Mike “Buzz” Bereiter says this trend has a direct correlation to Milwaukee’s storied past. Bereiter recalls the late ’70s and early ’80s, when original music experienced a surge in popularity as local bands like The Haskels and Sacred Order brought punk music to the forefront. “A lot of people who were part of that scene, they’re older now,” he says. “They’re starting their own businesses, opening clubs and bringing bands in because they know what it was like.”
Meanwhile, a younger generation is opening venues. Nestled snuggly beneath I-43/94 in the Walker’s Point neighborhood, the Borg Ward Collective opened last year as a hybrid art gallery and all-ages venue. Run by a group of 30 to 40 volunteers, it’s a welcome addition to a city where quality all-ages venues are at a premium.
Perhaps a final factor nurturing the local scene is a long-noted asset: a relatively cheap cost of living. Scott Starr and Kevin Dunphy of Fever Marlene moved to Los Angeles to pursue music after graduating from UW-Madison in 2004. They quickly realized the thrill of the West Coast came at a price. “Way too expensive,” Starr says. “We couldn’t park the van anywhere.”
So the scene here has grown. From the folk/psychedelic rock of Will Phalen and the Stereo Addicts to the dirty roots rock of The Cocksmiths, from the high-energy, emo-tinged aggression of The Response to the sonic dreamscapes of Collections of Colonies of Bees, from the art rock bombast of Disguised as Birds to the glossy alternative-pop minimalism of Juniper Tar, Milwaukee’s rock scene offers a vast diversity of talent and musical styles.
Milwaukee was well-represented at this year’s South By Southwest festival – the country’s biggest collection of hyped unsigned bands, music industry brass and, most importantly, influential music writers and bloggers – with local bands like Call Me Lightning, Cougar Den, Freshwater Collins and Collections of Colonies of Bees all making the trek to Austin, Texas.
Another way of measuring Milwaukee’s rock scene is to consider Web sites like Pitchfork Media, Stereogum and AbsolutePunk, which have become the new gatekeepers of undiscovered talent. These powerful writers and bloggers have their fingers on the pulse of the national indie scene and can make or break bands with a simple push of the “enter” key. Several area bands, including Maritime, Fever Marlene, Now You Have Audio and Decibully, have enjoyed priceless exposure, ranging from album reviews to features from these key industry taste-makers.
Formed in 2001, Milwaukee’s Decibully seamlessly integrates alt rock, soul and country. The band has released two albums on well-regarded indie label Polyvinyl Records and has constantly toured throughout the United States and Europe. In live performances, the band puts its musical chops on full display, with each member effortlessly shuffling among multiple instruments.
Relative newcomers Northern Room formed in 2004 and spent their first year in a basement writing songs. Since coming up for air, the band has been a whirlwind of rock energy and marketing savvy. They’ve created a buzz in town by landing as the under-band on big-ticket bills of national acts and by relentlessly self-promoting.
Many of the most significant rock scenes have ignited when a particular band or style of music takes off. Think late-’80s Bay Area punk (Green Day, The Offspring) or early-’90s Seattle grunge (Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots). Though there is no truly dominant genre in Milwaukee right now, there is a sense of maturity and camaraderie that has developed among very different musicians, making the rock community as strong as it has been in years.
“Everything right now seems very positive,” says Jay Riemer, singer and guitarist for the Milwaukee band 1956. “There seems to be a lot of fun, talented bands that are really into it for the music and a lot of people coming to see the shows for the same reason.”
Family Values
I came in search of the rock band Maritime. The location was the Palm Tavern, sparsely populated just then, yet feeling like exactly the right place to find a rock band – a cozy, smoke-free Bay View hangout with an impressive beer selection and an unmistakably hip vibe. Sure enough, crowded around a tall table in the front corner of the room, their rock beards visible from across the bar, were a few guys who looked like they were in a band.
One member was missing. Was this a case of a stereotypically pompous lead singer being too good to show for an interview? Nope. Turns out that Davey von Bohlen, a dedicated family man, was away on vacation with his wife and kids.
Very un-rock ’n’ roll.
Already veterans of the Midwest rock scene by 1995, von Bohlen (then in legendary punk band Cap’n Jazz) and Dan Didier (ex-Ceilishrine) teamed up to form The Promise Ring. Though it was created simply as a side project, The Promise Ring quickly became one of the most influential rock bands of the mid-’90s and one of the forefathers of the young emo movement.
But the road wasn’t kind. Returning home in a snowstorm from a 1998 tour, The Promise Ring was involved in a serious accident that landed three members in the hospital. Tim Owen, co-owner of Jade Tree Records, said at the time, “Everybody was thrown from the van, the roof was peeled back like a sardine can and all the doors were ripped off.”
Bad luck struck again during a 2000 tour with punk legends Bad Religion. After experiencing severe headaches for almost a year, von Bohlen saw a neurologist for tests, which revealed a fist-sized brain tumor.
Doctors were able to successfully remove the growth, which turned out to be a benign menangioma. But a bone infection from the surgery forced doctors to remove a palm-sized section of von Bohlen’s skull and effectively put the band out of business for more than a year.
Though von Bohlen says his medical problems didn’t affect the writing of their next album, 2002’s Wood/Water, the rather introspective result was unlike anything the group had released previously and seemed to foreshadow its decision to disband.
“We were part of this machine,” von Bohlen says. “We never really thought of our lives as something outside of the group.” But after the accident and the surgery, he says, “we were able to look outside the band. And we never really recovered from that.”
Didier and von Bohlen fled the spotlight and expectations associated with The Promise Ring and formed Maritime. In 2006, longtime friends Justin Klug (ex-Decibully) and Dan Hinz joined, and the new group was complete.
For all four, music has been their life. Relationships came and went and careers got put on hold, all to serve the band. But today, they’re all family men in their early-30s with kids, bills and responsibilities, and a wiser, more reflective view. “Now being in the band is less business and more an escape,” Didier says. “It’s just a creative outlet that we don’t get through parenting our children or working our jobs.”
Didier and Klug each have a 2-year-old daughter, born just three days apart, and von Bohlen has two sons, 3 ½ and 1 ½ years old. Hinz became a dad in July, which he jokes was sort of a rite of passage. “Actually I had to get my wife pregnant to be in the band. It was touch-and-go there for a while. It was like The Firm,” he says.
As responsibilities mount and disposable time declines, the question of what life will be like – someday – without music inevitably rears its head. “It’s like giving up shoes for the rest of your life,” Hinz imagines. “It’s going to be pretty weird for the first couple of years, but eventually you’ll build up calluses on your feet.”
But for now, Maritime is still committed to music and has followed each album to date with tours of Europe and Japan, where the band is wildly popular. On this latest tour, in addition to the usual amplifiers, guitars and snack food, the band packed a new piece of equipment: a webcam to keep in touch with the little ones at home.
How do the band’s members juggle family, career and the band? “There’s no clear, concise way to say why or how it works,” Hinz muses, “but shit, it works. And it’s amazing.”
Like an increasing number of musicians, all the members of Maritime call Bay View home. This unassuming swath of Milwaukee lies just south of Downtown, but it’s at the heart of the city’s resurgent rock scene. “About six years ago, somebody threw a rock over here and everybody moved within a mile of it,” Klug jokes.
The fact that Bay View is home to the Cactus Club, a legendary indie rock venue, has certainly played a role. Since Eric Uecke took over the club’s ownership in 1996, a slew of big-name underground acts from around the world have performed in the back room, often with local bands opening. The club’s rep and raw rock club atmosphere has made it a favorite home base for many of Milwaukee’s most influential acts.
“The Pabst, the Riverside and Turner Hall are great venues, but the Cactus Club was doing what they’re doing now 10 years ago,” says Steve Hyden, city editor for The Onion’s A.V. Club. “There are so many bands [The White Stripes, Death Cab For Cutie, Queens of the Stone Age] that the Cactus brought to town first.”
Hyden points to the worry, going back more than a decade, that Wisconsin is experiencing a brain drain of young, well-educated professionals. One thing that draws them to other cities, he argues, is a thriving music and art scene. “It’s not just music, it’s music as a piece of a larger cultural reputation that a city has. It’s something that can help keep young, smart people here.”
He brings up the Milwaukee Brewers, whose survival (through the construction of Miller Park) became a huge issue for the state. “The Brewers are an entertainment organization just as surely as the Pabst Theater or the Milwaukee Art Museum or the Cactus Club,” Hyden says. “People want to live in a city that has a professional sports team just like they want a city with good music and art. It’s about having pride in your city. That culture makes it unique.”
And it becomes part of the city’s reputation, a reputation that can subtly spread nationally and even internationally.
Ask Matt Sharp, original bass player for the rock supergroup Weezer. Not long ago, he was at the Rock 102.1 studio for a radio interview to promote an upcoming Miramar Theatre show featuring his current band, The Rentals. As he took a seat and slid on his headphones, the dry-erase board with a list of future guests caught his eye.
“Maritime? I just got back from Europe where I saw those guys,” he said. “They sold out this huge venue. They were amazing.”
He paused and turned his head back toward the board, a look of disbelief slowly registering on his face.
“Are they from here?”
Rock Genre Glossary
Alternative Though the name evokes flannel-clad Seattle grunge rockers of the early ’90s, this style of rock features an eclectic mix of subgenres, from folk to electronic to jazz.
National Stone Temple Pilots, Death Cab For Cutie, The White Stripes
Local Northern Room, 1956, Revision Text
Art Rock
Experimental and unconventional, it rejects conventional pop melodies, opting for progressive song structure and dissonant tonality.
National Radiohead, Shiner, Tool
Local IfIHadAHiFi, Disguised As Birds, White Wrench Conservatory
College Rock
A predecessor to alternative, it gained popularity in the ’80s on the nation’s campus radio stations. Mixing new wave pop with elements of alternative, it evokes a distinct underground feel.
National R.E.M., U2, The Replacements
Local Violent Femmes, Plexi 3
Emo
An extension of punk music, the ubiquitous, oft-maligned genre is a broad categorization of punk-infused music that ranges from hardcore to melodic or overtly emotional and everything in between. National Sunny Day Real Estate, Jimmy Eat World, Thrice
Local The Promise Ring, The Response
Folk
Tight vocal harmonies, jangly guitars and melodic subtlety. Commonly associated with singer/songwriters.
National Bob Dylan, Indigo Girls, Bright Eyes
Local Willy Porter, Will Phalen and the Stereo Addicts
Hardcore
Loud guitars, fast rhythms and tight musicianship, combining elements of punk and heavy metal with lyrics about politics, war and social alienation.
National Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Biohazard
Local Half Gorilla, Protestant, Abaddon
Roots
Pure Americana. Mixing folk, country and blues with a classic rock ’n’ roll kick.
National Wilco, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Counting Crows
Local The BoDeans, The Cocksmiths, The Goodnight Loving
– Kevin Kosterman
Do It Yourself Bands
The days when major label record contracts were seen as the Holy Grail for aspiring musicians are long gone. With innovations in digital recording making high-quality home recordings affordable and the Internet providing free distribution and endless promotional opportunities, do-it-yourself musicians can craft successful careers out of little more than a few instruments, a van and a laptop.
The more aggressive bands hit the road – hard. They spend their days packed into old cargo vans and their nights in smoke-filled basements, bars and VFW halls, getting whatever sleep they can on random couches and floors before heading to the next city. Local bands like Decibully, Plexi 3, IfIHadAHiFi, The Goodnight Loving and Cougar Den are touring this way.
Call Me Lightning is one do-it-yourself band that’s achieving success. With last year’s sophomore album Soft Skeletons, the band’s unique brand of punk art rock won a feature in Spin Magazine and an invitation to this year’s South by Southwest festival, one of the country’s preeminent showcases of unsigned talent. Success has clearly not gone to their heads, though. When asked to name the band’s greatest accomplishment, singer/guitarist Nathan Lilley cracks, “We haven’t broken up yet.”
But bands like Call Me Lightning still love the home base they have here. There’s no need to inflate Milwaukee’s rock scene in order to put the city on the national map, Lilley contends. “Pick up a map, it’s already there.”
– Kevin Kosterman
Kevin Kosterman, a former Milwaukee Magazineintern, once played in a nationally touring band. Write to him at letters@milwaukeemagazine.com.
