 |
| Photo courtesy of BrownDaymare.tumblr.com. |
It’s no secret to anyone who’s stumbled upon our little plot of Web real estate that we have a certain affinity for the Milwaukee music scene. And as hard as we work to keep you, Music Notes reader, up to date on local music happenings in our grueling two-post a week pace, sometimes we feel our Milwaukee-centric coverage deserves to extend outside the city limits and across state lines. Case in point, three very different Milwaukee bands taking to their respective vans and traveling to separate parts of the continental U.S. for simultaneous late summer tours.
The first week of August found my new favorites The Fatty Acids setting out on a month long Northwest-Southwest-South-Midwest jaunt. Not long after, longstanding noise rockers and palindrome enthusiasts IfIHadAHiFi embarked upon an ongoing 16-day, 16-show, 11-state (and one district) tour with Madison band Zebras. August 13 found HiFi playing in a guy’s house in Bloomington, IN for its second show of the tour, while heavy metal heavier-hitters Northless were also in The Hoosier State, starting a brief six-state, six-day, seven-show Midwest/East coast excursion in Indianapolis.
As recently as five years ago, bands from our fair city jettisoned off to play shows none of us could easily attend*, but this modern age of well-kept tour blogs and Facebook pages keeps out-of-town attendees up to date on show information and, at the same time, helps hometown fans keep tabs on said band’s tour exploits. Fortunately, The Fatty Acids, IfIHadAHiFi and Northless each did their part to keep fans in tour towns in the loop and indulge armchair tour-mates such as myself through such mediums. Here are some of the highlights of these recent and/or still active Milwaukee band tours.
The Fatty Acids
Through the band’s Facebook page and, more so, by way of its tour blog, Brown Daymare, I was able to stay up to date on the whereabouts of perhaps Brew City’s most quirky and talented band. Therein exists a flurry of Zs used to pluralize wordz (ahh! They have me doing it now!) and just as prominently, a series of overwhelmingly positive and humorous posts. The overarching theme of the Tumblr site, aside from the music, is the ever-worsening condition of “Brown Daymare,” the band’s rickety van. Choosing favorite entries is akin to selecting your favorite child (if your children said things like “alleyway blowey” and “That’s the way of the road, buddy. PAYYYYYYYYYYYCE”). So just do yourself a favor and read both pages of semi-tour-related literature.
Northless
The city’s preeminent purveyors of sludge metal seem to prefer letting its face-eroding tunes do the talking more than its Facebook page. But a glance at the Northless wall shows the same guys responsible for punishing and gourmet burger inspiring music to be gracious, appreciative and interactive. In glancing at the page, it’s safe to say that beyond a Brooklyn show falling through, the mini-tour seemed to go off without any significant hitches. Plus, the band even played at The Olive Garden in Philadelphia. Wait, that can’t be right.
IfIHadAHiFi
Last, but certainly not least, comes the thorough, funny and well-written prose of a band that’s, evidently, no stranger to the ins-and-outs of playing to small and disinterested crowds. Spearheaded by HiFi drummer DrAwkward—aka fellow Milwaukee freelance journalist D.J. Hostettler—the band’s Blogspot site chronicles the ups and (more commonly experienced) downs of being a small independent band on the road. Be it a retelling of a $13 performance at a place called “Gay Dudes Annex” (read: some guy’s basement), a flowery anecdote about a member having misplaced Jewish slurs hurled his way by one of the 10 audience members in North Carolina, the events of a “redeemed” ($18-earning) show in Philadelphia, or even an impromptu review of Johnny Rocket’s in Newport, KY, Hostettler and co. have found a way to take a series of disappointing, under-attended and sometimes not even paying gigs on what sounds to be an awful time on the road and verbally polish them into a great tour diary.
The next time your favorite Milwaukee bands hit the road, try to keep up on their whereabouts and status of the tour. It’s the next best thing to being there, and, this way, peeing in an empty bottle isn’t required. Though it is optional.
*I was actually in Pittsburgh the same night IfIHadAHiFi played, but went to the Brewers’ game and to Primanti Bros. Restaurant instead. Sorry, dudes.
IfIHadAHiFi photo courtesty of http://thehifi.blogspot.com/
