Loose Ends
I happened to catch an up-and-coming band called Yolk at a local festival, and it took me down some regional music rabbit holes. I suspect the local music scene has some juice.
I’m old, but I’ve heard enough about basement shows to know Madison has a growing, thriving live music scene outside the usual venues. The kids are stressed and pressed, and it seems like they’d rather be pressed against each other than locked online with us. Can’t blame them. Yolk hangs with Milwaukee band Social Cig, who have been touring the region and have all the ingredients to go large.
I mentioned in a previous post that I grew up in (greater-, greater-) Chicagoland, on the Jorjiana side of the ombré. In my day, house shows might have brought Freddie Gibbs and Daniel Knox through.
The shared energy across these scenes is generative. Weird and lovely industrial, metal and punk bands are everywhere in the Midwest. The warehouse scene in my neighborhood turned out several excellent groups, from Crazy Doberman to Data Unknown, and brought real punk and avant-garde acts through an otherwise sleepy community. I’ve been thinking about them since I discovered Party Dozen earlier this year, who come out of Australia’s warehouse scene.
In other news: I heard there was a mosh pit at the local high school Homecoming, so I asked the kids what they mosh to today. Turns out, they love Foenem’s hits celebrating the Milwaukee Central Library and the Milwaukee County Zoo. Talk about zeitgeist.