Admittedly, for personal health issues in my family, I've been a homebody these past weeks. Didn't even really see any holiday shows (not even the wonderful Holiday Extravaganza that Testa Rosa and Mark Waldoch puts on), but finally a couple of weeks ago I needed to enjoy live music and I didn't want to take any chances. So, yeah, I went out and saw what I thought was a cover band: The Spiders From Milwaukee, who are so obviously a Bowie tribute band and they were playing out on the weekend anniversary of Bowie's birth (and death) at Club Garibaldi in Bay View.
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| Spiders From Milwaukee |
But calling them a "cover band" is a mistake. Let's just say they are a very well-named band. They don't do note-for-note reproductions of Bowie songs. They play Bowie songs but they're very
Milwaukee about it. They span Bowie's career hitting all the major points, but frost it up with some very Cream City touches to make it a compelling set, not just a nostalgia fest for Bowie fans. At times, they recall the Trance and Dance band with their capability to grab a theme and jam on it to a variety of moods. In fact, their take on "The Man Who Sold The World" was less Nirvana (thank God) and more like
that time on SNL when Klaus Nomi joined Bowie on stage to make it a cabaret torch song. All it needed to go full Milwaukee was an accordion or concertina.
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| The Thin Young Duke |
This band is very clearly guitarist Brian Wurch's brainchild (and yes, it DID appear to come together shortly after Bowie passed), but Wurch isn't a stage hog and he knows when to yeild the spotlight to the right person. In the case of "Life on Mars", that right person turned out to be wunderkind Valor Yost, who was a very Thin Young Duke. Yost is still young (I'm not even convinced his voice has changed yet) but he's got the pipes, range, and stage presence to pull off one of Bowie's more beautiful (and toughest to sing) songs, and yet he retains a youthful endearing earnestness while he belts out the chorus. Sometimes they came off sounding like a jazz combo (especially when they'd hit the Berlin era -- clearly these guys understand what Robert Fripp and Adrian Below brought to Bowie). They closed out their set with an extended "Let's Dance" that understood where Carlos Alomar was going, and had everybody on the floor, including Mr Milwaukeean himself, Paul Cebar. Also spotted in the crowd: Dick Satan himself, Russ G.
It was all part of a Elvis/Bowie birthday party weekend, and I'd missed the Elvis portion of the show (so unlike me) but at least could judge David "Elvis" Kirby on his Presleyness, since they brought him up for an encore rendition of Johnny B Good. He's a good Elvis: struck me like he was P
aul McCartney going as Elvis for Halloween in both vocal delivery and appearance. Fun stuff. But what I liked most about them was how they weren't trying to be Bowie: rather they picked up Bowie's songs and drove straight to the South Side of Milwaukee and retained both the beerhall warmth and glamorous British elegance that goes with that. My only regret is that I didn't bring my "good" SLR to shoot this. I was going out more to enjoy myself, not report on this, and duh, I forgot that that's who I am, a music reporter.
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| Shoes, setlist, beer. Everything you need for a Silk Torpedo experience |
A week later, on the dirtier side of the Glam continuum (and the other side of town in Riverwest) is
sixthstation favorites Silk Torpedo. Like The Spiders From Milwaukee, they're not British, they're definitely Americans in their approach (they usually open the show with Alice Cooper's "Under My Wheels") but they're not just Milwaukee about it. I'd say they have the beerhall of Milwaukee, but there's a lot of gritty, swaggering Detroit in there too, along with snarky Minneapolis. They dig deep into the glam songbook, but they're not afraid to rock out top 40 hits that approach bubblegum (Sweet's "Little Willy" always brings down the house in an anthemic sing-a-long.) I'm a fan, I've sung their praises enough, and they hit an era of music I'll always love. The best part is that they're continuously mining the 70s charts for more songs to sparkle with: at this last show they took on Dwight Twilley's "I'm On Fire" and lit it up. They're consistent but it's never the same show. Spotted in the crowd: Cliff and Marie Ulsberger, taking a break from work.
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| King Eye and half of the squirts |
So, having worked my going-out-to-see-a-band chops back in to shape, I was ready for untested waters and I waded in with a band I caught a couple of years back (at the Bay View Bash), King Eye and the Squirts. I remember really really liking them (a good glammy punk garage band will always make me happy) but every time they played out afterwards I had some conflict. But this past weekend they were playing at the Circle A, and opening for a band out of Green Bay -- and every time I've gone to the A to catch a band from somewhere north on I-43, I've never regretted it (see also: Dorothy's Worst out of Sheboygan, Windpipe out of Green Bay) so this wasn't much of a risk.
And the "risk" paid off: King Eye and the Squirts were even better than I remembered: and they had a woman singer who wasn't there the first time I saw them who was the frosting on the cake, adding an extra voice to their already anthemic but delirously snotty songs. I don't want to call them punk (even though that's their attitude) because they all have a sophisticated level of musicianship not normally associated with punk bands. They sparingly but effectively use odd chord changes, unconventional melody lines, and jarring rhythms to put forth a swaggering show. They'd played MittenFest earlier in the day, so maybe that accounted for a shorter set than I expected, and in a silent moment after their set closer, I said, "That's it?" (not intending to be heard). They complied and played another song, claiming they were running out of time. Circle A proprietor Warwick, who was clearly enjoying the show himself, motioned for them to continue. I'll have to get out to see them for a fuller night -- these guys are definitely on the don't miss list.
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| Smart Shoppers |
The headliners, Smart Shoppers, were worth giving up a longer King Eye set for. I'd already had an argument with lead singer "Joey Shops" about the appropriate error tolerance when calculating the area of a circle using pi, so I knew I was going to like this guy and his band. (Yes, they all have punk names that probably only slightly resemble their real names). Doubtful if any of their songs are longer than two minutes; they snap out with a catchy chorus and verse, make their point, and they're done while Joey's voice
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| What the hell is the value of pi, anyway? |
falls somewhere between fellow cheeseheads Jay Tiller and Richard LaValliere -- his tone, delivery and lyrics have that same nasal snarkieness with a touch of genuine sincerity that one finds in Wisconsin. Their songs burn their way into your head with couplets like: "I love myself I hate myself I don't know who the fuck I'm s'posed to be....." and "Third of a turd, Third of a turd, that's all you'll ever be." Snarky, at times vicious, always tight, they have a Devo meets the Buzzcocks thing going while dressed in semi-matching argyle sweaters/vests/socks. They often approached Voot Warnings territory in their ability to take one simple concept to the extreme, but they break it down. Oh and, spotted in the crowd: Blaine Schultz, catching a good night of punk and new wave with us. Definitely a band to catch, and yet another band that should be considered for the next New Wave fest -- but more for the early punk portion and less new wave. They definitely justified going out to see somebody different and on a chilly January night, warmed my soul.
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