Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Rave review


A comment on my blog (who reads my blog??) prompted me to quote someone who describes a show at The Rave (in Milwaukee) to a T. Pure torture
This is a quote of Citysearch
09/23/2006 Posted by whatmeworry2
Eagles ballroom has the worst sound of any venue [I have] been in. It's a big oval room with all hard surfaces, so it's like being in a big echo chamber. You have to stand near the back wall to have tolerable sound. The Rave has OK sound, but the night I was there, it was easily 90 degrees inside, no ventilation, no AC. Granted, this the day after a heat wave, but the low the night before was in the 60's. Open a window already! Both venues offer little seating, pack you in like cattle, and charge $6 for a beer. For some shows to get people in they give out passes: buy two drinks up front and get in "free". They charge $20 for the two drinks. I pity the person that buys two tickets to a show here, pays the ticketmaster extortion fees, parking, and two drinks. For two people, you're looking at $100 to see a c-list band.


I think this guy has it on the money. My guitar player used his "free" two drink minimum tickets to see a "d" list band and spent $80 on the drinks in total. Are you feeling me? Good luck to Turner Hall!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Turner Hall opens tonight.

Dear God, please help make Turner Hall a success. I don't normally ask you to do harm to any person, place or thing, but Milwaukee needs Turner Hall. We need more venues to take that size crowd. Think of it as a Rave venue downtown, with the backing of Pabst and Riverside theater style management? I also heard that a few local bands had shows there. If you can't fill that place up, it would feel pretty silly to stand there amongst 17 fans in a very large, cool looking hall. Back to Turner Hall's line up. To open the new venue, Josh Rouse, his band & Maria Taylor from Azure Ray will start the ball rolling. All tickets just $15 bucks.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Dierks Bentley plays to how many?




Dierks Bently's stage set up for The Bradley Center was "half house" to begin with. That shaves the venue to about 9,000. Word on the street is that Dierks sold less than one third of that half house. Perhaps a Milwaukee Theater sized venue would have been the better ticket. Was it wishful thinking that Dierks could fill half of the Bradley Center, or did the BC management offer Dierks some super sweet deal? The world may never know.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Shows for Children in Milwaukee


We're being inundated with children's shows here in Milwaukee. Kidz bop live, The Wiggles, Sesame Street Live, when Elmo Grows up. Yikes. But the biggest show for Milwaukee kids will be High School Musical on Ice. On Ice? What? I guess that some people will pony up the funds for High School Musical on Ice tickets at the Bradley Center. There are shows for every type of fan, young or old. I don't have kids, so it's foreign to me.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Debbie Harry of Blondie solo show at Turner Hall


November 20th, Debbie Harry comes to Turner Hall. This is no oldies show. Debbie came out with a solo album that she spent 1.5 years working on in between her Blondie commitments.

Turner Hall had burned up a few times in the 1930's and 1940's. It's been idle since then. You can't keep a 7000 square foot hall under wraps forever. I'm glad that Turner Hall is once again alive.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Another local venue, Turner Hall


Milwaukee Turner Hall is now booking shows. The same guy who runs the Riverside theater is running Turner Hall. I suspect he's trying to compete with the Rave market. Turner Hall is not huge. At least this venue is in a good location. Don't get me wrong, The Rave is a cool place visually, but it's an echo chamber and (in my opinion) a fire trap. Here's to you Turner Hall. I hope some great bands take advantage of the new venue.


Monday, October 8, 2007

Sacred Order, Milwaukee punk from the 1980's


Way back when, there was this great Wisconsin punk band named Sacred Order. I say way back when because the original line-up featuring Jay Tiller, Mike Podolak, Chip, and Beezer were the top-end Sacred Order. Chip moved on to The Crusties, Jay Tiller started Couch Flambeau, leaving Beezer and Mike to rotate other mates into the mix. Damien Strigenz, and Don Nelson moved into Sacred Order in the later years. Those are the guys you will hear on the 2004 Last Rites DVD/CD from WMSE and Push Button Gadget. I don't know what line-up will be on the stage at The Miramar Theater on November 10th, but I am certain that it will crush.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Where did all the Ozzy fans go?


You would think that the Ozzy show would be sold out. It's not. You can still get good tickets to the Ozzy/Rob Zombie show at the Bradley Center. Mind you, they aren't in the first 30 rows, but side stage seats are good. That's going to be an echo chamber show. The Bradley Center is was built for Hockey, not rock shows.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Waiting for Rilo Kiley


If they came to The Riverside Theater I would surely go. I'm talking about Rilo Kiley. The new disk, Under The Black light has 6 strong tunes. After song six, the disk drops in quality. It even sounds like the production and mixing drops in quality by song seven. It's as if they just stopped tweaking the songs after number 6. With that, they are worthy. I see by their tour dates that they are passing Milwaukee by. That's no surprise. We're "fly over" country now. Right from Minneapolis to Chicago, or vice versa. Since Rilo Kiley has a strong front woman singer, my guess is that some people would think that the band is named after her, but it's not. Jenny Lewis is her name. It's kind of like the Jethro Tull deal. No, Ian is his name, not Jethro. Get it?