A couple two tree weeks ago I attended a
Make History Madison event called "
The Music Venues We Have Loved". WORT DJ Cooper Talbot did the initial introduction but I was lucky enough to have a chance to chat with her before things got underway. She proved to be a wonderful lady with her love of oozing from every pore, apparent in every word she spoke.
John Wedge of local band
The Periodicals and Sean Michael Dargan, another local muso, directed the discussion.
The panel consisted of a slew of local musicians and venue owners who would reminisce about Madison's music scene mostly of the 1980s and 90s and talk about the challenges and rewards of running a music club.
Pam Barrett - owner of the Harmony Bar and muso of Motor Primitives fame as well as other bands.
Tony Casteneda - founding father of the Madison Latin jazz scene and aspiring Wisconsin assemblyman.
Cathy Dethmers - bassist in Tormentula, former owner of O'Cayz Corral and High Noon Saloon.
Dan Hobson - drummer extraordinaire of Killdozer, most notably, but also a country ton of other local acts like The Tiny Band, Optometri, Cement Pond, etc.
Joe Lambert - booked bands at the Crystal Corner Bar for a couple decades.
Lisa Marine - bassist in numerous Madison bands including The Quickies, Bent Antenna, and The Tiny Band with Dan Hobson.
Darwin Sampson - former owner of The Frequency.
Missing was
Kevin Willmott, owner of The Frequency's successor,
Gamma Ray Bar and singer in Don't Mess With Cupid.
Whew!
I had a front row seat with my pal
Eric the Driftless Cowboy, DJ for Classic Country Corner on WVMO along with a good friend of Lisa Marine's with whom I am an acquaintance. So I had a nice chat with her and did some catching up.
There was a lot of reminiscing about venues no longer with us, especially O'Cayz, and the community spirit that these places engendered. Someone, I cannot recall whom, recounted how, at O'Cayz, people far from the bar would start a beer brigade since they were packed in too tightly to get the bar without undue hassle. They'd hand to the person next an empty glass, some cash, and give their order and all would be passed along in a chain to the bar. The drink would be poured and paid for and then the new glass along with any change would be passed along in the same way to the thirsty music lover who was unable to make their way to the bar.
Some memories were not so sweet as Lisa and Cathy (and perhaps Pam) recounted how they'd be mistaken for girlfriends at gigs and be stopped by venue personnel from loading their gear.
Dan told the story of meeting Bono on State Street when U2 played Merlyn's back on the Boy tour. Darwin and Joe both talked about how they got into booking/club ownership with the former offering advice: don't just book bands you like. He said that he brought bands into The Frequency that he was unfamiliar with and ended up becoming a fan of countless groups.
Tony was the first to break the 80s-90s barrier when he took us back to the 1970s as he talked about being a part of the first Latin jazz band in Madison as well as the pioneering Cardinal Bar and its first owner Ricardo Gonzalez.
At some point it dawned on me that most of the conversation concerned downtown and campus area venues and this got me wondering about those elsewhere in town, specifically black owned ones. I silently wondered if Mr. P's Place, the bar owned by Madison civil rights firebrand Eugene Parks, had hosted music. Within a few minutes, someone in the audience mentioned a couple venues the panel hadn't spoken about and noted that Mr. P's Place had jazz nights.
This brought back memories of
the tribulations of R Place on Park, a black owned club with a mostly black clientele which lost its liquor license back in 2011. In its short lifetime, R Place, from what I've heard, had a loyal customer base and provided for black Madisonians a space of their own, so to speak.
Audience members added to the mix by mentioning various other, smaller, more low key venues such as housing co-ops like Lothlorien and the storefront venue Project Lodge that was on the near northeast side.
With the emphasis on downtown/campus venues where alcohol was served and music as something you pay to see, the book
The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town came to mind. It looks at the amateur musicians of the London suburb of Milton Keynes with a lot of pages devoted to unpaid performers and those for whom music performance was an avocation, not a big source of income.
This was, of course, beyond the purview of the discussion at hand but recognizing all of the musical activity that doesn't happen at a beloved club paints a fuller picture and makes the idea of a Madison music scene more expansive.
At the end the panelists seemed to come to agreement that the Madison music scene has always been eclectic and that it is still healthy, that new generations of performers and audiences are keeping the flame alive and will someday be able to look back just as we were that night.
I met Dan Hobson afterwards as we were both unlocking our bikes and asked him if he was still booking bands for the Orton Park Festival. He said that he was and proceeded to talk up a band that is set to appear at this year's event. They are from Chicago and I believe the band's name starts with an S. But, since I'd never heard of them, I cannot recall their name. He did this same thing several years back when he and his fellow music bookers brought Chicago's up and coming Twin Peaks to the fest.
He thought that the music line-up for the festival was up but its Facebook page hasn't been updated in a few months as I write.
That's one of things I really like about Dan. In addition to just being a really affable fellow, he is a fan of new music and is always championing bands of today.
