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The Oprahs/Waking Bradley/June/Cry Twice A Sunday all ages show? I've never been to one of those, self-admittedly. I also knew that, unfortunately, no alcohol The Mad Planet is located in the Riverwest neighborhood of the City of Milwaukee. The neighborhood is one of the most diverse in the city. You have many trendy wanna-be east-siders mixed in with young families and older couples, all inhabitating the same area. Mad Planet has a cool exterior with a few different murals painted on the walls. When you walk inside, you first notice the bar and are then drawn to a back corner of the black, stucko wall concert facility. In that corner is a couch and table that looks just too comfy to be true. As you walk around the place, you notice that The backstage area is downstairs and it's really just your typical musty smelling basement. They had several old couches down there and a table or two. I chose to stand because the couches looked like they may have had many 'encounters' on them and I'm just a snob I guess. When you're a rock star like me, you tend to expect better. (Sarcasm intended) The real reason we were there though was the show. The first band, Cry Twice, was a disappointment. I hadn't heard about them until they went on stage. I was told they
Waking Bradley was decent. They started out great in my eyes. The singer had a different The Oprahs were the headliner for the night. They really got into their music and while I hate to use cliches, they seemed to really be feeling the music, as was I. Paul, the lead singer, really has a After the show, Scott and I talked to Ian, manager of Don Wadewitz Go Back. |
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would be found in the place. I had heard of the venue, Mad Planet, but had never been there, which surprised several people who know my heavy involvement in the local music community. Unfortunately, when you book shows, you don't have much of an opportunity to see a club other than your own.
there are many of these nooks and crannies in the venue and they just seem to invite you into their lair. The main bar area has a couple TV's which a seemingly bored bartender utilized to watch one of the Terminator movies on. There's also a smaller back bar by the restrooms and a larger nook that has a pool table and some games. Supposedly, there's also a beer garden, but it was a Sunday and the garden is apparently only open on Friday nights.
were a new band which would explain the fact that they were out of key at times and weren't acting as a cohesive unit. Two members dressed one way and two others dressed another. I'm not looking for everyone to be in suits up there during a show like this, but understand your target market and work with it, not against it. This band really had me missing alcohol. I was wishing the water I was sucking down would magically turn to vodka, but I didn't have a rabbit in my hat on this night.
The second band, June, was very impressive. They came up from Chicago to be the second band on this bill. They got the crowd involved right away and had them up at the stage moving and swaying a little. They were very intense and had two members who could sing. They got me into the set enough that I decided it was time to let Scott Hanson buy me a can of Sobe (only $1, not bad). They really should have borrowed one of their singers to the next band however.
voice that was nasally and pretty cool to start. However, his voice became quite annoying by song three and gave me a bad headache. He threw out a couple of corny jokes that got a laugh out of the crowd, myself included (maybe the Sobe was spiked). They were tight musically but the singer's voice just began to get me more and more agitated as the set continued. Scott agreed with me so it made me feel better that it wasn't me. I was really, really missing my alcohol and wishing I had spent the dollar for earplugs now as I had a headache of epic proportions and needed a couple of tylenol. 
The saving grace to Waking Bradley is one of their amps, which they covered with the Wisconsin state flag!
commanding presence on the stage. He dresses the part and just demands your attention. They played a short, six song set, but the crowd demanded an encore so they came out and played an old favorite, "Nikkisex. " Paul got the crowd clapping their hands together over their heads and the crowd even helped by singing along to the song. The Oprahs were definitely the aspirin for my headache.
The Oprahs, and he asked us what we thought, showing genuine interest in our opinion. He asked us to classify the band and, while Scott said it was different and difficult to exactly pinpoint, he said he would call it emo-core. Ian didn't like Scott's opinion, hoping that we would just say it's not something you can label. I don't understand this with band's today. You're going to be labeled something and you need to understand that. I personally try and label everything, rock, jazz, pop or hip-hop. Pretty much everything else is some sort of offshoot of those labels. Don't get caught up in the label, just play your music and be happy. Let the dumb ass critics worry about what you're going to be labeled. Play music and be happy, please.