If you're into local music and
have lived in Madison for a year, you've seen it happen a dozen times. DIY and other non-traditional venues get shut
down within a couple of months of their inception. The most infamous case being the shutdown of
a punk warehouse venue after some dip-shit reporter wrote a show review that
included the name of the venue, the basic location, and a list of "fire
hazards," such as insulation falling out of the ceiling. To be fair, the reporter could have simply
been naive - maybe he had just finished reading Hell's Angels and was so
inspired to get Gonzo on Madison's counter-culture that his enthusiasm
overshadowed his discretion. But notice
how I chose to omit the name of the warehouse venue above...Years after it's
been good-and-dead! It's the principle
of the thing and, most of all, a habit we need to adopt in order to protect our
coveted unofficial, non-bar, all ages, DIY, BYOB, donation based, et cetera,
venues.
After last weekend, I'm worried
we're going to loose another one: a “shop” that recently hosted a benefit for a
Native American Tribe in northern Wisconsin.
There are many reasons why it sucked to have the show busted, the main
one being the fact that the tribe lost potential donations from more people
entering or buying raffle tickets.
But the incident also points to an over-arching issue for
local music. This undisclosed “shop” in
Madison was being supportive of an honorable cause in a way that official
venues rarely offer: opening their doors on a strictly donation-only basis, and
welcoming all ages. The owner is very
communicative with his neighbors, monitors the sound level, and ends the music
at midnight sharp, which goes above and beyond the usual level of courtesy
you’ll get from most Madisonian party hosts. Still, the city and law
enforcement treats these shows like are crawling with unruly punks causing
trouble on the streets, and under-aged drinkers, and just a nuisance. Well, they are. ALL parties are! Cops single out these gatherings because
there’s a stigma attached to a party with live bands that doesn’t apply to good
‘ol keg n’ beer pong parties. They can’t control it, so they’re afraid of it.
It wasn't clear why the cop was
there in the first place, but the organizers and show-goers said that they
suspected that he was "just driving by" and saw and/or heard a band
playing. This is a reasonable assumption
since the cop didn’t tell us there was a noise complaint, which they usually do
if one was made. However, I have
suspicions that social media was the culprit.
Minneapolis, where I’ve lived for
two years now, has similar sad stories.
For a time (and perhaps still) there was a woman employed by the city
whose sole job was to seek and destroy “anarchist/DIY” venues. (Guess how she did her research?) There were a couple tragic casualties in the
summer of 2009 and 2010 - but one venue, a staple of Twin Cities local music
culture, survived, and is still up and running today. It’s called the... just kidding. I won’t even hint at what or where it is - in
fact, no one in the scene will. And
that’s why it’s still there. On fliers,
facebook events, forum posts, even in speech the venue “name” is obscured,
twisted around, and made fun of; the venue doesn’t have a facebook page, and no
one EVER posts the address ANYWHERE.
Even better, it doesn’t have an address.
There’s something to learn from
this undisclosed carnival fun house in Minneapolis. If you want to host bands to play in your
basement, warehouse, garage, studio, shop, where ever, then make it clear that
the location is a secret. Hell, keeping
it hush-hush and mainly word-of-mouth creates hype anyway. Everyone will be better off.
In the end, the show at the shop
in Madison wasn’t a complete bust. Word
was out in about five minutes that the show would be moved to a basement. I got to the basement early, tidied up a bit,
and within a half hour we were playing for a fun group of people who wanted to
see a rock show.
-IS
