Words by Brian Whitney
Being an East-Coaster, I have a very different perspective of the Midwest than many native Wisconsinites. To those of us who are from the coasts, our mental picture of America consists of New England, California, and a large, grey blob in between. I recently went home for a family visit, and bumped into some friends who asked me how living in “Michigan” was going. It seems like a lot of booking agents have a skewed view of the Midwest, having bands hit up Chicago and Minneapolis, but leaving out Milwaukee. Sometimes bands will even make a stop in Madison and not Milwaukee, which is completely frustrating considering the already considerable cost of seeing a national touring band (thanks, Ticketmaster).
Enter Deerhoof, a fearsome San Francisco foursome whose music defies explanation. Seriously, the way that “Primus” was a genre on WinAmp. This video might help:
Video courtesy of YouTube
Anyway, as I guess you’ve figured out by my adolescent gushing, Deerhoof is one of my favorite bands, and one of the few current “rock” bands (quotes, because I’m not sure how much you can really call them a rock band) that I believe to still be doing something worthwhile.
One morning, in the pretty recent past, I was making my normal music blog rounds, when the following item came to my attention:
Oh, how my heart doth sing! The mighty ‘Hoof will be coming to town. Our town! And for a measly twelve bucks! Seriously, I haven’t seen a more ‘worth it’ show come to Milwaukee since, well, probably Flight of the Conchords, and I missed out on that one. I will not be making the same mistake twice with this show.
Anyone else who enjoys a really excellent live band that will give you an outlet for your crummy job, significant other, lack of a significant other, family, etc. for an hour, and has twelve dollars floating around should take this opportunity. You will not be disappointed.
