Milwaukee was a (polka) riot
I was having so much fun I forgot to take photos. So here’s me in the dark with Ernie Coopman on the decks.
On September 5, I hit the road to Milwaukee to spin records for the Milwaukee Polka Riot. Some day I will give my TED Talk about how polka music is a huge, global tent under which an infinite variety of music is welcome. To see that idea in action, go to the Milwaukee Polka Riot.
It’s an alternative polka music festival that mostly organizes itself around edgy bands with accordions. Unless the legendary The Polkaholics from Chicago are involved with no squeezeboxes at all, just one drummer and two guitars.
Throughout the event, DJs spun records between the bands with DJ Shotski (Monona’s Polka Time, WVMO 98.7 FM) and Stashu (Jersey City’s Dance with Me Stanley, WFMU 91.1 FM) taking turns on the ones and twos with their collection of vintage polka LPs and 45s. DJ Brumeister (Milwaukee’s Riverwest Radio, WXRW 104.1 FM) was our fearless MC along with accordion player Evan Maruszewski.
The line up started on the street in front of Linneman’s Riverwest Inn with Forró Fo Sho from Madison playing Brazilian Forró music. They taught me about how David Byrne from The Talking Heads loves Forró and helped popularize it beyond Northeastern Brazil (watch a little of this in his performance of Asa Branca with the band Forró in the Dark).
The Baggy Magnums (fka Bluesy Floozy) from Milwaukee played a range of 80s new wave and alternative tunes with their tuba and accordion. Introduced by recent Milwaukee Poet Laureate, Mario the Poet, the November Criminals turned out their Milwaukee fan base who came to hear their poetry of non-ironic polka hip-hop. The party went inside at dusk for Good Friends Klezmer Band from Milwaukee playing polkas and Jewish-inspired folk tunes. They were joined on the stage by the young and talented Nic Calvache of Milwaukee’s squeezebox repair joint, All Things Squeezy.
The highlight of my night was seeing the return of The Polkaholics from Chicago. Next year will mark 30 years of the band, led by “Dandy Don” Hedeker with Chris “Blitz Linster” on bass and “Action Jackson” Wilson on drums. This recent interview with the band at their recording studio shows the roots of the band in the Chicago punk scene and musicians that just want to have happy fun times, which is what polka is about.
The party wrapped up with The Frantastic Sound System, a zydeco-inspired band from Chicago that really knew how to work a crowd. Zydeco is more party music from Louisiana and they had people dancing fast at the start, and then coupling off during their cover of Bad Company’s Feel Like Making Love near the end of their set. Their guitar, washboard, sax and accordion paraded people off of the dance floor and into the bar toward the exit to end the show. Good stuff.
Extra respect to the event organizers who went above and beyond to hype the event and get the street permit. DJ Brumeister and Stashu even got up at the crack of dawn to do an interview with WISN-TV on the morning of the event. These folks are doing their share to keep Milwaukee weird and make space for creative polka and polka-adjacent music.