MilwHC:Venues:TheOaklandHouse

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[edit] Oakland House

Some punks lived on Oakland Avenue on Milwaukee's East Side and had basement shows all the time.

Actually, there may have been more than one Oakland House over the years, but Milwaukee has this habit of just naming the punk house after the name of the street it's on, which sort of makes things confusing sometimes... --Pete Prodoehl

I am very happy that Mr Prodoehl has given THE OAKLAND HOUSE a brief citation. It is true that "Some punks" lived on Oakland Street [sic... its AVENUE... you should know that, Pete], but this "venue" should be placed in the fore of the early 90s scene in Milwaukee. I was there at the begining of the OAKLAND HOUSE phenom, and can explain a bit. Hopefully some others will add to the narrative. The first show at the OAKLAND HOUSE was booked by Red Hair Matt some time in 1991 and featured Madison's NAKED AGGRESSION, a local metal band called INNER FEAR and (this name may ring a few bells), THINK. The show was out of control! Kegs of beer, a real DJ/sound guy with a frickin' fog machine and... AND it was advertised on the local alt/inie sradio station WMSE! The amount of people at the house was just nuts... a line going out to the street, from the back door, fog billowing from every window (the DJ really liked his toys) and beer pretty much everywhere. Needless to say, some of the folks who went to the show (i.e. kids who grew up in the Milwaukee area and had an investment in the scene at the time) didn't like the college "party" atmosphere of the whole thing (can ya blame 'em?). BUT nevertheless they called a few days later to book another show and the shit started snowballing. The second show at the OAKLAND HOUSE was again NAKED AGGRESSION with Madison's INSPECTOR 12. From there it all just took off. Thus, the OAKLAND HOUSE was the place where bands like LOS CRUDOS (their first Milwaukee show was in that dank basement), ECONOCHRIST, RORSHACH, ZEKE, DIRT, PROMISE RING, SUBMACHINE and many many more played in Milwaukee.

I lived in the oakland house from '93-'95 and in those short years I witnessed more about "punkrock life" than I ever thought possible. My first day there consisted of moving in and then trying to enjoy the Rorschach show while getting a grasp on living in a dusty ol' fire trap of an attic. I was having fun but overwhelmed by new roomates like Dave Wickman, Mari Niescior, Randy Neckolaishen, Matt Stofflett (or red-haired Matt as some refer to him) plus others well more experienced and older than me. During this time here, our house members assisted in the set up alot of the submachine, dirt, econochrist, zeke, huasipungo, born against , animal farm and other shows of the like. My first band downer had our first show here alongside a rampant sewage pit. Did we care? Hell no! Ofcourse, other folks brought some of these bands to us because of our permissiveness of shows anytime no matter what. I'm positive that is what ran us into problems with cops, landlord, ect. We went through cold winters with nothing more than plastic for windows because bands travelling thru broke them. Also roomates going nuts contributed. Outbreaks of fleas, scabies and rampant theft left our home in shambles and mistrust. Still, we persevered and kept booking shows when other houses couldn't and other venues just plain sucked. We also seemed to have received alot of criticism due to the obviously visible drug problems that plagued many of our housemates. But despite any acusations or distorted and overblown views upon some of our house-kin, we were still one of the only sources of reliability for shows during that time. We got a chance to meet so many bands and travellers during that time period. I met a friend by the name of Mike Straight with which i still maintain a friendship today. Heidi Furer, Adrienne Droogas, Wendy-O-Matik, and so many others have come to be of real significance in my life because of this house. It may not have been perfect during this time, but we tried, tired, tried. I am personally very thankful for my time there and it has made a great deal of difference in my life. Kayt