A Night of Nostalgia

July 16th, 2008

Last weekend was the Senior Scenester Potluck over at Tenney Park. Someone had issued the threat of hazing to anyone under 30 who showed up and very few youngins who weren’t the children of a SS made an appearance. Instead greying Madison musos and the fans that love them gathered on a beautiful Sunday evening to relive past glories and catch up with what everyone is doing today.

I moved to Madison in 1990 which means that I am not exactly a Senior Scenester. But I’ve been around long enough to have seen a few of the bands that were the object of the reminiscing on Sunday and heard of most of them. And although names may have been useless, I recognized a large section of the crowd by their faces. The Dulcinea was a teen back in the day and did some singing so she came in at the youthful end of the Scenester crowd. She knew several of the folks there and didn’t miss her chance to schmooze with Gordon Ranney.

There was plenty of food, beer (after a brief trip to replace the first half barrel which was emptied quickly) and folks chatting about the bad old days when Killdozer and Tar Babies were center stage in the Madison hardcore music scene. Adam Powell has a nice write-up over at The Daily Page while there are more pictures to be had, including many of handbills featuring classic bands, up at Photobucket. I chatted with Steve Burke of The Gomers as he plowed through a 3-ring binder full of such handbills for Club DeWash (R.I.P.) and it was a hoot. One was plugging Uncle Tupelo’s appearance there on 12 September 1992. Then there was one for the Dread Zeppelin show I saw there in ‘94. Biff stopped by and Steve pointed out a Pere Ubu show and Biff confirmed the obvious – he was there. There were lots of appearances by bands that would go on to some degree of fame such as Pavement and Smashing Pumpkins (both in one week, no less), but there were also countless shows by local bands of yore such as Pachinko, Tongue, Killdozer, Tar Babies, Appliances SFB, Cattle Prod, and on and on.

Plus there was live music. An abbreviated Tancho Tancho!, Art Paul Schlosser, Jonathan Zarov, and an incestuous Headpump/Drug-Induced Nightmare combo performed.

Although I missed Madison in the 1980s, the day still brought back a lot of memories – Tongue, Pachinko, Velveteen Snackcake, and Cup O’Joe. Speaking of Cup O’Joe, I worked with drummer Tim Kinzy and I see that he is now an assistant editor for Battlestar Galactica. I wonder if he cut his hair and stopped doing so much acid…

Related posts:

1. A Night of Nostalgia
2. Tancho! Tancho! Makes Live Debut
3. A Night at the High Noon Saloon
4. Killdozer to Reunite
5. Show #164: Tongue – 16 Songs (1994-1998)