Up and Under Pub
Almost on a whim, in 2006 Tim “Brody” Brodersen and his wife Jill bought the Up and Under Pub on Brady St. Why? Brody explains that whenever he spent time in Milwaukee, he found himself at the Up and Under.
“My brother owns Popeye’s Chicken restaurants in Milwaukee, and I was always a musician. My family is from Gary, Ind., and I always had a great time up here. My brother was parking his car to buy cigars across the street from the Up and someone asked him if he was there about buying the bar,” he says.
His quick-thinking brother decided to say “Yes,” and the rest is history. “That was June 13, 2006. By June 17, they had the earnest money. By June 30, I had a liquor license in my name and all my stuff moved up here. "Brody’s lease was month to month. “When COVID hit we were three months behind because we were closed. We’ve been paying our monthly rent since we were able to open, and we made up a portion of that back rent, too.”
The landlord terminated the month-to-month rent, but also offered to let Brody stay through New Years’ Eve. “He has something else in mind,” Brody says. “He definitely surprised us with the walking papers. We are losing money, so there is no sense in sticking in more money.”
Housed in an 1885 building, the bar has been known as the Up and Under since 1977 and was long a hub for the city’s blues scene.
If These Walls Could Talk…
On a busy night, the vibe on the sidewalk outside the Up and Under could recall Bourbon Street in New Orleans. “If these walls could talk,” may be a cliché, but if the shoe fits…
Where else could you see legendary Chicago bluesman Otis Rush, complete with a horn section playing a show subsidized by a cigarette company? Or William Clarke, the harmonica-playing road warrior cooling his heels outside between sets? Or a phantom-like midweek appearance by Evan Johns, the incendiary guitarist, performing as a sideman rifling off a catalog of roots-rock licks while sitting on his amplifier.
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Here’s a handful of memories from local musicians. Feel free to chime in with your own stories in the comments section.
Steve Cohen (Leroy Airmaster)
Leroy was playing a weekly Sunday jam at Woodrow's, a VFW Post on 11th & Mitchell. When they closed, the owner, Steve Wroblewski, started bartending at the Up and Under and talked (owner) Tom Beckman into having the jam there, and that was the beginning.
Jim Liban
When I came back from Nashville in ‘88, I played there every Friday for years! It was "home" for a long time.
Geo Kiesow (Poet, Bartender)
I was there from about 2012 to 2020. My favorite night was when David Hildago of Los Lobos played. It was a private show, but we let friends in. About halfway through David was joined by Paul Cebar. It was a heckuva show! Lots of tequila shots in the basement dressing room! I liked the no cover charge for bands, and instead giving them a sales percentage of drinks. That way they could take advantage of the Brady St. passersby.
When I got there, post-blues, it was big for reggae bands. My favorite shift was Monday night for Open Mic. It was the best. A lot of talent and different ages. Feedback Freddy Lee would stop in, so would Bryon Cherry. It was quite successful often ending with a local poet, with various folks behind him.
On Thursday I’d work during the day and we had comedy early. Who doesn’t like a free comedy show? I also booked bands during the day, when we had bands already booked at night. I’d put them in the front window instead of the stage – we had a band from Argentina once.
Paul Cebar
David (Hidalgo), Conrad (Lozano) and David’s son (I think it was Victor, on drums) came to town a day early before their Lobos performance at the PAC with a Mexican dance troupe. They called ahead and wondered if I would be up for having a collaborative evening with two of my favorite musicians to which I replied with a hearty, “You bet!”
Todd Pearson (Guitarist, Music Instructor)
I got to see Mick Taylor at the Up and Under. He’s my favorite Rolling Stone. Of course, I have fond memories of the blues jam sessions. I probably liked it more when they had the stage in the front windows. There were a couple of times I got to jam with what I felt like were the real pros. There were always some pretty crazy people dancing.
David J. Thomas
My band, The Boogie Men, played the Up and Under in 1985 on a Tuesday night with a guarantee! The stage was in the front window facing the bar and the city sent an inspector with a decibel meter. We had to turn down. Twice. Another memory is of the Sunday afternoon jam sessions. We had about five musicians on stage and an energetic singer comes up and says to us “Turn Back the Hands of Time!” He counts it off and we realize no one knows how to play it!
Jeff Stehr (World Roots)
World Roots was a large, bombastic local reggae band. We played at Up and Under regularly and one of the most memorable aspects of playing shows there was the shifts of different crowds and social scenes that dominated the space at different times of the day.
A typical 8 p.m. load-in for a Friday or Saturday night show meant I had to slowly poke and prod my way with a 75 pound keyboard amp and two heavy, bulky, hard cased keyboards, like an icebreaker through a barroom floor packed with an odd mix of drunken rugby league players, who typically occupied the space from mid-afternoon through early evening and a growing, fragrant contingent of patchouli-scented deadheads and dreadheads, arriving early to claim the limited number of tables and barstools adjacent to the dance floor.
One evening, the late Dave Bolyard (at that time, the drummer in my band, C-Food Buffet) stepped up and in to the Up and Under to attend his first World Roots show. Knowing how hard it would be for him to get a seat, I escorted him to a single barstool that offered him a great view of the band and that ensured he could order fresh beverages at the bar without having to push through the standing, typically-three-deep sea of humanity lining up to buy pitchers of beer during the show.
The elevated stage at Up and Under ensured that more often than not, patrons in front of the stage had their heads at roughly the same height as all the band's amps, so it was not uncommon to see dancers with sweaty cotton balls and toilet paper clinging to and drooping from their ears to protect themselves from the audio assault.
Unfortunately, I neglected to mention this to Dave, who, for years afterward, complained to me that I had trapped him in the direct line of fire of our guitarist Jim Murray's amplifier, which had a closed back cabinet with a very unidirectional sound dispersion, essentially turning it into a an early prototype for the LRAD sound cannons that we read sometimes read about in these days of protest gatherings and civic strife.
However, Dave was not the only one who had to endure a painful sonic assault that day.
Due to my proximity on stage to drummer Kenny Baldwin's China cymbal, which he often attacked relentlessly—as he beamed his signature maniacal, toothy grin directly at me—my left ear suffers from a loss of high end hearing that persists to this day.
Unbeknownst to Bolyard however, I would always turn that same deficient left ear in his direction whenever he decided to bring up that night again in subsequent conversations to complain!
Here is the lineup for the Up and Under’s final weekend:
Friday: Greg and Doug w/ band TBD
Saturday: Billy and Greg w/ Atomic Monroe @ 9 p.m.
Sunday: Farewell with The Family all day. Late Night = Billy + Up and Under All Stars past and present w/ Matty Gonzales @ 9 p.m.
