Kenny Baldwin
As a business model, opening a punk venue in a market like Milwaukee in the early ’80s was hardly a slam dunk, but that didn’t stop Kenny Baldwin from converting his father’s downtown disco, Starship Encounters, into a club called The Starship. Though the club only lasted two years, during that brief run it became one of the most influential venues in the city, hosting some of the top touring acts of the era—including X, The Cramps, Fear, Black Flag, The Gun Club, Sun Ra, Captain Beefheart and The Circle Jerks—and providing a home for Milwaukee’s nascent punk scene.
Baldwin passed away on Friday after a long battle with long cancer, prompting an outpouring of condolences and remembrances from dozens of musicians and peers in the Milwaukee music scene.
“Many people in the punk scene described The Starship as 'our living room'—a place to sit around, drink and talk even if no bands were playing,” recalls Shepherd Express A&E editor David Luhrssen. “The Starship was where Die Kreuzen, The Prosecutors, The Shivvers and most of the other Milwaukee original music, non-mainstream bands preferred to play.”
After The Starship closed, Baldwin remained active in the scene, doing sound for local venues and production at Summerfest. He also played in several bands that reflected his wide musical tastes.
“Kenny was open minded in learning about the era's new music, but he was also an accomplished jazz drummer who led his own band, Locate Your Lips,” says Luhrssen. “The connections he made to the alternative scene as the Starship's owner led to his membership in Milwaukee's techno-pop band, Colour Radio.”
In a memorial for OnMilwaukee, Bobby Tanzilo wrote that Baldwin understood the role he played in the music scene. “Though he didn't live in the past, and was as modest a guy as you'd ever meet—and would never take credit—he understood, I think, what he had helped spark here and how long the reach of The Starship has been,” Tanzilo wrote.
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Die Kreuzen’s Dan Kubinski was among the countless local musicians who shared an appreciation for Baldwin on Facebook. “I can't imagine how different my life would've been without Kenny Baldwin, he gave me and our little band so much,” he wrote. “Hell, he gave all of us in the music scene so very very much. Without him we simply wouldn't be.”
Kevn Kinney of Drivin n Cryin shared his appreciation in the form of a poem, while Shank Hall owner Peter Jest has honored Baldwin with a message on his club’s marquee: “We Will Miss You Kenny Baldwin.”
