Riverwest Fest to Raise Funds For All-Ages Venue

All-ages music venues in Milwaukee typically lead short, precarious existences. Many basement venues fizzle out after a few months, while the ones that grow too large are eventually shut down by the city. The all-ages venues that decide to go legitimate face a whole other set of challenges: Getting the proper permits to charge even a modest $5 cover for live music can often be prohibitively expensive.

Nonetheless, the managers of the Eagle\'s Nest, an all-ages music venue housed in the Jackpot Gallery at 825 E. Center St., are working to bring their venue up to code to ensure its future, but first the building will need considerable renovations before they can attain the required permits. This weekend, they\'ve organized a two-day benefit called Riverwest Fest to raise money for those renovations, which they hope to have completed by as early as the end of this year.

“The response has been amazing,” says promoter Kelsey Kaufmann. “All the bands are donating their time for free, and it\'s been really easy to put together. We weren\'t expecting help from nearly as many local businesses and even residential neighbors, but we\'ve heard from so many who want to help us raise money or sponsor the event.”

Riverwest Fest, Kaufmann says, is organized “like a music crawl—a \'punk crawl\' instead of a pub crawl, except we have more genres than just punk.” Starting at 3 p.m. each day, the schedule cycles through seven music venues on Center and Clarke Streets—three of them all-ages, four of them 21-plus. The lineup includes bands from the city\'s alt-country, metal and hip-hop scenes.

Passes are $15 for two days, $10 for one day or $5 per show. Passes are available at Beans and Barley, Fuel Café, Sky High and the Jackpot Gallery.

The complete Riverwest Fest schedule is posted below:


Friday,  Aug. 13

Eagle\'s Nest 3:00 Joz Z and Myles Coyne
Eagle\'s Nest 4:00 Dandelion Spine
Uptowner 3:30 Okerlo
Uptowner 4:30 Cry Coyote
Cream City C 5:00 Ritual Form
Cream City C 6:00 Maidens
Bremen Cafe 5:30 Dinosaurus
Bremen Cafe 6:30 No Sleep for the Bear
Riverhorse 6:30 Breathe Fire
Riverhorse 7:30 Burning Sons
Club Timbuktu 7:00 Lord Brain
Club Timbuktu 8:00 Red Knife Lottery
Club Timbuktu 9:00 Terrior Bute
Stonefly 10:00 Jon Burks
Stonefly 11:00 John, The Savage
Stonefly 12:00 The Figureheads


Saturday, Aug. 14

Eagle\'s Nest 3:00 Narrenschiff
Eagle\'s Nest 4:00 Fahri
Bremen 3:30 Arto
Bremen 4:30 Lines & Terminals
Cream City C 5:00 Absolutely
Cream City C 6:00 Enabler
Riverhorse 5:30 Squidbotz
Riverhorse 6:30 Death Dream
Uptowner 7:30 Venus and Jank One
Uptowner 8:30 JDL
Club Timbuktu 7:00 Everybody at Midnight
Club Timbuktu 8:00 Centipedes
Club Timbuktu 9:00 The Trusty Knife
Stonefly 10:00 Mr. Hawk Fight
Stonefly 11:00 Curb
Stonefly 12:00 High Lonesome