The workday just ended, and memories of the weekend were still fading away. But on a hot Monday night, Cactus Club was abuzz with life. Fake My Death walked on stage, plugged in and played like it was their breakup tour.
Before the music started, the show was called to order with a composition by underground punk poet Thax Douglas. Heavily active in Chicago since the ’80s, he would write poems about each band before their set, then perform them live at local venues. After he moved to Wisconsin, Douglas earned a name for himself and got an informal residency at Cactus Club, performing his poetry in front of every audience that graces the venue.
“Bands are doing it for love, and especially in Milwaukee it’s not for business,” Douglas said. “They’re just doing it because they like the music.”
It’s an honor to have a poem written about your band by Douglas. It’s also something more reserved for DIY shows. Not everyone gets the chance to grace his black, college-ruled spiral notebook, so it’s special when you do. It represents what this scene provides: ingenuity, comradery and good memories.
“It’s the same reason you go to a DIY store instead of hiring someone else to do it,” Douglas remarked. “Doing it yourself is kinda nice.”
Fake My Death opened their set with “Anticipator” off last year's EP, For Your Own Good, a noisy garage-rock-esque soundscape with blaring guitars, a thick bassline and enveloping drums. Self-recorded and self-managed, the band’s individual talent shined throughout this set. Everyone was moving — on stage and off. Guitarist Cullen Huggard threw his guitar down and jumped into the crowd to fire them up.
With contemporaries Superglue and King In Yellow following them to the stage, the night was a noisefest. It was also a prime example of the DIY scene and the community it brings together, both of which burned bright at this one-off weekday show.
From recording in warehouses to playing in bars, Milwaukee DIY has thousands of moving parts. There are layers of artists, promoters, venues and more that exist in tandem with each other, creating a tight-knit circle of driven individuals in pursuit of their art.
Bands come and go every day, but Fake My Death represents the threads that connect every aspect of the scene. Their love for each other and this city is a testament to DIY’s power and its ability to create relationships that stand the test of time.
Jonathan Joseph is a Milwaukee-based multimedia freelance journalist who specializes in art and culture writing (and all things Milwaukee), with work appearing on Radio Milwaukee and in Milwaukee Magazine. Contact him via email or find him on LinkedIn.