{image1}Hard to believe it could happen so fast, but The Rock Shop will be back up and running again Thursday, May 6, according to co-owner Brian Emmett. The West Allis rock and roll night club was destroyed by fire in January.
"As discouraging as the first six or seven weeks after the fire were, after looking at close to a dozen different venues located all around the city, the venue we have decided to go with just kinda fell in our lap," Emmett says. "Right place at the right time."
With a location at 1900 S. 60th St. -- and a string of opening celebrations -- already set, Emmett says that there's still a lot to do before the new club can open, however.
"The real work is yet to come," Emmett says. "On May 1, the current tenant of the space vacates and we have only FIVE days to get everything done on the inside! Should be an interesting five days!" (Note: the photos accompanying this story were taken before renovations began).
Emmett hopes to have the club open for an invitation-only, pre-opening party at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 6. At 9 p.m., the club will open to the public and there will be free beer for an hour and then special showcase performances by Way to Fall, The Servos and Lithic.
The party continues on Friday at 8 p.m. with Spiral Trance, Sidetract, Kickstand (which will celebrate the release of a new CD) and Sketchy.
An all ages show is set for 3 p.m. -7 p.m. Saturday, with The Meteah Strike, The Story Unfolds, Selling the Story, Invasion of Robots, Joe and Last Dying Letter. An evening show at 8 p.m. features White Knuckle Trip, The Goodyear Pimps, Snooky, You're Already Dead and Wings of Scarlet.
At 5 p.m. all ages show on Sunday has E=MC Hammer, Under the Helicopter, The Ready Steady Goes and TBA's.
"The new club is almost three times the size as the last Rock Shop and will be not only bigger, but better," Emmett promised in an email to Milwaukee musicians and fans. "The stage is huge and the P.A. and lighting installed is top notch."
The Rock Shop's Web site is rockshopmusic.net.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
