Milwaukee's emo kings The Promise Ring have announced a handful of midwest and west coast gigs next month, marking their first string of dates since singer Davey vonBohlen underwent brain surgery in May. The dates are make-up shows for ones missed when the band was forced to cancel its participation in a tour with Bad Religion last fall.
The gigs -- along with some in December -- were nixed due to what the band called, at the time, "unspecified health reasons." A European jaunt was canceled in May when vonBohlen had emergency brain surgery to remove a benign tumor described on the band's web site as "the size of a fist." The band played at the annual Very Milky Christmas show at The Rave Bar in December.
The Promise Ring is currently recording demos with former Citizen King guitarist Kristian Riley at Bionic Studios in the Miramar Theatre. P-Ring's most recent full-length disc was 1999's "Very Emergency," released on Jade Tree. An EP, "Electric Pink," followed shortly after.
Alas, Milwaukee is noticeably absent from the list of The Promise Ring dates -- listed below ...
Thurs., Feb. 8: Pomona, CA -- The Glass House (with Death Cab for Cutie)
Fri., Feb. 9: Los Angeles -- The El Rey Theatre
Sat., Feb. 10: Santa Cruz -- The Rio
Sun., Feb. 11: San Francisco -- Great American Music Hall
Thurs., Feb. 15: Oshkosh -- Union Square
Fri., Feb. 16: St. Louis -- Gargoyle
Sat., Feb. 17: Champaign, IL -- Hi Dive (with Centromatic)
Sun., Feb. 18 Chicago -- The Empty Bottle (with Centromatic)
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.
