Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver returns to the city that helped launch his career 10 years ago.
10 years ago, Bon Iver delivered a Pabst Theater performance that Milwaukee fans still talk about.
BEFORE CURATING the Eaux Claires festival, before beating Skrillex and Nicki Minaj for a Grammy in the Best New Artist category, before contributing to Kanye West's acclaimed record My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Justin Vernon gave a heart-wrenching performance at The Pabst Theater. That day, in August 2008, the Bon Iver frontman solidified his status as Wisconsin's champion of indie music.
It was a mantle that Vernon seemed happy to bear. “The Pabst, in our humble opinion, is quite possibly the most beautiful venue in America,” Vernon later wrote.
Vernon famously recorded For Emma, Forever Ago over a winter in a rustic hunting cabin northwest of his hometown, Eau Claire, and he initially released it unceremoniously on Myspace. But the deeply personal, falsetto-laden folk record picked up hype on music blogs, eventually earning a February 2008 re-release on the notable Midwestern independent label Jagjaguwar.
Ryan Miller, host of Indie Soundcheck on FM 102.1, recalls being moved by Bon Iver's encore at the Pabst, when Vernon and three bandmates huddled around a microphone and harmonized to Sarah Siskind's “Lovin's for Fools.” “It's tough for me to think of a more captivating encore,” Miller says.
Ryan Matteson, a blogger and early supporter of the album, had just started working at the Pabst, as director of public relations, when Bon Iver played the theater. “There was a lot of statewide pride with someone like Justin,” Matteson says. “You root for him, and you're proud to have him part of the state of Wisconsin and part of the overall music community.”
Matteson now manages bands such as The Mountain Goats, Bully and Strand of Oaks. But he remembers that 2008 show at the Pabst clearly – the way a sense of anticipation ran through the crowd, which listened with unusually rapt attention. “I remember being able to hear a pin drop,” Matteson recalls.
Vernon went to the Pabst Lounge after the set to catch up with fans. “There were so many people out there that I think maybe that was the first time he got a sense of how big things had gotten,” Matteson says.
Vernon would come back to the city for a sold-out AIDS benefit in 2009. And he kicked off an international tour for his sophomore album with two sold-out 2011 performances at the Riverside Theater. Mayor Tom Barrett officially proclaimed July 22, 2011, “Bon Iver Day.”
The love connection between Vernon and Milwaukee continues Feb. 17, when
Bon Iver returns for an exclusive 10-year celebration of For Emma, Forever Ago at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Local groups Field Report and Collections of Colonies of Bees, members of which perform in postrock group Volcano Choir with Vernon, open the show.