Last night we caught neo-psychedelic and paisley underground veterans The Dream Syndicate at The Back Room at Colectivo, a small intimate venue in Milwaukee. The audience was stocked with Milwaukee OG musicians including members of Die Kreuzen, The Mighty Deer Lick, Mona Lisa Overdrive among many others paying respect to one of the original “alternative” bands who first formed back in ‘81 and recorded the classic LP The Days of Wine and Roses (’82), one of our all-time favorites. The Dream Syndicate played a great mix of new material (their most recent release is the 2019 album These Times) and old, including “Sure Thing” from their first EP (The Dream Syndicate, ’82), “Merrittville” from Medicine Show (’84) and “50 in a 25 Zone” from Out of the Grey (’86), as well as several tracks from The Days of Wine and Roses like “That’s What You Always Say,” “Halloween” and finished their encore with the excellent “Days of Wine and Roses.” Starting the show and peppered within songs were several extended jams, when lead singer/guitarist  Steve Wynn and lead guitarist Jason Victor would fantastically try to out-do each other. Wynn did the same with bassist Mark Walton a couple of times while drummer Dennis Duck kept the beat going.

I spent most of the performance mesmerized by Wynn’s gorgeous guitar, complemented nicely by his paisley shirt (naturally).

Post-show I headed to the march table to pick up an LP by opening act Eleventh Dream Day (from Chicago – more on them in a future post). I was the first one there and up walks Steve Wynn, looking at me expectantly as he’d invited the audience to come and get autographs and do some Q&A. Awkwardly, I introduced myself and admitted we already had an old copy of The Days of Wine and Roses and wasn’t there to get an autograph. He proceeded to tell me about the different cover variants in the printings over the years and we chatted a bit about how awesome Eleventh Dream Day was. As I was checking out with the Eleventh Dream Day lead guy, Joe waited in line to meet Wynn; a friend of ours snapped a couple of candids which make me laugh (sorry about the bunny ears, Steve, seriously – no disrespect.