Looking back on the Back Room at Colectivo
WORDS AND ART BY CAMILA TRIMBERGER-RUIZ
The first time I ever went to the Back Room at Colectivo was in 2018 to see Summer Salt with support from Hot Flash Heat Wave and the Symposium. This was during the indie “art hoe” aesthetic peak and I was in the crowd wearing cuffed mom jeans and an ironically ugly sweater from Goodwill.
I had never been to a venue that wasn’t stadium sized before and I remember feeling so cool among the college students and city kids. Decorated with fairy lights, hanging plants and neon signs adorning the walls it looked like something taken right off of my Tumblr dashboard. I posted ten-second clips of everything that happened on my Snapchat story and I made my dad, who had driven me there, ask all the bands to take pictures with me.
The next day, back in my hometown of Sheboygan I remember telling my friends and every skater I had a crush on about the show: “Oh did you catch the show?,""I went to this really cool show in Milwaukee this weekend,""wait you’ve never been to a show before?” In my defense I was 15 and annoying, but this was a really core moment for me.
I spent the rest of high school checking the Back Room’s schedule to discover new music and begging my parents to drive me at least once a semester. I went on to see so many great acts, like future-superstar Omar Apollo (back when his tickets were just $13) and plenty of stacked local lineups.
Due to me moving to Madison and pandemic lockdowns, my first time back at the venue since starting college was last May for a My Chemical Romance cover show. It was a spur of the moment decision on an early summer afternoon with a friend. Classes had just ended and we had nothing to do so we drove out to Milwaukee to catch Bug Moment, the Nile Club and Rat Bath play both MCR’s greatest hits and their own. I chatted with old pals and got embarrassingly sweaty while dancing. I think it was actually the first time I had been to a show there with friends and not my dad.
Unknowingly, this would be my last time attending a show at the Back Room.
The Pabst Blue Theater group announced that they would be closing the Back Room in May, and being replaced by a new venue opening today, Vivarium. While I know the new venue will serve the same purpose and probably host the same local bands, I can’t help but feel sentimental for the coffee shop that got me into music. Refreshing the Back Room’s event calendar every month to find new artists was vital on my road to discovering my music taste.
After eight years of serving the Milwaukee community and also me, the Back Room had its last show on December 15th. To be fair, the physical space at the Colectivo location will most likely remain after the Pabst Theater Group moves onto Vivarium, so it might not be the end of shows in that space. Regardless, I’ll continue to look back on the past five years of concert footage on my phone which, in my defense, is the only thing I use Snapchat for.