Mama Tried

A better recipe for great lemonade.

- Michael Lichter

It seemed like a good recipe. Find an old vacant warehouse, invite a bunch of like-minded bike-builder friends to show off their latest creations, open the doors to the public, and Voila! a cool event happens.

Mama Tried just finished its fourth successful year in its third Milwaukee venue. It was great. Flat Out Friday Flat-Track and Hooligan racing, parties all weekend, and motorcycle-related offerings all over town.

Warren Heir Jr and Scott Johnson, the founders and promoters of the event, can finally take a deep breath and a little break. All too soon it’ll be time to start working on next year’s event.

This year, the Lindsay Building worked out nicely for 2017 and the owner is on-board for 2018. All was well and good until a wrench got thrown into the works just two months before this year’s show was scheduled. The City of Milwaukee announced that no more temporary occupancy permits would be granted for events in old warehouses. After operating like this for four years, Warren and Scott thought this could easily have been the end of the story, but they just put one foot in front of the other and kept on going until they discovered the Rave/Eagles Ballroom. Suddenly it was: “Holy Cow! We are going to pull this off!”

Fast-forward eight weeks to set-up on Friday February 23. The mood was definitely … well, curious. The location was dark with endless stairs and strange rooms in every corner. The place reeked of history and following the steps to the top floor, there were old black and white photos lining the walls. These beautiful prints showed the building in its heyday – the Olympic-sized pool in the basement, the bowling alley, the basketball court, lounges, pool halls, the barbershop, cafeteria and lounges all going back to the opening. This Eagles Hall in 1927 was the grandest hall of its day.