ASHWAUBENON – The Wisconsin Area Music Industry packed a year’s worth of celebration of the state’s music scene into a ceremony just shy of four hours on Sunday night at the EPIC Event Center.
It was the first time in the WAMI Awards’ 42-year history that the honors were done in Green Bay, and local talent took home wins in some of the top categories.
Perhaps no table was having more fun all night than that of The Glam Band. The Green Bay/Fox Valley group’s wildly successful take on all things ’80s hair metal not only earned it Tribute Act of the Year, but the band sent a parade of members in their wigs and spandex up to the podium to collect individual awards.
Dennis Peters won Male Vocalist of the Year as lead singer Dennis Lee Roth, Eric Johnson (aka Skitch Rockett) won Drummer of the Year, and Christopher Larson (aka Randi Schenker) won Electric Guitar Player of the Year.
“After bar at my house!” Peters told the crowd.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Album of the Year went to De Pere singer-songwriter Kurt Gunn for “Winter.”
“I’ve always said the most important band member you ever have is your spouse,” Gunn said, as he thanked his wife for allowing him to be a musician for 25 years.
Green Bay-area rock band The Coves snagged Rising Star of the Year.
Rap Performer of the Year is Wisco Kidz, the Green Bay hip-hop group of Wisco YD and Wisco Kyrie, who followed up their 2017 Green Bay Packers hype song “Run the Table” by paying homage to Jordan Love during last season’s playoff run with “Believe in 10ove.”
Kelly Klaus, a guitar player in Green Bay for decades and currently a member of Journey tribute band Separate Ways, won Live Sound Engineer of the Year, but the audience had to forgive him for not being able to make it onstage to accept — he was busy mixing sound for the awards ceremony. Emcee Frank Hermans accepted on his behalf and later delivered the award to him at the boards.
Artist of the Year went to Oshkosh-based band Copper Box. Green Bay duo 7000apart won for Pop Song for “Runaway,” and Trash Pandas, with members from Green Bay and the Fox Cities, won Hard Rock Performer of the Year.
Longtime area favorite Nashville Pipeline won Country Performer of the Year, its first WAMI since 2011. Dani Crow took home Female Vocalist of the Year. No Can Do was awarded New Artist of the Year.
The full list of winners is available at wami.org.
Hall of Fame inductees Garbage checked in via video with a ‘Go Pack Go’
Garbage, Todd “Speech” Thomas of Arrested Development and The Fendermen were inducted into a WAMI Hall of Fame that includes such big names as Les Paul, Al Jarreau, Violent Femmes, Liberace and The BoDeans.
Garbage accepted via a prerecorded video message from Los Angeles, near their studio, where drummer and producer Butch Vig said the rock band is recording its eighth album.
“We wish were there. Thank you so much. This means a lot to us, everybody,” Vig said, before wrapping with a “Go Pack Go” and raising a glass along with his bandmates.
During his induction speech, Thomas said it had been 32 years since Arrested Development won its first WAMI Awards in 1992. He thanked his parents — his mother for encouraging his musical passion by buying him equipment as a kid and his late father, whose nightclub on Capitol Drive in Milwaukee was a place where a young Thomas would immerse himself in the power of music by watching people dance.
He also talked about writing “People Everyday” in Milwaukee and then sang a bit of it, asking the crowd to join him in the chorus.
The Fendermen’s Jim Sundquist and Phil Humphrey, who rose to fame in the 1950s with their cover of “Mule Skinner Blues,” are both deceased. Jim Sundquist Jr. thanked the crowd for their induction.
The late Randy Bowles of De Pere was added to the WAMI Wall of Honor during the ceremony. Bowles co-founded Bananas Entertainment with Lance Shellman in 2002. The live talent agency books approximately 175 bands across northeastern Wisconsin for bars, weddings, festivals and other events. Bowles was known for his love of music, especially The Beatles, and his kindness in the business. He died of cancer in July 2022 at age 67.
Rhythm Chicken, Fun w/Atoms, Supertramp Tribute performed
Nine acts performed during the evening, but only the longtime Wisconsin punk eccentricity that is the Rhythm Chicken did it from behind the drums while wearing a giant rabbit head. The mystery musician showed up twice, with no introduction, to play out amongst the crowd.
Fun w/Atoms, one of Green Bay’s most enduring and respected bands, took the stage for two songs after being introduced by promoter Tom Smith, who said the first time he saw the group he was parking cars for his church at the Brown County Fair. Hermans said he remembered sneaking into Lefty’s bar in the ’80s to see them. Had Vig been there in person, the band could have reminisced about recording their debut album at his Smart Studios in Madison in 1983.
Milwaukee’s Social Cig and The Supertramp Tribute’s cover of “Goodbye Stranger” (playing Oct. 18 at the Meyer Theatre in Green Bay) also delivered big jolts of energy in between the long list of awards.
Janet Planet and John Harmon were among the presenters
Several WAMI Hall of Fame inductees were among the night’s presenters, including Fox Valley jazz great John Harmon, founder of Matrix, the 1970s Appleton jazz fusion group Matrix in the 1970s.
Sigmund Snopek III, a 2015 inductee, introduced himself to the audience as one of the few artists who can say he has played Carnegie Hall and a bowling alley in the same month.
Vocalist Janet Planet found herself reading her own name — “some girl named Janet Planet” — for the nominees of Music Teacher of the Year. When Hermans introduced her as a presenter, he recalled the days of booking her at Purcell’s Lounge in the former Radisson Hotel & Conference Center.
Garbage made a return appearance to present Percussionist of the Year by video, with each of the nominees’ names written on cocktail glasses raised by the band.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 orkmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X@KendraMeinert.