Quarters: Rock & Roll Palace

Love this place. Great bar, great sound, great prices.
Sure the bathroom doesn’t smell great, but I’m not standing around in there watching bands, I’m in and out within a minute.
When shows are highly attended it’d be rad if there were two bartenders, but Pete will still get you your drink as fast as possible.

Great rock shows and a spacious beer garden! I wish they made better use of the stage space. We were all squished and you couldn’t even get a beer during the act. The sound balance was also a bit off. The vocals were virtually inaudible. Also, don’t expect a world class drink selection. Hamms are cheap and that’s what I stuck with.

Nothing like a smelly, divey Rock N Roll club with a great small space, a killer sound system, and CHEAP BEERS!
This is the type of place where if you spill a beer on the floor the bartender does not care and just leaves it sit, which is pretty funny but ads to that divey, smelly rock n roll club vibe.
This place is only open for shows, so no fun happy hours here, but that’s probably better cause there is not to many places to sit, almost no bar stools!
But I dig it!

Quarters is to «palace» as Uptowner is to «charm school.» Make no mistake, dear reader. (For those unfamiliar with the context this analogy bears, peruse a few of these other reviews.)
Quarters smells like armpits and stale beer. There’s nowhere to sit. Bands that play here are local or the touring sort that don’t mind crashing on friends of friends’ floors. It’s kind of — er, really pretty — dirty.
& I like it. Real recognize real, dudes + lady dudes.
Quarters specializes in shows, though I believe they are open regular-​ish hours as well. Shows at this self-​proclaimed rock & roll palace are small, and will likely draw a similar yet different VERY niche clientele each and every go. The beer is cheap. Parking on the street isn’t too terrible. Basically, if you’re into local/​touring music of specific set of bents, Quarters is a solid spot to catch a show. I like it. I like the vibe, I like the size, I like the grit. The lighting’s kind of cool. One of the ceiling fans has glow lights affixed to it, so that’s something.
[If you’ve read this much, it’s because you’re probably headed to Quarters for a particular reason (most likely a show) and you’re doing your homework. It’s either that, or you’re just in a Unilocal Milwakee internet-​ing spiral. You’re just lollygagging around here, reading reviews, bookmarking spots, trying to get a feel for the good ol’ Mil. Good on you, friend in the latter camp. Milwaukee’s pretty freaking great.]
Remember, you’re headed to Riverwest, dear reader… and this is as close to as «real» Riverwest as it can get, I think.

This place has the singe worst-​smelling restroom I’ve ever been in.
I’ve spent half my life in dingy rock venues, but the restroom here smells like hot, fermenting, pungent, rotting death. You can feel the fumes melt away your nasal cavity as you inhale, and then you fight the overwhelming urge to gag and spray a massive fountain of hot vomit everywhere. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I almost barfed all over the place.
Not much of a beer selection either.

Upgrade. Pete rules.

The bar itself is pretty small, Its got a tall stage and a nook if you are a drummer. Not a bad spot. Very cool and friendly bartender.

I was able to check out Quarters this past weekend and didn’t expect much going in to it. A friend invited me out to hear some bands play — the first band that opened for the night was all instrumental and rocked completely. Some laid back music that one could grove to — the other bands (the next three) took a complete dive. My friend and I couldn’t believe how all three bands got paired up to begin with. We tried to stick it out, but couldn’t bare to listen to minute songs that screamed the exact same lyrics… over and over…
As far as the atmosphere — a pretty basic dive bar. Not sure how it is during the day, but when you walk it, it looks like the place has been completely cleared out. Only room for standing. Mixed drinks as well as a good selection of local beers (and even a good amount of not-​so-​good beers. *ahem* Busch *ahem*). Otherwise, only simple drinks for you to enjoy during shows.
I’d like to give this place another shot, if I have faith that the bands performing are worth my time. Could be a hidden gem if they book the right shows.

I guess they changed the definition of what a palace is.
Let me just say that I don’t hate this place by any means. It’s a cozy, divey, riverwesty place. With that you get a certain level of service and patrons. Friendly service, but it was way too busy for one bartender.
I was here for a special event, so maybe that added to the craziness.
One cool thing, you can play video games against other bar folk on the giant screen above the bar.
The patio is pretty awesome.
I would check it out again on a random night to see what’s what.

Quarters is an excellent bar for seeing live music in a small, scuzzy setting, especially if you’re into any of these genres of music:
–doom metal
–psychedelic surf rock
–cyber jams
–glaze rock
–power pop
— and like, every kind of punk. hardcore punk, proto punk, but probably not post punk.
who am I kidding? If you like any kind of good music or are involved with the Milwaukee music scene or if you have friends. you should check out Quarters. (And if you don’t have friends, you should still check out Quarters. Nothing like drinking alone, right guys?)
The person who books their shows does an excellent job getting great bands and keeping fans of the venue ‘in the know.’ And because of this– it does tend to get a little packed on show nights. There usually is one bartender working– so when it’s packed, expect to wait more than a couple of minutes for a drink. Patience is a virtue, man.
There’s a patio in back, you can smoke there.
On non-​show nights? It’s chill, you can play Mortal Kombat. Drink cheaply. Enjoy the quiet. Quiet really isn’t my bag, so I don’t come here on non-​show nights too often.

This is a decent little dive with live music regularly. Little is really an operative word in that sentence. When the place gets packed (maybe 70 people?), there is very little room to move around. This is especially true when the bands are set up on the floor rather than the stage which they sometimes are. It’s almost like doubling the amount of sardines but keeping the can size the same.
The bands are mostly punk/​hardcore from what I can figure out, but they do have other types of bands there as well.
They don’t have a huge beer list, but they do have some craft brews from Lakefront and Goose Island. The best part of that is that they are priced right.

Well, the person before me seems to have made an account to review only two places, so I am not sure how valid his review is. The bathrooms weren’t gross when I went and I was there pretty close to bar close. I like the layout here. There are comfy seats in the back left where a small group can easily occupy the whole section and make it your own little place… and if I remember correctly they have Leinies on tap on the cheap. Like extra cheaqp. Like $ 2 cheap. For Leinies. Which is awesome. (Except I don’t drink anymore so I haven’t been here in a while.)

Total coke den, sound is terrible when live bands play there, beer is warm and bathrooms are disgusting.