Over the last few years a lot has been written about the events that took place at the White Trash Wrestling shows in East Troy, Wisconsin. One of the things that always struck me upon arriving at The Barn was the sense of community that existed there. There was a feeling that each party was a family reunion of sorts. The hijinx certainly grabbed all the attention from the outside, but this wasn't necessarily central to what these gatherings were about. People bonded to the rapid beats of a common drum and the atmosphere created allowed for a near complete rejection of inhibitions. It was the temporary autonomous zone at its high point.

In the years before the epic series of events at The Barn there was a grassroots movement to build a scene for underground hardcore. Minneapolis was central to this movement (as well as being roughly halfway between Winnipeg and Milwaukee)... and played host to some of the most incredible shows during the formative years of the Midwest breakcore scene.

Minneapolis: March 14th, 1997
Heavy Mental

It was the night before a mammoth party called Stairway to Headphones. Delta 9 was coming to town and what started as a pre-party turned into an event of its own. Tron, JethroX, Doormouse and I were on the bill - along with support talent from a handful of Minnesota locals. The show was billed as a gathering of the Midwest Hardcorps and the main room featured a wide variety of hard styles. Speedcore, digital hardcore, the darkest of drum and bass. I was slotted to follow a live PA by a guy named Substance P. He set the tone for the evening, and artist after artist tore the place up until the police finally shut things down shortly after JethroX got started... and well before things had fully developed.

A few months later....

Substance P and the posse living at the East Side Crackshack get in touch. They are putting together an event to be called Schizophrenia. Doormouse and I are again booked to play (our third and final show together in Minneapolis), with Jon Dica coming in from Madison and a scattering of locals (including the East Side Crack Squad and Arjay Khetamine of Urban Guerrila). Entox isn't able to make it, but this leaves room for an unbilled live Amiga battle between Davros and Unibomber.

Minneapolis: September 13th, 1997
Schizophrenia  [view flyer]

By the time Schizophrenia arrives many things have happened. Doormouse released the Fuckin' Doormouse cassette and played his first shows outside the US. I became a staff writer at Massive Magazine, and spent the bulk of the summer traveling around the Midwest. Most importantly the varied forms of hard music that were presented at Heavy Mental had begun to gel into a cohesive sound. Everybody had been listening to everything and finding their own ways to fit things together. One could say that Heavy Mental was the night that things were conceived, but that after six months of gestation Schizophrenia was the night where the Midwest breakcore scene was birthed.

The show was full of insane moments - Substance P played a track that triggered nineteen kickdrums at the same time and smoke began to pour out of the speakers... Doormouse started off with the Nasenbluten track on "How To Kill All Happy Suckaz" before launching into double copies of his own 414 Tracks on Digital Hut and then, towards the end of his set he whipped out a copy of Paranoid by Black Sabbath, dropped War Pigs and scratched along with the guitar solo. The place went nuts. People had come from all over the place... down from Canada, up from Kentucky... from Wisconsin, North Dakota - wherever! The venue was crammed. It got incredibly hot and the humidity level was completely ridiculous. People started filtering out as the night wore on, and things were almost at a level where it was possible to move freely and breath properly... and then came the Amiga battle, and all hell broke loose all over again. At the end of the night a promoter came up and tried to book the whole line-up to play in his town!

I distinctly remember walking out of the venue after it was all over. I felt slightly dazed. Everything seemed blurry and out of focus... it was then that I realized the entire area was blanketed in a fog so thick that I couldn't see the end of the block. It was as if all the moisture in the venue had spewed out into the streets and started taking over the city.

Within a year Doormouse and Unibomber had released two split 12"s on their own Distort imprint, Davros (Abelcain) was preparing his first record for Low Res, and the first of the infamous barn parties was already in the works. Doormouse, Substance P and I all played the mainstage at the 1998 edition of Drop Bass' Even Furthur (which also featured a rather dynamic performance by Meat!)... and in addition to gigs throughout western Canada, I spent the summer of '98 on the road with the Technostate crew - driving to New York and back, and helping to establish a network of like-minded people along the way.

...Then came The Barn. The scene blew up to proportions none of us had ever really anticipated... and then, at the tail end of the summer of '02 things changed. Some people moved away, some people started families, some did both. When I got a phone call from Brett Stephan during the summer of '07 asking if I was interested in being involved with a 10th Anniversary party for Schizophrenia - there was no way I could pass it up.

Detroit: December 1st, 2007
Schizophrenia II [visit website]

Five-plus years after the final party at The Barn, and ten years after the initial Schizophrenia, many of The Barn regulars were gathered together. The difference being that this time around it was for a stated goal. Schizophrenia II was designed to be both a celebration of longevity and an assembling of the 'Midwest hardcorps.'

The event started coming together on Friday night. The From the Gut crew played host to 'Anti-Mass', a pre-party that was an event in and of itself. Statas (Philadelphia) wrecked the place with his dark and sinister broken beat creations, c64 (Toronto) pleased the crowd with an adept blend of jungle, breakcore and whatever else he felt like working into the mix, and Slutmachine (Minneapolis) laid waste with some serious business, using force to show that Minnesota still knows how to bring it.

Throughout the night the cast and crew for Schizophrenia began to assemble. Fanny (Winnipeg) had arrived with Slutmachine. The Pittsburgh posse of Xanopticon, Cutups and 8 Cylinder came up, bringing with them a Wrecked Distribution merch booth. Davros (Madison, Wisconsin) made his entrance... and, of course, Brett Stephan (Chicago) was there to observe his plans coming together - having brought Noize Creator (Dresden, Germany) with him.

It was madness. Anti-Mass was a great event. J-Stat, Selector Catalogue, Split Horizon and the rest of the Detroit locals turned in solid sets and the anticipation of the debauchery to come was a persistent presence.

Many, including myself, were still awake when Doormouse arrived from Miami on Saturday morning. There was to be little to no sleep before the madness began in earnest. As the sound system began to roll into the From The Gut space on Saturday afternoon the scale of what was happening became apparent to all those observing. Load after load after load... after load of subs was brought into the modest space. It was a staggering mass of speakers, the likes of which I hadn't seen since witnessing the fabled 'Minneapolis Wall of Sound' years earlier.

Night comes early in the heart of winter... and what would a Midwest winter be without snow? Snow began to fall as the curtain of darkness descended on Detroit. It complicated things for some of the people coming from out of town. A car from St. Louis was stranded and couldn't make it, Unibomber (Des Plaines, Illinois) arrived with barely enough time to prepare for his set. Things stayed mostly on time, though. In Broken Key (Canton, Ohio) was forced to swap set times with Adjust (Detroit) when he arrived a bit behind schedule. There were, however, very few glitches.

The audio can be found online, so there's little point in going into great detail on that. Find it, listen to it, enjoy it. The intensity of the atmosphere inside the venue, however needs to be documented. A storm was raging outside, but a raging fire was stoked on the inside. Despite the winter weather we were treated to an event of such fury that the sweating, hollering masses were in rapture. It was a testament to why the Midwest gained the reputation it has: people are willing to travel incalculable distances to participate in a great party. Participate is the key word here. People don't travel to observe or witness, they come to contribute.

The palpable energy of the crowd grew increasingly focused as the evening progressed. Doormouse served as MC for a lot of the evening, introducing the acts and encouraging those in attendance to really let themselves go. By the time Fanny took to the stage it was at a fever pitch. When he was done it didn't seem like things could get any more sick... but they did.

In an evening full of mind-numbingly sick moments, the Davros and Unibomber live set deserves special mention. Their archaic Amiga computers had been brought back from the dead, in fact Davros reported being attacked by a nest of spiders that had made their home in his machine! The fact that they were able to even get a sound out of the machines was miraculous, that they were able to unleash the insanity that they did was incomprehensible. They fed off the crowd, their Amigas amplified by the sound system, but given even greater power by thrashing horde in front of them.

Noize Creator followed the destruction with some snarling and vicious tracks that fit perfectly, and somehow managed to beat endurance back into a crowd teetering on the brink of exhaustion. Grindbreakdeathmetalcore - brutal, barbaric and essential... much like the whole weekend itself. After some sober reflection on the trip back to Montreal I realized I couldn't wait to do it all over again. Where do we go from here? Who knows... and let's find out.

— DJ Fishead, Montreal, 2007/2008

Check this site periodically for info updates, including details on Schizophrenia 3, Saturday, August 30 2008, in Madison, Wisconsin.

For more information, contact us by email at schizophrenia@c8.com, or visit us on Myspace.