Author: Cal Roach

Emmylou Harris honors Guy Clark at heartfelt Riverside Theater show

April 6, 2025

Guy Clark may not be a household name, but his influence on country and Americana runs deep; even those who don’t know the name probably know a song or two that he wrote. Fans of Emmylou Harris should be plenty...

Mannequin Pussy serves punk and politics at Turner Hall

Cal Roach

April 3, 2025

A quick warning to our readers: the Mannequin Pussy show got political, and in the name of journalism, we will be forced to print language that some may find objectionable. We realize you may have clicked the M...

Umphrey’s McGee treats Riverside Theater to jam-packed performance

Cal Roach

March 9, 2025

The jam-band bounty continues to flow unabated through the Brew City. Over the past couple months, we've seen three-night stands by both Goose and Spafford, two nights of String Cheese Incident last fall, Phish...

Meshell Ndegeocello brings ‘Gospel Of James Baldwin’ to Vivarium

Cal Roach

January 28, 2025

For the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy created three new competitive categories; one of these, Best Alternative Jazz Album, went to Meshell Ndegeocello in its inaugural year, for her 2023 reco...

King Diamond reigns supreme at Riverside Theater

Cal Roach

November 9, 2024

It’s been 17 years since metal godfather King Diamond released an album, but fans have been in a state of heightened anticipation for a few years now. At Hellfest in 2019, he debuted a new song onstage, “Masque...

Psychedelic Furs, Jesus And Mary Chain get loud at Riverside Theater

Cal Roach

October 17, 2024

Twenty-twenty-four has been a banner year for UK bands helmed by male siblings. Not only did Oasis announce a handful of reunion shows that are totally gonna actually happen, the U.S. is currently in the throes...

Bizhiki defies genres, maybe creates new one at life-affirming Vivarium show

Cal Roach

September 12, 2024

Way back in the before-times, there was a festival called Eaux Claires, an outdoor music fest that did away with most of the annoyances and hype of your typical festival and focused on music and spontaneous col...

Wilco kicks off summer tour, smooths over brief crowd fracas at Riverside Theater

Cal Roach

June 13, 2024

Last month, the Chicago folk-rock veterans of Wilco celebrated their 20th anniversary as a band. Again. Yes, although many fans will recall the band's 2014 Milwaukee stop on its 20th anniversary tour, plenty do...

“Come on, we don’t get to play in Milwaukee every day!” Marc Ribot brings Jazz-Bins to Vivarium

Cal Roach

April 11, 2024

After years of honing his craft in obscurity, Marc Ribot got his big break in the mid-'80s playing guitar for Tom Waits. Listening to those records now—Rain Dogs and intermittently onward—you hear a restrained ...

“I got a connection with you.” Herbie Hancock delights, inspires at sold-out Pabst Theater

Cal Roach

April 3, 2024

Before launching into a two-hour-plus set with his band Tuesday night, Chicago jazz legend Herbie Hancock spent several minutes addressing the sold-out Pabst Theater crowd. "The first really professional gig th...

Buffalo Nichols comes home, plays the blues to chatty Vivarium crowd

Cal Roach

March 3, 2024

Most articles you'll find about Carl Nichols these days wrangle with definitions of the blues. Musicians and songwriters of this genre provided a framework that gave rise to most of modern popular music, yet an...

The Back Room @ Colectivo closes its doors with show from Chicago’s Bitchin Bajas

Cal Roach

December 16, 2023

It's time to say farewell to The Back Room @ Colectivo. The performance space on Prospect Avenue opened up in 2015 and has served as a great intimate space for local and traveling acts for almost a decade, but ...

Angel Olsen gives raucous Turner Hall crowd something to cry about

Cal Roach

December 1, 2023

"Thursday is the day of sin, don't you know,” said Angel Olsen from the Turner Hall Ballroom stage—after asking the audience what day it was. She was in a typically conversational mode in Milwaukee, the second ...

Mudhoney delivers the (new) hits at sold-out X-Ray Arcade

Cal Roach

October 20, 2023

When the Seattle grunge scene blew up in the early 1990s, the scramble for underground cred began immediately. It all seems tragically moot now, as few of the alt-rock superstars of the day remain except Pearl ...

Bonnie Raitt pays tribute to John Prine, Paul Cebar, Hamm’s Beer at Riverside Theater

Cal Roach

October 11, 2023

The first generations of rock and rollers didn't have long-term career plans; maybe they hoped they'd die before they got old, or maybe they figured on some day getting haircuts and getting real jobs. Now in th...

Nick Cave enthralls the faithful at sparse, powerful Riverside Theater show

Cal Roach

September 28, 2023

Nick Cave's most recent studio release is a 2021 duo album with multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis called Carnage. Given that Cave's current tour is a rare one without the Bad Seeds backing him, it seemed a goo...

Goose fly into Miller High Life Theatre for night of polished groove-rock

Cal Roach

September 18, 2023

Everybody skips Milwaukee—it's a tired lament, and one that jam band fans can't chime in on, at least not this year, as nearly every artist from that sprawling community has stopped or will stop by the Brew Cit...

Extreme and Living Colour bring signature tunes (and more) to Pabst Theater

Cal Roach

August 16, 2023

At first glance, the pairing of Extreme and Living Colour—a couple of American rock bands whose last charting singles came out in the mid-'90s—for a tour in 2023 seems odd. Both bands are dangerously close to o...

Stevie Nicks wows, pays tribute to fallen collaborators at Fiserv Forum

Cal Roach

August 9, 2023

Is Fleetwood Mac still a band? Following the passing of Christine McVie late last year, the group has at least been on hiatus, with only three members remaining from Mac's '70s-'80s heyday. However, while Mick ...

“I think we all need this night.” Paramore delivers, delights at Fiserv Forum

Cal Roach

August 2, 2023

When Hayley Williams asked a sold-out Fiserv Forum late Tuesday night if it was anyone's first Paramore show, at least half the crowd screamed in delight. They knew they were the lucky ones; as any pandemic-era...

Author Cal Roach