Author: Cal Roach | Page 2 | Milwaukee Record

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

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...

Janet Jackson takes control at AmFam Amphitheater with four-decade career retrospective

Cal Roach

May 29, 2023

At first it seemed as though Ludacris might've gotten the crowd too hyped. He'd dug back almost a quarter-century to perform his debut single "What's Your Fantasy," stomped around in his giant Air Force 1s for ...

Ragtag theater troupes, crowd-pleasing cat wars take center stage in Milwaukee-made ‘Earlybird’

Cal Roach

April 26, 2023

In the wake of a worldwide pandemic, lots of people have found themselves working from home. Without the separation between an office and residence, some have found themselves working more and more without nece...

“Thank you so much for changing plans for us so many times!” Bikini Kill (finally!) rocks Riverside Theater

Cal Roach

April 20, 2023

In April of 1997, riot grrrl pioneer Bikini Kill embarked on a brief tour of Australia and Japan. These would be the last shows of the band's original eight-year run. Twenty-two years and many side projects lat...

IDLES treat Riverside Theater to ferocious, fun performance

Cal Roach

September 4, 2022

Americans who lived through the rise and fall of grunge might smell something familiar in the media spat that’s gone on for the past few years between British alt-rock band IDLES and its detractors, who accuse ...

Kristin Hersh lives up to (and exceeds) alt-rock-icon status at intimate Back Room show

Cal Roach

June 13, 2022

Alt-rock icon Kristin Hersh, unlike virtually all of her peers, never made much of a grab for stardom. Even at their most compelling, Hersh's songs are more likely to get under your skin than make you hum along...

New book, ‘The Milwaukeean,’ tells tragedy-and-triumph tale of Milwaukee music original Klassik

Cal Roach

June 2, 2022

By now, any fan of Milwaukee music has heard of Klassik, and any fan of Klassik knows a bit about his life story. Kellen Abston is an artist who makes no attempt to hide his past or his opinions, and the journe...

Weird Al fortunately returns to Milwaukee with “Unfortunate Return” of non-parody tour

Cal Roach

May 25, 2022

broadstreet.zone(72091); Welcome to Milwaukee Record’s Weird Al Week, sponsored by Lakefront Brewery! Want daily Al-related articles culminating in a recap of Al’s May 24 show at the Marcus Performing Arts Cen...

Author Cal Roach