Tag: Show Review

Summerfest 2025 Weekend 1 Recap: All local, all the time

June 23, 2025

THURSDAY Summerfest fans of a certain age will remember the so-called "local stage." This was an official Summerfest stage—initially sponsored by Cascio, later sponsored by K-Nation Entertainment—that was stoc...

Two days at Milwaukee Metal Fest: metalcore, moshing, Milwaukee as metal mecca

Cal Roach

May 19, 2025

Research for a metal festival always proves particularly vexing, especially when the fest’s website offers no band links whatsoever. For instance, Encyclopaedia Metallum, the metal community’s most respected in...

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds enthrall, entrance at Miller High Life Theatre

Cal Roach

May 1, 2025

Never one to shy away from taboo subjects, much of Nick Cave's output in recent years has been challenging in a very different sense than his past work. Over the past decade he has suffered the tragic losses of...

Emmylou Harris honors Guy Clark at heartfelt Riverside Theater show

Cal Roach

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...

Third Eye Blind brings host of hits to Potawatomi’s Outdoor Stage

Harrison Colby

September 1, 2024

"Is Third Eye Blind still a band?" and "Is that the doot doot doot band?" are two questions a 3EB fan may have heard throughout the last two decades of the California band's three-decade long existence. And to ...

They Might Be Giants delight hardcore fans with two-night “Big Show” at Pabst Theater

Matt Wild

June 24, 2024

The last time They Might Be Giants rolled into Milwaukee (weeks before the initial COVID lockdowns of 2020), they were touring behind the 30th anniversary of their classic album Flood. While that two-and-a-half...

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...

Alvvays returns to Pabst Theater for instantly iconic performance

Matt Wild

April 23, 2024

Back in March, indie-pop band Charly Bliss scored a semi-viral tweet about fellow indie group Alvvays: if a venue doesn't play "archie, marry me" before a three band indie rock bill you can report them to the c...

“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...

Cat Power covers Bob Dylan, captivates Pabst Theater

Matt Wild

March 4, 2024

In 1998, director Gus Van Sant released a "shot-for-shot" remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960 film Psycho. When asked the inevitable question of "Why?" Van Sant offered up a number of answers: it was an e...

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 ...

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