Tag: Show Review

David Byrne and band in front of a moon backdrop

David Byrne takes Miller High Life Theatre to moon, visits Bobblehead Hall Of Fame

May 4, 2026

David Byrne has been kind to Milwaukee, the only '80s rock legend that comes to mind who's brought every one of his major tours this century to the Brew City. In 2018 he played The Riverside on his American Uto...

Friko at Lilliput Records: In-store performances are worth waiting for

Lily Mihelich

May 4, 2026

On April 30, people joined in a line that stretched from the Lilliput Records to the City Reformed Church on Farwell Avenue. Although not particularly gathered for liturgy, there was an exciting ceremony underw...

The New Pornographers live up to long-running supergroup status at Turner Hall

CJ Johnson

May 3, 2026

I first saw The New Pornographers in March of 2001, at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. While the internet was purring along at this point, it was before the advent of Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, and the on...

The Lemon Twigs at Turner Hall: I came for monkey rock opera but stayed for great guitars and harmony

Tad Kriofske Mainella

May 1, 2026

One comes to things in so many ways. One comes to The Lemon Twigs by having a friend loco enough to teach for 30 years with an open mind and ears, all three wide enough ajar for a rock opera about a couple adop...

Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman make sold-out Riverside Theater their home

CJ Johnson

April 29, 2026

After walking into The Riverside Theater for Tuesday night's sold-out Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman show, I momentarily thought perhaps I was in the wrong venue. Rather than the usual gaudy trappings of most tou...

Ty Segall shows Turner Hall he’s the ‘f*ckin’ truth’

Cal Roach

April 22, 2026

Milwaukee can crank out all the meat-and-potatoes rock and roll it pleases, but the California bands are still gonna get all the glory. Laguna Beach native Ty Segall, a veteran of the nth wave of American garag...

Wednesday wow wall-to-wall crowd at Turner Hall

CJ Johnson

March 28, 2026

The last time I caught Wednesday was in September 2023, when they opened for Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit at a sold-out Riverside Theater. Back then, they were touring in support of their 2023 release Rat Saw ...

Journey holds on to that feeling, brings farewell tour to Fiserv Forum

Cal Roach

March 20, 2026

No city in the U.S.A. has undergone more radical cultural makeovers than San Francisco. For many, it still symbolizes the birthplace of the 1960s hippie movement; to others it’s more famous for tech bros and pr...

Ratboys search for answers, sing to packed Vivarium

Matt Wild

March 16, 2026

The title of Ratboys' instant-classic 2026 album Singin' To An Empty Chair refers to a therapeutic exercise in which a patient talks to an imagined person. "So this empty chair that I was singing to is meant to...

Nine Inch Nails peel it back at first Milwaukee show in 20 years

Cal Roach

February 24, 2026

When Nine Inch Nails last played Milwaukee nearly 20 years ago, they’d reached an unenviable career milestone that a young Trent Reznor probably never envisioned for himself: clinging to relevance on the streng...

Cate Le Bon offers salve for despair at Vivarium

Zack Pieper

January 27, 2026

On Friday night, in dangerously sub-zero temperatures, renowned Welsh performer, recording artist, and producer Cate Le Bon made her way to the Vivarium for her first-ever Milwaukee appearance. If you know Le B...

Hey Mercedes takes control at X-Ray Arcade

Paul Bestul

January 18, 2026

There was not much variety in music where I grew up. There was Top 50 radio, a Christian station, and 10 or 12 country music stations. We didn’t have a record store. Our lives were full of Backstreet Boys and N...

“People don’t know that I play guitar”: Bartees Strange kicks off first-ever solo tour at Vivarium

Cal Roach

November 3, 2025

“I’ve never toured like this before,” said Bartees Strange regarding his current three-week jaunt through the Midwest and West Coast. Sunday at Vivarium was the opening night of the singer/songwriter’s first tr...

Billy Strings delights Fiserv Forum during “Summer 25” tour stop

Cal Roach

August 9, 2025

Fresh off the "GD60" Grateful Dead anniversary celebrations in San Francisco over the previous weekend, Billy Strings started the next leg of his extensive touring schedule in Milwaukee on Friday. Although the ...

Ghost brings two hours of unabashed Satanic glam to Fiserv Forum

Cal Roach

July 30, 2025

Swedish hard rock band Ghost's first visit to Milwaukee back in 2013 was met with a mixture of rapture and bewilderment by a sparse Turner Hall Ballroom crowd. This was the group's first headlining tour and mos...

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

Matt Wild

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...

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