Thursday, Feb. 25
STOMP @ Milwaukee Theatre, 7:30 p.m.
Few touring acts were bigger sensations in the 1990s than STOMP, the British dance troupe that broke touring records across the world and spawned an empire that included television specials, commercials and even an IMAX movie. Creating percussive rhythms and unlikely dance routines with garbage cans, brooms, hubcaps and, in one of their most memorable routines, cigarette lighters, STOMP dancers continue to thrill American audiences both in New York and with a perennially popular touring group that returns to the Milwaukee Theatre for this performance. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring jars of peanut butter to the event to donate to the Hunger Task Force.
Present Music: ‘In the Chamber’ @ Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30 p.m.
For its latest program, the contemporary classical ensemble Present Music looked to six of its favorite modern composers, including three it has previously commissioned works from: Michael Torke, Christopher Cerrone and Kamran Ince. Following a premiere at the Zelazo Center on Thursday night, the company will deliver encore performances Friday, Feb. 26 at the Villa Terrace at 11 a.m., then that night at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music at 7:30 p.m.
Lotus w/ Michal Menert & the Pretty Fantastics @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8:30 p.m.
At its worst, so-called “jam-tronica,” that small subset of improvisational music spun around electronic and dance sounds, can be every bit as meandering as the worst guitar-based jam music, but Philadelphia’s Lotus has increasingly fine tuned its niche genre. Drawing from acts like Tortoise, Trans Am and Kraftwerk, the group brings a loose, funky and decidedly unpretentious spirit to sounds that are typically associated with lofty prog-rock and post-rock records. The group’s latest record Gilded Age features remixes from down-tempo producers Skytree and Marley Carroll. (Also Friday, Feb. 26.)
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Friday, Feb. 26
Cesar Millan @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
Preaching that dog owners should be pack leaders who guide their pets with “a calm, assertive energy,” Cesar Millan has emerged as perhaps the world’s most prominent dog trainer, spawning a media empire that includes his TV programs “The Dog Whisperer” and “Cesar 911” and a series of best-selling books. For this appearance, Millan will bring along a couple of his canine co-stars, Junior and Benson, as he shares his dog-training philosophy and demonstrates his training techniques on stage using local rescue dogs.
WORK w/ Tigernite and Body Futures @ Company Brewing, 10 p.m.
“I’ve got a graveyard disposition!” WORK singer Joe Cannon howls proudly on the nervy Milwaukee rock trio’s debut album Doing the Lords. His demeanor lends an unpredictable, man-on-the-edge intensity to the record, a collection of 10 lean, terse songs built around Cannon’s peppy guitar strums and his bloodletting vocal performances. This album release show at Company Brewing pairs the band with two other local rock groups who throw themselves into their music, Tigernite and Body Futures.
Wolf Eyes w/ Timmy’s Organism and Video @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
Like the best experimental noise bands, Wolf Eyes aims not just to alienate but also to unnerve, putting listeners on edge with a hateful pastiche of industrial clatter and truly painful frequencies and pitches. After 20 years together (and finding a temporary high-profile home on Sub Pop in the middle of the 2000s), the Detroit group continues to work fast, sometimes recording nearly a dozen releases a year, many of them cheaply distributed on CD-R. The group returns to Milwaukee to share this show with their Detroit neighbors Timmy’s Organism, a bluesy punk band, and Austin punk rockers Video. They’re touring together as part of a package deal called the Audio Social Dissent Tour, sponsored by Jack White’s label Third Man Records.
Beatallica and Lovanova @ Club Garibaldi, 9 p.m.
It’s a testament to Beatallica’s fondness for their source material that 15 years after they first started performing comedy mashups of The Beatles and Metallica, they’re still coming up with new material. The group’s most recent album, Abbey Load, pairs songs from Abbey Road with music from Metallica songs like “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and “Fade to Black.” This bill’s co-headliners Lovanova take themselves somewhat more seriously, penning original instrumental songs around the Hammond B3 organ, which lends the quartet’s tunes a jazzy, cocktail-lounge feel, even when they detour into proggier territory. The group is planning to head into the studio to record their fourth album soon.
G. Love & Special Sauce @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 9 p.m.
G. Love & Special Sauce scored a hit early in their career with the cheeky single “My Baby’s Got Sauce” from their self-titled 1994 debut, but rather than fall into obscurity along with so many other novelty bands from the era, their blend of blues, folk and hip-hop found a welcoming audience in the jam scene. Garrett “G. Love” Dutton has spent much of the ’00s as a solo act, recording a trio of albums on his own for Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records, and Special Sauce suffered a blow in 2009 when bassist Jimi “Jazz” Prescott quit the group. To the relief of fans, though, Dutton announced Prescott had rejoined the band in early 2014, and they’ve since released a pair of new records, that year’s Sugar and last fall’s Love Saves The Day.
Saturday, Feb. 27
Nightwish w/ Sinata Arctuca and Dekaun @ The Rave, 7:45 p.m.
For nearly 20 years, the Finnish rock band Nightwish has been turning out impossibly massive symphonic metal albums that play like the soundtracks to blockbuster movies about the end of the world. Last year they released their eighth album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, titled for a famous Charles Darwin quote, and while their sound is as epic as ever, it marks some changes for the group. It’s their first without drummer Jukka Nevalainen, and their first with new singer Floor Jansen, who plays down the operatic vocals that defined earlier Nightwish albums to color many of these songs with softer, more subtle vocals.
