Photo by Maria Kanevskaya
Thursday, March 31
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down w/ Saintseneca @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
Recalling the slow-burn of Chan Marshall and the ebullient bark of Karen O, Thao Nguyen’s rich, bluesy voice gives her chamber-folk tunes a gravity she may or may not intend. But thanks to the lively arrangements of her band The Get Down Stay Down, her music is rarely a buzzkill. This month they released their fourth album of quirky, excitable indie-rock, A Man Alive, and like its predecessors (which were recorded with producers Tucker Martine and John Congleton), this one pairs them with a strong influence behind the boards: tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus.
Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire @ BMO Harris Bradley Center, 7:30 p.m.
Part of the appeal of Chicago, and one of the reasons why the group has maintained such a strong following for five decades, is that they were never strictly a rock band. Their sounds drew heavily from jazz and soul, which informed hits like the funky “25 or 6 to 4,” the sunny “Saturday in The Park” and their number one love ballad “If You Leave Me Now.” It seems only fitting, then, that the group co-headlines this tour with another band that has never been bound by genre: Earth, Wind & Fire, the funk outfit whose records also drew liberally from soul, R&B, rock and jazz. The two bands have held multiple tours together since 2004.
Friday, April 1
Big Gigantic w/ Louis The Child and Melvv @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli puts his skills as a DJ and improviser to work in Big Gigantic, his duo with drummer Jeremy Salken. The group’s 2009 release Fire It Up quickly stirred up buzz in some of dance music’s more eccentric outer circles, while Lalli affirmed his jam credentials that summer by creating some well-received remixes for Sound Tribe Sector 9’s album Peaceblaster. STS9 returned the favor, appearing on the title track of Big Gigantic’s 2010 album, A Place Behind the Moon, an even funkier outing. The group’s recent releases, including 2014’s The Night is Young, have taken on more aggressive dubstep flavor, earning them an ever bigger following.
Tripoli Shrine Circus @ UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, 7:30 p.m.
The Tripoli Shriners of Milwaukee have made a name for themselves through their community service and support of the Shriners Hospitals for Children, but they’re best known for their annual circus. Attractions include aerial dancers, local acrobats, quick change artists, a human cannonball and clowns. (Multiple shows through Monday, April 4.)
Green River Ordinance w/ Luke Wade @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
For 15 years, Green River Ordinance has existed in a sort of musical no-man’s land, too rock for country radio and too country for rock radio. That absurdity of their situation was hit home in February, when Billboard magazine refused to include the band’s latest album Fifteen in its Country Albums Chart (the album would have charted at #7). To be sure, though, country fans will find a lot to like in the album, which takes the group even deeper into back-woods territory with rustic banjo, harmonicas, churchy organs and lyrics about faith. Ironically, the band played the Grand Ole Opry just days after the slight. Now if that’s not country, what is?
Saturday, April 2
Flatbush Zombies w/ A$AP Twelvyy and Remy Banks @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
New York may no longer be hip-hop’s creative center, but there’s still no shortage of young talent coming out of the city. Flatbush Zombies have been one of the better acts to emerge from Brooklyn over the last few years, a group with a clear appreciation for the genre’s past and a clear vision for where they’d like to take it going forward. On their debut album 3001: A Laced Odyssey, they resurrect the gritty horrorcore sound pioneered by The Gravediggaz and then put their own bleakly psychedelic spin on it. The result is an album that feels strangely out of time.
Jeffrey Foucault w/ Erik Koskinen @ Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery, 8 p.m.
Whitewater singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault has worked with some exceptional collaborators over the years, including Morphine drummer Billy Conway, Booker T bassist Jeremy Moses, Son Volt’s Eric Heywood and legendary composer Van Dyke Parks. On his 10th and latest album Salt As Wolves—a bluesy, evocative tour through America’s back roads—he’s joined on backing vocals by the Nashville country singer Caitlin Canty, who assists him on some of his most confident and haunting songs yet.
Sunday, April 3
Meat Loaf @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
Meat Loaf's blockbuster 1977 major-label debut, Bat Out of Hell, set the template for most everything the singer has recorded since: grandiose rock operas about hard-fought love, epic sex and death-defying adventure, set to a smirking score of blustery hard-rock guitars and grandly overblown Broadway arrangements sung by a master straight man who brings passion and pathos to even the most jokey of lyrics. That formula has been the foundation for all of the singer’s subsequent successes, both critical (his massive 1993 comeback album, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell) and artistic (2010’s spirited, if underselling, concept disc Hang Cool Teddy Bear, produced by longtime Green Day guiding hand Rob Cavallo). His latest album, 2011’s Hell in a Handbasket, found the singer flirting with contemporary country and hip-hop, courtesy of surprising cameos from Trace Adkins, John Rich, Chuck D and Lil Jon.
Monday, April 4
Andy Kindler @ Club Garibaldi, 8 p.m.
Andy Kindler never found a breakthrough star vehicle the way that many of his peers from the ’80s and ’90s New York comedy scene did, but that hasn’t stopped him from working steadily. In addition to voice roles on “Dr. Katz” and “Bob’s Burgers,” Kindler had a reoccurring role on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” served as a judge on “Last Comic Standing,” and appeared on “The Last Show with David Letterman” more than 40 times. Most recently he’s played himself on IFC’s Marc Maron vehicle “Maron.” Also on this bill: Milwaukee comedians Tyler Menz and Jake Kornely.
Tuesday, April 5
Concert For Peace: Yair Dalal and Mira Awad @ the Jewish Community Center, 8 p.m.
It’s a myth that all Jews and all Palestinians hate each other, though you could certainly be excused for gathering that impression based on how the media reports on the Middle East. It always makes a powerful statement, then, when a Jewish artist and a Palestinian artist collaborate together, and this show features two especially talented ones: Israeli violin and oud player Yair Dalal and Palestinian singer and actress Mira Awad. They’ve created a program that fuses the sounds of the East and West.
Wednesday, April 6
Carlos Mencia @ Milwaukee’s Comedy Café, 7 p.m.
The comedy establishment has never been a huge fan of Carlos Mencia. The base racial humor of his Comedy Central sketch show, “Mind of Mencia,” made plenty of comedians and critics uncomfortable, but it was allegations of plagiarism that made him a real target. Mencia has been accused of lifting jokes from everybody, from Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor to Jeff Foxworthy. George Lopez appears to be a particular mark: The sitcom star has claimed that Mencia stole more than 10 minutes of his material. Mencia may or may not have been winking to that controversy, then, when he titled his 2011 comedy special New Territory.
