Today at Summerfest: Saturday, July 6

Welcome to our daily digest of Summerfest picks, previews, promotions and opinions. Here's what's happening at the Big Gig on Saturday, July 6. Land here looking for our latest Summerfest coverage? Click here for the newest Summerfest previews and reviews.

L.A. teenager Billie Eilish speaks to the anxieties and aspirations of her generation and the response has carried her to the top of the charts and into the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. The festival’s penultimate day is crowded with talent from all genres, including Dark Star Orchestra at BMO Harris Pavilion and Semisonic at U.S. Cellular Connection Stage.

Billie Eilish @ American Family Insurance Amphitheater, 7:30 p.m.

Turning “duh!” into an earworm of a hook in her current single, “Bad Guy,” would be enough to make Billie Eilish one of 2019’s more memorable musical figures. But there’s plenty more to commend the Los Angeles teenager’s artistry.

Last spring’s debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? compels with darkness, melancholy and sagacity befitting someone far older. Or perhaps not. Eilish’s often hushed, tremulous vocal delivery and lyrics that range from vulnerability and longing to jadedness and aloofness—sometimes all in the same song—at one level speak to feelings of adolescence universally.

Simultaneously, however, Eilish songs such as “Bury A Friend” and “Xanny” speak to the exigencies of young adulthood in contemporary America. She and her peers have grown up in a nation where school shootings, terror attacks and teen suicide are commonplace. The sincerity and creepiness inhabiting much of her work, often enough emphasized in music videos rife with images disturbing as those found in some Marilyn Manson clips, are valid and natural responses to the world about her.

Eilish’s articulations of her concerns have obviously resonated with many of her peers and plenty other listeners, as When debuted atop the Billboard 200 the week of its release. The home-recorded collection’s relatively experimental soundscape, cribbing from hip-hop and dubstep and other electronic styles that don’t always inspire dancing, matches the fragility, hauntedness and audacity, and fits nigh flawlessly, too.

Attendees at the amphitheater shouldn’t be surprised if her opening act, Finneas, joins her on stage, as he’s her brother. Neither should it come as a shock to concertgoers if she speaks from stage on mental health, with which she has had personal struggles and has filmed a public service announcement promoting its importance. (Jamie Lee Rake)

Dark Star Orchestra @ BMO Harris Pavilion, 8 p.m.

“People joining hand in hand, while the music played the band,” from the Grateful Dead’s “The Music Never Stopped” perhaps comes closest to describing the overall experience at a Dark Star Orchestra show. While continually seeking to recreate the energy and magic many enjoyed throughout the 30 years of Grateful Dead shows, as well as subsequent incarnations continuing well into the present day, members of Dark Star Orchestra have consistently managed to hit the mark and improve their own chops along the way.

Started in 1997 as a way to preserve the Grateful Dead’s improvisational jam band approach, Dark Star Orchestra selects specific Dead concerts and performs the exact set list. But they allow themselves space for their own interpretations, thus remaining true in spirit to the jazz influenced ethos surrounding the Dead’s basic style. And since the Grateful Dead never repeated any concert set list, this gives Dark Star Orchestra plenty of room to stretch out. Recent years have also found Dark Star Orchestra putting together shows with song lists from multiple concerts and working in a variety of guest artists.

The current lineup includes Lisa Mackey, vocals, Rob Koritz, and Dino English, drums, and percussion, Rob Eaton, rhythm guitar, vocals, Rob Barraco, keyboards and vocals, Jeff Mattson, lead guitar and vocals and Skip Vangelas, bass, and vocals. Distinguished guests have included some of the original Grateful Dead members and many musicians famous for their jam band connections.

Besides their tours, Dark Star Orchestra hosts a jamboree each spring and a winter escape to Jamaica for several shows. They’re also veterans of many major music festivals, including Bonnaroo, Gathering of the Vibes, Mountain Jam, as well as their annual visit to Summerfest. (Mike Stupak)

Dumpstaphunk @ Johnson Controls World Sound Stage, 10 p.m.

Funk is elusive. It breathes. While many bands try, when a group nails the groove the listener knows it. In New Orleans, the Neville family is funky musical royalty, with the Meters, The Wild Tchoupitoulas and the Neville Brothers providing cornerstones in the Crescent City’s storied musical history. Cousins Ivan and Ian Neville began writing the next chapter with Dumpstaphunk in 2003. Dumpstaphunk’s elastic groove lives in the band’s DNA and relies on the tension of a mighty rhythm section featuring the two-bass hit of Nick Daniels and Tony Hall. (Blaine Schultz)

Semisonic @ U.S. Cellular Connection Stage, 10 p.m.

It wasn’t that long ago that Minneapolis’ Trip Shakespeare played Milwaukee clubs on a regular basis. When that band broke up, Dan Wilson and John Munson formed Semisonic with drummer Jacob Slichter in 1992.

Best known for the hit “Closing Time” from the 2001 album Feeling Strangely Fine, Semisonic took a break with Wilson releasing solo material, collaborating with everyone from Dierks Bentley to Celine Dion and winning a Grammy Award for his work with the Dixie Chicks. Multi-instrumentalist Munson performed with The New Standards, a jazz trio with Chan Poling, pianist from The Suburbs, as well as producing other artists. Slichter wrote an acclaimed book, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star, and since 2013 has been a professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College while continuing his work as a drummer and string arranger.

Recently, the band has featured performances marking the 20th anniversaries of their first two albums. In October of 2018, Universal Music Group released a deluxe, 20th anniversary edition of Feeling Strangely Fine. The band has been recording new music for a planned 2019 release. (Blaine Schultz)

Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound @ Johnson Controls World Sound Stage, 8 p.m.

Paul Cebar already possessed a missionary zeal for music—coupled with an intelligence that most missionaries never know—when he began playing in Milwaukee 40 years ago. Back then, he was an apostle of 1940s R&B but his mission grew more expansive (and contemporary) as co-leader of The R&B Cadets and at the head of Paul Cebar and The Milwaukeeans.

In recent years (decades already?), Cebar has continued to extend his reach as a songwriter and expand his scope as a musician. For him, the world is a vast record shop with aisles expanding toward infinity. Like the great DJ that he is (heard Wednesday mornings on WMSE), as a band leader Cebar constructs a sound that draws from New Orleans, the Caribbean, Latin America and points beyond. The name of his current band, Tomorrow Sound, signals that his roots are the material for building a sonic future, not merely an archival undertaking.

With Tomorrow Sound, Cebar is backed by a fine set of Milwaukee musicians, including drummer Reggie Bordeaux, bassist Mike Fredrickson and multi-instrumentalist Bob Jennings. (David Luhrssen)

Local Picks

Cathy Grier And The Troublemakers @ BMO Harris Pavilion, 4 p.m.  

Max And The Invaders @ Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard, 2 p.m.  

Wooldridge Brothers @ U.S. Cellular Connection Stage, 4 p.m.

Today's Promotion: "Make a Child Smile Day"

The first 1,500 patrons who donate a new or gently used childrens' books with a minimum $10 value will receive a free admission.

Here's Today's Complete Lineup

Downloadable one page PDF | Visit Summerfest.com for full lineup

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