A one-time staple of the Milwaukee music scene who managed the city’s most successful acts from the ’90s including The Gufs, Citizen King and The Promise Ring, Jeff Castelaz has assembled a litany of big names in Milwaukee music past and present for his benefit concert for children with cancer January 23 at the Turner Hall Ballroom: Fever Marlene, The Gufs, The Lackloves, Maritime, Mike Benign, Old Man Malcolm, Pet Engine and Truth in Fiction.
While the top of the bill is anchored by reliable draws, the supporting acts are also rich in local music history. Mike Benign was the singer-songwriter for the ’90s alternative group Blue in the Face, while Pet Engine were one of the city’s most ubiquitous alterna-pop bands of that decade, staples of Summerfest and one of the few bands to receive regular radio play at a time when Milwaukee radio wasn’t as hospitable to local music as it is now. Truth in Fiction, meanwhile, may be one of the most promising contemporary Milwaukee bands that nobody talks about, purveyors of the type of hooky emo-pop that’s been a mainstay of modern-rock radio for half a decade now. The group includes Milwaukee vet Kristian Riley, formerly of Citizen King. The bill will reunite him with fellow Citizen King alum Old Man Malcolm.
For more information on the Pablove Benefit Concert, visit this site.
