Thinkstock / Maggie Vaughn - Shepherd Express
Thursday, February 19
Will Butler / via Facebook
Arcade Fire’s Will Butler and Marika Anthony-Shaw @ Marquette University’s Weasler Auditorium, 7 p.m.
Arcade Fire hasn’t played Milwaukee since a legendary show at Mad Planet a decade ago, and given the band’s preference for larger touring markets, it’s possible they may not play here again anytime soon. So in the meantime this is as close as we’ll get: Arcade Fire’s frontman Will Butler and viola/violinist Marika Anthony-Shaw will speak at Marquette University’s Weasler Auditorium about the many challenges facing a country near and dear to them, Haiti. The band has helped raise more than $500,000 in donations for the Caribbean country. The event is free. While he’s got the microphone, Butler may or may not take the time to give a plug for his upcoming debut solo album, Policy, due March 10 on Merge Records.
Photo by Alan Gastelum
Joshua Radin w/ Andrew Belle and Cary Brothers @ The Pabst Theater, 6:30 p.m.
Like a more pop-minded Iron and Wine, 40-year-old Cleveland singer-songwriter Joshua Radin blends youthful and romantic lyrics with a gracefully mature voice. The TV series “Scrubs” helped break the music career of the one-time middle-school art teacher by including Radin’s song “Winter” in a 2004 episode. Sales of Radin’s EP skyrocketed, bringing the songwriter a deal with Columbia Records. His songs were subsequently used in other shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “One Tree Hill.” He even played at Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s wedding. But things started to get complicated as Radin clashed creatively with Columbia over his second record, prompting him to move to independent label Mom kknd Pop to record his 2008 album Simple Times. He self-released his latest albums, including this year’s Onward and Sideways, which includes a duet with Sheryl Crow on the single “Beautiful Day.”
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Friday, February 20
Thinkstock
Milwaukee Gospel @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Generations of Milwaukee gospel performers shared the stage last February at the Pabst Theater’s Milwaukee Gospel showcase, a benefit for progressive community health centers, and they’ll do it again this year. Once again spotlighting primarily quartets and vocal ensembles, this year’s lineup will include a diversity of acts that rarely perform outside of churches, including Spirit of Charms, Voices of Faith, Masonic Wonders, Independent Gospelettes, Sounds of Faith and Living Sacrifice.
Dirty Dozen Brass Band @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 8 p.m.
New Orleans brass bands were falling fast out of favor when the Dirty Dozen Brass Band formed in the late ’70s. The group not only helped to keep the tradition alive, it also became one of the city’s most popular touring acts in the ’80s. That’s not to say they were complete traditionalists. Unlike their forefathers, they drew deeply from funk (and later hip-hop) music, and over the years they’ve collaborated with artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Widespread Panic and Modest Mouse. In 2012 they released their latest album, Twenty Dozen, their first album of original material since 1999, and their follow-up to 2006’s What’s Going On, a song-for-song reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece that they recorded in response to Hurricane Katrina.
Saturday, February 21
Hozier w/ Ãsgeir @ The Riverside Theater, 8:30 p.m.
Irish singer Andrew Hozier-Byrne, better known simply as Hozier, is just 24 years old, but he possesses a voice well beyond his years. He put that voice to unforgettable use on his breakout hit “Take Me to Church,” a soulful rock hymn that sounds as if it were recorded decades ago at the House of the Rising Sun. The recognition poured in quickly, and although he didn’t win the Song of the Year award he was nominated for at this month’s Grammys, he did deliver a memorable rendition of the song with Annie Lennox, and no doubt further grew his audience in the process.
Kacey Musgraves w/ John & Jacob @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
It seems fateful that Kacey Musgraves grew up not all that far from the part of East Texas where Miranda Lambert was raised, since Musgraves would go on to write a hit for Lambert (“Mama’s Broken Heart”) and garner plenty of comparisons to that country star as she became a star in her own right. Hers wasn’t a fast path to success, by any means. Musgraves didn’t make much of a splash when she competed on the 2007 “American Idol” knockoff “Nashville Star,” where she finished seventh, but after three commercially ignored independent albums, in 2013 she finally released her breakthrough record, Same Trailer Different Park, an endearingly wide-eyed country album with a quaint, traditionalist streak. It earned plenty of acclaim even from publications that don’t cover much commercial country music, including Spin and Rolling Stone, which ranked the disc as one of 2013’s albums of the year. It also took home two big Grammy awards the following year, including one for best country album.
Mama Tried Motorcycle Show @ 1741 W. St. Paul Ave., 10 a.m.
Nobody will mistake them for paintings or sculptures, but to motorcycle enthusiasts custom-built bikes are truly a thing of art. The Mama Tried Motorcycle Show treats them as such, displaying more than 50 vintage bikes and unique custom choppers built by some of the country’s finest craftsmen. The event takes place at 1741 W. St. Paul Ave., in a warehouse space across from Sobelman’s, and runs 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21 and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22.
Tuesday, February 24
robynhitchcock.com
Robyn Hitchcock w/ Emma Swift @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Sometimes the line between cult favorite and bona fide star can be maddeningly thin. Just ask Robyn Hitchcock, who has at various points in his long career seemed primed for mass recognition he never quite received, though he’s plenty celebrated in songwriting circles and in his native England. After his blissful jangle pop records with the band The Soft Boys in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Hitchcock found acclaim while exploring psychedelic sounds as a solo artist, then gradually phased out those influences to let the songs speak for themselves on a series of albums inspired by Bob Dylan. His latest record is low-key but wonderful. In addition to charming cover art from Hitchcock’s friend Gillian Welch, The Man Upstairs features loving covers of songs by Grant-Lee Phillips, Roxy Music, Psychedelic Furs and The Doors.
Barry Manilow / via Facebook
Barry Manilow w/ Dave Koz @ BMO Harris Bradley Center, 7:30 p.m.
If we’ve learned anything from years of following legacy acts on the road, it’s that “final” tours rarely are. So perhaps you should take veteran pop singer Barry Manilow’s claim that his “One Last Time!” tour really will be his last time touring with a grain of salt, but if you want to witness the man who popularized “Mandy” and “Copacabana (At the Copa)” perform them live, then consider this your notice—it may or may not be your last chance.
