Thursday, Nov. 6
Bob Dylan @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m. (sold out)
Perhaps it’s quality control that accounts for Bob Dylan’s late-career critical resurgence. Since his 1997 comeback Time Out of Mind, Dylan has only released two studio albums, 2001’s Love and Theft and 2006’s Modern Times, both of which were sly, memorable and better for the wait. That’s not to say Dylan has left his die-hards starving for new material, though. He recently released the eighth installment of his “Bootleg Series,” Tell Tale Signs. Compiled from mostly excellent unreleased material from the last decade and a half of his career, the collection illustrates just how selective Dylan has becomeif these were the songs that didn’t make the studio-album cut, it’s no wonder his last three albums have been so accomplished.
Immortal Cupboard: In Search of Lorine Niedecker @ Milwaukee Art Museum, 6:15 p.m.
Rural Wisconsin was and still is a difficult location for a poet to launch a career, and mid-20th-century Objectivist Lorine Niedecker suffered because of her remote location. Niedecker published her first book in 1946, then weathered a 15-year drought during which she was barely published at all. By the time the 1960s poetry establishment took interest in Niedecker’s thoughtful, deeply personal poems, she was near the end of her life. Filmmaker Cathy Cook pays belated homage to this reclusive Wisconsin poet in her new film, Immortal Cupboard: In Search of Lorine Niedecker, which the Milwaukee Art Museum screens tonight in conjunction with its exhibit Unmasked & Anonymous: Shimon & Lindemann Consider Portraiture. The photographers from that exhibit contributed visuals to Cook’s film.
99 Bottles @ Times Cinema, 7 p.m.
Though it’s difficult to consider a product as ubiquitous as beer an endangered resource, in the new documentary 99 Bottles a group of Milwaukee filmmakers argues that these are hard times for microbreweries, since ingredient shortages, stricter laws and numerous fees cut into the profits of small brewmasters. The Times Cinema screens the film, which compiles interviews with two-dozen mostly local brewers, through Sunday, and each screening is packaged with a microbrew tasting session.
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Friday, Nov. 7
Danny Glover @ UWM Student Union, 7:30 p.m.
Though he’s best known as the amiable actor from films like Lethal Weapon and The Royal Tenenbaums, Danny Glover is also an aggressive, outspoken activist who supports labor causes, rallies for immigrant rights and has accused George W. Bush of racism in blunt terms that make Kanye West sound wishy-washy. Given the results of this week’s historic election, Glover should have plenty to chat about when he speaks tonight as part of UW-Milwaukee’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
Widespread Panic @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
Widespread Panic has been playing its swampy jam-rock since the mid-’80s, when there was no organized jam scene for them to lean on. The emergence of jam in the late-’90s as its own genrewith its own business modelturned the once-obscure band into a lucrative touring machine, and in recent years the band has had to alter its tours to account for its many sold-out shows. After doing a sold-out show at the Riverside Theater, for instance, the band planned ahead and booked two shows at the Riverside last year. For this latest go-round, the band tops themselves again: They’ll be doing three consecutive nights at the Riverside, beginning tonight.
Widespread Panic
Saturday, Nov. 8
Tommy Lee & DJ Aero @ Silk Exotic Gentleman’s Club, 7 p.m.
Given his toxic reputation as a wife-beating, Hepatitis-spreading cretin, you’d think that Tommy Lee would be the last person respectable strip clubs would want to associate their brand with, but in his new role as celebrity DJ, Lee has made something of a second career playing adult-entertainment locales. It’s a reliable gig for Lee, which is important since, depending on the day and the account, he may or may not be drumming for Motley Crue anymore. Lee’s electronic-music set with DJ Aero is the main attraction at Silk Exotic’s five-year anniversary party tonight, which is hosted by Playboy’s Jade Simone St. Clair.
Tommy Lee & DJ Aero
Northern Room @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7:30 p.m.
That Northern Room’s first big gig was an open spot for Bon Jovi at the Bradley Center says everything you need to know about the band’s arena-sized ambitions. In a mid-market music scene with modest ambitions, this ever-prim band carried themselves like stars, delivering flashy, U2-styled concerts with a grandiosity and pomposity that made them stand out from their beer-drinking competition. Their Christian-leaning buzz ballads had such undeniable commercial potential that the band is often almost-reflexively pinpointed as one of Milwaukee’s most promising, so it came as a major shock when they announced their sudden breakup last month. Tonight’s show will be their last.
Sunday, Nov. 9
Bob Schneider w/ Amie Miriello @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Fittingly enough for a one-time Dave Matthews opening act, singer-songwriter Bob Schneider has a tendency to genre-hop. Carefree early discs found him careening from reggae-tinged jam rock, to silly hip-hop-inflected folk, to classic rock and lovelorn ballads, but since his 2006 album The Californian, the Austin, Texas, troubadour has tightened his sound, restricting himself mostly to direct roots-rock. Since The Californian, Schneider has paid tribute to his rollicking live shows with 2006’s Greatest Hits Live and has continued to treat fans with small-scale, independent releases
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Amie Miriello
Wednesday, Nov. 12
The Blasters w/ Rumbleseat @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Though they were better associated with the punk-rock scene at the time, in 1980 The Blasters released a song that would become a roots-rock rally cry, “American Music.” “We got the Louisiana boogie and the Delta blues,” they sang. “We got country swing and rockabilly, too/ We got jazz, country-western and Chicago blues/ It’s the greatest music that you ever knew/ It’s American music/ It’s the greatest sound, right from the U.S.A.” A quarter-century later, the band’s lineup has changed considerably, but its love of American music remains untarnished.
Avenged Sevenfold w/ Shinedown and Saving Abel @ The Rave, 7:30 p.m.
After tasting commercial success with their 2005 major-label debut, City of Evil, which earned the group Best New Artist honors at the MTV Video Music Awards, Avenged Sevenfold stretched their pummeling metalcore into more user-friendly directions on their self-titled 2007 follow-up. To be sure, it’s not a total departure. The band still evokes an ultra-grimy Alice in Chains, cakes their music videos with ample fire and sings of biblical destruction. But this time out, they also nod to emo-pop, slow their choruses down to high-school prom tempos and even break out a Vocoderperhaps the most telling sign that this band, which once seemed confined to the Ozzfest circuit, is making a bid for greater pop relevancy.
