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Børns
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Midwest Death Rattle
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Comedian Todd Barry
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Photo credit: Sumaneeva Galina
Comedian Vitaly Beckman
The Platinum Boys hit the road, while Midwest Death Rattle celebrates a new EP and the Milwaukee Brewers get fans ready for a potentially huge season.
Friday, Jan. 26
Platinum Boys w/ Dusk and Zed Kenzo @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m. | Details
Platinum Boys are leaving Milwaukee, but they’ll be back. On the heels of their latest EP of songs about good times and hard living, We Don’t Dance (Anymore), the local rock ’n’ rollers are heading to Europe for a tour, but first they’re playing this tour sendoff show, where they’ll be joined by Dusk, the country-leaning side project of Tenement songwriter Amos Pitsch, and boundary-blurring Milwaukee rapper Zed Kenzo.
Photo credit: Sumaneeva Galina
Comedian Vitaly Beckman
Vitaly: An Evening of Wonder @ South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center | Details
Vitaly Beckman treats magic as a form of art. Born in the Soviet Union and based out of Vancouver, the magician specializes in bringing drawings and pictures to life—an act unique enough that one of his illusions stumped professional debunkers Penn and Teller on a 2016 episode of their show “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.” “I just create my own world where art comes to life, pictures come to life, things float and people have things happen in their own hands in the audience,” Beckman told the Shepherd ahead of his appearance at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center. You can read the entire interview here.
Børns
Børns w/ Charlotte Cardin and Mikky Ekko @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m. | Details
Børns is the exotic stage name of Garrett Borns, a singer from the decidedly un-exotic hometown of Grand Haven, Mich. Maybe it’s because of his ordinary upbringing that his music conveys such a sense of fantasy. His glammy blend of soul and rock feels like it was piped in from a daydream, and it’s no coincidence that its aesthetic mirrors the retro-modern hybrid of Lana Del Rey. His 2015 debut album, Dopamine, was recorded with producer Emile Haynie, who worked on Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die and featured the euphoric single that put him on the map, “Electric Love.” On his just-released follow-up album, Blue Madonna, he offers an even more glamorous spin on the same sound, while recruiting Lana Del Rey herself for the opener: “God Save Our Young Blood.”
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Saturday, Jan. 27
Comedian Todd Barry
Todd Barry @ Underground Collective, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. | Details
Sometimes the funniest comedians are also the most understated. With his everyman looks and slow, dry-as-toast delivery, Todd Barry has lent his unmistakable, sardonic voice to cartoons like “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist” and “Home Movies,” in addition to playing a very lightly fictionalized version of himself on “Louie.” There’s nothing loud or pretentious about Barry’s stand-up act. Instead, Barry relies on his quiet charm and good-natured leeriness, quipping back and forth with the audience and chuckling gently as if trying to contain his laughter when one of his retorts strikes him as particularly amusing. His rapport with audiences is so natural that for this “Crowd Work” tour he’s abandoned scripted material together, instead dedicating entire sets to riffed interactions with his crowds.
Midwest Death Rattle
Midwest Death Rattle w/ Space Raft and Graham Hunt @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m. | Details
Midwest Death Rattle cemented themselves as one of Milwaukee’s most ideas-rich rock bands on their 2016 album Post-Apocalypso, a dazzling circus of psychedelic rock, math rock, dream-pop and cabaret that tossed out one curveball after another. There isn’t another band is the city that sounds anything like them. The group has plans to put out two new EPs this year, the first of which, Square Wave, they’ll celebrate at this release show, featuring Milwaukee rockers Space Raft and Graham Hunt (of Midnight Reruns).
Dan Whitaker & The Shinebenders w/ JP Cyr and the Midnightmen @ Kochanski’s, 9 p.m. | Details
With his band The Shinebenders, Chicago songwriter Dan Whitaker pays homage to the glory days of country and honky-tonk, creating a hybrid of Western swing and rock ’n’ roll powered by tight guitar licks and chugging upright bass. The group released its most recent album, Anything You Wanted To, last fall. For this show, they’ll be joined by Milwaukee’s own honky-tonk fanatics JP Cyr and the Midnightmen, whose brand of rockabilly pits Cyr’s sturdy upright bass against some striking steel guitar.
2018 Wisconsin Day of Percussion @ Wisconsin Lutheran College, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. | Details
The Wisconsin Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society hosts this celebration of all things percussive at Wisconsin Lutheran College. It’s a day of performances, clinics and presentations featuring some of the Milwaukee area’s most prominent percussionists (among them jazz vibraphone master Mitch Shiner, keyboardist Cindy Terhune, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra timpani player Dean Borghesani and prolific jazz drummer Devin Drobka) and a huge lineup of local ensembles, including the Milwaukee Bucks Beats Drumline, the Wisconsin College All-Star Percussion Ensemble, Cream City Percussion Ensemble and the Percussion Ensemble of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. Percussionists of all ages and experience levels are welcome. All-day passes are $15 and available at the door.
Sunday, Jan. 28
Milwaukee Brewers On Deck @ Wisconsin Center, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. | Details
Brewers fans expecting the team’s rebuild to be long and painful were treated to a pleasant surprise last season, when the team outperformed just about everybody’s expectations, remaining in contention for the playoffs until the final week of the season. The possibility that 2018 will be the team’s year should lend an extra dose of excitement to their annual On Deck fan festival. Brewers legends Robin Yount, Gorman Thomas, Jim Gantner, Rollie Fingers and Cecil Cooper will be among those joining most of the team’s current lineup, coaching staff and broadcast team—including Ryan Braun, Jimmy Nelson, Eric Thames, Travis Shaw, Zach Davies, Craig Counsell and Bob Uecker—for a day of autographs, photo opportunities, panels, Q&A sessions, kid’s baseball clinics and games.
Bully w/ Fox Face @ Cactus Club, 7:30 p.m. | Details
Grungy Nashville indie-rock trio Bully quickly sold out their scheduled show at Cactus Club earlier this month, which was moved to Anodyne Coffee in Walker’s Point to accommodate the demand. As an added bonus for that move, the band threw in this second show at Cactus Club with the fantastic Milwaukee punk band Fox Face opening. The downside, of course, is that, like the first announced show, this one also sold out quickly.
