This Week in Milwaukee: March 23-29, 2023

Here are the Milwaukee events we are looking forward to coming up this week.

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Vivian Vance aka Ethel Mertz; Jimmy Flemion of The Frogs; Steve Forbert; an evening with Yo La Tengo; Ladysmith Black Mambazo; a visit with the Brewers official scorekeeper and more—This Week in Milwaukee!

Thursday, March 23

Peter Mulvey and SistaStrings @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.

If you missed them opening for Ani DiFranco in January, here’s another chance. Last year’s album Love Is the Only Thing by Peter Mulvey & SistaStrings cited Mulvey’s mission statement: “To make an anti-fascist record, you must keep kindness and compassion in the foreground.” That could be a tall order. The veteran songwriter collaborated with SistaStrings and drummer Nathan Kilen on a baker’s dozen songs—snapshots of America in 2022. Mulvey’s “Song for Michael Brown,” seeks compassion for the victim, his city, and the man who shot him down; the marchers and even “the angry hype-man on TV”—it may be among the best he’s written … yet.

In 2022 SistaStrings toured with Brandi Carlile and played SNL in December. The duo also performed with The Rainbow Coalition of the Loving, Allison Russell’s touring band. In July at the Newport Folk Festival, SistaStrings were part of Carlile’s posse backing Joni Mitchell. The historic set was the first high profile show Mitchell played in 20 years.

Friday, March 24

Side Kicked @ Memories Dinner Theater (1077 Lake Drive, Port Washington), 5:45 p.m.

It’s Friday, March 2, 1960, and we are at the final taping of “The Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour.” This is the final time the four characters will perform together before a live audience. We find ourselves in the dressing room of Vivian Vance aka Ethel Mertz, reflecting on all the years of “I Love Lucy” and more. She shares how she feels, the highs and lows of this epic journey, with Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz and William Frawley. This behind the scenes look at what really occurred is eye opening and jaw dropping, and a very different perspective with the greatest neighbor the world has ever known.

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Through Sunday. More info here: memoriesballroom.ticketleap.com.

Jimmy Flemion of The Frogs w/ The Quilz @ X-Ray Arcade, 6:30 p.m.

Jimmy Flemion, playing guitar and wearing a pair of oversized bat wings, with his late brother Dennis, on drums, The Frogs recorded catchy songs, distracting the casual listener from first-person lyrical content that included race, religion and sexuality. 

With fans in the rock star pantheon, were The Frogs conceptual art project or agitprop or social satire set to music? Were they offensive? Were they funny? Just plain smart-asses? Beats me. Here is a rare chance to try and figure it out for yourself and get to see imaginative synthwave duo The Quilz in the bargain.

Steve Forbert @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Steve Forbert has long been a regular visitor to Milwaukee. At age 21 he left his home in Meridian, Mississippi and took a train to New York City’s East Village. There, in 1976, the folksinger found himself in the middle of the CBGB’s scene and began carving out a career. In 1979, his second album included “Romeo’s Tune,” a song that reached number 11 on Billboard’s chart. As a so-called “new Dylan” that song set Forbert on a winding path which found him navigating record labels and collaborations that included members of Wilco on the album Rocking Horse Head. In 2022, Forbert released the album Moving Through America with a title track “recounts his solo trek through the Midwest in a pre-pandemic 2017. But it could just as well be used to describe his entire career.”

Saturday, March 25

The Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Band @ Racine Theatre Guild (2519 Northwestern Ave., Racine)

Wisconsin’s premier Latin jazz band for over 20 years, Tony Castañeda and his band have been honoring and keeping alive the music of the golden age of Latin jazz. Winner of over 15 Isthmus Madison Favorite Jazz Band annual awards, the group has been featured in festivals, concerts, and opened for legendary Latin jazz artists such as Poncho Sanchez, John Santos, Giovanni Hidalgo, and John Benitez. The band performs classics in Afro-Cuban Jazz arrangements that are timeless and pair with the group’s original tunes.

An Evening with Yo La Tengo @ Turner Hall, 8 p.m.

Yo La Tengo could be a mail-order kit for a band. In nearly 40 years Hoboken’s second most popular music artist has veered seamlessly from the spellbinding, delicate “Autumn Sweater” to “And the Glitter Is Gone,” an epic that seems intent to musically prove the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The group is a record collection come to life; their annual Hanukkah shows have included artists from the Sun Ra Arkestra to Alex Chilton.

"This Stupid World is the band’s first full-length album in five years and is a welcome return from beginning to end," wrote Andy Turner (shepherdexpress.com/music/music-feature/yo-la-tengo-returns-with-a-new-album-and-a-milwaukee-show). "On the road to support This Stupid World, Yo La Tengo made headlines and stirred up social media with a performance in Nashville in which Kaplan and McNew left the stage during the show before returning dressed in drag to protest Tennessee’s recent anti-drag law."

Sunday, March 26

Milwaukee Underground Film Festival Promo Screening @ Cactus Club, 6 p.m.

This all-ages event will feature a promo screening followed by a question and answer session.

Monday, March 27

Ladysmith Black Mambazo @ Bradley Symphony Center, 7:30 p.m.

South Africa’s five-time Grammy Award winning singing group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, was founded in the early 1960s by Joseph Shabalala, then a teenage Zulu farm boy living on the lands just outside the small town of Ladysmith. In naming the group, Joseph used his hometown to honor his family history. The word Black is reference to the black oxen, the strongest of the farm animals he worked with, so to announce the strength of the group’s vocal singing. Mambazo is the Zulu word for chopping axe, a symbol of the group’s vocal ability.

Tuesday, March 28

What's the Score? Talking Baseball with Tim O'Driscoll @ Shorewood Village Center (3920 North Murray Ave.), 6:30 p.m.

MLB scorekeeper Tim O'Driscoll tells the stories behind the score. O'Driscoll, who has been the official scorer of the Milwaukee Brewers for over 35 years has scored more than 2,500 professional baseball games. As the holder of one of the most unique jobs in the world, O’Driscoll is tasked with making big decisions on a nightly basis. He will share memorable interactions with players and coaches and talk about his experiences working for Major League Baseball.

Evan Christian @ The Estate, 7:30 p.m.

Here is some great news, live music is back at The Estate. Evan Christian returns to the intimate club—long a jazz mainstay—two sets of acoustic music spanning flamenco, blues and beyond. Christian is also set to reopen his club Gibraltar in the Historic Third Ward, near Summerfest.

Wednesday, March 29

August Wilson’s Seven Guitars @ Quadracci Powerhouse, 1:30 p.m.

Writing about Milwaukee Rep’s production of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Harry Cherkanian says, "Wilson’s writing is at its zenith, sounding as naturalistic yet eloquent, exuding a majestic beauty, Seven Guitars reminds us of why Wilson is one the most important playwrights of the 20th century. This is the Rep’s eighth production of the esteemed playwright’s 10-play American Century Cycle and it challenges our 21st century sensibilities while reminding us: just how much has changed since then." (shepherdexpress.com/culture/theater/no-second-chances-in-august-wilsons-seven-guitars)

Through April 2. More info here: milwaukeerep.com/shows/show/august-wilsons-seven-guitars.