This Week in Milwaukee: May 26-June 1, 2022

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

by

Thursday, May 26

Jazz at the Vine w/ The MilOrGaNite Trio @ Humboldt Park, 6 p.m.

When Humboldt Park’s beer garden The Vine opens for the season on Thursday it will also include a monthly jazz-centric series happening the last Thursday of each month. Jazz at The Vine will join the weekly Chill on the Hill lineup to make Humboldt Park a premier outdoor music spot. The MilOrGaNite Trio opens the season; more info here shepherdexpress.com/culture/happening-now/jazz-in-another-park

Matt Wilson and His Orchestra @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

“Maybe the only remarkable thing about me is that my musical quest has been absolutely continuous. I honestly have never stopped,” says Matt Wilson. The Harvard-educated songwriter turned his imagination into songs with Trip Shakespeare. His current combo features harp and banjo and is “the aural equivalent of a new Grant Wood painting, Americana Gothic.” shepherdexpress.com/music/concert-reviews/matt-wilson-orchestra-stretches-the-boundaries/

Released just in time for the pandemic, Wilson’s gem-of-an-album When I Was a Writer is a survey of existential questions and coming to terms with how life plays out. The melodies are deceptively simple, which only serves to underscore how well Wilson’s songs convey the stories.

Friday, May 27

Jazz Rocks w/Don Linke @ Arts@Large, 7 p.m.

Milwaukee’s jazz scene is vibrant. You just need to know where to look. Thursday’s performance in Bay View is minutes away from Arts @ Large in Walker’s Point where Don Linke’s workshop Trialogue (Linke on guitar, drummer Andy Blochowiak and bassist Todd Richards) have been regularly taking improvisational flight. This week’s guest is pianist Theo Merriweather. More info on the series here: shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/don-linkes-never-ending-passion.

Best Brothers @ Sugar Maple, 7 p.m.

Boulevard Theatre presents a pair of free performances. The story of two brothers trying to deal with one another while they process the unexpected death of their mother. If you’ve got a mom, like parades or if your dog is your best friend, you’ll dig it. Also Sunday.

Friends of the Shepherd

Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly magazine.

LEARN MORE

Elephant Stone w/Sleepersound and Adorner @ Cactus Club, 8 p.m.

Canadian psych-pop band Elephant Stone incorporates traditional Indian music (sitar, tabla, and dilruba) into their sound. Their 2022 EP Le Voyage de M. Lonely dans la Lune is sung entirely in French. It connects to the previous album Hollow, built on a storyline “about a hermit named M. Lonely who is very content in his solitary world until a world event happens that causes everyone else to stay home as well …”

According to drummer Dan Niedziejko, Sleepersound is finishing up writing material for the next album before hitting the road and hunkering down in the studio. Milwaukee’s Adorner opens with a set of prog-psych.

Eric Wielo and James Hancock III @ The Laughing Tap, 8 p.m.

Eric Wielo (Conan, SNL, Tonight Show) and James Hancock III (Comedy Store) co-headline The Laughing Tap. Hancock, an actor, comedian and host living in San Diego, has performed at the Comedy Store, won second place in the prestigious Seattle International Comedy Competition, and first place in the U.S comedy contest in LA.

Milwaukee native Eric Wielo is a stand-up comedian and writer. He has been a member of the Conan O’Brien production staff for 11 years. His TV credits include “Saturday Night Live,” “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. CONAN, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards. He was recently featured on the mainstage at the New York Comedy Festival and is a proud graduate of The Second City Conservatory.

Also Saturday; more info here: laughingtap.com.

Saturday, May 28

Lest We Forget @ Turner Hall, 6 p.m.

Ten years ago the initial Lest We Forget concert shepherdexpress.com/music/concert-reviews/lest-forget-memorial-concert-turner-hall-ballroom provided a gathering of the tribes for Milwaukee’s alternative music scene.  This year’s installment finds Wanda Chrome and the Leather Pharaohs and Johnny and the Losers making appearances; cameos from a handful of folks backed by an all-star band; legends, also-rans and the release of a book documenting the original scene by photographer Kevin Hutchison: shepherdexpress.com/culture/books/kevin-hutchison-prepares-book-of-80s-mke-punk-scene.

As the list of departed grows, here is a chance to see and hear what all the fuss was about when clubs like The Starship and Zak’s Rock and Roll Palace were ground zero: shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/remembering-the-past-with-lest-we-forget.

Sunday, May 29

Tori Amos @ Bradley Symphony Center, 7:30 p.m.

Grab image here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SufUZu4h_m8

Since the release of her career-defining solo album Little Earthquakes in 1992, Tori Amos has been one of the music industry’s most enduring and ingenious artists. From her unnerving depiction of sexual assault in “Me and a Gun” to her post-9/11 album Scarlet’s Walk to her decidedly feminist stage musical The Light Princess in 2013, her work has never shied away from intermingling the personal with the political.

Wednesday, June 1

Chicken Wire Empire - Heart(beats) of the City Concert Series @ Red Arrow Park, Noon

Kickoff summer https://shepherdexpress.com/culture/happening-now/heart-beats-of-the-city-concert-series-brings-live-music-dow/ with Bluegrass and food trucks. Rooted in Wisconsin's jam band scene, Chicken Wire Empire began as a traditional bluegrass band. It was during an Old & In the Way tribute show that a new sound was formed in Milwaukee, and Chicken Wire Empire joined the roster of high energy “jamgrass” bands happening across the nation.

Food trucks include Big City BBQ, Da Udder Spot Ice Cream, Falafel Guys, Meat on The Street and Pedro's South American Food Truck.