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Dita Von Teese
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Photo credit: Ben Moon
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Dale Watson and His Lone Stars
Boone and Crockett breaks in its new digs with the Milwaukee Psych Festival, while The Rave welcomes Modest Mouse and The Breeders.
Thursday, May 3
Dale Watson and His Lone Stars
Dale Watson and His Lone Stars @ Potawatomi Hotel and Casino, 8:30 p.m.
Austin country purist Dale Watson often sang of tragedy even before he experienced it firsthand, but after his fiancée’s death in a car accident in 2000, his songwriting took a turn toward even more emotionally pained territory. The singer’s struggles coping with her death were captured in Zalman King’s 2006 documentary, Crazy Again, which details Watson’s subsequent nervous breakdown and the period of his life he spent convinced the devil was speaking to him. Watson’s albums have chronicled his attempts to move on and reconcile his own mortality, including 2008’s To Terri With Love, which he dedicated to his fiancée, and 2010’s Carryin’ On, but on recent albums like Under The Influence and Blackjack, he’s run with more feel-good honkytonk sounds. He plays this show for free at the side bar of Potawatomi’s Fire Pit.
Friday, May 4
Milwaukee Psych Fest @ Boone and Crockett, 3 p.m.
“Psych” is one of the most all-inclusive terms in music, a descriptor that can easily be applied to rock, metal, electronica, punk and even folk. And sure enough, each year the Milwaukee Psych Fest makes sure that entire spectrum is represented. The event kicks off at a new location, at Boone and Crockett’s just-opened new home at 818 S. Water, with a two-stage lineup featuring bands from Milwaukee (Moss Folk, Vocokesh and Calliope among them) and from much further away, with the U.K.’s The Telescopes and Chile’s Föllakzoid among the highlights. Then on Saturday, May 5, the festival continues at Company Brewing in Riverwest, with a lineup featuring bands from Brooklyn, N.Y., San Francisco and Norway, as well as Milwaukee’s Slow Walker, Moon Curse and Painted Caves.
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Well-Known Strangers w/ Sunspot and Shadowfields @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
On the heels of their debut album Aligned, as well as a couple big Shepherd Express Best of Milwaukee wins for Best Rock Band and Best Female Vocalist for singer Betsy Ade, Well-Known Strangers prepare for a very busy summer with this release show for their new EP, Path Away. Produced by Nick Radovanovic at Wire and Vice Studios, the EP offers five more songs of the band’s bombastic, cello-laced alternative rock, while showcasing Ade’s steely voice and the band’s fierce songwriting. Following this show, which they’ll share with Sunspot, a Madison rock band fascinated by the paranormal, and Chicago’s Shadowfields, Well-Known Strangers will play a variety of area festivals this summer, including Bastille Days and Tosa Tonight. The $10 admission includes a copy of the EP.
Dweezil Zappa @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Dweezil Zappa has been playing guitar for much of his life, but of his many, scattered musical projects, he’s found the most success fronting Zappa Plays Zappa—a rotating tribute band paying homage to his legendary father, Frank Zappa. Two years ago, though, Zappa received a cease-and-desist order from his own family trust, which claimed a trademark on the name “Zappa Plays Zappa.” A bunch of complicated legal negotiations followed, but they didn’t deter Zappa from doing his thing. He’s still on the road, playing his father’s quirky rock songs—as an act of defiance, he even named one of his recent tours the “Cease and Desist Tour.” He’s given this current tour the less incendiary title “Choice Cuts!” and promises it’ll feature a wide variety of his father’s music.
“Stars War II.V: The Empire Strikes Back to the Future” @ ComedySportz, 8 p.m.
In certain geek circles, May 4 is now celebrated internationally as Star Wars Day, thanks to the pun it presents (“May the fourth be with you.”) Once again the Milwaukee sketch comedy troupe Variety Hour Happy Hour are getting in on the action with their own Star Wars parody. This one’s an imagined continuation of the series called “Stars War II.V: The Empire Strikes Back to the Future,” which mashes together the conventions of the two beloved film franchises. Luke Skywalker must travel back to the Star Wars prequels to make sure his parents fall in love. (Also May 5.)
Saturday, May 5
Photo credit: Ben Moon
Modest Mouse w/ Mass Gothic @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Combining the twitchy guitars of Built to Spill with the loud-soft intensity of The Pixies and a spirit of existential dread that’s distinctly their own, Modest Mouse were one of the most influential indie-rock bands of the ’90s and ’00s. After years of flirting with commercial success, they finally scored a big hit in 2004 with the uncharacteristically bubbly “Float On,” but the wider audience did little to temper their weirder tendencies. The albums that followed, 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (recorded with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr as a band member) and 2015’s Strangers to Ourselves have been every bit as dense, dour and mysterious as their predecessors.
Tuesday, May 8
Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese and Cooper Coupe Burlesque Revue @ The Pabst Theater, 7:30 p.m.
A seemingly antiquated relic of a long-ago era, burlesque has experienced an unlikely resurgence over the last couple decades, and perhaps no performer deserves more credit for driving its renewed popularity than Dita Von Teese. From her beginnings as a model in fetish magazines, Von Teese helped spark interest in the neo-burlesque movement with her creative and sometimes over-the-top cabaret routines, many of which looked to the early days of Hollywood for inspiration. Few of her peers make burlesque look quite so decadent or glamorous.
Wednesday, May 9
MPS All-City Arts Festival @ Summerfest Grounds, 10 a.m.
Since the 1920s, Milwaukee Public School musicians have shown off their talents at the Biennial Music Festival. This year, however, MPS took the event in an even more ambitious, all-encompassing direction and created the All-City Arts Festival, an enormous three-day showcase featuring more than 8,000 students representing 125 schools and more than 180 artistic groups. Elementary, middle- and high-school students will show off their talents for music, dance, theater and art—even the culinary arts are represented. The festival will run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, May 9 and 10, and from 10 until 6 p.m. on Friday, May 11.
The Breeders w/ Dorth Nakota @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Kim Deal may be best remembered for her work with The Pixies, but she found her biggest commercial success with The Breeders, the band she started with her twin sister Kelley while they were still in their teens. Released during the heyday of alternative rock, their 1993 album, Last Splash, featured the dizzying, impossibly catchy hit “Cannonball.” In the years since, the band has recorded only periodically, giving each new album the feel of a major event, and their latest is truly worth celebrating. Recorded with the group’s classic lineup, All Nerve highlights the Deal sisters’ unusual pop sensibilities.
