This Week in Milwaukee: Oct. 20-27, 2022

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

by

Jack O’Lanterns, Spirits of the Silent City, Rachel Raven, Widespread Panic, Dick Satan Trio, Día De Los Muertos; Bad Brains and GWAR – you think there is a pattern here?

Also, A Benefit Concert for Assembly Candidate LuAnn Bird, Gallery Night, Harvest Festival at Public Market and more—This Week in Milwaukee!

Thursday, Oct. 20

Pumpkin Pavilion @ Humboldt Park, 5 p.m. (Also Friday and Saturday)

The neighbor tradition continues in Bay View. Stop by on Thursday as the free pumpkin carving continues with music from Dairyland’s Finest String Band. Friday the festivities get underway at 7 p.m. with the Grand Lighting, Burgmeiser Magic Show and live music from The Exotics. Saturday kicks off at 3 p.m. with magic, a costume parade, a showing of the film Ghostbusters: Afterlife and music from The Quilz. 

More info here bayviewneighborhood.org

“Spirits of the Silent City: Unfinished Business” @ Forest Home Cemetery & Arboretum, 6 p.m.

Forest Home Cemetery’s most notable residents will slip through the veil separating the living and the dead to settle some Unfinished Business. Visitors will be guided through graveside scenarios to learn some stories from the Silent City and help some tortured souls find peace.

Meet Mrs. Wright, the eccentric second wife of Frank Lloyd Wright; Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott, the state’s first female physician; Ezekiel Gillespie, the black man who helped secure suffrage rights for African Americans in this state; a bickering group of beer barons and many more.

Despite the spooky silhouettes of tombstones and the cemetery’s canopy of trees, this after-dark event is designed to entertain and enlighten—not frighten!

Also Friday and Saturday. More info here: eventbrite.com/e/spirits-of-the-silent-city-unfinished-business-tickets-413059310517.

“We May Well Be the One”: A Benefit Concert for Assembly Candidate LuAnn Bird @ The Cooperage, 7 p.m.

Named after a Paul Westerberg song about the power of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things, “We May Well Be the Ones” is a benefit concert in support of LuAnn Bird’s campaign for Wisconsin’s 84th Assembly District.

Friends of the Shepherd

Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly magazine.

LEARN MORE

Produced by Christopher Porterfield of Field Report and David Ravel (former artist director of Alverno Presents), the concert will bring together artists from across Milwaukee’s diverse music scene to entertain, inspire, and raise awareness about a campaign with state-wide significance.

Porterfield and his band, Field Report, will be joined by B-Free & Quinten Farr, Tontine Ensemble, Caley Conway, Marielle Allschwang, Sarah Vos, Treccy MT, Ellie Jackson and Cree Myles. In addition to original material, they will be re-interpreting the music of Paul Westerberg, Laura Nyro, Gil Scott-Heron and others.

More info here: cooperagemke.com/event/we-may-well-be-the-ones.

Friday, Oct. 21

Fall Gallery Night MKE @ Historic Third Ward, East Town, Walker’s Point, and the Menomonee River Valley, 5 p.m.

Gallery Night MKE—Milwaukee’s original gallery hop event—unites the city through art. Experience the vast creative culture in Milwaukee while you discover local galleries, art, and artists. This free, two-day quarterly event offers you the opportunity to buy original art, dine in outstanding restaurants, and shop in unique boutiques.

Also Saturday. More info here: gallerynightmke.com.

Widespread Panic @ Riverside Theater, 8 p.m. (also Saturday and Sunday)

Over three decades have passed since forming their original line-up in 1986 but Widespread Panic is still hungry to be the best band they can be, every single night, for their loyal fan base. Their accomplishments over that time are well-documented. During their impressive run, the band has released 12 studio albums and 43 live albums, selling more than 3 million copies as one of the most successful touring acts in the world.

Widespread Panic has broken attendance records at major venues throughout the country, including a staggering 48 sold-out shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.

"We acknowledge this is a milestone few groups get to achieve,” admits vocalist/guitarist John “JB” Bell about their remarkable longevity. “It’s like Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. Every time we go out there, we learn more tricks, bring that knowledge with us, and then apply it. We're way more experienced, focused and to the point, but still willing to stretch out without wandering too much.”

Through Sunday.

Saturday, October 22

Cars & Candy Car Show for Veterans @ Pop’s Market Place, (S70 W16050 Janesville Road, Muskego), 11 a.m.

It’s Halloween season and the kids are encouraged to dress the part—and to judge the classic car show. There will be food and music by Wolfman Troy. All proceeds go to the Wisconsin Veterans Network. The event runs 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Harvest Festival @ Public Market, 11 a.m.

The single-day Harvest Festival that has grown into one of the most highly anticipated fall events in the Historic Third Ward neighborhood. The 2022 Harvest Festival will take place at Riverwalk Commons, located across the street from the market adjacent to the Milwaukee River.

This year’s Harvest Festival marks the 17th anniversary of the public market’s opening in October 2005. Admission is free and guests can enjoy autumn inspired activities throughout the afternoon. Attendees 21 years of age or older can take part in a fan-favorite tradition of sampling Lakefront Brewery Pumpkin Lager tapped from the market’s giant pumpkin. 

A number of the area’s most popular food trucks and carts will be on site, from Fivestar Nacho and Hot Box Pizza MKE to Happy Dough Lucky and Kilwin’s Caramel Apples. Public market businesses Margarita Paradise and Foltz Family Market will also participate in the celebration by serving up fall inspired food and drink items. In addition, Brew City Brand Apparel will host a pop-up discount apparel sale. Draft & Vessel, a seasonal outdoor vendor at the market, will be onsite with its RK’d van, a 1969 van that offers tapped beer and craft cocktails on one side and has a retro gaming arcade on the other.

More info here: milwaukeepublicmarket.org/events/public-market-harvest-festival.

Rachel Raven @ Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m.

Singer-songwriter Rachel Raven has performed in coffeehouses, clubs and theaters. She has also a busked the streets of Europe, New York, Chicago, California and Boston.

The Dick Satan Trio w/ The Tentakills & The Gnasdells @ Club Garibaldi, 8 p.m.

Back in July, Milwaukee’s self-proclaimed Playboys of Instrumental Surf Rock released a 7” shepherdexpress.com/music/album-reviews/ride-the-pony-jerk-bw-monte-christo-by-dick-satan-trio and they are at it again. This show is yet another 7” vinyl release party for the new “El Marciano y Sangria Diablo.” Conjuring fuzzy fumes of Davie Allan & The Arrows “Blues Theme” and the spirit of Dick Dale, costumes are suggested.

Sunday, Oct. 23

Annual Día De Los Muertos Celebration @ Milwaukee Art Museum, 10 a.m.

Día de los Muertos returns to the Milwaukee Art Museum as families take over the Museum for a day of artmaking, performances, and more during this Family Sundays event, the first since 2019.

All families are invited to Family Sundays: Día de los Muertos to celebrate the traditional Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, which brings family and friends together to honor loved ones who have passed on.

Families can create art together inspired by the symbols and traditions of the Mexican holiday; student artists from Carollton Elementary, Escuela Vieau, and Notre Dame Elementary will display their artwork, including their own ofrendas. Meet Wisconsin artists Gabriela Jiménez Marván, who will display cartonería skeletons, Richie Morales, who will show his vibrant paintings, and Yesica Coria, who will share her corn husk sculptures. Also, dance performance and lesson with Alejandra Jiménez Marván; story time with the Milwaukee Public Library; “Drop-in Tour: Artists of Mexican Heritage” and Latino Arts Strings Program “Mariachi Juvenil Grandes Lagos.”

More info: mam.org/events/event/family-sundays-dia-de-los-muertos.

Wednesday, Oct. 26

HR from Bad Brains W/Sumpp and DeadFinger@Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

HR is best known as singer for Bad Brains, the influential Washington D.C. band that drew from jazz fusion and reggae to become one of the most intensely powerful hardcore punk bands ever. They created music that was about closing the racial divide and maintaining a positive mental attitude (PMA). The intense front man once had himself duct taped to a chair for a performance while he was suffering from a hernia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYsS9CLF0bc&t=1s

Milwaukee duo Deadfinger’s pedigree is mighty impressive as well: shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/deadfinger-reunites-local-music-veterans.

GWAR w/ Nekrogoblikon and Crobot@ The Rave, 7 p.m.

The Black Death Rager World Tour stops in Milwaukee and the story of GWAR is carved across the history of this hopeless planet, but GWAR themselves are not of this world ...Their story begins far past Uranus, in the deepest reaches of space, where the beings known as GWAR were warriors in the Scumdogs of the Universe, an elite fighting force in the army of the Master of All Reality.

But GWAR proved too reckless and powerful, and after a series of tragic but hilarious blunders, they were banished to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, with orders to conquer an insignificant backwater prehistoric mudball known as the planet Earth.