This Week in Milwaukee: Oct. 6-12, 2022

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

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Outdoor music and festivities at Boone & Crockett and Enlightened Brewing; songcraft by Chris Knight, Jake La Botz and, Peter Mulvey and SistaStrings; music to move to from The Swivels, The Rock-A-Dials and Southern Culture on the Skids and more—This Week in Milwaukee!

Thursday, Oct. 6

Autumn at the Allis @ Charles Allis Art Museum, 7 p.m.

The Charles Allis Art Museum once again presents its free concert series, Autumn at the Allis. Visitors are invited to listen to local music artists and enjoy local eats alongside the Allis’ art collection every Thursday this October. This year’s lineup kicks off with Johnathon Mayer and Liam Hayes. Steph Lippert, Derek Pritzl and Ellie Jackson, are also on tap with music from psychedelic pop to R&B and country.

More info here: charlesallis.org/events/?eid=167.

Friday, Oct. 7

Chris Knight @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Thanks to No Depression magazine, songwriter Chris Knight’s 1998 debut album found its way to the radar of serious music fans with hardscrabble, literate songs. The former strip mine reclamation inspector comes to the stories that populate his songs with an open eye. Perhaps his arc has been predictable, with a first album for Decca, then shifting to smaller labels over nine releases. Shank’s intimate confines should be a perfect listening room.

Saturday, Oct 8

Flannel Fest 2022 @ Boone & Crockett, noon

Food, music and seasonal attire. Boone & Crockett offer up 12 hours of Milwaukee-based music, local food, cocktails, beers, vendor village, bonfires, a Hoan light show and tattoos. Think of this as a one-day free festival where you can sample over a dozen local acts from WMSE’s Boogie Bang Gang, Black Challenger, Twan Mack & Coo Cal to Collections of Colonies of Bees, Steph Lippert Project, Chris Porterfield and Mark Waldoch & the Hallelujah Ward.

Fall Block Party @ Enlightened Brewing, 3 p.m.

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The last block party of the year with music from Driveway Thriftdwellers and Hosts.

The Swivels W/ Bella Brutto & Rock-A-Dials @ Linnemans, 8 p.m.

This three-band bill has roots deep in the local music scene. Carter Hunnicutt (Those X-Cleavers) and Paul Ryan (Jesus Manson; Spanic Boys) of the dance-centric The Swivels were recently in the studio. Early ‘80s roots-rock merchants the Rock-A-Dials made an appearance back in May at the Lest We Forget event and seem ready to begin a new chapter. Bella Brutto’s quirky, intelligent pop rounds out the evening.

Sunday, Oct. 9

Jake LaBotz @ Shotski’s (6139 W. Beloit Road, West Allis), 7 p.m.

With a discography that reaches back to 1999, Jake La Botz’ music has been compared to Tom Waits with footprints in New Orleans, the Delta and Chicago. His acting resume bounces from Ghost World (with buddy Steve Buscemi) to Rambo to Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (the musical by John Mellencamp, Stephen King and T Bone Burnett. Also a Somatic Meditation teacher, La Botz’ appearance may be the sleeper-pick of the week.

Peter Mulvey/Sista Strings @ Colectivo Back Room, 8 p.m.

Songwriter Peter Mulvey’s roots are deep in Milwaukee, but long-ago his vagabond ways took him to Dublin, Boston and the road. In May 2021 SistaStrings pulled up their Milwaukee stakes and headed for Nashville, a move that paid off—Chauntee (vocals/violin) and Monique (vocals/cello) Ross were featured on a high-profile tour with Brandi Carlile, including a performance with Joni Mitchell at the Newport Folk Festival in July. Mulvey’s annual Lamplighter Sessions at Café Carpe in Fort Atkinson is a crucible for collaboration. Fittingly it is where Mulvey, SistaStrings and drummer Nathan Kilen made two records in five days.

“To make an anti-fascist record, you must keep kindness and compassion in the foreground.” The 18-track Peter Mulvey with SistaStrings Live at the Cafe Carpe was released in August. “It’s a celebration of a world that is temporarily on hold: a small folk club, packed with listeners, and a band shoulder-to-shoulder, playing and singing with intimacy and abandon.” “Shenandoah,” the studio album about love and family in the midst of a dying empire, is still on the horizon.

Tuesday, Oct. 11

Southern Culture On The Skids w/The Exotics @ Colectivo Backroom, 8 p.m.

From the band’s long-ago, sweat-drenched show at The Unicorn, North Carolina’s Southern Culture on the Skids has refined the altogether greasy groove—reverb and tremolo with a dollop of low-brow humor. The band’s musical journey has taken them from all-night NC house parties to late-night network talk shows, and from performing at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan to rockin’ out for the inmates at NC Correctional Facilities.