David Liebe Hart
Friday, Sept. 28
Bay View Gallery Night @ multiple locations, 5-10 p.m.
Over the last couple of years, Bay View’s popular Gallery Night has ballooned into one of the city’s largest arts events, with more than 50 shops, restaurants and bars showcasing hundreds of artists. To help keep up with the demand, the event has added a new feature for this fall’s installment: a free shuttle with stops at four locations—Lincoln Warehouse, Highbury, Urban and the Hide House. It’ll run on a roughly 20-minute loop from 5-9 p.m. For the enormous lineup of businesses participating in this fall’s Gallery Night, visit bvgn.org.
Harvest Fair @ Wisconsin State Fair Park
Wisconsin State Fair Park will be bustling this weekend as it hosts its annual Harvest Fair, a celebration of all things seasonal, with pumpkin carving, pumpkin bowling, scarecrow making, pony and camel rides and contests, live music, farmers’ market and a pumpkin patch. And if you missed it at this year’s State Fair, you can also ride down the Giant Slide. (Through Sunday, Sept. 30.)
Maker Faire @ Wisconsin State Fair Expo Center
Few words in the English language are more gloriously vague than “maker.” The term can apply to anybody who creates something—be it crafts, robotic gizmos, costumes, software or technological innovations. This free three-day event celebrates those who make and encourages others to do the same with a family friendly gathering that highlights the do-it-yourself spirit of our community. Exhibits at the event focus on technology, education, science, arts, crafts and more and include hands-on workshops for curious thinkers of all ages. Other attractions include a Wearable Art and Cosplay Fashion Runway Show on Saturday and a “fire-breathing, Heavy Meta Dragon art car,” which we can only hope is as awesome as it sounds. (Through Sunday, Sept. 30.)
Saturday, Sept. 29
|
|
Sky High Skateboard Shop’s 30th Anniversary @ Mad Planet, 9 p.m.
Bay View has changed considerably over the last three decades, but one constant has been the skate shop Sky High (2501 S. Howell Ave.). For years it has been a pillar of the local skateboarding and BMX communities, hosting art installations, video premieres and block parties. It’s the kind of place where old vets and upstart skaters alike come to hang out and socialize as much as they do to buy equipment and apparel. Expect to see some of the shop’s many regulars at this 30th anniversary celebration at Mad Planet, which will feature classic hip-hop from the Dope Folks DJs.
Willy Porter w/ Martyn Joseph @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
It’s funny how time flies. It’s been nearly a quarter century since Mequon songwriter Willy Porter released the record that would prove to be his breakthrough, Dog-Eared Dream, which spawned the single “Angry Words” and landed him tours with Tori Amos and The Cranberries. Porter will celebrate that album at this show, where he’ll be joined by bandmates from that era Dave Adler, Biff Blumfumgagnge and John Calarco, as well as special guests including Greg Koch and Mike Hoffman. Ticket holders will receive a will receive a free download of the Dog Eared Dream Silver Anniversary Edition rerelease, which includes unreleased bonus material.
Vinyl Theatre w/ The Middle Ground @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
One of the Milwaukee music scene’s great success stories from the last decade, electro-rockers Vinyl Theatre first caught a major break when they landed a gig opening for Twenty One Pilots at the Rave in 2014, and from there, good fortune continued to rain on them. That fall, they signed to the legendary punk and emo label Fueled by Ramen, which released their debut album, Electrogram, and its 2017 follow-up, Origami. The band has since split from the label, but independence hasn’t slowed them down any. They released their latest album, Starcruiser, in August.
Tuesday, Oct. 2
David Liebe Hart @ Riverwest Public House, 8:30 p.m.
If you’ve flipped through cable late at night, there’s a good chance you’ve come across David Liebe Hart and wondered, “Who the hell is this guy?” The outsider artist is a fixture of Adult Swim’s “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!,” on which he showcases his unorthodox puppetry and oddball songs. The show’s mock-public access vibe is a natural fit for Hart, who got his start as a puppeteer on a Christian public access show in Los Angeles. He returns to the Riverwest Public House for an event billed as a “music/puppets/video/comedy extravaganza.”
Wednesday, Oct. 3
Carbon Leaf @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.
Even though Carbon Leaf forge their unique sound by using a legion of oddball instruments like bagpipes, mandolins and bouzoukis, their style is assuredly not “Brazilian polka-metal,” as guitarist Carter Gravatt has joked, but rather a dynamic blend of Celtic rock and bluegrass that has taken on some pop-rock wrinkles over the years. The band achieved surprising success early on as an indie band with their 2001 single “The Boxer,” which helped them land a record deal with Vanguard Records, though since 2010 they’ve been releasing records through their own independent label, Constant Ivy. The band will celebrate 25 years together on this tour.
Lil Xan w/ Phem @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
A pioneer of the somber yet strangely indifferent style of trap music that’s all the rage among rappers under a certain age, Lil Xan is one of the most polarizing rappers of the day, which is really saying something in an era where every popular rapper is polarizing. The 22-year-old released his debut album, Total Xanarchy, this spring, but more people know him for his various headlining-grabbing controversies—among them a highly publicized relationship with Noah Cyrus (Miley’s sister) this summer that was apparently faked by their record label. After the death of his hero, Mac Miller, earlier this month, Xan announced that he plans to retire from music, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll follow through or if the claim was just the latest round of news-making nonsense to come out of his mouth. Smart money says the latter.
