This Week in Milwaukee: Sept. 29-Oct 5, 2022

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Latinx poetry and film under the stars, Old Fashioned Fest returns, celebrate the life of Mildred Fish-Harnack, Mr. Phylzzz buzzes into town, Radio Milwaukee turns 15, comedy from Amanda Cohen, Grammy Award winner Gary Clark Jr. and more—This Week in Milwaukee!

Thursday, Sept. 29

Poetry Under the Stars and Film Screening @ Zocalo, 7 p.m.

Milwaukee Film and Cine Sin Fronteras MKE present local Latinx poetry and a screening of the Rosario Dawson-produced documentary Our Words Collide. “A coming of age story that documents five spoken word poets as they navigate their final year of high school, exploring many of the challenges facing young people today, including identity and expression, transitioning into adulthood and overcoming mental health issues, through the unique prism of their poetry.”

Mr. PHYLZZZ w/Primitive Broadcast Service and Murder Generation @ Promises Bar, 8 p.m.

Promises Bar, (the space formerly known as Gibraltar MKE and Walker’s Point Music Hall), hosts a night of uneasy listening. Chicago duo Mr. Phylzzz has an album coming out on Amphetamine Reptile Records, the label that built a track record on aggressive music. Milwaukee’s Primitive Broadcast Service traffics in the intersection where brains and noisy rock meet. Their promise of aural anarchy was delivered on the 2021 album Colors for Chameleons, specifically the song “City of Clocks,” a mash note to their home that was built around the sound of an electric meter, the kind found outside any building.

Friday, Sept. 30

Old Fashioned Fest @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 5 p.m.

Join Shepherd Express for a toast to a Milwaukee classic—the Old Fashioned! You won't want to miss this Whiskey vs. Brandy showdown featuring Milwaukee’s best-known Old Fashioned bars! Sample both classic and re-imagined Old Fashioneds, vote on your favorite whiskey and brandy version, and see who will be crowned winners at the end of the night.

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Order tickets here! shepherdtickets.com/events/126474246/old-fashioned-fest-september-30-2022

Elephonic w/Louie & the Flashbombs @ Club Garibaldi’s, 7 p.m.

A pair of bands whose collected membership represents a large chunk of Milwaukee music history. While many of their peers have gone gently into rock and roll’s dark night, Mike Jarvis, Jason Klagstad, Louie Lucchesi, Mike Benign and Paul Biemann—and their bandmates have chosen to follow the muse. With smart, hook-filled rock and that demonstrates it is possible to age gracefully and creatively, Elephonic’s shepherdexpress.com/music/artists-beating-covid-19/elephonic-comes-to-life-during-a-pandemic debut recordings were mastered at Abbey Road. Meanwhile Louie & the Flashbombs have been in the studio at work on album of Lucchesi/Benign originals shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/louie-lucchesi-is-well-and-ready-to-rock

Amanda Cohen @ The Laughing Tap, 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Amanda Cohen is nobody’s mom. She’s a fearless woman with a sharp sense of irony who will challenge your assumptions about middle age while still relating to all ages. She’s played bars, bookstores, basements, barns, clubs, concourses, caravans, and theaters. She also studied improvisation and sketch writing at the Second City Conservatory Chicago, the Annoyance Theater and ComedySportz.

Also Saturday. More info here: laughingtap.com.

Gary Clark Jr. w/with special guests Blackillac @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.

As a young guitarist playing Austin, Texas clubs like Antone’s and the Continental Club, Gary Clark Jr. star was on the rise by the time he played the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival alongside B.B. King and Buddy Guy. His 2019 song “This Land” was inspired by Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and was Clark’s response to the polices of former President Donald Trump. The story of how he wrote the song in response to his personal experience shows self-awareness as powerfully channeled through emotion-laden music.

Saturday, Oct. 1

Radio Milwaukee’s 15th Birthday Party @ 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Studio, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave., 4 p.m.

In another life 88.9 WYMS (We’re Your Milwaukee Schools) was a jazz station that also included Polka programming, school board meetings and original productions. Fifteen years ago, as Radio Milwaukee, the station set a new course that has moved from the humble digs in the MPS Administration Building to a studio and performance space in the Third Ward. Earlier this month, public media leader Maxie C. Jackson III was named executive director of the station.  

Saturday’s shindig promises food and drink, a sonic buffet provided by the 88.9 DJ crew and performances by dark-pop duo You Win !!!, hip-hop artist Kia Rap Princess and reggaeton brothers Gego y Nony.

New Wave Fest @ Shank Hall, 7 p.m.

As if trapped in suspended animation, New Wave and Synth-pop sounds of the ‘80s have been kept alive and relevant with the 4th New Wave Fest. Milwaukee duo The Quilz shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/the-quilz-return-with-a-new-video remain a self-contained outfit that seems to have found the fountain of youth with their synthesizer-based dreampop.

Xposed 4Heads from Planet Love present their ongoing vison of our world turned upside down. DJ Mosh Wah starts things off with a New Wave vinyl dance party. Closing out the evening The First Wave pays tribute to the music of The Smiths, Ministry, The Fixx and Depeche Mode.

Mildred Fish-Harnack Day @ Company Brewing, 9 p.m.

Join members of Milwaukee DSA, Cooperation Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee Turners at Company Brewing in Riverwest on Saturday night to celebrate the life of Mildred Fish-Harnack, a Milwaukee-born leftist, writer and educator who lost her life fighting fascism in Germany.

After being put on trial by a Nazi tribunal, her husband Arvid was sentenced to death and was hanged in December 1942. Two months later, Mildred was sentenced to death and was beheaded, becoming the only American woman to be executed on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler.