This Week in MKE Music: April 17-23, 2025

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

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The eternally youthful Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra, Christian Yelich's Home Plate Charity Concert featuring The Goo Goo Dolls, Nektar touches down, Texas Dave and Bristlehead in Riverwest, a full evening of songwriters in Bay View, Zine Fest at the Central Library and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!

Thursday, April 17

Christian Yelich's Home Plate Charity Concert featuring The Goo Goo Dolls @ Pabst Theater

Christian Yelich and the Yelich family return with their “Home Plate” charity event. The evening will feature music from The Goo Goo Dolls and Charlie Berens as emcee.

Last year the event raised over $300,000 for local charitable organizations. The Yelich’s look to surpass that number this year and help give back to local philanthropic organizations.

Texas Dave Trio @ The Uptowner, 9 p.m.

The Texas moniker sticks to Dave Mazner as he enters his sixth decade as a performer. His latest album with the Texas Dave Trio, Thru the Years, features 10 tunes he wrote over the past 30 years. “Dance” opens the disc on a lively, sing around the campfire note. Distant echoes of ‘60s soul are discernable in “Women of the World” and Buddy Holly on “Good Love.” At moments, “I Found a Groove” could be a rough-edged addition to the Great American Songbook.

“I know what we aren’t,” he says when asked to describe the music. “We aren’t heavy metal, hard rock, rap or alternative.” He pauses a second. “We’re original Americana using elements of country, rhythm and blues and toe-tapping tunes.”

Friday, April 18

Bob Mould Band w/ Craig Finn @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.

No stranger to Milwaukee with Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould destroyed stages with Die Kreuzen and headlined WMSE’s 2023 party at Humboldt Park. Thirty-seven years after Hüsker Dü, the punk- and alt-rock band that influenced and inspired Nirvana and Green Day, Mould reaffirms his late-career potency with his 15th solo album, Here We Go Crazy.

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Hold Steady songwriter Craig Finn’s recent solo album Always Been, writes Michael Carriere, is the sound of such searches. But as we try to move forward, we are continuously looking back. It is in this in-between state that we come face-to-face with our lack of faith and other shortcomings.

Bristlehead @ Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 8 p.m.

With a new album and a pair of exhibitions Mike Fredrickson’s work ethic is impressive. A painter, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, barkeep and bicycle enthusiast, he manages to allow facets of life to influence his art.

The bassist-songwriter’s new album Sunken Treasure draws on collaborators from his long career performing and recording. Fredrickson and his band Bristlehead play a CD release show at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn on Friday.

Sunken Treasure relies on familiar faces. Drummer Dave Braun was a fellow member of The Mosleys and continues to play with Fredrickson in Bristlehead; the duo also appeared on “Saturday Night Live” in 1990 as the rhythm section  in The Spanic Boys. Bristlehead also includes keyboard player/saxophonist Bob Jennings—who Fredrickson also teams with Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound. NRBQ guitarist Scott Ligon and producer Alex Hall round out the crew who recorded the album last summer in Chicago.

Saturday, April 19

Milwaukee Zine Fest @ Milwaukee Central Library, 10:30 a.m.

Celebrating zine culture for 17 years.  Come celebrate independent and DIY print media in the Midwest's longest standing 100% zine-focused festival. Over 100 vendors from around the country, hands-on activities, panel discussions, and workshops—and food truck service on 8th Street all morning long.

Support self-publishing, admire some of the best zines in the country and connect with others who are nerd-level obsessed with crafting wonderful paper-based media.

The Bo Randll Band w/ Rich & Dusty @ Patti’s Power Plant, 8 p.m.

Bo Randll’s rustic country-folk songs echo ancient tones. A review in Bluegrass Today of his album Cascade Highway said:

The performances are precise, spawned from sentiments that are indicative of how hope can be found in happenstance, even when pessimism might occasionally come to the fore.

Mainly though, the music is consistently appealing, a combination of bluegrass eagerness and enthusiasm, populist precepts, and Celtic conceits, all of which are bound together in a steadfast delivery that rings and resonates throughout.

That sure seems like a lot of big words to say Randll’s gritty, hardscrabble songs tell detailed stories that aim for redemption one way or another.

Sunday, April 20

Nektar w/ Paul Bielatowicz's Band @Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

For more than 50 years, Nektar attracted a devoted following by taking legions of fans on audio-visual journeys to far reaches of the universe and the depths of the ocean with their immersive and innovative “Sound and Light Theatre” presentations. The band’s Mission to Mars 2025 Spring Tour touches down a Shank Hall for one night.

A 2019 article summed up, “British-born, stalled in New Jersey, members of Nektar plot 50-year comeback.”

Monday, April 21

One Funny Hour: With Alan Resnick and Anna Seregina @ Cactus Club, 6 p.m.

Alan Resnick is a filmmaker, comedian, and visual artist who has worked with FX and Adult Swim. Resnick’s fractured take on society’s ills has delighted audiences around the world for many years, he is essentially a truth teller who tells it like it is. Anna Seregina is a Los Angeles-based comedian, actor, and writer originally from Russia. She has appeared on CBS, Adult Swim, Comedy Central, and (unbelievably) Vanderpump Rules and voiced Niya in the Kristen Wiig, Alia Shawkat, and Sebastian Silva Gimlet podcast, SANDRA.

Tuesday, April 22

Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra @ Best Place, 7 p.m.

The Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra (MMO) traces its origins to 1900, and at 125 years old, it’s outlived every local jazz orchestra and rock band and even makes the Florentine Opera look like newcomers.

A mere 10 years ago, Rene Izquierdo joined as music director. “Holy cow, what a gift he's been to the orchestra,” MMO board president Fred Pike says, “A world-class classical guitarist and teacher who concertizes around the world, he's brought passion, nuance and (some!) precision to our playing.” Also, April 24 at Fox Point Lutheran Church. More info here milwaukeemandolinorchestra.org

Million Dollar Quartet @ The Rep, Vogel Hall, through May 24

In December 1956 Sam Phillips’ proteges Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins found themselves together at Memphis’ Sun Studio. The four singers not yet the legends they would become and settled in and jammed on gospel favorites, recent hits and familiar standards. Anchored by veteran drummer Patrick Morrow, legendary jam session unfolds at The Rep.

Wednesday, April 23

Songwriter Night @ Sugar Maple, 7 p.m.

Songwriting can be a solitary endeavor and without feedback the writer never knows for sure. Sometimes a song gets woodshedded and hammered into shape before it reaches a final arrangement. Here’s a full evening of songwriters in solo, duo and trio formats. The evening’s lineup opens and closes with Rich & Dusty; also Chris Haise, Anne Marie, Jason (Kid Elephant), Peter Irving, Peter Hair, John Stanford, Dusty Pockets and AsOak (trio).