This Week in MKE Music: April 2-8, 2026

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

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This Week in MKE Music

Rosenau & Sanborn; Rempis / Adasiewicz / Corsano Trio; Riverwest Follies Variety Show; Maximiano Album Release w/ Field Report and Ava Brennan; a Francis Ford celebration; The Crosses; James Lee Stanley and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!

Thursday, April 2

Rosenau & Sanborn @ Vivarium, 8 p.m.

Chris Rosenau (Volcano Choir, Collections of Colonies of Bees) and Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Megafaun, Made Of Oak) recently played the acclaimed Big Ears music festival in Knoxville, Tenn. The duo has been friends and collaborators for years; however, it wasn't until they played an improvised set together at 2015's Eaux Claires music festival that they realized the potential of making a record together.

After nearly 20 years of knowing one another, the collaboration between Nick Sanborn and Chris Rosenau seemed inevitable but ended up accidental, an Eaux Claires music-festival lark that had immediate chemistry. As they were playing that first show, they realized they were already making a record. They reconvened in a small cottage in North Carolina in 2017 to finish what was started. They recorded the improvisations, kept the working mixes and titles, as well as the bird songs and traffic sounds that drifted into the microphones. The result was 2019’s Bluebird.

By the time Rosenau ventured back to the studio to try again, four years had flashed past. The follow-up, 2026’s simply titled Two, they “unprepared,” Rosenau arriving to the sessions with a novel guitar tuning he’d never used and Sanborn with a reconfigured electronics rig that forced him to abandon old patterns.

Rempis / Adasiewicz / Corsano Trio @ ACME Records & Music Emporium, 8 p.m.

Rempis / Adasiewicz / Corsano Trio first came together at Chicago’s Hungry Brain during a month-long Thursday residency that Dave Rempis organized in September 2024. It proved too compelling to leave as a one-off. So, they organized several more hits in Chicago and Milwaukee in the winter of 2025, out of which sprang this recorded debut.

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On the album Dial Up, the listener gets instantly wrapped into the sinews of the band’s shared aesthetic. There’s no ego here, simply a collaborative ethos that powers the music forward. While that’s a noted feature of the Chicago improvised music scene historically, it’s also one that Chris Corsano has embraced in his own work for decades. Every motion is in service to the evolution and development of the spontaneous sound they bring forth.

Friday, April 3

Goran Ivanovic @ Grace Downtown, 7 p.m.

Enjoy an evening of solo acoustic and classical guitar with Goran Ivanovic, featuring original music and Balkan-inspired arrangements.

Born into the cultural crosscurrents of Eastern Europe and shaped by years of classical training and global collaboration, Ivanovic’s solo work is an exploration of identity, place, and sound. Each piece is a journey—at once intimate and expansive—merging the precision of classical music with the soulful intensity of Balkan folk and the evocative depth of film scores.

The Last Dinner Party – “From the Pyre Tour” w/ Florence Road @ The Riverside Theater, 7 p.m.

In reviewing a recent concert by London band The Last Dinner Party, The Dallas Observer said, the group “mingles sincerity and bombast in disarming fashion. Its embrace of baroque theatricality is tempered by a kinetic, venue-rattling ferocity manifested in searing guitar and celestial harmonies.”

According to the band, the new album’s songs are “character driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”

Saturday, April 4

Riverwest Follies Variety Show @ Falcon Bowl, 3 p.m.

The Riverwest Follies Variety Show debuted in 2006 and here is the 16th installment. Six hours of some of the things that keep Riverwest weird and wonderful.

Performers include Ching Suru (improvisational soundscapes), Barbara Leigh (theater arts), Virginia Small (poetry), Rachel Raven (singer-songwriter), Tamarind Belly Dancers, Desmond Bone (poetry and songs), Beth Ann Pennell (comedy), MKE Kitchen (performance and popcorn and chaos), Harvey Taylor (poetry and songs), Melvin Verhein (guitar playing and songs), Zoe Fashion Design (fashion show), Paul St. Germaine (guitar, vocal, songs), Voot Warnings with Sarah & Justin (rock and roll people), Madame Phaedra (lip sync), Mike Fredrickson and The Mosleys, (danceable pop and rock to end the night).

Maximiano Album Release w/ Field Report and Ava Brennan @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.

Maximiano performed 107 shows in 28 cities across 15 states in 2025 while still finding time to produce, mix, and collaborate with 30 artists and bands.

In the midst of this work, Maximiano had a brief period of rest when their friends asked them to dog sit in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

During that 10-day span, Maximiano wrote their new album, Rokeby, named for the area that inspired the songs. “Living by the Hudson River during the most formative four years of my life built up a strong emotional connection to the region,” Maximiano says.

Maximiano wrote, produced, arranged, recorded, and mixed, expands upon the lush production of the album in its first half before refocusing around the raw intimacy of performance in the stripped back second half.

The album is rooted in peace, community, and opposition to technocratic fascism so, in line with these beliefs, it will not be released on Spotify. Additionally, in solidarity with every artist who suffers under the streaming model, only the first half of the record will be available on other streaming platforms. The full record will be available on Bandcamp, vinyl, and CD on April 1.

Sunday, April 5

Open Jam @ Nashville North, 6 p.m.

Every Sunday join “Uncle” Don Woppert for this open jam. Solo artists and full bands are welcome to step onstage—hear what you sound like with a full sound system.

Monday, April 6

Monday Francis Ford Memorial @ Steny’s, 2 p.m.

Someone once called Francis Ford “the city’s house photographer” for framing moments in the lives of Mayor Henry Maier, bandleader Paul Cebar and artists Prophet Blackmon and Aaron Bohrod, among many others.

Ford, one of Milwaukee’s most respected photographers from the’70s through the ‘00s, died on Sunday, Dec. 14.

An instructor at MIAD for many years, Ford also took time to teach photography to kids at a language immersion school on 24th and Wisconsin. He told them, “Go out and photograph the world.”

The memorial for Francis Ford will include music from Paul Cebar, Steve Cohen, Julie Thompson and Nick Ford.

Milwaukee Hot Club @ Maxie’s Southern Comfort Restaurant, 5:30 p.m.

Kick off the week with Milwaukee Hot Club, the acoustic group that plays gypsy swing in the tradition of the great Django Reinhardt. The group’s music is a high energy mix of swing and Latin rhythms, from ballads to barn burners—exuberant instrumental music alternating with soulful vocals.

Tuesday, April 7

The Crosses @ Anodyne Coffee Roasting, 6 p.m.

WMSE’s Local Live gets loud with this free, all-ages show. The Crosses, fronted by Daniel Kubinski (Die Kreuzen), bridge their hardcore roots with an angular, progressive metallic edge reminiscent of bands like Voivod.

Their debut release pairs dissonant, tension-filled guitars with tightly controlled modern hardcore rhythm. The record features a full set of original material alongside a reworked Die Kreuzen track and a Hüsker Dü cover—connecting their forward-looking sound to the Midwestern lineage that shaped them.

The lineup includes guitarist Jim Potter (Dr. Shrinker), bassist Christopher Ortiz (Magnetic Minds / Speed Freaks), and drummer Jesse Sieren (Big Laugh / Revelation Records).

Originally formed as a way for Kubinski to revisit classic Die Kreuzen material—from the raw intensity of Cows and Beer and the self-titled LP to the darker October File and expansive Century Days—the band quickly evolved into writing original music that reflects the full span of that sonic legacy.

Alley Eyes w/ Sitrus Sol, Iris Blue and Bunk Bed @ X-Ray Arcade  6 p.m.

This four band, all-ages show includes a pair of acts from Chicago and Milwaukee. Alley Eyes (Milwaukee Pop Rock), Sitrus Sol (Chicago Dream Rock), Iris Blue (Chicago Indie Rock) and Bunk Bed (Milwaukee Indie Art Rock).

Wednesday, April 8

James Lee Stanley @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Singer, songwriter, musician, composer and producer James Lee Stanley’s six-decade career spans numerous artistic mediums. One month after his debut album was released, the Philadelphia native’s first gig as an artist was opening for Les Paul. Stanley has been recording and performing since the age of 14, with 37 album releases and television and film credits to his name.