This Week in MKE Music: Aug. 22-28, 2024

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

by

Summer begins its (hopefully) long decline with WMSE’s Backyard BBQ, Musical Mondays and Chill on the Hill’s season finales, Fresh Coast Jazz Festival, IV generation of Williams tradition and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!

Thursday, Aug. 22

The Resonators @ Charles E. Fromage, 6:30 p.m.

Naming a band The Resonators has a ring to it, don’t you think? The bluegrass quartet takes to the roof with a repertoire of music ranging from old school (Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Flatt and Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers) to interpretations of Neil Young and the Monkees. Led by Peter Roller’s Dobro guitar, the group also includes banjo, upright bass and mandolin.

Fresh Coast Jazz Festival featuring Boney James, Kirk Whalum and more – through Saturday

Four events over three days at The Pabst, The Fitzgerald and Fresh Coast Cruise. Saxophonists Kirk Whalum and Boney James top a schedule that includes performances from Dee Lucas and Marcus Adams; Kim Scott, Nathan Mitchell, and Ryan LaValette; and  Lemek, Quintin Gerard W. and Andréa Lisa. More info at pabsttheatergroup.com/events/detail/fresh-coast-jazz-festival-2024.

Friday, Aug. 23

Taste of Egypt @ St. Mary & St. Antonious Coptic Orthodox Church of Milwaukee (through Sunday)

Come feast with the Pharaohs! A vast array of authentic Egyptian dishes and desserts to choose from! Enjoy live Egyptian music, camel rides, tour the Egyptian Coptic Church and learn about its 2000-year-old history.

Strummerfest MKE @ Club Garibaldi, 7 p.m.

The future is unwritten. From the 101ers to The Clash to the Pogues to the Mescaleros, Joe Strummer cast a giant shadow. An eclectic lineup of bands salutes the late Woody Mellor: Honolulu Millionaires, Obscure Birds, Bellends, The Bourbon Jockeys, Combustor, The Jones, Frog Water, Thick Needles and Last Gang in Town. Proceeds from the annual Strummerfest MKE go to Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation’s efforts to get musical instruments in the hands of kids.

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Esmé Patterson @ The White Lilac (5029 6th Ave., Kenosha), 8 p.m.

Esmé Patterson’s intense performances arrest her audience in ears-open shared contemplation. Her music churns and crackles until you find yourself frozen, staring into the fire. Her latest album, Notes from Nowhere creates a genre-avoidant musical realm that blooms with honesty and magic.

Saturday, Aug. 24

Guided By Voices and more - WMSE’s Backyard BBQ @ Humboldt Park, Noon

Since 2010, the annual one-day, free festival signals summer’s exit. The bash is a thank you from WMSE 91.7 featuring a dunk tank, food from Rot’s Hots, Sweet Smoke BBQ, Tots on the Street, Twisted Plants, BelAir Cantina, Cedar Teeth, Fuel Cafe, braise on the Boulevard, T. Best Kettle Corn Co. and Pete’s Pops.

And music. If you could take all the albums in headliner’s Guided By Voices massive, sprawling discography and lay them end to end to end they would reach around the sun and back. DJ Faux Eyes spins between sets from surf/instrumental legends The Exotics, postpunk trio Jinksie and the modern blues of Buffalo Nichols (shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/buffalo-nichols-ventures-into-new-but-familiar-frontiers-on).

The pick of the day might just be Newski, whose recent project Vanity Metrics coins the genre Bedroom Alternative. Pick a point in Brett Newski’s discography and veer off in any direction. You’ll find an artist deploying as many tactics as DIY media allows. His music ranges from folky busker to new wave power pop to festival-strength rawk; he writes books and hosts a podcast: newskimusic.com/podcast.

With the Vanity Metrics Newski imposed limits: all songs must be recorded to analog tape, and they must be recorded at someone’s house rather than a studio.

“Past the junkyard, thought of all the gold there, that someone else would kill for across the sea”—images that could easily be drawn from Newski’s experiences of traveling around the world, playing guerilla gigs at far flung locales.

You have to wonder if he has read the Sam Shephard/Octavio Paz two-act play “Eyes For Consuela.” The EP (vanitymetrics.bandcamp.com/album/vanity-metrics-ep)  opens with the mildly psychedelic “Motel Room in Los Feliz”—a title that conjures a visions of Shephard and David Lynch, singing “darlin’ it’s the thunderstorm in your eyelids.” Like a lost cousin to Australia’s The Church, the tune rides out to the sound of backwards tape. “Boxer” churns over and over, building to add a suitably warbly keyboard.

“Iris” is bouncy pop sunshine with a hint of melancholy, “I can see it in your iris”—as in eye or flower? “Psych Yourself Down” features reverbed vocals, a nagging codeine response as ghostly sounds chime in. 

Green Day - The Saviors Tour w/ Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, and The Linda Lindas @ American Family Field, 4 p.m.

Performing Dookie (1994) and American Idiot (2004) in their entirety, Green Day headlines a bill with Smashing Pumpkins—a pair of bands whose local history reaches back to subterranean shows at The Unicorn.  Hello Gus! 

Along with Green Day, Rancid blasted out of the resurgent California punk scene three decades ago. Expectations for The Linda Lindas to run circles around the old-timers may or may not come to pass. Find out for yourself.

WXRW Alley Show - Feral Kid Theory w/ Economy Superstar and Crow Eater, 824 E. Center St., 4:30 p.m.

Be part of the live radio broadcast as Riverwest Radio WXRW presents a trio of artists play live.

Sunday, Aug 25

Ange1grr1 w/ Skymall, Cyrus Chrome, Lil Jul, Absono (DJ) and Carb (DJ) @ Cactus Club, 8 p.m.

Ease out of the weekend with a full evening of hyper-pop, hip hop and a pair of DJs.

Monday, Aug. 26

Gizzae – Musical Mondays @ Lake Park, 6:30 p.m.

Musical Mondays close the 2024 season with Gizzae, a musical tapestry woven from diverse experiences of its members, hailing from across the globe. The band’s story began in 1992, rising from the ashes of Ziggy Marley’s touring band and Moja Nya. They quickly captured the hearts of Chicago’s reggae scene. They’ve won Grammys and Chicago Music Awards and shared stages with Ziggy Marley, Rolling Stones and Toots & the Maytals.

Tuesday, Aug. 27

Louie & The Flashbombs w/ Bright Eyed & Blind – Chill on the Hill @ Humboldt Park, 5 p.m.

This year’s edition of Chill on the Hill goes out with a bang and a hint of irony. For Bright Eyed & Blind, it is the band’s first show of 2024. The band’s 2023 album AFTERTHEMATH recalled a host of female-fronted combos (shepherdexpress.com/music/album-reviews/aftermath-by-bright-eyed-blind).

Louie & The Flashbombs continue to write chapters in the second or third act (who is counting?) of a veteran band that continues to come up with vital, hook-laden songs from real life experiences: shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/louie-the-flashbombs-shiny-new-skin.

Wednesday, Aug. 28

IV and The Strange Band w/Holy Locust @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

If you think IV is an odd name, consider the bloodline. His father goes by Hank III, his grandad is Hank Williams Jr., and his great-grandfather is Hank Williams—one of the greatest songwriter/artists of modern times. No pressure, right?

“Before I even knew who I was, people were already expecting things of me,” IV (born Coleman Finchum) says. “It felt like there was zero freedom of expression for someone with the last name Williams. Singing about a bloodline didn't appeal to me, though. I wasn't interested in fitting into a shadow that already existed. What did appeal to me was the underground scene in Nashville.”

Inspired to blaze his own trail, Coleman left town after high school and traveled across America, developing musical tastes that were as diverse as the country itself. Over the decade that followed, he became a history buff, a poet, a metalworker, and an educator. Back home in Nashville, he continued his lifelong practice of writing songs, developing the unique sound—a blend of the amplified and the acoustic, laced with fiddle one minute and heavy guitars the next—hat would later fill the album Southern Circus.