This Week in MKE Music: December 12-18, 2024

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

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This Week in MKE Music

The Uptowner celebrates 140, Long Line Riders, BASIC’s homage to Quine and Maher, JoyFest, Leroy Airmaster returns to Brady Street and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!

Thursday, December 12

Bowvee w/ Well + Good,  Cozy Danger and Creature Weather @ X-Ray Arcade, 6 p.m.

Colombian-American indie pop outfit Bowvee is the creation of Nick Bove. Jangly guitars and bright synths lead their first album Cool Guy—nine tracks of energetic and optimistic music in the vein of Phoenix, Dayglow, Wallows and Cavetown.

Friday, December 13

140th Birthday Celebration@ The Uptowner 5 p.m.

If these wall could talk, we might know about the time comedian Steve Allen and impresario Mark Shurilla spent at Wisconsin's oldest and continuous running tavern. Not looking a day over 139, The Uptowner turns 140.

Food, entertainment and community with jazz at 5:30 p.m. by Russ Johnson, John Christensen and Hannah Johnson and John Swan; at 9 p.m. John Swan Returns

Long Line Riders @ The Wiggle Room, 6:30 p.m.

Bay View’s record room turns into a honky tonk for this live music event. And of course, DJs spinning classic hillbilly vinyl to warm things up. Literally.

BASIC: Chris Forsyth, w/ Yr Knives and Chris Rosenau and DJs Kelly and Parker @ Cactus Club, 6 p.m.

New York guitarist Robert Quine gained notoriety playing with Richard Hell and the Voidoids and on Lou Reed’s album The Blue Mask. Quine and Fred Maher later recorded Basic, a homemade project that shoots arrows through electric Miles Davis, minimalism, droning blues and psychedelia. The record was largely ignored.

Enter Chris Forsyth, who has performed at Milwaukee Psych Fest. Over the pandemic the guitarist and Nick Millevoi bonded over a mutual appreciation of the Quine/Maher album. BASIC, Forsyth’s collective trio with Mikel Patrick Avery (percussion and electronics) and Millevoi (baritone guitar and drum machine) takes inspiration from the namesake album.

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Yr Knives is a Chicago group with connections to Wild Bell, Eleventh Dream Day, Tortoise, Health and Beauty and Hanami. Also on hand, Chris Roseneau from Pele, Collections of Colonies of Bees and Volcano Choir.

Saturday, December 14

Zappafest @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Milwaukee Zappafest is back for its 26th year. in a row. The time-honored event that pays tribute to the great mind of Frank Zappa and his music. Milwaukee Zappafest is the longest running annual tribute concert in America and features musicians from the greater performing various renditions of Zappa and related (Captain Beefheart, Wild Man Fischer, etc.) music.

Milwaukee's Gozortenplat headlines with Ray White from Frank Zappa's band to perform with them. White is known from such popular Zappa songs as “The Legend of the Illinois Enema Bandit,” “You Are What You Is,” “Doreen” and more. Chicago’s Jack Salamander opens and also live painting by Lena Golden.

The Holiday Wreckers @ Bar Centro, 8 p.m.

The Tim Whalen Quintet will be playing “derangements” of holiday classics and more. The top shelf band includes Whalen on piano, Jamie Breiwick on trumpet, Ben Dameron on guitar, John Christensen on bass and Hannah Johnson on drums.

Sunday, December 15

JoyFest: A Girls Rock MKE Festival & Fundraiser @ X-Ray Arcade, noon

Girls Rock MKE hosts the first annual JoyFest, a one-day music and arts festival and fundraiser. JoyFest is a celebration of the joy found in community, creativity, and the power of the collective. It includes workshop programming, performances from Girls Rock and Ladies Rock camp alumni, and local acts highlighting the contributions of marginalized genders across Milwaukee’s creative spaces.

Holiday glam attire is vigorously encouraged, but not required. JoyFest will embrace the generous spirit of the holiday season with a silent auction, 50/50 raffle, VIP ticketing, and opportunities to include Girls Rock MKE in your philanthropic giving.

More info here: xrayarcade.com/calendar/2024/12/15/girls-rock-mke.

Monday, December 16

Found Footage Fest: 20th Anniversary Show! @ Vivarium, 7 p.m.

Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show) have over 13,000 VHS tapes in their collection and have been taking viewers on a guided tour through their latest and greatest finds since 2004. To celebrate two decades of this VHS nonsense, they will serve up their all-time greatest finds including the dumbest exercise videos, the craziest public access shows and updates with the most wonderful weirdos they’ve met along the way.

Tuesday, December 17

Milwaukee Rep's A Christmas Carol @ Pabst Theater, 7 p.m.

In less than 100 pages, Charles Dickens wrote one of the most enduring literary works of the 19th or any other recent century. A Christmas Carol has become essential to the holiday season, familiar to millions who have never read it thanks to countless adaptations for stage and screen. The Milwaukee Repertory Theater first produced A Christmas Carol in 1976, and it quickly joined ranks with “The Hallelujah Chorus” and The Nutcracker as a beloved performance of the season. It returns to the Pabst Theater for its 49th year. Through December 24.

Wednesday, December 18

Leroy Airmaster @ Nashville North, 7 p.m.

Back in the ‘80s, the Up & Under Pub, now Nashville North was the place to be on Sunday afternoons if you liked the blues. And even if the blues wasn’t your favorite music, the weekly open jam hosted by Leroy Airmaster was a good opportunity for socializing, having a drink and steeling yourself for the coming work week: shepherdexpress.com/music/local-music/leroy-airmaster-brings-blues-back-to-brady-street. Leroy Airmaster returns to Nashville North with plans to perform on one Wednesday each month in the early months of 2025.