Latin Side of Pepper Adams and Ronnie Cuber - Mike Pauers Quintet, Black Arts Fest MKE - African Heritage & Black Cultural Arts, Kaki King, Wisconsin State Fair, The Strains w/ Wanda Chrome and the Leather Pharaohs and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!
Photo via Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co.
The Strains
The Strains
Thursday, July 31
Don’t Look Back @ Oriental Theatre, 6:30 p.m.
Image © Pennebaker Hegedus Films
Don't Look Back (1967)
Bob Dylan in 'Don't Look Back' (1967)
D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back (1967) set a high bar seldom met for concert tour documentaries. Shooting grainy black-and-white footage from handheld 16mm cameras in natural light (and darkness), this feature follows Bob Dylan on his first UK tour (1965), playing solo but wearing a black leather jacket—incongruous attire in the minds of folk purists who dressed as if in Appalachia.
Latin Side of Pepper Adams and Ronnie Cuber - Mike Pauers Quintet @ Bar Centro, 8 p.m.
If the names of baritone saxophonists Pepper Adams and Ronnie Cuber don’t ring any bells, here is a chance to get schooled over the summer. Milwaukee’s Mike Pauers studied with Cuber and assisted author and jazz scholar Gary Carner with the biography Reflectory: The Life and Music of Pepper Adams. Expect a night of enlightening anecdotes, hard bop harmonies and Afro-Caribbean rhythms as Pauers is joined by David Wake (piano), Joey Sanchez (bass) and Julio Pabon (percussion)—moonlighting from De La Buena.
Wisconsin State Fair @ Wisconsin State Fair Park, though Aug. 10
Livestock barns and auction, cream puffs, sporkies, racing pigs, state history, plein air painting, tree carving, giant slide, Wisconsin Products Pavilion, SpinCity midway rides, milking parlor, live music at free stages and daily headliners at the Main Stage, SkyGlider, Exposition Center shopping, parking on neighborhood lawns and a zillion other things including some of the best people watching you’ll find anywhere.
Friday, August 1
Aluminum Knot Eye w/Florida Brothers Band @ The Uptowner, 9 p.m.
Photo by Tom Smith via Florida Brothers Band - Facebook
Florida Brothers Band
Florida Brothers Band
As the neighborhood settles in for a relaxing week of recovery after last week’s Riverwest 24, Aluminum Knot Eye and Florida Brothers Band guarantee something less than a quiet night at the Charm School. Ear plugs are suggested and for sale at the bar.
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Saturday, August 2
Black Arts Fest MKE - African Heritage & Black Cultural Arts @ Henry Maier Festival Park, Noon
“Love In the Middle (Acoustic Version)” by Kevin Ross
Black Arts Fest MKE is a celebration of African heritage and Black cultural arts. This family friendly festival offers traditional and contemporary music, dance, art, food, children's activities and a marketplace. Featured artists include Star Redd, Kevin Ross and Carl Thomas.
Summer Song Swap – Joseph Cannon and Wylie Jakobs @ Bremen Café, 2 p.m.
“Break & Enter Part 2” by Resurrectionists
Take the songwriter out of the band’s volume and conflagration and you get another chance for a narrator, reliable or otherwise. Joseph Cannon will play stripped down version of songs from The Intelligibles, Slander Cannon and WORK, as well as resurrecting some dormant songs from the Resurrectionists catalog.
Kaki King @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
“SEI Promo v2” by Kaki King
Kaki King’s imaginative take on guitar incorporates fingerstyle fanning, flamenco style percussion and fret tapping techniques, as well as using double open tunings, viola tunings, and traditional Russian guitar (seven strings). She has recorded with Foo Fighters on “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners.” The 2014 production “The Neck Is a Bridge to the Body places the focus on the guitar itself. Projections of a creation myth including genesis and death were cast onto Ovation Adamas 1581-KK Kaki King Signature 6-String Acoustic guitar customized specifically for the production.”
SEI, is a new full-length performance piece where guitar movement takes over the entire stage. In SEI (which means “six” in Italian), guitarists become dancers, coordinating their whole bodies to perform the rigors of both choreography and composition.
Sunday, August 3
Francesca and the Night Sky @ Blüm Coffee Garden, noon
Photo via Francesca and The Night Sky - francescaandthenightsky.com
Francesca and the Night Sky
Francesca and the Night Sky
Songs We Allegedly Know, the debut album from Francesca and the Night Sky. The three-piece Night Sky, either knowingly and/or naively, summon Scottish musical spirits from the 1980s often enough throughout Some Songs We Allegedly Know. Namely, they recall the folk-pop-funky hybrid of aggregations like Del Amitri and Orange Juice.
Damon Smith, Weasel Walter and James McKain @ Sugar Maple, p.m.
Photo via The Sugar Maple - mysugarmaple.com
Damon Smith, Weasel Walter and James McKain
Damon Smith, Weasel Walter and James McKain
Since 2024, the duo of bassist Damon Smith and drummer Weasel Walter have been joined by saxophonist James McKain. The trio take an approach that is a path less traveled in the world of improvised music: free jazz by way of the European tradition. Coming at the material with angular methods and novel form, the results are a startling approach to the music. Their record, “…seeing the way the mole tunnels….” (Balance Point Acoustics / International School of Evidence) will be available for preorder on Aug. 2.
Tuesday, August 5
Galactic Empire w/ Nini and Arcade Mode @ X-Ray Arcade, 6 p.m.
“Gān Bēi” ft. K-roww (Taiwan Folk Metal) by NiNi
Galactic Empire is the galaxy’s foremost instrumental Star Wars cosplay heavy metal John Williams tribute band. NiNi, a distinguished musician hailing from Taiwan, has dedicated over two decades to mastering and performing traditional Chinese folk instruments. Her innovative approach to music involves playing genres such as heavy metal, rock and EDM on traditional instruments like the ruan, liuqin and san xian. She also performs on a unique electric lute known as the dao yu, which she uses to create a distinctive and modern sound that bridges cultural and musical boundaries. Locals Arcade Mode play video game music.
Wednesday, August 6
The Strains w/ Wanda Chrome and the Leather Pharaohs @ Anodyne Coffee Roasting, 6 p.m.
Not for the faint of heart, this midweek show might be the pick of the week—a pair of bands that were last sighted as opening acts for Handsome Dick Manitoba.
What would happen if the Partridge Family met the Addams family and locked themselves in a dark basement for two years listening to nothing the Stooges, the Damned, Black Flag and the Beatles? The Strains have been called “One of the meanest bands to ever slither out of Detroit. Triple guitar attack with nods to the MC5 and more harmonies than ABBA.” The road warriors have been stomping around the Midwest and in Europe for the last few years.
Wanda Chrome and the Leather Pharaohs have been DIY or die before most audience members were born. MKE’s loudest couple Cliff and Wanda wrote the blueprint on sticking it to the man and doing whatever pleases them. Like an analog to legendary punks Dead Moon, the trio remains unfazed by wishy washy trends and have stayed true to their guns and have been pounding out the rock and roll with drummer Joel Beskow since the early ‘90s.
Cameron Whitcomb - Hundred Mile High Tour @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
“Bad Apple” by Cameron Whitcomb
Cameron Whitcomb brings a unique perspective to songwriting, deeply influenced by his own life experiences, including his battles and journey in the music industry. His latest single, “The Devil I've Seen,” exemplifies this unique approach, delving into the profound and challenging topic of sexual abuse. Through his music, Whitcomb offers a glimpse into the complexities of his life and the darker aspects of human experiences, inviting audiences to connect with the more profound, often unspoken realities.
