This Week in MKE Music: June 4-10, 2026

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

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This Week in MKE Music

PrideFest Milwaukee Metal Fest, Chill on the Hill and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!

Thursday, June 4

PrideFest @ Henry Maier Festival Park, June 4-5

Over the last few decades, the official announcement of the PrideFest entertainment line-up has become the Milwaukee LGBTQ+ community’s rite of spring. It is the culmination of a year’s planning, negotiating, scheduling and booking dozens of stage acts. It is certainly a challenging enterprise given the diversity of the community’s demographics and its varied tastes.

Opening Thursday, June 4 and running through Saturday, June 6, the festival’s theme will honor the legacy of its past three decades of music and will showcase exciting mix of comedy, culture and nightlife across six stages. RuPaul’s Drag Race alums Lydia B. Collins, Kori King, Suzie Toot and Olivia Lux;  America’s Got Talent performers Brody Ray and singer/actor, Brian Justin Crum along with American pop singer/songwriter Jake Wesley Rogers; Dulcé Sloan (Conan, The Steve Harvey Show, Comedy Central) and 76th Street, ‘90s pop singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins and DJ Shawna. See the full lineup here.

Ruthie offers her social calendar for Pride Week here.

Milwaukee Metal Fest @ The Rave, 6 p.m.

Each summer since 1987—when promoter Jack Koshick got the ball rolling, metalheads around the globe have made the pilgrimage to Milwaukee Metal Fest. It’s back with a pre-party followed by three days of metal. Dozens and dozens of acts including Emmure, Bonginator, Gasket, Torn Apart, Acid Bath, Obituary, Agalloch, Suicidal Tendencies, Machine Head, Power Trip, Napalm Death, Armored Saint, Ministry, The Crosses (performing Die Kreuzen), Texas Toast Chainsaw Massacre and more. Info here therave.com/milwaukee_concerts.asp

The Alice Bag Band w/ Clickbait @ Anodyne Coffee Roasting, 6:30 p.m.

Alice Bag was a pioneer of the Hollywood punk scene; her mid-‘70s namesake band, appearance in the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, her memoir Violence Girl, From East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage – A Chicana Punk Story and her 2025 collaboration with Kid Congo Powers as Juanita & Juan, adds up to one of the more powerful resumes of the alternative music and counterculture world.

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Primitive Broadcast Service EP Release w/Mr. Phylzzz, Bronson Arm and Orlock @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.

Monsters, the new six song EP by Primitive Broadcast Service is a jarring snapshot of the tail end of America’s 21st century.  J.D Morgan says one evening when he was working on the song “Invisible” he heard gunshots outside his window and later learned a man had been shot. That experience would divine its way into the song’s lyric. The band’s sound, a heavy, angular “urban skronk” gets a welcome and unexpected zest when bassist Andy Steffenhagen get his two cents in on trumpet on “Wolf Mask.”

The guitar filigree that open “Shadows on the Hillside” is a shorthand for the reckoning, dissonance the band conjures. Recorded in Chicago at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio with Jon San Paulo and Milwaukee’s Shane Hochstetler and mastered by Tad Doyle (of Sub Pop fame), the record stands as a meticulously shepherded project in these daze avalanche of tossed-off “releases.”   

Chicago duo Mr. Phylzzz arrives with Amphetamine Reptile Records seal of approval. Aside from being in the hall of fame of great record label names, Tom Hazelmyer’s taste in artists skew toward less than easy listening.

Chrystal Gales w/ The Dirty Sweet @ Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 7:30 p.m.

An evening with local musicians of a certain age. The quintet Chrystal Gales is a group of Milwaukee musicians with way too many side projects and just enough free evenings to make something happen. Anchored by Stephen Ziel (vocals and guitar, co-founder the legendary Pet Engine) and Steve Vorass (drums with Newski, I’m Not a Pilot) Chrystal Gales adds Matt Smith, Mike “Bleezy” Bliesner (Spanglemaker) and Chris Guse (Mixtape, Rocket Cat) to offer power-pop hooks with an indie-rock edge.

Songwriter and bass player John Daniels has been content never to be the frontman in groups like Wobble Test, The Blow Pops or Bicentennial Drug Lord. Likewise, with The Dirty Sweet Daniels is often the glue in this band of local veterans that emphasize pop hooks and vocal harmonies. The band’s resume incudes The Henry Lees, Maki, Knit Delicate, Johnny and the Losers, Mothers Room, Wheelie, CHIEF, Willie Wisely Trio, Shatterproof and Alex Ballard & Sugarfoot.

Friday, June 5

Present Music - Nathalie Joachim @ Milwaukee Art Museum, 5:30 p.m. museum, concert 7:30 p.m.

For Present Music’s season finale, the Milwaukee ensemble’s New York-based conductor-artistic advisor, David Bloom, chose an artist with whom he’d worked in the past. Nathalie Joachim is a genre defiant flutist-composer-vocalist, classically trained and at home in today’s music.

The centerpiece of Present Music’s concert will be Joachim’s performance of a song cycle from her second album, Ki Moun Ou Ye. “Rooted in the farm in Haiti that Nathalie's family have made their home for many generations, the cycle is a moving search for self within her history and her present-day experience,” Bloom says. “To that end, the title track poses powerful questions: ‘Who are you? / Whose names are these? / Where do these names come from? / Who once owned us?’ Singing in both Haitian Creole and English, her voice is just extraordinary—like a warm embrace.”

Mac Saturn w/ Modern Joey @ Vivarium, 8 p.m.

Emerging from adversity stronger than ever, the five-piece rock band Mac Saturn blends soulful swagger, Motown-infused grooves, and kinetic live energy that turns every show into a dance floor. Though their album release was overshadowed by the arrest and departure of a former keyboard player, the band chose renewal over retreat, taking 18 months to reflect, rebuild, and sharpen their creative bond.

Jason Carter w/The Bo Randall Band @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

In Lloyd, Kentucky, on U.S. 23, there’s a sign on the Country Music Highway dedicated to renowned fiddler Jason Carter. “There’s a certain sound that’s up there that you just don’t hear anywhere else,” he says. “I think that played a big part in how I sound today.”

For 30 years, he has been the fiddle player for the Del McCoury Band—the most awarded group in bluegrass history. As a fiddler, Carter has been featured on albums by Steve Earle, Ricky Skaggs, Dierks Bentley, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill, Asleep at the Wheel and many more, all in addition to his tireless touring and recording with Del as well as the Travelin’ McCourys.

A guitar player since childhood and a fiddler since 15 (the age when he swore that someday he’d play in the Del McCoury Band), Carter inherited his love for bluegrass from his father, a musician himself, and grew up playing at jams, festivals and campgrounds across Kentucky.

Sue Foley w/ Wonderful Bluffer @ The Argo Ballroom, 8 p.m. Also, Panorama: A Tribute to The Cars

Sue Foley’s guitar tone—whether drawn from her signature pink paisley Fender Telecaster or a handmade Mexican flamenco guitar—is a voice unto itself: lyrical, commanding, and unmistakably hers. With painted fingernails and pinpoint precision, she fuses fiery Texas blues with delicate fingerstyle flourishes, channeling a poet’s sense of purpose through every note.

Foley’s book, Guitar Women: Conversations with the Heroines of Guitar, chronicles her interviews with groundbreaking female players. Foley also holds a PhD in Musicology from York University. Her performances—stripped-down or electrified—exude conviction, grace and grit. With the album One Guitar Woman, she opens new musical and historical territory, affirming that women have always had a place in the pantheon of guitar greats. “We’ve been here all along,” she says. “Now we’re claiming it.”

You could shout a request for Foley to play a tune by new wave band The Cars until you are blue in the face, but you’d have better luck strolling to The Argo’s other room for an evening with Milwaukee band Panorama taking a spin through the classic hits and quirky B-sides by the Boston chart toppers. 

Saturday, June 6

Billy Peterson Trio @ The Jazz Estate, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

In mid-May the Jazz Estate announced it will close on June 27. Until then, the East Side institution will be hosting live music. And tonight is a good one, two good ones actually.

Drummer Devin Drobka and pianist Anthony Deutsch will be joined by bassist Billy Peterson who has worked with Carlos Santana, Bob Dylan (Blood on the Tracks), Neil Young, Prince, Les Paul, Leo Kottke, Ben Sidran and Steve Miller. The Billy Peterson Trio plays two shows, info here.

Sunday, June 7

Milwaukee Pride Parade @ 2nd Street in Walker’s Point between Scott Street and Seeboth Street, 2 p.m. step off

At 21 years old, Pride takes to the streets with the annual parade. For approximately two hours, with a family-friendly atmosphere celebrating diversity and inclusion, this Walker’s Point celebrating this year’s theme “Together We Are Pride!” Last year saw 175 entrants traipse the one-mile route.

The Bach’s Lunch @ The Sugar Maple, 4 p.m.

The Bach's Lunch jazz band plays music that is older than dirt, focusing on music that is circa 100 years old and older.

Monday, June 8

Paisley Fields w/ Lily Slay and the Vertebrae and Sludge Hawking @ MkeULTRA, 7 p.m.

On Limp Wrist, Paisley Fields draws inspiration from Andy Warhol and a myriad of drag artists with whom he’s collaborated. His years of experience in Manhattan piano bars did not diminish his love for country music, and he has already released two albums that pay homage to the music of his youth.  

Lily Slay has a voice like Velcro, molasses, and campfire ashes. She’s the Southern Belle paradox meets Midwest hot mess--playing with her band the Vertebrae, delivering her unique combination of country camp, wild-eyed whimsy, and aggressively anti-fascist folk rock anthems. Sludge Hawking is for admirers of heavy twang, electric harmoniums and those true countercultural diehards.

Tuesday, June 9

Chill on the Hill - Louie & The Flashbombs and Bright-Eyed & Blind @ Humboldt Park Bandshell, 5 p.m.

Chill on the Hill returns to Bay View’s Humboldt Park and kicks off the season with the first annual ampersand celebration. Louie & The Flashbombs and Bright-Eyed & Blind open the weekly Tuesday free summer concert event with live local music and food trucks. Bring a blanket and make a picnic of it.

Wednesday, June 10

Season To Risk w/ Faketwin and Thyone @ X-Ray Arcade, 6:30 p.m.

Kansas City, Mo. first wave post-hardcore veterans Season to Risk has only gotten weirder over the years since the band began in 1989, adding dark synth to their genre-blending mix of noise, math and indie rock. A pair of Milwaukee unrulies joint the bill. Faketwin brings “unpleasant noise rock. 50/50 too loud & un-danceable.” Formerly known as Credentials, Thyone’s sound is a curry of “mathy/noisy, moody, bratty, hard-grooving ritual post-rock.”