This Week in MKE Music Sept. 3-9, 2026

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

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This Week in MKE Music

Outdoor music in Tosa, Third Ward, and Humboldt Park, David J. Thomas flies solo, Laborfest Parade and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music.

Thursday, Sept. 3

Donna Woodall Group @ The Vine Humboldt Beer Garden, 6 p.m.

The weather might suggest otherwise, but our outdoor music season is winding down. Catch Donna Woodall at The Vine Humboldt Beer Garden for the venue’s last scheduled performance.

The final day of the season for The Vine will be Tuesday, September 8, from 4 to 9 p.m. Stop in for one last pint and toast the glory of outdoor music in Milwaukee.

The Happy Together Tour @ Marcus Performing Arts Center’s Uihlein Hall, 7:30 p.m.

In 1969 a seven-year-old me was instantly smitten with Susan Cowsill when I saw her family band The Cowsills perform “Hair” on our black and white TV set. Little could I imagine that decades later my band would open for Cowsill’s Continental Drifters and I’d be onstage with her for the evening’s encore.

The Cowsills return as part of the long-running Happy Together Tour which also includes Ron Dante (The Archies and The Turtles); The Association ("Cherish," "Windy"); The Troggs ("Wild Thing"); Jason Scheff (former lead singer and guitarist of Chicago); Gary Puckett ("Young Girl"); The Fortunes (“Here Comes That Rainy Day Feelin’ Again”) and The Vogues (“You’re The One,” “Five O’Clock World”).

The Shepherd Express talked with Ron Dante, the voice of bubblegum hit makers The Archies and long-time music producer, now serving as the “host” of this cavalcade of nostalgia founded by the Turtles’ Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (also known as “Flo and Eddie”). Kaylan retired in 2018 and Volman passed away last year.

Shepherd Express: Now in its 17th year—why do you think the Happy Together Tour remains so popular?

Ron Dante: I think it's the quality of the songs and the memories that go along with all these hit songs that really never leave the public consciousness. They get used in TV shows, commercials, and movies like Guardians of the Galaxy. When they want to depict the ‘60s, these movies and shows always play our songs, the songs we feature in the Happy Together Tour. I think it's the reality that these songs have lasted and continue to have an impact on people.

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Friday, Sept. 4

Firefly Fridays - Bella Brutto @ The Landing, Hoyt Park, Wauwatosa, 5 p.m.

Bella Brutto (beautiful ugly in Italian) excels in an eclectic mix of rock, a swerve of folk, humor and reggae. The quartet includes Milwaukee music veterans Tom Plutshack (Tritonics, Spiders from Milwaukee, Edgar Allen Cash, The Falcons, The Lost Pioneers, C-Food Buffet) on guitar; Jared Drake (The Northliners, Mistic Krewe, Lost Pioneers, Bean Hoy) on bass; Bob Mueller (Bean Hoy, Lost Pioneers, Wrecking Yard) on drums, and Twila Jean (TJ and The Blue Roots, chansons du trio Twila Jean) on guitar, keys and accordion.

The band released the seven-song Experience in 2024 and Twila Jean’s Redemption was released in 2017.

De La Buena @ Riverwalk Commons Concert Series – 423 N. Water St., 5 p.m.

Growing from a trio into a powerful 10-piece, De La Buena electrifies audiences with their own brand of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz. De La Buena remains ever conscious of the influence and necessary respect for tradition… yet, a band willing to inject sophisticated, psychedelic sensibilities into an aggressive, expansive framework.

Once an underutilized parcel beneath the freeway, Riverwalk Commons has been transformed into a vibrant public space featuring outdoor recreation, green space and free community programming. Proceeds from bar sales during events support ongoing improvements and activations within the space.

MKE Music Night XCIV: Latin Night @ The Cooperage, 7 p.m.

MKE music night returns to The Cooperage for a Latin bangerang for the first time in three years. The show features Tlalok, Pulpa de Guayaba, Los Mitoteros and Calakas Sonoras.

MKE Music Night is a local art and music showcase which has been throwing live music events for 6 years at various venues. This show will mark the 104th MKE Music Night.

Blu 9/4 Rick Germanson Trio ft Billy Peterson @ Blu, 8 p.m.

Rick Germanson (piano) and Dave Bayles (drums) are joined by veteran bassist Billy Peterson. In the summer of 1967, 16-year-old Peterson joined the Righteous Brothers tour. By the mid-‘70s Peterson played with Leo Kottke and in 1975 he played bass on Bob Dylan’s classic album Blood on the Tracks. For 23 years Peterson played bass with the Steve Miller Band.

Saturday, Sept. 5

Jon Mroz and his Central Avenue Senders @ The Argo, 8 p.m.

Educator, musicologist and bandleader Jon Mroz determined it was time to bring the jumping rhythm & blues of 1940s Los Angeles to the modern public consciousness. 

T-Bone Walker. Roy Milton. Wynonie Harris, Jack McVea. Honking saxophones, swinging piano, electric guitar, upright bass-and music made to dance to.

Mroz debuts his Central Avenue Senders which specializes in rhythm and jump blues. In setting the scene, Mroz drew from a quote by saxophonist Jackie Kelso who knew the Central Avenue scene. “That’s where you would go to look and go to be seen and go to talk and exchange the joy of being alive.”

He remembered dancers and entertainers congregating outside the Dunbar Hotel. He remembered beautiful clothes and tailor-made suits. He remembered people taking tremendous pride in how they looked, how they walked, how they carried themselves.

As a musician who was part of the ‘90s swing revival, Mroz can relate. The upright bassist has assembled a killer band that includes Tael Estremera, saxophone; Olivia Dobbs, saxophones; Anna Brinck, piano; Michael Arnold, guitar; and Patrick Morrow on drums.

Sunday, Sept. 6

David J. Thomas @ Thurman’s

Dave Thomas can boast a resume that stretches back to being a roadie for The Haskels and working the door at the Starship and mingling with Sun Ra’s band—but it is his decades of writing songs and fronting bands that feels very Milwaukee. A tireless work ethic places him, appropriately, playing a solo gig the day before Labor Day.

A bar named for a legendary New York Yankee that specializes in Grateful Dead music? Don’t expect Thomas to deviate from that which brought him to the venue. Namely, a thick sheaf of original songs that recall vintage rock and roll, ‘70s era punk rock, all played with a healthy blast of rootsy twang.

Setting w/ Keith Fullerton Whitman @ Vivarium, 8 p.m.

This show might just be the sleeper of the week. Setting is Nathan Bowles (solo/trio, Pelt, Black Twig Pickers) on strings, keys, tapes, and percussion; Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors, Peeesseye) on synthesizers and harmonium; and Joe Westerlund (solo, Califone, Sylvan Esso, Jake Xerxes Fussell) on drums, percussion, metallophones and zither. 

Relying on a group approach to improvisation the group incorporates Fennelly’s incorporation of more programmed synthesizer material into the Bowles/Westerlund octopus polyrhythm.

The group’s self-titled album is described as “a definitive statement of their improvisational acumen meeting compositional rigor, a robust wellspring of hypnagogic grooves and mosaiced textures. Setting harnesses the euphoria of communal creation.”

Intriguing, to say the least.

The Wallflowers w/ Early James @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.

The Wallflowers will mark the 30th anniversary of their album Bringing Down the Horse performing their classic album in its entirety. The album was a critical and commercial triumph.

The LP yielded four hit singles, “6th Avenue Heartache,” “One Headlight,” “The Difference” and “Three Marlenas.” In addition, The Wallflowers will also pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ by playing Petty’s 1982 album Long After Dark in its entirety as well.

Monday, Sept. 7

Laborfest Parade and Festival @ Henry Maier Festival Park, 11 a.m.

Labor Day is a chance to remember those who made sacrifices for benefits many take for granted: weekends, worker protections, vacation, overtime pay, and the list goes on. It's also a time to celebrate the power in standing together and the things we can achieve in the future.

Prade kicks off at 11 a.m. at Zeidler Union Square (301 W. Michigan St. More info here milwaukeelabor.org/events/laborfest

Tuesday, Sept. 8

Chill on the Hill – Chillith Fair, 6 p.m.

This year Chill on the Hill goes into extra innings. Chillith Fair recalls Sarah McLachlan’s late ‘90s female focused festival. The Chillith lineup includes Allison Mahal, Full Nude and SSAANN. 

Wednesday, Sept. 9

Gashade w/ Dustcover, Fun in Theory and Violet Garden @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.

Milwaukee, Stevens Point and Chicago are all in the house with this midweek bill that serves up shoegaze, alternative and post-punk.