This Week in MKE Music: Sept. 4-10, 2025

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

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This Week in MKE Music

Marc Ribot, The Bluegrass All Stars, Polka Riot, The Messthetics, Jed Harrelson, The Doobie Brothers and more—This Week in Milwaukee Music!

Thursday, Sept. 4

Alabama Shakes w/ Sam Evian @ Miller High Life Theatre, 8 p.m.

After an eight-year absence, Alabama Shakes return with a new album Another Life. The band’s breakout song “Hold On” in 2012 was followed up by Sound & Color in 2014. Vocalist-guitarist-songwriter Brittany Howard made a stop at Summerfest last year touring for her album What Now that had security personnel dancing in the aisles.

Marc Ribot: Map of a Blue City @ Vivarium, 8 p.m.

Guitarist-composer Marc Ribot’s musically omnivorous career might be summed up by Jean-Luc Godard’s quote, “He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.”

Last April, due to an unexpected delay, Ribot’s show at Vivarium started a half hour late, but it was a small price to pay for fans who had long waited to see the guitarist-composer in action. That show, in trio format, featured Ribot digging into his roots playing with organ trios. This time he is touring a new album, Map of A Blue City, described as, “Nearly 30 years in the making … it’s not a traditional singer-songwriter album, it is Marc’s first to center his plaintive voice quite so prominently throughout.”

The multi-faceted composer-guitarist’s Zelig career has found him working with Tom Waits, John Zorn, Elvis Costello and Richard Hell. He was a member of the Lounge Lizards, fronted his own groups Ceramic Dog, Los Cubanos Postizos and recorded an album of music by his mentor, Haitian guitarist Frantz Casseus.

Friday, Sept. 5

The Bluegrass All Stars @ Kegel's Inn, 6 p.m.

Veteran musician Tom Schwark brings the Bluegrass All Stars to West Allis for this matinee performance. Brom blistering banjo breakdowns to hard-core country, this acoustic quartet serves up the real-deal high lonesome sound.

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The Bluegrass All Stars are a collection of fun-loving veteran musicians who grew up in bluegrass music. As the years rolled on, other forms of music and steadier paychecks helped stretch their sound. Returning to their bluegrass roots, these musical experiences melded to produce the All Stars’ sound. Scruggs, Crow, Hank and Haggard are all represented in any given show. Featuring Schwark on mandolin and fiddle, Dan Nimphius on hard driving banjo and dobro, Steve Hajduch on guitar and Jimmy Meyers on stand-up bass.

The Messthetics, James Brandon Lewis, Yr Knives @ Cactus Club, 6:30 p.m.

In Fugazi, drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally provided a necessary bridge between the zenith of late-punk expression and everything alternative in rock that followed. In 2016, the two were enlisted by guitarist Anthony Pirog in a conspiracy to subvert and reimagine the power trio, bringing fully into the 21st century a form that may have reached near perfection with Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys on the very first day of the 1970s. It should also be noted that Canty drummed in Wayne Kramer’s MC50 group. In 2019 saxophonist James Brandon Lewis first collaborated with the Messthetics as a special guest.

Saturday, Sept. 6

Polka Riot @ Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 5 p.m.

Celebrating alternative permutations of the folkloric dance music of Central Eastern European, carried by immigrants to the Midwest, and with which the Cream City is still associated, the Milwaukee Polka Riot is America’s first (and only?) only alternative polka festival.

The polka is Wisconsin’s official state dance, but the Milwaukee Polka Riot, an “alternative polka” festival, takes the genre and cranks up the volume. The lineup includes The November Criminals (“Milwaukee’s non-ironic polka hip hop band”); Chicago’s The Frantastic Sound System delivering zydeco, roots and Americana sounds; The Polkaholics (also from Chicago); and Milwaukee’s The Good Friends Klezmer Band and DJ Brumeister; and Madison’s DJ Shotski.

Jed Harrelson @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Being from Texarkana instilled a drive to home in on Jed Harrelson’s craft. The now-Nashville based soul artist has found a way to fuse sounds of soul, rock and R&B. He’s independently released 15 songs in the last three years—all recorded in house with his brother Hank as the audio engineer.

though the lack of music scene caused him to move where he could really express his artistic message which took him to Fayetteville, Arkansas. This is where he cut his teeth in the Northwest Arkansas music scene.

Sunday, Sept. 7

Altar De Fey w/ Choke Chain and Paralyze @ X-Ray Arcade, 6:30 p.m.

Emerging from San Francisco in the early ‘80s as part of the emerging musical form that would come to be known as “deathrock,” Altar De Fey is joined by the dark electro sounds of Milwaukee’s Choke Chain and Paralyze.

Monday, Sept. 8

Open Mic w/ Max (Diet Lite) @ Bremen Café, 10 p.m.

The back room at Bremen is the ideal spot to try out new songs or even step up to the mic for the first time. The weekly open mic kicks off on Mondays at 10 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 9

The Doobie Brothers w/ The Coral Reefer Band @ American Family Insurance Amphitheater, 6 p.m.

After reuniting with Michael McDonald for a celebrated 50th anniversary tour in 2021, the Doobie Brothers’ longtime members Pat Simmons, Tom Johnston, and John McFee were feeling the buzz. They decided to keep that momentum going. It was that vibe that they carried forward into working on new music, merging the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group’s different hitmaking eras together for the first time in decades with McDonald back in the mix on new music.

“After the tour went so well, it made sense,” McDonald says. “I’m not a super-prolific songwriter, but I had some ideas that I felt like would work really well with the band.”

Wednesday, Sept. 10

Stallis Cowboys w/ Miles Patzer @ Sugar Maple, 7 p.m.

Another low volume high vibe show in Bay View, with special guest Miles Patzer of Hosts, who is driving the local Americana train with up-tempo originals that “grab ya by the collar and make ya holler.”

The Plot in You w/ Northlane, Invent Animate, Windwaker @ The Rave, 7 p.m.

Through balancing even the most extreme dynamics, The Plot in You consistently overturn and upend expectations. On any given track, it might seem like they’re about to go one way, but the band will turn on a dime and shift course before the crowd can even catch a breath. This uncanny element of surprise has entrenched the gold-selling Ohio quartet on the cutting edge of rock music. Whether it be threads of alternative, electronic, pop or R&B, nothing is off limits, and everything is fair game for their creative process. That process has continued to morph.