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Photo credit: Hiro Tanaka
Jeff Rosenstock
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Mark Farina
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Steve Hofstetter
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Unwed Sailor
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YFN Lucci
Thursday, April 26
Arte Para Todos @ multiple venues
Arte Para Todos calls itself “Milwaukee’s largest local music event,” and it has the numbers to back that claim up. At this year’s four-day event dozens of bands will perform at nearly 30 venues spread across five neighborhoods, and once again proceeds will benefit arts programs at Milwaukee Public Schools. In its first three years, the event has already raised roughly $60,000 for that cause. Highlights this year include Hello Death and adoptahighway at the Var Gallery as part of Thursday night’s Walker’s Point lineup, which also features Zed Kenzo and Siren at Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. and Dramatic Lovers and Cairns at Gibraltar, as well as De La Buena and Strangelander at Boone & Crockett’s new location at 818 S. Water St. On Friday the event heads to Bay View with shows at Urban, Frank’s Power Plant, Tonic, Puddler’s Hall, Cactus Club and Club Garibaldi, with performers including Klassik, Immortal Girlfriend, Sundial Mottos, Mortgage Freeman, Von Alexander, Vinz Clortho, Space Raft and Bo & Airo. Saturday features a full day of music at venues across Riverwest and Harambee, including interesting bills at the Jazz Gallery, Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Circle A, High Dive and the Riverwest Public House. And on Sunday the East Side gets some love, with shows at the Jazz Estate, the Back Room at Colectivo and Good City Brewing, as well as an open jam at the Urban Ecology Center from 2-4 p.m. For the complete lineup and tickets, visit arteparatodos.me.
Steve Hofstetter
Steve Hofstetter @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Baseball fans, especially ones with a sense of humor about the game, are probably familiar with comedian-author-columnist Steve Hofstetter for his regular appearances on the MLB Network’s “MLB Now” and as the host of FS1’s “Finding Babe Ruth.” He’s also written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN and hosted a show for Sirius radio. Sports aren’t the only subject of Hofstetter’s standup act, though. A former writer for collegehumor.com, he’s released six albums of material that touch on pop culture and politics as well. This year he released a young adult book called Ginger Kid: Mostly True Tales from a Former Nerd, a memoir about his formative years and the humiliations of middle school.
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Masters of Soul @ Marcus Center, 7:30 p.m.
It takes a big ensemble to do justice to the music of Motown, and the program Masters of Soul has assembled one, including three male vocalists, three female vocalists and a four-piece band that’d been playing together for decades and has shared stages with some of the greats that they’ve covered. The show includes tributes to The Supremes, The Temptations, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
YFN Lucci
YFN Lucci w/ Munch Lauren @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
After slowly building a local following in Atlanta, YFN Lucci found a national audience for his style of woozy, anthemic rap following the success of his 2016 single “Key to the Streets.” Last year he followed it up with his biggest hit yet, the euphoric “Everyday We Lit,” which paved the way for his debut studio album, Ray Ray From Summerhill, which he released in March. Opening for him on this show is Milwaukee street rapper Munch Lauren, who’s built up a huge following online over the last couple of years.
Friday, April 27
Mark Farina
Mark Farina w/ Annatomic + Surge @ Site 1A, 9 p.m.
One of the true pioneers of house music, DJ Mark Farina got his start in Chicago, where he held a long residency at Smart Bar and laid the groundwork for a new style of dance music dubbed “mushroom jazz,” a cool fusion of acid jazz, downtempo and Chicago house. In the early ’90s, he moved to San Francisco, where he helped lay the seeds for the Bay Area’s modern downtempo scene. Unlike many of the electronic innovators of his era, Farina hasn’t slowed down in recent decades. In 2016, he released the eighth installment of his Mushroom Jazz compilation series, and he continues to run the esteemed record label Great Lakes Audio Recordings.
Jefferson Starship @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 8 p.m.
It was Homer Simpson who most memorably explained the progression of classic rock in the ’70s: “Grand Funk Railroad paved the way for Jefferson Airplane, which cleared the way for Jefferson Starship,” he explained. “The stage was now set for the Alan Parsons Project, which I believe was some sort of hovercraft.” Not all of that is accurate, but Homer was right about the part about Jefferson Starship, which spun off of the legendary psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane in the early ‘70s and took their sound in ever-proggier directions. In 2016, the group lost founding member Paul Kantner, who died following a heart attack, leaving singer-guitarist David Freiberg its sole remaining original member and the lone carryover from the Jefferson Airplane days.
Saturday, April 28
Photo credit: Hiro Tanaka
Jeff Rosenstock
Jeff Rosenstock w/ Martha & Bad Moves, 7:30 p.m.
Over his 10 years as the leader of the shape-shifting New York ska-punk-indie collective Bomb the Music Industry!, Jeff Rosenstock played enough basement venues to last a lifetime. After a lengthy farewell tour, that band called it quits in 2014, but Rosenstock’s best work was still ahead of him. Over the last four years he’s released a trio of knockout solo albums, including 2016’s Worry. and this year’s POST-, that play like mini rock operas, bounding from style to style without ever losing the punk energy that made Rosenstock such a hero of the scene. POST- in particular may be the sharpest, hookiest and most purely entertaining record of his career.
Sunday, April 29
Bon Jovi w/ Stereo Satellite @ BMO Harris Bradley Center, 7:30 p.m.
So this is farewell, old friend. After 30 years of loyal service to the city, the BMO Harris Bradley Center is targeted for demolition as the city makes way for its new arena. But first the venue will host this final concert from one of its earliest headliners, Bon Jovi, perhaps the most enduringly popular of all the ‘80s hair bands. The band has flirted with new directions over the years, going acoustic for 2003’s This Left Feels Right and going country—with great commercial results—for their 2007 Nashville record Lost Highway, but on recent albums they’ve returned to the forceful stadium rock that made them stars. In 2013 they released their 13th and most recent album, This House is Not for Sale, their first album without lead guitarist Richie Sambora, who left the group on good terms in 2014.
Kid Koala: The Vinyl Vaudeville Show @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
Between his acclaimed solo albums for Ninja Tune and his collaborations with Dan the Automator in projects like Deltron 3030 and Lovage, Kid Koala is one of the most prestigious turntablists in the history of the form. He’s got a sense of humor about his craft, though. For his annual Vinyl Vaudeville tour, Koala curates an incredibly silly spectacle filled with dancers and puppets. This one promises giant spiders, giant penguins, singing robots, a horn section of ants and a giant paper airplane fight. DJ Jester and Adira Amram and the Experience are also on the bill.
Monday, April 30
Unwed Sailor
Unwed Sailor w/ Early Day Miners and Asumaya @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
The Seattle instrumental-rock band Unwed Sailor is captained by Johnathon Ford, a veteran musician with the ability to convey tricky emotional sentiments through instrumental nuance. Recording and touring with a rotating cast of collaborators (including members of Early Day Miners, Fleet Foxes and Pedro the Lion), Ford has released 10 albums and EPs since the band’s conception in 1998, each with its own distinct themes and instrumental motifs. Though Unwed Sailor’s music can vary greatly from album to album, soothing backdrops, ambient moods and strung-out melodies run throughout most of their releases. The band will share this show with similarly underrated indie veterans Early Day Miners, whose latest lineup includes longtime principle Daniel Burton, drummer Marty Sprowles and Ford from Unwed Sailor on bass. Cover is only $8.
