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The Alarm
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LEDEF
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Deafhaven
Riverwest gears up for another epic Riverwest 24, during a weekend featuring no shortage of notable outdoor events and festivals.
Thursday, July 26
The Alarm
The Alarm w/ Band/Aged @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Like some of the most memorable bands of the ’80s, The Alarm didn’t just make music: They made impassioned pleas for humanity and a better world. That approach earned the Welsh rock band plenty of comparisons to U2, whom they toured with in 1983, and they found some success modeling their music after U2’s combination of earnest songs and big, ambitious production. The band’s lineup has changed considerably since they hit their American commercial peak with their Tony Visconti-produced 1989 album Change, which featured their lone modern rock hit “Sold Me Down the River,” but frontman Mike Peters has continued to record new albums under the band name, including a new effort released this year titled Equals.
Friday, July 27
Riverwest 24 @ multiple locations, 7 p.m.
Over the last decade the Riverwest 24 bike race has grown from a quirky neighborhood tradition into one of the Midwest’s most distinctive cycling events, drawing national attention and plenty of competitors from out of town (let’s hope nobody from Chicago wins this year). It also doubles as a massive neighborhood-wide party, with spectators filling the streets and cheering on riders. There’s always plenty going on in the neighborhood in conjunction with the event. Highlights this weekend include a three-year anniversary party for High Dive Friday night, with a phenomenal lineup including Slow Walker, Fire Heads, Zed Kenzo, Peeper & Le Play, Fox Face and Doubletruck (High Dive will also hold a Riverwest 24 pre-party and school supply drive on Thursday night), and an after party on Saturday at 10 p.m. at Company Brewing featuring Duckling, Lifetime Achievement Award, Hot Date and Caley Conway.
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German Fest @ Summerfest Grounds
Milwaukee is a true melting pot, but there’s no mistaking the cultural imprint that Germany in particular left on the city—we owe our reputation as one of the great brewing capitals of the world to that German heritage. It goes without saying, then, that German Fest is one of city’s largest, most jubilant ethnic festivals. Attractions include polka, costumes, a train exhibit, wood carving stations, puppet shows, a sports area, sheepshead lessons and impossibly adorable dachshund races, but the biggest draw is, as always, the food. Among the vittles: schnitzel, sauerkraut, sauerbraten, knoedel, goulash, bratherring (fried herring) and too many varieties of sausage to list here. (Through Sunday, July 29.)
LEDEF
Ledef & Der Kindestod w/ DJ Tuga and Max Holiday @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
Promoters Close Up of the Serene and Earth Angel have teamed up to bring another bill of cutting-edge electronic music to Cactus Club. One of the founding members of San Antonio’s art collective House of Kenzo, Ledef specializes in modernist queer expression and innovative sonic and visual displays. They’ll be joined here by another boundary-pusher from the Texas experimental electronic music scene, Der Kindestod, to perform a collaborative two-hour set featuring “involving audio, visual projection mapping and movement.” DJ Tuga and Max Holiday will round out the bill. Suggested donation is $5-$10, though nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.
Saturday, July 28
TRUE Skool Summer Block Party @ Marcus Center, 11 a.m.
For the second year, the Milwaukee arts and hip-hop organization TRUE Skool will take over the Marcus Center’s Peck Pavilion for its free Summer Block Party event. It’ll feature a local entrepreneur market, a mini-skate park, children’s games and activities, a break dancing exhibition, a live turntable showcase from the Record Break DJs and music from A.D.H.D, Lotus Fankh, Clan 19, Taiyamo Denku, Burgie Streetz and others. Come hungry: Sazama’s River Edge Patio (part of the Saz’s Hospitality Group) will have food for sale.
Milwaukee Brewfest @ McKinley Park, 3 p.m.
There’s no shortage of beer festivals in this city—a new one seems to pop up each month—but Milwaukee Brewfest offers something that many of its competitors don’t: the experience of sampling beers and ciders in a beautiful park overlooking Lake Michigan. Central Waters, Pearl Street Brewery, Fat Orange Cat, Enlightened, Sprecher, Company Brewing, Sand Creek, Furthermore, Finch Beer Co., Three Floyds, Ale Asylum and Ballast Point are among the dozens of vendors participating.
Milwaukee MeatUp @ Kettle Range Meat Company, 11 a.m.
Up to 20 teams of amateur grill masters will compete for $500 in prizes at Kettle Range Meat Company’s third annual Milwaukee MeatUp barbecue competition. The day will also feature burgers, brats and beer, a pig roast, a bounce house, free knife sharpening from the Sharp Brothers and blues music from Kent Burnside (the grandson of the blues legend R.L. Burnside) and The Flood Brothers.
Monday, July 30
The National w/ Lucy Dacus @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
For years The National was one of indie-rock’s most infamous also-rans after the band’s 2005 masterpiece Alligator slipped under the radar of critics and listeners alike, but by the late ’00s the masses had begun to take notice. 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me was the band’s strongest album yet, a masterfully achy set that balanced its melancholy with understated wit, and last year the group released a worthy follow-up, Sleep Well Beast, a more expansive record with an electronic edge and some angry political undertones. It won a Grammy this year for Best Alternative Music Album, more proof that this once overlooked band finally has the stature it deserves.
Tuesday, July 31
Deafhaven
Deafhaven w/ Drab Majesty and Uniform @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7:30 p.m.
There aren’t many modern metal records these days that cross over—as a general rule metal is a pretty isolated genre, uninterested in winning over the non-converted. A rare exception arrived in 2013, though, when the San Francisco ensemble Deafhaven released their sophomore album Sunbather, one of the most acclaimed metal albums of the last decade. The record is sprawling and beautiful, seeped in the crash-and-bang dynamics of post-rock. No doubt in part because of that crossover appeal, the record placed high on year-end lists from dozens of media sources, including Spin, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and even NPR, an outlet not usually known for its metal coverage. Lest anybody think that Sunbather was a fluke, they followed it in 2015 with an even bigger, more sprawling third album, New Bermuda. Their similarly excellent latest album, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, arrived this month.
