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Photo credit: Charlie Lowe
Quiet Slang
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Jamey Johnson
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Jamey Johnson
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Cesar Milan
Festival season continues with Polish Fest and the Lakefront Festival of Art, while Nomad Nacional begins its epic outdoor World Cup festivities.
Thursday, June 14
Nomad FanZone @ Nomad Nacional, 10 a.m.
Soccer fans have a new place to call home this summer. For a full 31 days during the World Cup, Nomad Nacional on Fifth Street in Walker’s Point will transform its neighboring parking lot into a giant fútbol viewing area where fans can watch the games on a jumbotron. There will be plenty to do between games, too. Nomad has lined up a full schedule featuring live music, lucha libre wrestling, a Father’s Day party, photo booths, youth soccer and family activities. There will also be a Summerfest shuttle. For its opening day festivities, which kick off with a viewing of the Russia vs. Saudi match at 10 a.m., rapper Zed Kenzo will perform at 8 p.m. For the complete schedule of matches and entertainment, visit https://nomadfanzone.com/.
Photo credit: Charlie Lowe
Quiet Slang
Quiet Slang w/ Abi Reimold @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.
With his Philly punk band Beach Slang, James Alex plays fast, peppy songs about the joys and indignities of youth. As Quiet Slang, Alex plays those same songs, only with quite a bit less volume. The band features stripped-down versions of Beach Slang’s songs comprised of piano and cello. Last fall the project released We Were Babies & We Were Dirtbags, an EP that paired two Beach Slang songs with covers of The Replacements and Big Star. They followed it up this year with the full-length album Everything Matters But No One Is Listening, released on Polyvinyl.
Friday, June 15
Polish Fest @ Summerfest Grounds, noon
Since 1982, Milwaukee’s Polish Fest has been celebrating a culture that’s deeply embedded into the city’s DNA. Attractions at this year’s event include polish sheepdogs, a royal white tiger exhibit, history seminars, cooking demonstrations (so you can finally learn how to make your own kielbasa and paczki), vodka tastings, a youth piano competition and a Sukiennice Marketplace featuring hand-carved gifts, jewelry, Baltic amber, Boleslawiec pottery and hand-blown Christmas ornaments. That’s on top of a massive entertainment lineup featuring enormous amounts of polka, and the annual “Big Boomski” fireworks display Saturday night at 10:30 p.m. (Through Sunday, June 17.)
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Lakefront Festival of Art @ Milwaukee Art Museum, 10 a.m.
This three-day, outdoor fundraising event for the Milwaukee Art Museum is consistently named one of the best art festivals in the country, and for good reason. Lakefront Festival of Art has had 55 years to earn its premier standing. The year’s showcase will feature artwork from more than 170 artists who were carefully selected from thousands of national applicants. The artwork, which includes fiber, ceramics, paintings, metalwork, jewelry will be on sale, some of it at prices you don’t have to be a deep-pocketed collector to consider. There will also be music from performers including B~Free, Derek Pritzl, Marielle Allschwang, Abby Jeanne, the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra and more, and a Friday night installment of MAM After Dark featuring music from Cairns, Luxi and Dead Horses. (Through Sunday, June 17.)
Metro Jam @ Washington Park, Manitowoc, 5:30 p.m.
Milwaukee isn’t the only city with free live music in the parks. For 40 years Metro Jam has been bringing memorable free concerts to Manitowoc’s Washington Park. This year’s lineup features the WAMI Award-winning jazz ensemble the Erin Krebs Quartet at 5:30 p.m. ahead of blues-rockers The Koch Marshall Trio at 7 p.m. Then Saturday features a full day of music starting at noon with performers including Steve Cohen and the Riccos, Strange Americans, Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts and headliner John Waite, the former Bad English lead singer.
Jersey Street Music Festival @ Discher Park, Horicon, 4:30 p.m.
Horicon is about an hour drive from Milwaukee, but its annual Jersey Street Music Festival is reliably worth the trip. This year’s lineup features 11 bands across two days, including Revolution Day, Crank the Radio, Rocket Cat, Trapper Schoepp, Listening Party, Rocket Paloma, Ian Ash from Ian & the Dream, as well as two bands from Cincinnati, Lemon Sky and Suck the Honey, and Mutts from Chicago. There will also be a market featuring area vendors, a chalk art competition and kids activities. (Also Saturday, June 16)
Jamey Johnson
Jamey Johnson w/ Kelsey Waldon @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Jamey Johnson has a voice that perfectly evokes the music he writes. A little bit weary, a little bit ragged and filled with a lot of soul, his Southern drawl brings songs about heartbreak, hard times and bad luck taken straight from the playbooks of Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe and Waylon Jennings to life. His fourth LP, The Guitar Song, was an ambitious double album alternatively weary and full of hope, which reached the top of the Billboard country charts and topped many critics’ end-of-the-year lists. Alas, he’s kept fans waiting a long time for a follow-up. He hasn’t released a record since 2012’s tender covers collection Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran.
Saturday, June 16
Historic Concordia Home Tour @ Multiple Locations, 11 a.m.
Milwaukee’s Concordia neighborhood prides itself on its historic character, which is why for the last 28 year residents have opened their doors to showcase striking the neighborhood’s striking art and architecture. This year’s Historic Concordia Home Tour features nine homes, including the residencies of prominent area artists and musicians including Michael Westcott. There will also be gallery exhibitions and a plein air art competition, so attendees will be able to watch artists in action as they roam from destination to destination. The tour runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and begins at the Wgettha Building on the Potawatomi Campus at North 33rd Street and West Kilbourn Avenue. For more details, visit hcni.org.
Sunday, June 17
Midge Ure and Paul Young
Midge Ure and Paul Young @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Midge Ure had already had a rich and varied career in music by the time he became the frontman of the British new wave band Ultavox, having already played in storied bands including Thin Lizzy, Rich Kids and Visage. Under his leadership Ultravox became one of the most consistent British synth-pop bands of the early ’80s, turning out seven Top 10 albums and 17 Top 40 singles, including their hit “Vienna.” Since leaving the group in 1988, he’s released seven solo albums, including last year’s Orchestrated, which features orchestral reworkings of songs from both Ultravox and his solo career. Ure will be joined at this show by a fellow veteran of British new wave scene, Paul Young, whose distinctive baritone voice has made him an in-demand soul singer.
Tuesday, June 19
Juneteenth Day @ Martin Luther King Dr., 10 a.m.
Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, but that didn’t mean all slaves were freed the moment the ink dried. Some slaves in Texas didn’t learn of their freedom until two and a half years later, on June 19, 1965. Each year Milwaukee commemorates that date with one of the largest Juneteenth celebrations in the world, a big, family friendly blowout on Martin Luther King Drive between Burleigh and Center streets that brings thousands of people onto the streets to enjoy live music, games and some of the best barbeque in the city. As always, the day will kick off with a parade that starts at West Atkinson Avenue and North 19th Street and heads toward and Martin Luther King Drive.
Wednesday, June 20
Cesar Milan
Cesar Millan @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
Preaching that dog owners should be pack leaders who guide their pets with “a calm, assertive energy,” Cesar Millan emerged as perhaps the world’s most prominent dog trainer, spawning a media empire that includes his TV programs “The Dog Whisperer,” “Cesar 911” and “Cesar Millan’s Dog Nation,” as well as a series of best-selling books. For this appearance, Millan will share his training tips and put them into action, demonstrating them with the help of some dogs from area rescues.
