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Vince Staples
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Photo credit: Todd Michalek
Bob Weir
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Coco Montoya
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Jukebox The Ghost
Mariah Carey, Vince Staples and Michelle Obama swing through Milwaukee.
Thursday, March 14
Michelle Obama @ Miller High Life Theatre, 8 p.m.
Since it was published in November, former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming has been a phenomenon, outselling any other book published last year. The book details her childhood in Chicago, her years as a working mother and her time in the White House, as well as her thoughts on serving as the country’s first African American first lady. Obama is now undertaking a large book tour where she’ll be interviewed by a variety of luminaries at different stops, Robin Roberts, Jimmy Kimmel, Rachel Ray, Stephen Colbert and Gayle King among them. At this Milwaukee stop, though, she’ll be interviewed by a late-night host not as well known for serious conversations: Conan O’Brien, of TBS’s “Conan.”
Coco Montoya
Coco Montoya @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 8 p.m.
A former guitarist for John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Coco Montoya went on to become a top bluesman in his own right, earning rave reviews for the solo albums he’s released steadily since the mid-’90s. The left-handed guitarist’s latest album is 2017’s Hard Truth, a searing and soulful follow-up to his 2014 live disc Songs From The Road. It includes a fiery version of the Warren Haynes/Allman Brothers song “Before the Bullets Fly.”
Friday, March 15
Mariah Carey w/ DJ Suss One @ Miller High Life Theatre, 8 p.m.
How is it Mariah Carey has never played a show in Milwaukee until now? The legendary diva, one of the best-selling artists of all time, has bypassed Cream City on her previous tours, but her debut at the Miller High Life Theatre is well-timed. She’s touring behind her strongest album in a decade, 2018’s Caution, a slick set of a hip-hop-inspired R&B and pop that showcases her flawless voice. Carey’s 18th record to debut in Billboard’s Top 10, the record features some inspired guest spots from Ty Dolla Sign and rappers Gunna and Slick Rick.
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Vince Staples
Vince Staples w/ JPEGMAFIA and Trill Sammy @ The Rave, 9 p.m.
Vince Staples released one of the most compelling albums of 2016 with his Def Jam debut Summer ’06, a complicated, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City-esque account of growing up amid the background of drugs, gangs and violence. But like many of the most respected rappers of his generation, he’s refused to be pigeonholed. He followed up that triumph with a more overtly arty, electronic album, 2017’s Big Fish Theory, then threw yet another curveball late last year with FM!, a brief, 22-minute thrill ride that featured some of his most buoyantly upbeat tracks yet. Critics were divided over whether the call the project an album or an EP, but Staples indicated there’s probably no meaningful distinction between the two anymore. “I was about to tell y'all FM! not an album but I don't even know what an album is anymore, so I'm just about to eat some catfish,” he tweeted with his usual sardonic wit.
Dennis DeYoung @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
As a founding member of Styx, Dennis DeYoung used his showy synth-keyboard style and commanding lead vocals to distinguish the group’s progressive rock during its 1970s and early-’80s heyday. Creative differences began to divide the band after 1981’s theatrical concept album, Paradise Theater, and 1983’s “Mr. Roboto”-yielding concept album, Kilroy Was Here, leading to a five-year hiatus starting in 1984 that began DeYoung’s solo career. DeYoung split from Styx permanently in 1999, but he continues to tour behind the band’s songbook. His current tour celebrates the 40th anniversary of the band’s 1977 record The Grand Illusion.
Queensryche w/ Fates Warning @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Queensryche was never the most popular of the 1980s hair-metal bands, but they emerged from the heyday of heavy metal with a prestige many of their contemporaries lost (or never had in the first place), thanks to their political, prog-metal ambitions. In 2006, they issued a mostly well-received follow-up to their 1988 masterwork, Operation: Mindcrime, that, if nothing else, reminded metal fans how powerful the first Mindcrime album was. In 2009, they released a new concept album, American Soldier, which the band wrote after interviewing veterans. Recorded with Rob Zombie producer Zeuss, their latest record The Verdict arrived in March.
Risk! @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.
Unlike Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio and seemingly every other album of MTV’s short-live comedy show “The State,” Kevin Allison didn’t become an especially sought-after comic actor. He found a calling nonetheless, though, as the host of an unusual podcast called RISK!, which invites guests to tell true stories they never thought they’d ever share in public—think of it like a dirtier, higher-stakes alternative to The Moth. Past participants have including Marc Maron, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Nealon, Dan Savage and Andy Dick, and while there’s no word on who exactly will be participating in this live recording of the podcast at the Back Room at Colectivo, you’re guaranteed to hear some uncomfortably funny anecdotes.
Tuesday, March 19
Jukebox The Ghost
Jukebox The Ghost w/ The Mowgli’s and Twin XL @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.
Like Ben Folds Five before them, the Philadelphia trio Jukebox The Ghost plays a mix of irreverent, quirky piano-pop and sincere ballads, with ample nods to Billy Joel and The Beatles. That’s not to say that they’re bound by those influences, though. On their hyperactive, hook-a-minute 2010 sophomore album, Everything Under the Sun, the trio began to shake those Ben Folds comparisons, dialing up the energy for a peppy set that often plays more like The Dismemberment Plan’s Emergency & I than Folds’ Rockin’ the Suburbs, and that same gleeful energy carries through their last couple of records, including 2018’s Off to the Races. They’re joined on this bill by the sunny California alt-pop band The Mowgli’s.
Wednesday, March 20
Photo credit: Todd Michalek
Bob Weir
Bob Weir and Wolf Bros @ The Riverside Theater, 7 p.m.
No living member of the Grateful Dead seems to love the road quite as much as Bob Weir, who toured hard in the years since that band’s breakup with his band RatDog, along with a rotating cast of musicians who reprised many of the Dead’s favorites. RatDog went on hiatus in 2014 while Weir reunited with his Dead bandmates as Dead & Company, which still continues to tour with John Mayer on guitar. But Weir also has a new band now: Wolf Bros, which features legendary bass player Don Was and drummer Jay Lane. As you’d expect, they don’t shy away from Grateful Dead songs.
