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Kool Keith
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Photo credit: Josh Goleman
Punch Brothers
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Renz Young
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St. Paul and The Broken Bones
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Vanilla Fudge
Experience Hendrix brings its more impressive lineup yet (Dave Mustaine and Dweezil Zappa) while Kool Keith tries out a new venue.
Thursday, March 21
Experience Hendrix @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
Though he’s remembered most as a rock icon, Jimi Hendrix had a profound influence on blues as well. As a result, each year some of the biggest names in blues group together to form the most overqualified Jimi Hendrix cover band possible for the Experience Hendrix Tour. This year’s tour features heavy hitters Joe Satriani, Dave Mustaine (from Megadeth), Zakk Wylde, Jonny Lang, Dweezil Zappa, Eric Johnson, Doug Pinnick (from King’s X), Chris Layton (from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble), Mato Nanji (from Indigenous), Kenny Aronoff, Slide Brothers, Henri Brown and Kevin McCormick, who will be joined by Band of Gypsies and Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Billy Cox. In various permutations, they’ll blaze through Hendrix’s signature songs, like “Purple Haze,” “Little Wing” and “The Wind Cries Mary.”
Vanilla Fudge
Vanilla Fudge @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
More than 50 years after the group turned heads with their jammy, psychedelic reworkings of songs by The Beatles and Curtis Mayfield on their self-titled debut album, the Long Island hard-rock band Vanilla Fudge continues to tour with original members Mark Stein, Carmine Appice and Vinny Martell, as well as bassist Pete Bremy. The group’s records from the late ’60s remain fascinating oddities: 1968’s The Beat Goes On consisted almost entirely of sound collages, with dreamy snippets of covers forming then evaporating just as quickly. The group returned to the studio for 2015’s for The Spirit of ’67, which featured heavy reworkings of hits from that year, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “I’m a Believer” and “Gimme Some Lovin’” among them.
Cradle of Filth w/ Wednesday 13 and Raven Black @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
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Building on Alice Cooper’s “anything for a shock” performance approach, the British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth doubles down on black imagery and gothic theatrics, pairing raging guitars and hell-raising drums with the shrill shriek of the band’s founder and sole remaining original member, Dani Filth. Their over-the-top approach can disguise how ambitious and creative they can be; their 2012 album Midnight in the Labyrinth was an orchestral reworking of songs from the band’s first four records in the style of classic horror-film scores. The band’s latest record, 2017’s Cryptoriana—The Seductiveness of Decay, eases up on the band’s signature gothic orchestrations just a little bit, but still sounds plenty ghoulish.
Friday, March 22
Photo credit: Josh Goleman
Punch Brothers
Punch Brothers w/ Gabriel Kahane @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Virtuoso mandolinist Chris Thile wasn’t the most obvious choice to replace (since-disgraced) radio staple Garrison Keillor as the host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” but he’s been something of a revelation in the role, using his connections to bring in a wider and more impressive array of musical talent to the show than ever. That radio commitment hasn’t stopped Thile from touring, though. Since retiring Nickel Creek, the bluegrass trio where he first made his name, he’s dedicated most of his energy to the Punch Brothers, a quintet that nurtures Thile’s ever-expanding ambitions, touching on progressive sounds and occasionally classical music, while still delivering bluegrass fanatics red meat in the form of plentiful banjo, mandolin and fiddle solos. The group’s most recent album, 2018’s All Ashore, took home an award for Best Folk Album at last month’s Grammy Awards.
Photo credit: Josh Goleman
Punch Brothers
Renz Young w/ Mudy, Eddie Jame$ and Lake @ Landmark Lanes, 9 p.m.
Indebted to the contemplative spirit of ’90s rap but not beholden to that era’s sonic touchstones, Renz Young has been one of the great workaholics of Milwaukee’s hip-hop scene, firing off a stream of impressive singles and mixtapes that show off his dexterous flow and rapid stream of thought. Renz will be joined by Milwaukee rappers Mudy, Eddie Jame$ and Lake at this installment of a new event at Landmark Lanes’ Moon Room called #TheGiveBack, which was “to help give independent artists better opportunities to both showcase their talents as well as be compensated for their passion.” Each installment is hosted by Milwaukee rapper Spaidez and features music from the DJ duo Spacecrime.
Saturday, March 23
Kool Keith
Kool Keith w/ 9th Prince, Dana Coppa and DJ Madhatter @ The Cooperage, 8 p.m.
After his heavily hyped show at the Riverwest Public House last summer was shut down by police after just three songs—apparently the venue was over capacity—Kool Keith promised that he’d be back in Milwaukee, and he’s a man of his word. He remains one of the oddest and most influential figures in hip-hop: Years before Lil Wayne made lunatic rhymes fashionable, Keith was rapping in dense, manic and utterly off-the-wall imagery, first as the engine behind the golden-age Bronx rap crew the Ultramagnetic MC’s then as the demented mind behind Dr. Octagon, his gynecologist-in-space epic with producer Dan the Automator. Keith has bounced between myriad personas since that career-defining project, among them Black Elvis, Dr. Dooom, Reverand Tom, Mr. Nogatco and Tashan Dorrsett. He’s not much for quality control, but even his shakiest albums occasionally recapture the bizarre spark that made Dr. Octagon such an instant underground phenomenon.
Aaron Lewis w/ Ben Danaher @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
With his throaty voice and impassioned lyrics, Staind’s Aaron Lewis was the beating heart of the turn-of-the-century alternative metal movement, a balladeer whose confessional anthems topped the charts with sweeping singles like “It’s Been a While” without alienating the hard-rock faithful (at least not too much). For his solo career, Lewis has leaned into country, bringing in guests like Vince Gill, Alison Krauss and Willie Nelson on his 2016 album Sinner. Ahead of his latest solo album, The State I’m In, due next month, Lewis is touring solo and acoustic and promising to share stories from his life and career along with some new songs.
Sunday, March 24
St. Paul and The Broken Bones
St. Paul and The Broken Bones w/ Michael Nau @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
The rowdy Alabama soul revival eight-piece St. Paul and The Broken Bones makes an impressive first impression. They set out to wow with volume, especially singer Paul Janeway, whose boisterous croon could give the horn section a run for its money. In the years since the band’s breakout 2014 debut Half The City, however, they’ve toned things down a bit. The group’s third and most recent album, 2018’s Young Sick Camellia, lets Janeway show off the softer corners of his vocal range a bit, while the band lays down the funk.
Bonerama @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Formed by two trombonists in Harry Connick’s band, Bonerama is a rock band disguised as a jazz band. Though their brass-based line-up suggests jazz, their repertoire leans heavily on classic-rock standards from acts like Led Zeppelin, The Edgar Winter Group, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles. That novel approach has made the New Orleans group a favorite at jazz festivals and earned a collaborative 2008 EP with the alt-rock band OK Go. In 2017, they released their most recent album, Hot Like Fire, on Basin Street Records.
