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Judd Apatow
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James McMurtry
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Photo credit: Patrick Jordan
Ween
The Milwaukee Winter Farmer’s Market returns for another chilly season, while Soul Low bids Milwaukee farewell with two final shows.
Thursday, Nov. 1
Keith Sweat @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 8 p.m.
Since emerging as the first true star of R&B’s New Jack Swing era in the late ’80s, ladies’ man Keith Sweat has periodically updated his sound or dabbled in new styles. Unlike some of his contemporaries, though, Sweat is largely content to act his age, embracing his grown-man image while playing to the audience he’s grown through his syndicated radio show “The Sweat Hotel,” which he’s hosted since 2008. On recent albums like 2016’s Dress to Impress and this year’s Playing for Keeps, Sweat has focused on what he does best: slow jams.
Friday, Nov. 2
Photo credit: Patrick Jordan
Ween
Ween @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Ween’s Dean and Gene Ween didn’t let the breakup of their oddball psychedelic rock group prevent them from making new music. In 2012, Gene announced that he was disbanding the group—not out of any personal animosity between him and his bandmate, but because he wanted to focus on his sobriety. Both artists continued to tour with their own projects, and both performed in Milwaukee, but this will be their first show together in Milwaukee since Ween reunited for their first shows together in 2016. They currently have no plans to record a new studio album together, and both frontmen have said they plan to remain active with their individual projects.
Tlen-Huicani @ Latino Arts Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.
In conjunction with its popular annual Día de los Muertos Ofrendas Group Exhibition, which the venue will hold an opening reception for at 5 p.m., the Latino Arts Auditorium hosts this concert from Tlen-Huicani, a long-running Mexican folk group that performs in traditional costumes. The singers sing in their Indian language of Nahuatl and spotlight the “harpa jarocha,” a folk harp. The venue’s Día de los Muertos exhibition, which this year features a special photography collection on loan from the Mexican Consulate of Milwaukee, will be on view through Nov. 16.
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Saturday, Nov. 3
Soul Low w/ Whips and Amanda Huff @ Cactus Club, 3 p.m.
It wasn’t too much of a surprise when the popular Milwaukee indie-rock quartet Soul Low announced they were breaking up in September. Most of the band members had moved away from Milwaukee, making it difficult for them to carry on. Still, the band will cast a long shadow. Their 2013 debut, UNEASY, was one of the most perfect debut indie albums to come out of the city in decades, “a weird, jittery, lovable record that captured the heightened anxieties of youth just about as well as any record since the first Violent Femmes LP,” as we once wrote. And each of their follow-up EPs and albums has had a fascinating character all its own, including last year’s swan song Cheer Up, a ceaselessly catchy portrait of depression. Fans will have two final chances to say goodbye with two farewell shows at Cactus Club: an all-ages one with Whips and Amanda Huff at 3 p.m. and a 9 p.m. late show with Sundial Mottos and Taj Raiden.
Taste of New Orleans: A Pure Joy Benefit Concert for Adams Garden Park @ MSOE Todd Wehr Auditorium, 7 p.m.
With so much development happening in the city, this good news fell a little under the radar: A vacant lot in Milwaukee’s Lindsay Heights neighborhood is being transformed into Adams Garden Park, a community space that will house Milwaukee Environmental Consortium, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Institute and the Milwaukee Water Commons, as well as gardens and orchards. This benefit concert for the project will feature music from the Milwaukee acts Immortal Girlfriend and the Jay Anderson Band featuring New Orleans Jazz Sound.
Milwaukee Winter Farmer’s Market @ Mitchell Park Domes, 8 a.m.
The end of outdoor farmer’s market season doesn’t mean you have to go without fresh, local produce. After some uncertainty about its future, this summer, Fondy Food Center, Milwaukee County Parks and Zilli Hospitality Group worked out a lease that will allow the popular Milwaukee Winter Farmer’s Market to return to the Domes’ Greenhouse Annex for another season. Around 50 vendors will sell fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products and poultry, along with other specialty foods, most Saturday mornings at the Domes between 8 a.m. and noon through March 30.
Martin Lawrence @ UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, 7:30 p.m.
During the ’90s, Martin Lawrence was one of comedy’s most prominent stars, a host of HBO’s influential “Def Comedy Jam,” star of his own hit sitcom “Martin” and a major box office draw, thanks to his 1995 Will Smith buddy-cop blockbuster Bad Boys. His stardom was almost undone, though, by his erratic offstage behavior (some of which was reportedly the inspiration for Tracy Jordan’s shenanigans on “30 Rock.”) In recent years, Lawrence has been working steadily again, and ahead of his return in another Bad Boys movie tentatively set for a 2020 release, he recorded his first comedy special in 14 years, 2016’s “Martin Lawrence Doin’ Time: Uncut,” which aired on Showtime. He returns to Milwaukee with this “Lit AF” tour, featuring comedians DeRay Davis, Rickey Smiley, Michael Blackson and Benji Brown.
James McMurtry
James McMurtry w/ Bonnie Whitmore @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
It’s a safe bet that James McMurtry has some thoughts about the Trump administration. The acclaimed Texas roots-rocker’s records often play like dispatches from a country at war with itself. John Mellencamp helped McMurtry get his foot in the door, producing the songwriter’s 1989 Columbia Records debut Too Long in the Wasteland, but McMurtry’s subsequent albums have been much more political than that album, including 2005’s Childish Things and 2008’s Just Us Kids, both of which documented George W. Bush-era despair. His most recent album, 2015’s Complicated Game, attracted some of his strongest reviews yet.
Tuesday, Nov. 6
Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7:30 p.m.
Few figures have left a bigger imprint on modern comedy than Judd Apatow, the “Freaks and Geeks” creator who went on to direct several of the most influential comedy movies of the century (including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Trainwreck) and produce films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bridesmaids and The Big Sick. It’s only in recent years, though, that Apatow has returned to the stage as a standup. “I started four years ago when we were working on Trainwreck,” he tells the Shepherd. “I was seeing Amy Schumer performing at the cellar, and I just got jealous. She was having so much fun. So I started going up again. It reminded me that standup always was the reason why I got into the business.” Apatow’s return to the stage was documented in his 2017 Netflix special, “Judd Apatow: The Return.” “I literally had to sit down and listen to comedy albums again and remind myself how standup joke structure worked,” he says. “After about a year, I felt like I figured out who I was up there. I generally observe that everything I write about has to do with not knowing whether I’m doing a good job at anything.” You can find our full interview with Apatow at shepherdexpress.com.
Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 8 p.m.
As one of the two frontmen as the center of the British prog-rock institution Supertramp, Roger Hodgson wrote and sang hits like “Dreamer,” “Give a Little Bit” and “Take The Long Way Home.” He left the group in 1983 to pursue a low-key solo career and focus on raising his family, but since resuming touring in 2001, he hasn’t been shy about dipping into Supertramp’s back catalogue. Hodson has spent much of this year on the road, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Supertramp album Breakfast in America. He’ll be joined by an orchestra as he parks in Milwaukee for four nights of concerts at the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino’s Northern Lights Theater. (Through Friday, Nov. 9.)
