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Photo credit: Elizabeth Weinberg
Liz Phair
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Photo credit: Herring & Herring
Metallica
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Photo credit: Brantley Gutierrez
Foo Fighters
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Photo credit: Pooneh Ghana
Courtney Barnett
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Restorations
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Emmylou Harris
Beet Street Harvest Festival returns to celebrate all things fall in Bay View, while the Fiserv Forum hosts its biggest concerts yet.
Thursday, Oct. 11
4U: A Symphonic Celebration of Prince @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m.
This one’s a little different from your average Prince tribute show. The only touring act approved by Prince’s notoriously picky estate, 4U presents the Purple One’s best known songs with a full symphony orchestra, playing music and arrangements that were curated with the input of Roots drummer Questlove.
JW-Jones @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Ottawa, Ontario, isn’t widely considered a blues hotbed, but don’t tell that to JW-Jones, the 38-year-old blues guitarist and songwriter who has carved out an impressive career for himself in Canada’s unassuming capital city. He’s earned the appreciation of blues legend Buddy Guy, who has invited Jones to sit in with him six times. This year, Jones released his 10th album, LIVE, a set of 11 new songs he recorded over two nights in Quebec with Grammy-winning producer Zach Allen.
Friday, Oct. 12
Photo credit: Elizabeth Weinberg
Liz Phair
Liz Phair w/ Speedy Ortiz @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
Liz Phair earned instant notoriety with her lauded 1993 debut, Exile in Guyville, one of the great feminist treatises of the alternative nation, and she enjoyed alt-rock stardom in its aftermath. Her subsequent albums have been solid, too, including a misunderstood 2003 self-titled record that flirted with the Top 40 pop songs of that era and attracted some of the most hostile, openly sexist reviews of her career, but Exile remains her masterpiece. This year, Matador Records gave the record a deluxe, 25th-anniversary reissue, and for this tour, Phair will be performing many of its songs for the first time in years.
Femmes of Rock Starring Bella Electric Strings @ South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m.
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Led by rock violinist and arranger Nina DiGregoria, the Bella Electric Strings quartet presents a tribute to the music of rock heavy hitters like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, Prince and David Bowie at this performance, which will also feature light and video displays. Members have performed with legends like Beyoncé, Shakira, Cheap Trick and Stevie Wonder, and their production-heavy show has made them a big draw in Las Vegas.
Saturday, Oct. 13
Beet Street Harvest Festival @ Wentworth Avenue, noon
Once again, some of Bay View’s most beloved businesses will celebrate all things autumn at the neighborhood’s annual Beet Street Harvest Festival. A stretch of Wentworth Avenue between Cactus Club and Goodkind will be blocked off to feature pumpkins, produce, seasonal cocktails, cider, a pie contest and live music. Performers on the outdoor stage include Black Thumb, Sessa, Law/Less and Oshun, while the Cactus Club will feature live music indoors from Cadence Weapon, Fat Tony and Dogs in Ecstasy throughout the afternoon. Then, the party continues later that evening and into the night with an after show at Cactus Club featuring a slew of DJs and performances from B~Free, Zed Kendzo, Slow Walker and Oozing Wound.
Sunday, Oct. 14
Restorations
Restorations w/ Wild Pink and Faux Fiction @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.
After a decade together, Philadelphia rock band Restorations has slowed down a bit. Their latest album, LP5000, follows its predecessor by four years; the longest gap between albums yet, but the gap hasn’t slowed them down any. Released this month on the punk label Tiny Engines, the record positions them in a long tradition of proudly adult indie-rock bands like The National, The Wrens and Hold Steady, without tempering the roiling intensity that’s always been their hallmark.
Tuesday, Oct. 16
Photo credit: Herring & Herring
Metallica
Metallica w/ Jim Breuer @ Fiserv Forum, 7:30 p.m.
Last time metal legends Metallica played Milwaukee, they were headlining the Bradley Center. Now, they’ll become to first hard-rock act to play the new Bucks arena with this appearance as part of their WorldWired Tour, their first worldwide tour in six years. Recent sets have featured hits like “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman,” as well as deeper cuts like “Halo on Fire,” “Creeping Death” and “Harvester of Sorrow.” Weirdly, the band has tapped comedian Jim Breuer (yes, the guy who played Goat Boy on “Saturday Night Live”) to open.
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
For an artist who has made a career out of being a backup vocalist for superstars like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris sure knows how to stand out. Her solo forays include hits on both the pop and country charts; her collaboration with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt—1987’s landmark Trio album—earned her a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. In 2011, Harris released her 26th album, Hard Bargain, which includes songs she wrote about the late songwriters Gram Parsons and Kate McGarrigle; in the years since, she’s released a couple of collaborative albums with Rodney Crowell, including 2015’s The Traveling Kind.
The Church @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
Hailing from Australia, The Church were one of the great guitar-pop bands of the ’80s. They made good on the promise of their catchy early singles on albums like their 1988 commercial breakthrough Starfish, a gorgeously psychedelic record that included their biggest hit, “Under the Milky Way.” In recent years, the band has put out some solid records, including 2014’s Further/Deeper, but for this show, they’ll celebrate the 30th anniversary of their best known record, performing Starfish in its entirety, along with other songs drawn from their entire career.
Wednesday, Oct. 17
Photo credit: Pooneh Ghana
Courtney Barnett
Courtney Barnett w/ Waxahatchee @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Courtney Barnett has a way with words. In 2015, the hilariously droll songwriter released one of that year’s best reviewed indie-rock records, Sometimes I Just Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, and she put her casual wit on full display once again for this year’s follow-up, Tell Me How You Really Feel. For this show, she’ll be joined by a similarly sharp indie-rock act, Waxahatchee, the buzzy rock band led by singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield. They released a new album with Dinosaur Jr. producer John Agnello, Out in the Storm, last year on Merge Records.
Photo credit: Brantley Gutierrez
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters @ Fiserv Forum, 7:30 p.m.
It’s somewhat ironic that Dave Grohl went from drumming in Nirvana—the most disruptive rock band of a generation, to fronting Foo Fighters—one of the most establishment-minded institutions on rock radio. Credit Grohl this, though: His consistency has been impressive. Even if Foo Fighters aren’t blowing minds much these days, they’re cranking out reliable solid records, including last year’s Concrete and Gold. Produced by pop hitmaker Greg Kurstin, that album features a surprising array of guests—Justin Timberlake, Paul McCartney, Boyz II Men singer Shawn Stockman, jazz saxophonist Dave Koz—without ever veering too far outside of the band’s proven lane of anthemic rock.
