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Photo courtesy of Drowsy Lads
Drowsy Lads
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Photo credit: Ross Halfin
Loudon Wainwright III
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Photo courtesy of the band
The Pugilists
This week in Milwaukee is filled with performances by The Pugilists, pianist David Hazeltine, The Drowsy Lads, Xposed 4heads’ Halloween show and Loudon Wainwright III.
Friday, Oct. 25
Photo courtesy of the band
The Pugilists
The Pugilists w/ Spud Bucket @ Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 8:30 p.m.
Long in the tooth? Guess again. While most of their contemporaries have long since sold their drum kit or their Stratocaster is gathering dust in the back of a closet, these local veterans refuse to quit. The Pugilists moonlight as ’80s New Wave tribute band Radio Radio, but beneath the greasepaint of a covers act lies a resume that includes The Lackloves, The Carolinas, Spill, Nick Pipitone, the Mighty Deer Lick, Michelle Anthony, The Blow Pops, Happytown and Sugarsmack.
Spud Bucket, musically speaking, happen to be The Pugilists’ older–if not necessarily wiser–brothers. Frontman Tom T. began writing songs as member of Those X-Cleavers. The trio’s laundry list of previous bands includes 19 T-Shirts, Women’s Liberace, The Ugly Ones and Voot Warnings. Recently they have been getting notable airplay out of town on WFMU with “Fraction of a Reaction.”
David Hazeltine and Jim Rotondi @ Blu, 7:30 p.m.
Milwaukee and New York City are both big chapters in pianist David Hazeltine’s career. Before he was a teenager, Hazeltine was playing the clubs. He has since recorded 35 albums as a bandleader and hundreds more as a sideman. Trumpeter Jim Rotondi, who accompanies Hazeltine at Blu, has toured and recorded with the likes of Ray Charles and Lionel Hampton. Bassist Jeff Hamann and drummer Mitch Shiner round out the band for this two-night residency on Friday and Saturday.
Saturday Oct. 26
Photo courtesy of Drowsy Lads
Drowsy Lads
The Drowsy Lads @ Irish Cultural and Heritage Center, 7:30 p.m.
The Drowsy Lads are brothers John and Daniel McKewen, father and son Phil and Josh Franck and long-time friend Bryan Brookes. The Ohio-based multi-instrumentalists combine their talents on fiddle, button accordion, tenor banjo, flute, whistle, guitar, bouzouki, uilleann pipes, 5-string banjo, concertina and bodhrán.
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The Milwaukee Irish Fest veterans’ performances are a mix of traditional Irish songs and dance tunes along with original arrangements and compositions complemented by humor and bits of bluegrass and classical music.
Formed 15 years ago, the five-member group was voted “The best Irish Band in America” in 2018 by Irish American News. That year also brought the release of a fourth critically acclaimed album, Everyone In.
Xposed 4Heads Halloween Show @ Circle A, 8 p.m.
Since 1982, Mark G.E. has served as social director for Xposed 4Heads, the Milwaukee synth-friendly collective that refuses to take modern society seriously. Will Halloween be just another day for these folks? What does a band who regularly appears in-costume wear for this occasion?
Photo credit: Ross Halfin
Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Wainwright III @ Thrasher Opera House, Green Lake, 7:30 p.m.
If Loudon Wainwright III failed at becoming the “new Dylan,” he more than succeeded becoming his own artist. Long considered a songwriter’s songwriter, Wainwright can count novelty hits (“Dead Skunk”) and performance on television shows (“M*A*S*H”) as ticks on his bucket list, but his one-man song and story performance “Surviving Twin” on Netflix demonstrates Wainwright’s command of the stage. Fans of Martha and Rufus would do well to learn how close those apples fell from the tree.
