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Eleanor Friedberger
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Michelle Wolf
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Shaun Mullins
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Vliet Street Fall Festival @ Vliet Street, Oct. 6, 2018, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 4
Eleanor Friedberger
Eleanor Friedberger w/ Pill and Greatest Lakes @ The Back Room at Colectivo at 7:30 p.m.
Never a group beholden to convention, or even their own past, The Fiery Furnaces played a curious, unpredictable blend of experimental rock, pop, 18th-century American music and whatever else their restless ears desired. Since that sister/brother duo of Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger went on hiatus in 2011, Eleanor has continued to record imaginative, form-breaking indie-rock records under her own name. Released this may on Frenchkiss Records, her fourth and most recent solo album, Rebound, is one of her most unique yet, a deeply personal album she recorded on her own using drum machines and synthesizers.
Shaun Mullins
Shawn Mullins w/ Jennifer Lynn Simpson @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
A throwback to James Taylor, Jackson Browne and other folky, soft-rock singer-songwriters of the ’70s, Shawn Mullins scored one of the biggest adult-alternative ballads of the ’90s with his uplifting single “Lullaby.” Though he’s never topped that success on the charts, he’s continued to record at a steady pace. In 2015 he released his ninth album, My Stupid Heart, through the independent labels Sugar Hill and Rounder Records.
Friday, Oct. 5
Robbie Fulks @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.
Robbie Fulks, one of many singer-songwriters to emerge from Chicago’s fruitful ’90s alt-country scene, is nothing if not multifaceted. He loves stripped-down, sparse country, but he also likes hard-driving roots rock. He’s the rare songwriter as deft and silly toss-off songs and serious ballads. That approach has made him a favorite in songwriting circles for decades, but in recent years he’s received more mainstream recognition, too. His 2016 album, Upland Stories, received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, and its opening track “Alabama at Night” was nominated for a Grammy for Best American Roots Song.
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Saturday, Oct. 6
Vliet Street Fall Festival @ Vliet Street, Oct. 6, 2018, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Vliet Street Fall Festival @ Vliet Street, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
More than 60 vendors and makers will line West Vliet Street from Hawley to 53rd for the neighborhood’s second annual Fall Festival, selling everything from jewelry, soap, herbal tinctures, clothes, pottery and other handcrafted goods. The family-friendly event will feature many of the traditional trappings of a harvest festival—including seasonal snacks and a pumpkin pie baking contest—as well as some colorful unexpected ones, like tarot readings, henna, a Lego build station and live metalworking demos from Milwaukee Blacksmith.
In addition to a 1 p.m. community drum circle led by members of De La Buena and King Solomon, there will also be music from West End Conservatory students and singer-songwriters Alie Kriofske-Mainella, Matthew Davies and Eston Bennett. Come hungry, because there will be dozens of food options, including grass-fed burgers and brats from Kettle Range Meats, savory pies from Drift, Brazilian cuisine from Tudo Sabor Brazil, Filipino street food from Meat on the Street, incredible fried chicken sandwiches from Foxfire, and sweet treats from Baby Cakes, Cotton Mouth Cotton Candy, Dawn’s Yummy Delights, Happy Dough Lucky, Pete’s Pops, Nothing Bundt Cakes and more.
Hip-Hop Royalty Tour @ Miller High Life Theatre, 8 p.m.
In recent years these kinds of hip-hop nostalgia bills pairing big names from the genre’s past have become more common. They’re always a great way to see some of rap’s living legends in action, but the city has never hosted one with a lineup quite as stacked as this one, which features some of the most critically acclaimed and influential rap acts of the ’80s: Rakim (who is still considered the greatest rapper of all time in many circles), Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane and Roxanne Shante, who became one of rap’s first female stars while she was only 14 years old. Her story was depicted in last year’s Roxanne, a Netflix biopic co-produced by Forest Whitaker and Pharrell Williams.
Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls w/ Bad Cop/Bad Cop and CSam Coffey and The Iron Lungs @ The Pabst Theater, 7:30 p.m.
It was in the great tradition of so many other punk artists turning to folk that Million Dead singer Frank Turner ditched scorched-vocal hardcore punk in favor of hard-strummed, rustic Americana in the mid-’00s, an approach that’s helped him reach a wider audience than ever. This spring, he released his seventh solo album, Be More Kind, so he’ll have plenty of new material to perform when he returns to Milwaukee with his raucous backing band, The Sleeping Souls.
Sunday, Oct. 7
Michelle Wolf
Michelle Wolf @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.
Former “Daily Show with Trevor Noah” performer Michelle Wolf didn’t receive a particularly warm welcome when she performed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where she made some harsh cracks about Donald Trump’s press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. That performance made her an enemy of the right, but also increased her profile significantly, so much so that she landed her own weekly Netflix show, “The Break with Michelle Wolf.” The show was refreshingly lighter than other similarly styled talk shows—and certainly a lot less histrionic than “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” Unfortunately, it didn’t find much of an audience. Netflix announced in August that it had canceled the show.
Monday, Oct. 8
L.A. Guns w/ Teeze @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
L.A. Guns are best known for their ties to an even more successful Los Angeles hard-rock band: Guns N’ Roses. Axl Rose was even the band’s singer for a time, before the group merged with the band Hollywood Rose to become Guns N’ Roses. Although L.A. Guns would never do Appetite For Destruction numbers, they scored some big hits in the late ’80s and early ’90s, including “It’s Over Now” and “The Ballad of Jayne.” There have been many touring versions of the band over the years, sometimes two at once, much to the confusion of fans, but this lineup features heyday members Tracii Funs and Phil Lewis.
Tuesday, Oct. 9
The Doobie Brothers @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
One of the most prominent of the mellowed-out California rock bands of the ’70s, The Doobie Brothers broadened their sound throughout that decade before reinventing themselves as a surprisingly effective soul-pop band under the direction of former Steely Dan contributor Michael McDonald, who replaced original vocalist Tom Johnston. Johnston rejoined the band in 1987, while McDonald pursued a solo career, and Johnston has been touring with them ever since, singing hits like “Black Water,” “Listen to the Music” and “China Grove” for audiences that still hear those songs almost daily on classic-rock radio.
