Friday, Aug. 12
Tall Tales Music Festival @ Downtown Burlington
At its core folk music is really just a form of storytelling. Now in its fourth year, Burlington’s annual Tall Tales Music Festival celebrates that folk storytelling tradition with a lineup of roots, rock and indie artist pulled from around the country. This year’s headliners include a heap of Wisconsin artists who have made a name outside of the state—among them Cory Chisel (performing with The Refuge Roadshow), Trapper Schoepp and Peter Mulvey. Nashville and Knoxville will be well represented on the bill, too, by the artists Cereus Bright, William Wild, Los Colognes and Erin Rae and The Meanwhiles. The price is right, too: It’s free. (Also Saturday, Aug. 13.)
Waukesha BluesFest @ Naga-Waukee Park, Delafield, 1 p.m.
It’s officially safe to call the Waukesha BluesFest an institution now. This year the two-day music festival in Delafield’s Naga-Waukee Park celebrates its 10th anniversary with a typically impressive lineup of multi-generational blues talent. Among the 14 performers are Popa Chubby, The Cedric Burnside Project and John Primer on Friday; and Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, The AJ Ghent Band and Ruf Records Blues Caravan 2016 with Blue Sisters on Saturday. As usual, there will be food on sale from area restaurants, including Café Esperanza and the Delafield Brewhaus. (Also Saturday, Aug. 13.)
I Love The ’90s Tour w/ Salt N Pepa @ Wisconsin State Fair Main Stage, 7 p.m.
All music is to some degree a product of its time, but some music just embodies its era a little better than all the rest. It’s impossible to separate the hip-hop duo Salt-N-Pepa from the late ’80s and early ’90s, a time when video directors loved neon, stars wore suspenders and everything just seemed a little simpler. The group’s 1991 hit “Let’s Talk About Sex” became the anthem for the safe-sex movement, while self-empowerment songs like “None of Your Business” and “Expression” have been adopted as unofficial gay-pride anthems. The group returns to Milwaukee as part of this I Love The ’90s tour with a number of peers from hip-hop’s simpler times, including Color Me Badd, Coolio and Rob Base.
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Fish Fry and a Flick: ‘Deadpool’ @ Discovery World, 5 p.m.
Deadpool was such an immediate box office hit when it was finally released this February, after years of delays and rewrites, that it’s easy to forget the film was viewed as a real gamble at the time—the first movie in Marvel’s lucrative cinematic universe to be rated R. It went on to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, all but guaranteeing a number of R-rated superhero films will follow. Discovery World screens the movie outdoors tonight at dusk as part of its adult-themed Fish Fry and a Flick movie series.
Tall Boys Improv Anniversary Show @ ComedySportz, 8 p.m.
It’s been four years since Milwaukee improv veterans James Boland, Erik Koconis, Robby McGhee and Lee Rowley formed their troupe Tall Boys Improv, which performs improvised plays built around games, music and audience suggestions. The group will celebrate that anniversary with an 8 p.m. set at Mojo Dojo Comedy’s ComedySportz home, which will be followed by a free 10 p.m. party marking the venue’s first full year of hosting weekly comedy shows. The party will feature performances from the Mojo Dojo Comedy Ensemble and the Musical Improv Ensemble, as well as dancing, a rap battle and free pizza from Classic Slice and sweets from Miss Molly’s Pastries.
Saturday, Aug. 13
MKE Punk Fest @ Multiple Venues
The annual MKE Punk Fest casts a wide net: seven days of shows at six venues, spread out over three weeks—basically it’s just a bunch of punk shows (and a comedy show for good measure). The event kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 13 with a slew of acts at Quarters (including Billy Dreamer, RatBatSpider and Crappy Dracula 2), then continues through Sept. 3 with shows at The Local, Brewed Café, Up and Under, the Metal Grill and the Riverwest Public House. For the full lineup visit mkepunkfest.com.
Sunday, Aug. 14
Protomartyr w/ Midwives @ Mad Planet, 9 p.m.
Protomartyr hail from Detroit, and they sound an awful lot like their city: hard, edgy, resilient and proudly working class. It’s a style of punk that’s at once arty yet unpretentious, and it takes generous cues from the blue-collar post-punk that Mark E. Smith perfected with The Fall (singer Joe Casey’s baritone drawl often recalls Smith’s). Last year the band released their third album, The Agent Intellect, on Hardly Art, and it’s their best yet; it also earned placement on plenty of critics’ best of 2015 lists. After selling out the Cactus Club in January, the group returns to Milwaukee for this show.
The Beach Boys @ Wisconsin State Fair Main Stage, 6 p.m.
The Beach Boys have weathered so many lineup changes over the years that it’s been difficult for all but their biggest fans to keep track of them all. The bulk of the band’s surviving members reunited in 2012 to celebrate their 50th anniversary, including longtime holdout Brian Wilson, the innovator genuinely credited as the creative genius behind the band, but since then the band has returned to doing their usual nostalgia tours under the leadership of mainstays Mike Love and Bruce Johnston. Expect to hear surfy hits about girls, sun and cars.
Monday, Aug. 15
Kandace Springs @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.
The late, great Prince never stopped scouting new talent and advocating young artists. Among the Purple One’s later discoveries was the soul singer Kandace Springs, who Prince discovered covering Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” and later invited to perform at a 30th anniversary show for Purple Rain at Paisley Park. This summer Springs released her debut album for Blue Note Records, a collection of arty, inventive R&B titled Soul Eyes.
