Thursday, Oct. 14
Ray Manzarek/Roy Rogers Band @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Of all the surviving members of The Doors, keyboardist Ray Manzarek has been the most eager to carry the band’s torch. Along with guitarist Robby Krieger, he’s toured extensively behind The Doors’ repertoire since 2002, and though Manzarek’s latest project pairs the keyboardist, now 71, with a new collaborator, it doesn’t completely distance him from The Doors’ songbook. With veteran slide guitarist Roy Rogers, a longtime sideman to John Lee Hooker, Manzarek recorded the 2008 instrumental album Ballads Before the Rain, which contained original compositions and some reworked versions of Doors songs like “Crystal Ship.”
Friday, Oct. 15
Ludo w/ There For Tomorrow, The Graduate and Tommy & The High Pilots @ The Rave, 7 p.m.
St. Louis pop-punks Ludo worked their way up from the bottom end of the Warped Tour roster and into the arms of commercial alternative rock playlists with the help of some major-label polish. Maroon 5 producer Matt Wallace gave the band’s 2008 Island Records debut You’re Awful, I Love You a modern-rock sheen befitting of a Killers album, and returned for the group’s new Prepare the Preparations, a party-pop record that lets the band’s adolescent imaginations run wild. That means heaps of Fountains of Waynestyled quirk and songs about pirates, skeletons and robot-fighting cyborgs, as well as a single about sex as it only exists in the mind of a teenage boy, “Whipped Cream.”
The ‘Temporary Pop-Up Boutique’ Opening @ Sky High Gallery, noon to 10 p.m.
After Bay View’s Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery shut down last year, co-owner Faythe Levine set Mural by Sofia Arnold up a new gallery space in the back of the neighboring skateboard shop Sky High. Through the end of the year, that gallery space will also serve as a curated boutique much like the old Paper Boat, with an emphasis on quirky, handcrafted goods like jewelry, books, stationery and, among the rarer offerings, porcelain-gilded bullets and painted ceramic owls. Also on display will be a site-specific mural painted by area artist Sofia Arnold. Levine’s ‘Temporary Pop-Up Boutique’ marks its grand opening Friday with extended hours in conjunction with Gallery Night.
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Brewcity Bruisers Fifth Anniversary Party @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.
Milwaukee’s hard-partying, ever-growing roller derby league the Brewcity Bruisers celebrates its fifth anniversary with a bash at Turner Hall Ballroom, featuring music from WMSE DJ Dori Zori and performances from three Milwaukee bands: indie-rockers The Celebrated Workingman, Americana enthusiasts Juniper Tar and alt-rock oddities Suicide Chicken.
Saturday, Oct. 16
Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax @ The Rave, 7 p.m.
While many of the metal bands formed in the early ’80s eventually broke up or became novelty acts, Slayer and Megadeth have lost little of their vitality and relevance with age, and both acts continue to release new records that serve their legacy well. Slayer’s latest album, 2009’s serial-killer-themed World Painted Blood, is as strong a set as the band’s released in a decade, and Megadeth’s latest, 2009’s Endgame, holds its own among the band’s heaviest and most aggressive records. Tonight these pioneering metal acts coheadline a bill supported by a third member of the so-called “Big Four” of thrash metal:
Anthrax, perhaps the most overtly cartoonish of all the major thrash metal groups.
Lineup changes and some forgettable late-period releases have tarnished Anthrax’s legacy a bit, but recently the band received a boost when they reunited with heyday vocalist Joey Belladonna.
Early Man w/ Evile, Bonded by Blood and Woe of Tyrants @ Mad Planet, 8 p.m.
The Los Angeles band Early Man’s take on heavy metal can be described in one word: traditional. Drawing from metal’s most tried-and-true influences (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Megadeth) and sticking to the genre’s signature subject matter (death, in all its forms), the band stood up for metal in its purist form at a time when metal’s most lauded bands were more interested in reinventing the genre. That made them instant heroes in metal circles. The group’s latest record is this year’s Death Potion.
Sunday, Oct. 17
America’s Got Talent Live @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m.
Though the show has never rivaled “American Idol” in the ratings, NBC’s Simon Cowellcreated reality show “America’s Got Talent” has nonetheless been one of the network’s most reliable summer performers, recently completing its fifth season as the top-ranked show in its time slot. Hosted by Jerry Springer, the “America’s Got Talent” tour spotlights favorites from the show’s latest season, including its top five finalists. Among them are opera singers Prince Poppycock and Jackie Evancho, the blacklight performance group Fighting Gravity, and winner Michael Grimm, a soul singer.
Wellness and the Arts @ Milwaukee Public Market, noon to 4:30 p.m.
InWellness, a membership network of health-care clients and practitioners, including those from both traditional and alternative medicine fields, celebrates its launch with an afternoon of entertainment. Among the musicians and dancers performing are Jahmes Finlayson, the call-and-response drummer of the project One Drum, and Wisconsin Public Radio “At Issue” host Ben Merens, who will speak about the healing powers of “authentic listening” and will perform some original guitar compositions. At 2 p.m., naturopathic doctor and music educator Jennette Cable will speak about the program’s central theme, the relationship between wellness and the arts.
Wednesday, Oct. 20
Bob Mould w/ Brandi Shearer @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Bob Mould was one of the most influential figures of ’80s underground rock, thanks to his unabashedly melodic songwriting and guitar work with the seminal punk group Husker Du, which helped lay the foundation for alternative rock’s commercial breakout in the ’90s. Mould enjoyed some of that success himself, scoring the moderate hit “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” with his subsequent band Sugar, before beginning a flirtation with electronic sounds on a long run of solo albums. Though the electronica influence isn’t completely gone, Mould’s latest record, 2009’s Life and Times, is perhaps the purest pop-rock record he’s made since disbanding Sugar. Expect more stripped-down renditions of some of those new songs on Mould’s latest solo acoustic tour.
Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
When Jason Bonham, son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, was asked to replace his father at a one-off Zeppelin tribute concert in London in 2007, he was more than Bob Mould prepared for the task. He’d been playing the Zeppelin songbook since his youth, then toured with guitarist Jimmy Page in 1988 and released an album of Zeppelin covers in 1996. His latest project is yet another Zeppelin tribute: Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience, a cover group that performs to a backdrop of video screens that tell the story of the band.
