Thursday, June 2
Tasty Fest 2016 @ Riverwest Public House, 8 p.m.
The upstart Milwaukee label Tasty Tapes has put out some pretty great rock ’n’ roll releases over the last year or two, most of them from The Rashita Joneses, but for its inaugural Tasty Fest, the label looks well beyond its tiny roster and brings in a good chunk of the local music scene. The four-day multi-venue festival across Riverwest kicks off Thursday at the Riverwest Public House with a bill featuring The Young Revelators, Ladders, Antler House, Tapebenders and Sin Bad. Then over the next three days acts including Surgeons in Heat, NO/NO, Sat. Nite Duets, Tigernite, Slow Walker, Faux Fiction, Klassik, Mortgage Freeman and many, many others will play at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn and Mad Planet. Admission for each show is just $7 or $8, or $5 with the donation of three or more non-perishable food items to the Hunger Task Force. (Through Sunday, June 5.)
Jazz in The Park w/ Milwaukee Soul @ Cathedral Square Park, 6 p.m.
June is here and with it comes the unofficial start of the Milwaukee festival season. A number of popular outdoor music series will kick off their season this week, including Cathedral Square’s Jazz in the Park. As usual, the lineup looks well beyond jazz. Opening-night headliners Milwaukee Soul, for instance, look to the upbeat soul and Motown music of the ’60s and ’70s, with spirited covers of Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and their peers.
Curren$y @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Curren$y has an odd pedigree for a rapper currently enjoying acclaim in indie-rap circles. The New Orleans native did time on Master P’s No Limit Records when that label was well past its heyday, and then joined Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment, leaving in 2007, shortly before that franchise became one of rap’s most formidable. After his 2009 breakthrough mixtape This Ain’t No Mixtape, he landed on Damon Dash’s relaunched Roc-A-Fella Records, where he teamed with one of hip-hop’s most respected producers, Ski Beatz, who crafted Camp Lo’s masterful 1997 debut, Uptown Saturday Night. Ski created a buoyant, occasionally dizzying backdrop for Curren$y’s rhymes about weed and snack food on the rapper’s assured major-label debut, 2010’s Pilot Talk, and returned for its sequels, including last year’s typically excellent Pilot Talk 3.
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Friday, June 3
Bay View Gallery Night & Jazz Fest @ multiple venues
Once again more than 50 Bay View businesses will display the work of hundreds of different artists as part of the neighborhood’s Bay View Gallery Night, which will feature a large Maker Market in the Colectivo Coffee parking lot from 5-10 p.m., a group bike ride that ends with a dance party at Café Corazón, and music at multiple venues as part of the corresponding Bay View Jazz Fest. Highlights include Foreign Goods, the Neal Chandek Trio and the Manty Ellis Quartet at Tonic Tavern; Dr. Science at Boone & Crockett; the Mitch Shiner Vibes Quartet and Cigarette Break at the Backyard; and Montauk Project, the Paul Dietrich Quintet and Chris Weller’s Hanging Hearts at the Bay View United Methodist Church. For the complete schedule visit http://bvgn.org.
Aretha Franklin @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m.
Aretha Franklin has amassed a host of awards and honors over the course of some 50 years as a recording artist. The 74-year-old diva has won 18 Grammy Awards, had more singles on the Billboard charts than any other female artist and was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Queen of Soul uses her dazzlingly powerful mezzo-soprano voice to full effect, imbuing covers and originals alike with terrific meaning and emotion. She stands on a wealth of timeless songs, including “Respect,” “Think” and “A Rose is Still a Rose,” some of the most iconic soul music ever recorded.
Riverfest @ Regner Park, West Bend, 5 p.m.
West Bend kicks off its summer with one of its biggest music festivals, Riverfest. This year’s lineup features blues and American folk music from Copper Box and The Whiskeybelles on Friday night, and a full day of music on Saturday, June 4, including Extra Crispy Brass Band, Honest Monday, Low Down Sound and 5 Card Studs. Each day there will be a variety of food trucks and children’s activities.
Saturday, June 4
Sturgill Simpson @ The Riverside Theater, 8:30 p.m.
Kentucky songwriter Sturgill Simpson grew up on the free-spirited sounds of outlaw country and brings that mentality to the music he records as a solo artist. His debut LP High Top Mountain garnered ample comparisons to Waylon Jennings, which was likely no accident, since he recorded the album with one of Jennings’ guitarists, Robby Turner, as well as seasoned session musician Hargus “Pig” Robbins, who has recorded with genre legends like Alan Jackson, Loretta Lynn and David Allan Coe. Simpson updated his approach, ever so slightly, with his 2014 follow-up Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, which throws in the occasional splash of psychedelic rock between the honky tonk, and his new A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is even more expansive. It features horns from The Dap-Kings and a cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom.”
Nirvana Fest @ The Local, 8 p.m.
Decades after his death, Kurt Cobain’s influence looms as large as ever. A variety of acts from different corners of the Milwaukee music scene—including Northside Creeps, Billy Judge Baldus, Billy Dreamer, So Far So Bad and False Flag Renaissance—will take turns covering different phases of Nirvana’s brief but glorious career at this tribute show. The night will conclude with a dance party featuring club remixes of Nirvana hits. Cover is $10, but the first 50 people wearing a Nirvana shirt of flannel will receive $2 off admission.
Tosa Pop-Up Shop @ Little Red Store, Wauwatosa, 3-7 p.m.
Six Milwaukee-area artists and makers will display their wares for four hours at a pop-up event at Wauwatosa’s Little Red Store. Lucky Cookie, MagNutty: Mighty Mini Magnets, MissMatch, Sacred Identity, SnapHappy Creative and Trace Elements will be selling a variety of unique jewelry, greeting cards, home decorations and refrigerator art.
The John Schneider Orchestra @ North Shore American Legion Post 331, 8-10:30 p.m.
They were the original house band at Milwaukee’s legendary Café Melange. John Schneider, Rip Tenor, Claire Morkin and Mrs. Fun (Connie Grauer and Kim Zick) bring their personal touch to the jazz, swing and pop classics of the 20th-century American songbook, this time in the historic Legion Post in Shorewood, 4121 N. Wilson Drive. There will be food, drink and a dance floor. There’s no cover but a $10 donation is suggested.
Sunday, June 5
Bill Maher @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
Though he’s still best known for his turn-of-the-century show “Politically Incorrect” (and the controversies that show spawned), Bill Maher hasn’t left political humor behind. The proud libertarian has continued hosting a political roundtable for HBO, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” and touring behind stand-up material that focuses heavily on Washington dysfunction. With a bruising general election between two unpopular candidates just around the corner, you can expect Maher will have plenty to discuss when he makes his return to the Riverside Theater stage.
