Thursday, June 30
Passion Pit @ Miller Lite Oasis, Summerfest, 10 p.m.
Manners, Passion Pit’s 2009 debut, proved one of the most prescient albums of its time, anticipating both alternative and indie rock’s fascination with electronica and dance music as well as some of the big, overblown EDM pop music that now dominates Top 40 stations. So why isn’t the band bigger? For starters, there’s band leader Michael Angelakos’ voice—a strained, excitable whine that instantly drives many listeners away. But even more than that, there’s his subject matter: He writes touchingly and unrelentingly about depression and personal struggles. For light pop, it sure is heavy. Last year the band released its third album of sad songs that sound like happy ones, Kindred.
The Record Company @ Johnson Controls World Sound Stage, Summerfest, 10 p.m.
For people who have been following the local rock scene, Chris Vos is no stranger. For years he led the local rock bands Freshwater Collins and Invade Rome, but it was only after moving to Los Angeles and founding The Record Company that he put his name on the map nationally. A blistering, bluesy power trio, the group released its debut album, Give It Back to You, this February on Conchord Records, which spawned the chart-topping single, “Off the Ground.”
Friday, July 1
Dave Matthews Band @ Alpine Valley, East Troy, 8 p.m.
After a quarter century together, the Dave Matthews Band remains one of the most reliable touring draws in the country, headlining massive amphitheater tours nearly every summer. The sustained interest in the band is all the much more impressive considering that the group hasn’t enjoyed a real radio hit in a decade. By and large, Matthews seems more interested in jamming on the road than courting the masses, though his band’s latest album, 2012’s Away from the World, did contain some of the sharpest pop songs he’s written in years. Not coincidentally, it was produced with Steve Lillywhite, who helmed the band’s biggest hits in the ’90s. At recent shows the band has been playing new songs from a forthcoming album. (Also Saturday, July 2).
|
|
Ray LaMontagne @ Harley-Davidson Roadhouse, Summerfest, 10 p.m.
Ray LaMontagne has garnered steady comparisons to greats like Van Morrison and The Band for his earthy, rugged style of folk music, but on recent albums the songwriter has been reaching beyond his usual bubble. The shift started with 2014’s Supernova. Produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, the album experimented with ’60s influences and a greater sound palette, including electric guitar and organ riffs. LaMontagne’s latest record, Ouroboros, features a different prominent collaborator: Jim James of My Morning Jacket, who produced and played on much of the record.
Saturday, July 2
Ninth Annual Burnhearts PBR Street Party @ Burnhearts, noon
For years, Milwaukeeans have complained that once Summerfest starts up, everything else in the city seems to shut down. It was an unspoken rule that promoters shouldn’t even attempt to counterprogram against the city’s largest music festival. Burnhearts’ annual block party on Potter Avenue in Bay View was one of the first to defy that conventional wisdom and, nine years later, it’s still going strong. This year features one of its strongest lineups yet, with Direct Hit, WebsterX, Space Raft, Tigernite and New Boyz Club representing some of the city’s best rock, punk and hip-hop. There will also be an arts and crafts fair and food from neighborhood institutions Goodkind, Classic Slice and Honeypie.
Peter Bjorn and John @ Johnson Controls World Sound Stage, Summerfest, 10 p.m.
Let’s take a moment to commemorate an anniversary. It was 10 years ago that “Young Folks,” the peppy, whistled single from Swedish indie-pop trio Peter Bjorn and John became the soundtrack to an entire summer. For months it was inescapable, and it briefly made stars of the quirky group. For a while, a ton of rappers, including Drake, were even sampling them on mixtapes. In the years since, the band’s work has grown edgier and more experimental, and they inevitably lost some of the audience they’d earned so suddenly; but in recent months, they’ve been making a comeback push, releasing a solid new album, Breakin’ Point. It might not be as impeccable as the pop tunes on Writer’s Block, their 2006 breakout album, but hey, we’ll always have “Young Folks.”
Nelly @ Harley-Davidson Roadhouse w/ Miller High Life, Summerfest, 9:45 p.m.
Nobody would make the case for Nelly as one of the great rappers (even Nelly, to his credit, never makes such claims), but to fans he’s symbolic of a better time for pop music—an era when pop-rappers didn’t have to play into Flo Rida/Black Eyed Peas-style lowest-common-denominator-ness in order to turn hits. Instead, Nelly won over both pop and rap radio by drawing from popular Southern sounds of the early 2000s. For a short window, he was the most pop-savvy crossover rapper of his time. Though his work has become increasingly hokey since he peaked with the Neptunes-produced smash, “Hot in Herre,” he hasn’t completely resigned himself to life as a nostalgia act. As the collaborations with Nicki Minaj, Future and Wiz Khalifa on his 2013 album M.O. laid clear, this is an artist who is still gunning for another hit.
Sunday, July 3
Indigo Girls @ BMO Harris Pavilion, Summerfest, 7:30 p.m.
Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have come a long way since the Indigo Girls’ 1987 debut, Strange Fire, broke into the world of mainstream pop with its hit “Closer to Fine.” The Indigo Girls have remained one of the most popular folk-rock duos over the last three decades, releasing 15 studio albums, including last year’s One Lost Day, one of their biggest, most expansive records yet. Like many of their recent records, it fleshed out the duo’s emotional folk music with lush, orchestral accompaniments. They play Summerfest ahead of a similarly rootsy act that broke out at around the same time, Milwaukee’s BoDeans, who take the stage at 9:45.
The Roots @ Miller Lite Oasis, Summerfest, 9:45 p.m.
Fans worried that The Roots’ job as Jimmy Fallon’s house band would slow hip-hop’s most celebrated live act can breathe easy. Even with their TV commitments, The Roots have continued to tour at a steady clip, and they’ve released four solid albums since joining NBC’s health insurance plan in 2009, including 2010’s How I Got Over, which found the band branching out to incorporate some of the indie-rock sounds they had been exposed to through Fallon’s show, and 2011’s Undun, a dense, demanding song cycle thick with racial and existential themes. And like its predecessors, their 2014 album …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, proved that they haven’t watered down their message since reaching a new mass audience. It’s a provocative, sometimes disturbing Rubik’s Cube of a rap album.
Tuesday, July 5
Blink-182 w/ All Time Low @ Marcus Amphitheater, 8 p.m.
Pop-punk mainstays Blink-182 so strongly influenced much of the Warped Tour punk and emo of the last decade that when the band broke up in 2005, it seemed only a matter of time until they reunited to return to the music scene they helped shape. The 2008 plane crash that nearly killed drummer Travis Barker laid the groundwork for the trio’s reconciliation, a big 2009 reunion tour and 2011’s reunion album, Neighborhoods. That album’s serious, somber tone turned off some longtime fans, but those looking for a return to the playfulness of the band’s early work should get a kick out of their latest album, California—their first since Matt Skiba replaced guitarist Tom DeLonge.
Hollywood Vampires @ BMO Harris Pavilion, Summerfest, 9:45 p.m.
Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp (yes, that Johnny Depp) formed their supergroup Hollywood Vampires in 2015 to celebrate the excess of rock ’n’ roll’s drugged-out ’70s. As if their star power alone weren’t enough, their self-titled debut album featured guest appearances by Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh and Dave Grohl (amongst others), making it one of last year’s big-event rock records.
Wednesday, July 6
Garbage @ Harley-Davidson Roadhouse, Summerfest, 9:30 p.m.
Founded by the most important alternative rock producer of the ’90s, Garbage embodied the grungy, angsty sound of that era, while looking forward with bold electronic textures that were often ahead of their time. Unlike many of their peers who tour largely on residual affection for their back catalogue, the group has continued releasing solid new albums, including their latest, Strange Little Birds. It’s their best record in 15 years, packed to the brim with brooding hooks and loud, surprising sonics.
