The Offspring @ The Rave, June 5
Thursday, June 4
Downtown Dining Week
One of Milwaukee’s most popular promotions returns for a tenth year. Once again, dozens of the city’s top restaurants will offer generous three-course meals for a set price of $12.50 for lunch and either $25 or $35 for dinner as part of Downtown Dining Week, which runs through June 11. As always, diners are encouraged to make reservations in advance, since the most popular restaurants fill up fast. For a complete list of participants and menus, visit milwaukeedowntown.com.
Jazz in The Park @ Cathedral Square Park, 5 p.m.
It feels like it took forever, but the start of Jazz in the Park signals that summer has finally arrived in Milwaukee. The free concert series in Cathedral Square Park kicks off its 2015 season this week with a performance from Christopher’s Project, a group led by saxophonist Chris Pipkins that has performed at festivals and events around the city and Midwest, delivering smooth covers of jazz and funk hits with a healthy dose of soul, along with original compositions. Future installments of the series, which runs through Sept. 3 this year, will feature a mix of blues, Latin music, R&B, gospel and rock.
Friday, June 5
Bay View Jazz Fest @ multiple venues, 5 p.m.
Last year Bay View’s popular Gallery Night introduced a new component: a jazz festival held as multiple venues across the neighborhood. The turnout was exceptional, so it’s no surprise that it’s back for a second year, once again in conjunction with Bay View Gallery Night. Tonic Tavern, The Highbury Pub, Boone & Crockett, The Backyard and Colectivo will host multi-act bills featuring jazz artists including Three. Stacks. Elliot, the Manty Ellis Trio, Russ Johnson Quartet, Cigarette Break, Twin Talk, 4th Street Elevator, the Fred Boswell Quartet and many, many more.
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The Offspring w/ Tigernite @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Along with Green Day, The Offspring helped bring a hardy dose of punk to alternative airwaves in the mid-’90s, scoring some major hits with satirical jabs at youth culture. The group’s breakthrough 1994 hit “Come Out and Play (Keep ’Em Separated)” lampooned rap music’s fascination with gunplay, while they mined more overtly comical territory on their 1998 novelty hit “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy).” That single has a clear descendant on the group’s latest album, Days Go By, in the track “Cruising California (Bumpin’ in My Trunk),” an over-the-top riff on Top 40 party rock. The album isn’t all jabs at the kids, though. On the title track, the group channels Foo Fighters’ meaty alt-rock, and elsewhere they return to the melodic skate-punk of their earliest records. The band is currently working on a new album.
John Mellencamp w/ Carlene Carter @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m.
Like that other small-town-romanticizing heartland rocker Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp balances pop prowess with bighearted, populist ambitions. Even his flag-waving Chevrolet-selling love letter to the working class, “Our Country,” was anchored by a progressive message of tolerance. If that song, with its triumphant accompaniment from country titans Little Big Town, felt a bit like a bid for the radio, there’s nothing remotely commercial about Mellencamp’s T Bone Burnett-produced recent albums, including 2010’s No Better Than This and last year’s aptly titled Plain Spoken. Both are among the most straightforward folk albums he’s ever recorded.
Shabazz Palaces w/ Eaters @ The Rave, 7:30 p.m.
As a general rule, rappers don’t get many chances to reinvent themselves. Once they’re known quantities, the public rarely sees them in a new light, which is part of the reason MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice’s various makeover attempts have flopped so hard. It was a considerable feat, then, when Ishmael Butler of the beloved but easily pigeonholed jazz-rap trio Digable Planets built an almost entirely new audience for himself with his latest project, Shabazz Palaces. Released through Sub Pop, of all labels, the group’s dazzling 2011 full-length Black Up was a weirder, much harder-edged record than anybody could have expected from the soft-voiced rapper. Its bass rumbled hard while Butler rapped in a cryptic, surrealist flow far removed from the straight-laced affirmations of his Digable Planet days. The group’s latest effort, Lese Majesty, trades some of their debut’s roar for a more cerebral, sci-fi feel.
PrideFest @ Summerfest Grounds, noon
Parades are all fine and good, but Milwaukee’s PrideFest does them one better with one of the largest entertainment lineups of any LGBT celebration in the country. This year’s lineup includes music from En Vogue, Ani DiFranco, Crystal Bowersox, Betty Who, Ty Herndon, David Hernandez and dozens of other acts. (Through Sunday, June 7.)
Saturday, June 6
Milwaukee Paranormal Conference @ Irish Cultural & Heritage Center, 12-7 p.m.
The truth may or may not be out there, but damn if there aren’t a lot of people searching for it. Some of those believers will gather at the inaugural Milwaukee Paranormal Conference to discuss all things related to aliens, cryptozoology and ghosts. Organized by Shepherd Express contributor Tea Krulos, who recently published the book Monster Hunters: On the Trail With Ghost Hunters, Bigfooters, Ufologists, and Other Paranormal Investigators, the event will feature more than a dozen speakers and a packed vendor hall. Still feeling skeptical? The free admission might change your mind.
Tuesday, June 9
C.J. Ramone w/ Shonen Knife @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
All of the original members of The Ramones have died, but along with fellow replacement member Marky Ramone, bassist C.J. Ramone has carried on, keeping the Ramone surname alive. Ramone was a late addition to the group, joining in 1989 and lending a youthful edge to the band’s final, notoriously fast concerts in the ’90s. He continues to channel the band’s purist punk on his latest solo album, 2014’s Last Chance To Dance. He’ll share this show with Shonen Knife, the veteran Japanese girl group whose noisy pop was a huge influence on many bands during the ’90s alternative boom. That group has seen some turnover in recent years, but it’s still led by singer/guitarist Naoko Yamano, who founded the band in 1981.
Wednesday, June 10
Maritime w/ Michael Feuerstack and Mark Waldoch @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
Though they never topped the success of guitarist Davey von Bohlen and drummer Dan Didier’s previous band, The Promise Ring, Maritime have proven themselves one of Milwaukee’s most consistently solid bands over the last decade, turning out reliably catchy guitar-pop albums every three or four years. Their most recent was 2011’s Human Hearts, but they’ve got another set for release later this year. In the meantime, they’ll shake things up at this show, which will see them play a rare acoustic set.
