Thursday, May 19
The Memory Palace Podcast @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.
Despite its recent explosion in popularity, it’s easy to forget that podcasting is still a young medium. Many creators are just beginning to figure out how to break form and create something truly unique. One of the more notable recent mold-breaking podcasts is The Memory Palace, which sets mostly obscure tales from American history to music. The podcast airs on NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” and like so many of the most innovative recent podcasts it comes from the Radiotopia network. Host Nate DiMeo will take his vision to the Prospect Avenue Colectivo’s Back Room venue for this live recording of the podcast.
Billy Currington w/ Love and Theft and Steve Moakler @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Billy Currington has never hid his demons. The Georgia native scored his first country hit in 2003 with “Walk a Little Straighter,” a song about his relationship with his alcoholic stepfather, and years later he canceled tour dates and postponed an album in order to receive therapy for abuse he suffered as a child. But Currington’s laid-back 2013 album, We Are Tonight, sounds like his attempt to put the past behind him. Released in the wake of a bizarre incident where Currington was charged with making “terroristic threats” and abusing an elderly boat captain—he was sentenced to anger management and five-years’ probation—the album cast Currington as a content, relaxed bro who doesn’t have an angry bone in his body. Last year’s Summer Forever kept the lighthearted drinking tunes coming, and included the single “Drinkin’ Town with a Football Problem.”
Friday, May 20
Shannon and the Clams w/ Dogs in Ecstasy and Phylums @ Company Brewing, 10 p.m.
Imagining the wholesome 1950s through the prism of a John Waters film by combining swooning doo-wop music with the vigor of punk rock, the rock trio Shannon and the Clams provide the perfect soundtrack for a dirty, back-alley sock hop. The group can be as gritty as any other touring garage band out there—and singer Shannon Shaw certainly has enough raw power in her voice for punk rock—but on recent albums, including their new Gone by the Dawn, they make time for some tender, genuinely sincere oldies balladry between the edgier rock songs. This show promises a local art tie-in. Local artist Kristina Rolander is creating a Jungle Book-inspired backdrop for the band’s set, designed with Shaw’s input.
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‘In Ten Years Together…Our Rhythm of Life’ @ Next Act Theatre, 7:30 p.m.
For 10 years, Milwaukee Metropolitan Voices has been hosting performances spanning operetta, Broadway and folk and Celtic music, while offering a spotlight for emerging actors, singers and playwrights. They’ve covered a lot of ground—nearly 50 productions and more than 200 performances—and this weekend they’ll revisit some of their highlights with a variety show culled from previous performances. Each production of In Ten Years Together…Our Rhythm of Life will be followed by a 15 minutes talkback session with the company’s artistic director, Trefor Williams. (Multiple performances through Sunday, May 22.)
‘The Godfather’ Live with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
In addition to being one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia epic The Godfather also boasts one of the greatest scores of all time. Both will be showcased at this event, which pairs a screening of the full film with a live performance of Nino Rota’s iconic score by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Concertgoers are encouraged to arrive early lest they find a severed horse head in their seat.
Saturday, May 21
David Schalliol and ‘The Area’ @ Mobile Design Box, 6 p.m.
As part of its examination of the social fabric of urban areas, the ongoing Mobility Matters exhibition at the Mobile Design Box (1551 N. Water St.) will welcome sociologist and filmmaker David Schalliol. He’ll screen selections from his latest documentary The Area, about a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side that’s about to be demolished to clear way for an intermodal freight yard. The film focuses on the residents of the community as they cope with its demise.
Goth Dance Party @ Mad Planet, 9 p.m.
It wasn’t all that long ago when goth nights proliferated the city. They’ve fallen out of fashion over the last decade or so, yet there’s still enough demand for Mad Planet—once a hub of the local goth scene—to host a good old-fashioned goth dance party every now and then. This one will be hosted by DJs Frank Straka and Megan Minya and looks to focus on the genre’s ’80s heyday with a mix of cold wave, new romantic, dark wave and gloomy new wave tracks. Suggested attire? Black.
Sunday, May 22
John Fogerty @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
As the lead singer and primary songwriter for Southern-rock pioneers Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty had already created a rich musical legacy when he struck out on his own in 1973. Though his efforts since then, including the 1985 commercial hit Centerfield, have not done much to expand on that legacy, they haven’t done much to tarnish it either. Fogerty’s blend of early rock, country twang and pop hooks was still as welcome as ever on 2009’s The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, the follow-up to his 2007 comeback album Revival, even though it’s doubtful that those discs will age as well as CCR’s late ’60s, early ’70s output. Fogerty himself seems to know that people mostly want to hear the hits, which is why he brought on acts like Foo Fighters, Dawes, Kid Rock, Keith Urban and Jennifer Hudson to help him update some CCR classics on his latest disc, 2013’s Wrote A Song For Everyone.
Tuesday, May 24
Josh Ritter w/ Joe Purdy @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Though Josh Ritter’s songs still retain a certain youthful quality, he’s been around for a while. It’s been 16 years since he released his self-titled debut album, and he’s grown a lot since then. His latest record Sermon on the Rocks is his most stylistically bold effort yet, drawing not just from honky-tonk and gospel, but the sleek, digital production that dominated heartland rock in the ’80s. It’s a far cry from the fairly straightforward folk of his early records, and it’s a lighter outing than 2013’s The Beast in Its Tracks, an often-harrowing record he recorded in the wake of a divorce.
Rogue Wave w/ Hey Marseilles @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8:30 p.m.
After Oakland singer-guitarist Zach Schwartz lost his job in the dot-com crash, he made a clean break from his band Desoto Reds to found his own group, Rogue Wave. The personable indie-pop of Rogue Wave’s 2003 debut, Out of the Shadow, earned the band a home on Sub Pop Records, where they fit right in on a roster that at the time included The Shins. The group has since bounced around from label to label, with stops of Vagrant Records and Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records. Their latest effort, this spring’s Delusions of Grand Fur, places them on yet another new label (Easy Sound Recording Company) and features their greatest sonic departure yet. Drawing from Gary Numan, the group began composing songs on synthesizers and drum machines.
