King Tuff @ Cactus Club, Oct. 17
Friday, Oct. 17
Jason Mraz and Raining Jane @ The Riverside Theater, 8 p.m.
The most laidback dude in a sea of laidback dudes, singer-songwriter Jason Mraz has stayed the course since his Caribbean-accented 2009 hit “I’m Yours” elevated him from popular American folkie to international star. Recorded and co-written with members of the folk-rock band Raining Jane, Mraz’s latest album Yes! is one of his most collaborative, but it doesn’t veer far from the building blocks that made “I’m Yours” such a smash: easy grooves, catchy melodies and the occasional ukulele. It was recorded in a studio, of course, but you could just as easily imagine it having been recorded on a beach.
King Tuff w/ Cassie Ramone and Whips @ Cactus Club, 9:30 p.m.
Kyle Thomas has done time in J. Mascis’ stoner-metal band Witch and toured with the giddy punk band Hunx & his Punx, but he saves his finest work for his own garage-rock project King Tuff. The group’s latest album, Black Moon Spell, its second for Sub Pop, is its glamiest album yet, with glistening production that consciously evokes T. Rex. It’s also the band’s heaviest, with some of the meanest, grimiest riffs Thomas has ever conjured. Lending to the volume is Thomas’ garage rocker in arms Ty Segall, who sat in on drums during the recording. King Tuff shares this show with former Vivian Girls singer/guitarist Cassie Ramone and the Milwaukee rock band Whips.
Local Harvest Art Show w/ Old Earth and King Courteen @ Cocoon Room, 7-11 p.m.
Ten artists will display their recent creations at this art show at Riverwest’s Cocoon Room. The only thing they all have common? They’re all from Milwaukee. Expect to see an eclectic assortment of work that spans nearly all media. The night will also feature performances from the experimental Milwaukee singer-songwriter Old Earth (who released his latest album of vibrant, rumbling folk, A Wake in the Wells, this summer) and King Courteen, who prefers a rustic, more traditional kind of Americana.
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Art Unveiling @ Mayer Building, 6 p.m.
As part of Gallery Night, the Mayer Building at 342 N. Water St. will unveil a major art installation: a conceptual piece by Terese Agnew called Settlement. Agnew is primarily a fabric artist, but she constructed this large piece from hundreds of patterned papers in an attempt to capture the sense of wonder that people feel when they consider the passage of time.
‘Good Colors, Bad Decisions’ with Eric Von Munz @ Harley-Davidson Museum, 5-9 p.m.
You might not know Eric Von Munz’s name, but if you regularly attend local rock shows, you’ve probably seen his work. Munz is the man behind some of the city’s brightest and most colorful concert posters, including many of the ones on display at the Cactus Club. For Gallery Night, the Harley-Davidson Museum’s Café Racer hosts a reception for this exhibit of Von Munz’s work, Good Colors, Bad Decisions, which will feature a live broadcast from WMSE, free admission to the museum itself, and a free artist print for the first 50 visitors. The exhibit is on display through Oct. 31.
Saturday, Oct. 18
Carbon Leaf w/ Brave Baby @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Even though Carbon Leaf forge their unique sound by using a legion of oddball instruments like bagpipes, mandolins and bouzoukis, their style is assuredly not “Brazilian polka-metal,” as guitarist Carter Gravatt has joked, but rather a dynamic blend of Celtic rock and bluegrass that has taken on some pop-rock wrinkles over the years. The band achieved surprising success early on as an indie band with their 2001 single “The Boxer,” which helped them land a record deal with Vanguard Records. Citing frustrations with the delays and restrictions of being on a major label, the band left Vanguard to independently release its 2010 album How the West Was One on their own label, Constant Ivy Music. This year the label issued their latest album, Indian Summer Revisited, a re-recording of the band’s breakthrough 2004 album.
Corky Siegel @ Schauer Arts & Activities Center, 8 p.m.
To a generation of Midwest blues fans, Corky Siegel is best known as the harmonica virtuoso behind the Siegel-Schwall Band, a Chicago institution dating back to the mid-’60s. Siegel still performs with that band, but recently he has also been testing the boundaries of the harmonica with his ensemble Chamber Blues, a blues-classical hybrid featuring a string quartet and a worldly percussionist. It turns out the harp is a more versatile instrument than almost anybody could have imagined.
Chromeo w/ Wave Racer @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
The electro-funk duo Chromeo describes itself as “the only successful Arab/Jewish collaboration since the beginning of time,” a statement that speaks volumes about the group’s cheeky sense of humor. The synth-rock outfit sometimes crosses the line between good-natured fun and straight-up irony—just listen to those bargain-bin synths on the group’s 2010’s Business Casual or the exaggerated throwback funk on this year’s White Women—but jokey or not, their ’80s-inspired dance-funk throwbacks are reliable party starters. White Women features an entertaining cast of guests including Ezra Koenig, Toro y Moi and Solange Knowles.
Dynamo Kickstand: A Sketch Comedy Show @ ComedySportz, 9 p.m.
ComedySportz has long been the city’s go-to destination for improvisational comedy, but that’s not to say the stage can’t host a scripted sketch from time to time. ComedySportz’s latest sketch comedy show is a collaboration between comedians Greg Bach, Ryan Lowe and Stacy Pawlowski (all veterans of the long-running Sketch 22 comedy show) called Dynamo Kickstand. Their program promises to mix live sketches with video segments and “possibly a sexy dance; one can never tell.”
Sunday, Oct. 19
Iggy Azalea @ The Rave, 7 p.m.
Like Macklemore before her, Iggy Azalea is a white rapper who has completely dominated the pop charts with her latest album, The New Classic. She’s an unlikely rap star: an Australian model who moved to Atlanta, where she linked with local rap star T.I. and learned to copy the distinct cadence of the city’s rap scene. Though rap bloggers may deride her inauthenticity, the general public clearly doesn’t mind. Her summer smash “Fancy” became the longest-lived number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and her latest hit “Black Widow” is currently splattered across rap, pop and dance stations everywhere.
Monday, Oct. 20
Pearl Jam @ BMO Harris Bradley Center, 7:30 p.m.
Nirvana has taken on such a legendary status in the decades since Kurt Cobain’s death that it’s easy to forget that they weren’t actually the most popular band of the grunge era. That distinction fell instead to their Seattle neighbors Pearl Jam. In the years after the albums Ten, Vs. and Vitalogy made them one of the best-selling bands of their time, however, Pearl Jam grew to resent the success that had come to them almost too easily, pushing back against the music-industry machine first by waging an improbable war against Ticketmaster, then by eschewing traditional promotional tactics. As a result they lost their superstardom but ensured their longevity. They may not be the biggest rock band in the world anymore, but they’re still here, releasing new albums and playing to full arenas of loyal fans—a feat only an elite handful of ’90s alternative bands can claim.
Wednesday, Oct. 22
Field Report @ The Pabst Theater, 6:30 p.m.
Field Report’s Christopher Porterfield doesn’t just write songs. He writes perceptive tales about redemptions and revelations both large and small, and about how even the most mundane experiences can completely shape the way people view their own lives. Those kinds of tales populate the Milwaukee folk-rock band’s newest album, Marigolden, which expands on the lush folk of the group’s 2012 self-titled album with an even broader color palette and some surprising production choices, including coarse electronic textures. It’s a sometimes daring, always gorgeous record that’s sure to win the group an even bigger national following. The Pabst Theater hosts this intimate lower-level release show for the album.
