Stiff Little Fingers
Noodles the Wonder Dog returns to Fromm Petfest, while Walker’s Point inaugurates a new street festival and makers take over the State Fair Grounds.
Thursday, Sept. 21
Jonny Lang w/ Jack Broadbent @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 8 p.m.
Jonny Lang is no longer the baby-faced teenager who recorded a Billboard-charting, platinum album when he was just 15 years old, or landed a Grammy nomination when he was just 17. He’s 36 now, and although the blues are still his calling card, on recent albums he’s dabbled in rock and gospel music, as well. On recent albums like 2013’s Fight for My Soul, he trumpeted his conversion to Christianity, which he credits for saving his life after a period of substance abuse. This month he released his first album in four years, Signs, which pays tribute to the spirit of early blues icons like Robert Johnson and Howlin’ Wolf.
Friday, Sept. 22
Twin Brother w/ Abby Jeanne and Dramatic Lovers @ Club Garibaldi, 8 p.m.
The term “folk rock” never quite did justice to the evocative musings of Milwaukee’s Twin Brother, but these days that term seems even more woefully inadequate. In its latest incarnation, the Americana group sounds bigger and bolder than before, their missives about broken hopes and dreams fleshed out with woozy keyboards and Tex-Mex horns in the spirit of Calexico. The group flaunts that new sound on their latest EP, Alone in Austin, which they’ll release at this release show, featuring a pair of dynamite local live acts: Abby Jeanne and Dramatic Lovers.
Stiff Little Fingers w/ Death By Unga Bunga @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
There aren’t too many punks who can claim to have been with the genre since its very earliest days. Stiff Little Fingers singer Jake Burns is one of them. Despite the occasional hiatus and the frequent lineup change, the band has navigated more than 40 years of changing trends without changing their act all that much: They still play fast punk and lean rock ’n’ roll with periodic nods to their home country. Their most recent album was the 2014 fan-funded effort No Going Back which, while not the breath of fresh air the group’s flawless 1979 debut Inflammable Material was, shows that age hasn’t slowed this band much.
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Saturday, Sept. 23
Doors Open Milwaukee @ multiple locations
One of Historic Milwaukee Inc.’s most ambitious initiatives, Doors Open Milwaukee is a free two-day event that invites participants to take a peek inside more than 150 buildings of historical or architectural significance, including many that are usually off-limits to the general public. Among those participating this year are City Hall, the Cathedral Church of All Saints, the Clock Shadow Building, the Federal Courthouse, the Marine Terminal Building, the Iron Block Building and the Milwaukee Public Museum. There will also be more than 40 tours throughout the weekend, some ticketed, others not. For a complete list of participants, visit doorsopenmilwaukee.org. (Also Sunday, Sept. 24.)
Fromm PetFest @ Summerfest Grounds, 10 a.m.
Given how crowded some of the more popular festivals at the Summerfest grounds get, it’s probably for the best that dogs aren’t allowed at most of them. One day a year, however, canines are invited to join the festivities at Fromm PetFest, a free, animal-driven gathering featuring a pet marketplace, training clinics, dock diving, grooming sessions and agility courses, in addition to live music and children’s activities. (Cats are invited, too, but for obvious reasons not many people bring them.) Don’t have a pet to bring? You could end up taking one home from the event’s Adoption Avenue, where more than a dozen rescue organizations will be looking to pair cats and dogs with worthwhile owners. Returning this year to the festival’s main stage is Noodles the Wonder Dog, a former shelter dog who has gone onto win talent contests across the continent.
Rock the Burbs @ Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, 5:30 p.m.
In Milwaukee we have so many outdoor music events that it’s easy to begin taking them for granted. The organizers of Rock The Burbs, however, acknowledge that outside the city limits live music events aren’t nearly as common. That’s why they created their organization, with the dual goals of bringing live music to their community and also raising money to combat childhood cancer. In addition to music from The Weeks, Austin Plaine, No No Yeah Okay and the Lucy Chamberlain Band, there will be food trucks, beers and cocktails, and children’s activities, this latest event includes a talent competition for performers 18 and under. Advance tickets are $20 for adults; kids get in free.
Fifth Street Festival @ South Fifth Street, noon-10 p.m.
Like all of Milwaukee’s great street festivals, Walker’s Point’s new Fifth Street Festival sets out to capture the spirit and culture of the neighborhood hosting it. There will be plenty of music, from acts including Cactus Brothers, DATRF, Lovanova, the Santana tribute band Abraxes, and Evan Christian (of one of the prouder new additions to the neighborhood, the music club Gibraltar), as well as performances from the Milwaukee Ballet and the Hamburger Mary’s drag performers. Vendors from around the neighborhood guarantee there will be plenty of unique, delicious food options, as well.
Mike Birbiglia: The New One @ The Pabst Theater, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Few performers have straddled the line between comedian and storyteller quite as well as Mike Birbiglia. In his breakthrough one-man show Sleepwalk With Me, the sympathetic stand up framed his career and relationship struggles around his unusual sleep disorder, which once caused him to walk out of a second-story window. A 2012 film adaptation of that show produced by Ira Glass (of “This American Life,” to which Birbiglia regularly contributes) raised the comedian’s profile considerable. He followed up that success with the similarly eloquent one-man shows My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend and Thank God For Jokes, and now he’s touring behind a new one, aptly just titled The New One. That may sound vague, but if you’re familiar with Birbiglia, you know what to expect.
Maker Faire Milwaukee @ State Fair Park, 10 a.m.
Few words in the English language are more gloriously vague than “maker.” The term can apply to anybody who creates something—be it crafts, robotic gizmos, costumes, software or technological innovations. This free regional event produced by the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum and the Milwaukee Makerspace celebrates those who make and encourages others to do the same with a family friendly gathering that highlights the do-it-yourself spirit of our community. Exhibits at this year’s faire focus on technology, education, science, arts, crafts, engineering, food, sustainability and more, and includes hands-on workshops for curious minds of all ages. (Also Sunday, Sept. 24.)
Wednesday, Sept. 27
Broken Social Scene w/ Frightened Rabbit @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
In the mid-’00s, no band epitomized the vastly expanding scope of indie-rock better than Broken Social Scene, the Canadian collective made up of almost more talent than one group could contain. For a while the group functioned as kind of indie-rock Wu-Tang Clan, assisting each other on a variety of solo projects while coming together once every half decade or so for a new album. Their latest, Hug of Thunder, is their first in seven years, and it sounds every bit as epic, grand, fresh and idealistic as their heyday releases did. This is band that never longed for inspiration.
