Dec. 18 - Dec. 24
This Week in Milwaukee
Thursday, Dec. 18
Hardcore Comedy Show @ Cactus Club, 10 p.m.
One
of the loudest rallying cries from Milwaukee’s scattered comedy scene,
The Hardcore Comedy Show pairs five burgeoning female comedians—grrrl
comedians?—in one of the city’s least likely comedy venues: the Cactus
Club, whose grimy, smoky backroom has long been the territory of
punk-rock concerts, but rarely stand-up performances. The women are
unapologetically crass, prone to detailed rants about sex and body
image, so expect an angrier, more explicit and much funnier version of
“The Vagina Monologues.” As usual, there’s no cover, though there’s a
$3 suggested donation.
Friday, Dec. 19
Pigs on Ice w/ Possible Fathers and Bird Sounds @ The Vault, 7 p.m.
Though
they’re clearly influenced by the Jesus Lizard and other seminal acts
from Touch and Go’s back catalog, Milwaukee’s Pigs on Ice play their
tightly wound punk and post-punk with a theatrical flamboyance that
most of their nofrills muses eschewed. Using low-key, loosely themed
costumes, the band aims to create a visual complement to their edgy
rock ’n’ roll. This attention to detail and the subsequent
word-of-mouth has helped them rise to the top of Milwaukee’s crowded
basement scene.
Reilly @ Paddy’s Pub, 9 p.m.
Milwaukee
Irish rockers Reilly understandably thrive around St. Patrick’s Day, a
brief period where they cram in as many gigs as they can, but this
month the group is making a push to dominate another lucrative holiday
season: Christmas. Tonight they’re releasing their new album, Kick Ass
Celtic Christmas, a collection of drunken riffs on traditional
Christmas themes. “Christmas in Killarney” plays like an X-mas carol as
done by The Pogues, while “Dear Santa (I Can Explain)” details a
destructive rampage down Candy Cane Lane. The band follows up tonight’s
CD release show with a Dec. 31 performance at Waukesha’s House of
Guinness.
Rockapella @ Cedarburg Performing Arts Center, 8 p.m.
Though
the vocal group has explored other topics on their infrequent studio
albums, Rockapella’s biggest claims to fame remain Carmen Sandiego,
Folgers Coffee and, increasingly, Christmas. The latter is the focus of
tonight’s holiday show and two of the band’s most recent records,
2000’s Christmas and 2002’s Comfort & Joy. Those discs found
Rockapella rearranging standards like “Winter Wonderland,” “White
Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in their trademark
doo-wop style, complete with proto-beatbox percussion and ample silly
voices.
Saturday, Dec. 20
Eat the Mystery w/ Slim Reaper and His Dim Peepers @ The Uptowner, 10 p.m.
One
of the most flamboyant of all the recent Milwaukee bands warped by too
many Tom Waits records, Eat the Mystery has a soft spot for warbled
vocals, carnival accordions and bawdy lyrics, but with their
cabaret-styled approach to performing, the troupe never rides one idea
long enough for it to become grating. With a rotating cast of singers,
male and female, they run through peppy drinking ballads, throaty
dirges and sultry torch songs with equal aplomb. The group, whose
bloated lineup now finds room for a pit band and innumerable guest
performers, celebrates its third year together tonight.
Eat the Mystery
DJ Deadbeat w/ House of M, Malicious and KingHellBastard @ Stonefly Brewery, 10 p.m.
Milwaukee’s
radio shuffle continued this fall as DJ Madhatter, who along with Kid
Cut Up had co-hosted WMSE’s Tuesday night hip-hop show “Mad Kids,” left
that program for a morning drive-time slot on Radio Milwaukee 88.9. In
a move that’s proved a smart one, Madhatter was replaced by DJ
Deadbeat—though the name of the show mercifully stayed the same, since
“Dead Kids” wouldn’t quite have as inviting a ring to it. While he
doesn’t have the profile of some of his more ubiquitous friends,
Deadbeat quietly established himself as a pillar of the city’s rap
scene this year, working the deck for the sprawling young supergroup
House of M and DJing solo gigs, where he deftly splices Lil Wayne into
the few songs Lil Wayne hasn’t already guested. Tonight Deadbeat
inaugurates his latest mix CD, The Boombox.
Mike Fredrickson w/ Robbie Fulks and Dave Braun @ Linneman’s, 9:30 p.m.
A
longtime fixture of the Milwaukee music scene, roots-rocker Mike
Fredrickson clocked time with two cult bands, The Spanic Boys and The
Mosleys, before launching a quiet solo career at the beginning of the
decade. His talents caught the attention of Chicago
alt-country icon Robbie Fulks, who recruited Fredrickson not only for
his skills as a bassist, but also as an artist: Fredrickson painted the
cover for Fulks’ latest album, Revenge! Tonight Fredrickson celebrates
the release of his fifth solo album, Bristlehead, topping a bill that
also features collaborators past and present: Fulks and former Mosleys
drummer Dave Braun.
Sunday, Dec. 21
Hinder w/ Rev Theory, Trapt @ The Rave, 7 p.m.
Don’t
let Hinder’s penchant for boilerplate, hair-metal power ballads fool
you into thinking they have a heart. Though they may soundtrack
high-school prom slow dances, they’re just as apt to spend the rest of
the dance crashing everyone else’s photographs as they drunkenly flash
the shocker. With all of Motley Crue’s misogyny but none of the
self-aware humor, constipated frontman Austin Winkler sings of cheap
booze and mean-spirited sex. That pairing becomes even more unctuous on
this Jagermeister-sponsored tour, where Winkler surrounds himself in
lingerie-clad babes and grunts into a bra-covered microphone.
Christmas Dreams: Joe Puerta & Maji @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.
After
finding fluke success a couple of years ago with “I’m Coming Home for
Christmas,” a song that cracked some charts after appearing on an
episode of “ER,” Milwaukee prog-rock fixture Joe Puerta saw the demand
for a full length. Under the moniker Maji, Puerta and friends recorded
Christmas Dreams, a set of mostly original songs, usually crafted in a
slick, adult-contemporary pop style far removed from the tumultuous
prog epics of Puerta’s best-known band, Ambrosia. A litany of Milwaukee
music vets lend support tonight, including Victor DeLorenzo, Paul
Cebar, Grace Weber and Robin Pluer.
Monday, Dec. 22
Mannheim Steamroller @ Milwaukee Theatre, 8 p.m.
The
Trans-Siberian Orchestra would later update and amp up the same formula
with some progged-out electric guitars, but Mannheim Steamroller was
the first outfit to make a killing modernizing Christmas classics for
New Age listeners. Their synthesized and comically dramatic
arrangements of traditionals like “Carol of the Bells” and “God Rest Ye
Merry Gentlemen” have become such seasonal hits that the group has
recorded only three non-holiday albums since their 1984 Yule-time
breakthrough Mannheim Steamroller Christmas. This year’s
Christmasville, for comparison’s sake, is their ninth Christmas-themed
record. (Also Tuesday at 4 and 8 p.m.)
Comments