Milwaukee’s concert scene has a lot going on, so we look at the shows coming up to find the ones you’ll look back on and be glad you went. Then we add them to our weekly Milwaukee Concert Picks.
We’re going to double-dip in this installment because the area’s live-music scene is giving with both hands this week.
Among the shows we won’t talk about are the Harley-Davidson Homecoming headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jelly Roll, three nights of Phish at Alpine Valley and The Pretenders at the Riverside Theater. The two shows we will talk about start with the more 88Nine-friendly of the pair: DIIV at Turner Hall Ballroom this Saturday.
To say the Brooklyn band has been through some stuff in the past, oh, decade or so is an understatement. Drug possession, rehab stints, gross comments in the dark corners of the internet (by a now-former member, it should be noted) — DIIV has made tumultuousness a feature, not a bug, and put it to effective use on recently released album Frog in Boiling Water.
Their first LP in five years is very much a “capitalism sure comes with a lot of problems” sort of record that turns its eye toward a few of the things sending society sideways — technology and social media among them. That may sound questionably appealing, but as Pitchfork’s Ashley Bardhan notes, DIIV presents “each song like a cold tomb to be set on fire, typically, by a one-note guitar solo you can feel drilling into your stomach. It’s thrilling.”
Those thrills will come to the Turner Hall Ballroom stage this Saturday as DIIV tops a bill that includes Boston indie rockers Horse Jumper of Love and Full Body 2.
As for the less-88Nine-focused concert pick, it’s Counting Crows at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater this Friday. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana is also part of the proceedings, but my formative years had way more to do with “Perfect Blue Buildings” than “Black Magic Woman,” so my shout goes to Adam Duritz and co.
I’ve seen them a handful of times over the years — including at what I remember being a glorified high school basketball gym at Northwestern University — and will happily go to bat for their first five albums. The set lists from this current tour seem to revolve entirely around those records, so it’s clear the group understands their assignment. Be there as they execute it (at a reasonable price!) this Friday at the Amp.
Best concerts in Milwaukee this week
- July 25: Lily Slay w/Jenny Parrott, Highlonesome @ Linneman's, 8 p.m.
- July 26: Santana, Counting Crows @ AmFam Amp, 7 p.m.
- July 26-28: Harley-Davidson Homecoming @ Veterans Park
- July 26-28: Phish @ Alpine Valley
- July 26: Guerilla Toss, Rainbow Cobra, bdwthr @ Cactus Club, 8:30 p.m.
- July 27: DIIV w/Horse Jumper of Love, Full Body 2 @ Turner Hall, 8 p.m.
- July 27: Candy Cigarette, Pete’s Diary, Wonderful Bluffer @ Anodyne on Bruce, 7:30 p.m.
- July 28: Alanis Morissette @ AmFam Amp, 7 p.m.
- July 29: The Pretenders @ Riverside Theater, 8:30 p.m.
