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.
If you’ve caught this recommended live-music feature in the past, you know that going a little more in depth on a couple show options isn’t out of the ordinary for us. Selecting back-to-back concerts at the same venue doesn’t happen quite as often (or ever). Then again, we don’t get a lot of weekends like the one in store at The Rave.
First up, we’ve got Saturday because that’s how time works. But we’d probably lead with this one anyway because it’s the continuation of a very cool thing I got the pleasure of witnessing personally last April at Turner Hall Ballroom: an all-local takeover of one of the city’s marquee music venues.
Rowdy rock outfit Diet Lite put together a ripping set back then, and this Saturday they get the honor of toplining a concert roster that also includes Modern Joey, The Keystones and Chapped Lips.
Attempting to succinctly preview what you’ll get at the Milwaukee-centric show is a fool’s errand because — local show or not — this is a stacked lineup. Diet Lite can go a million miles an hour as easily as they can settle into a countrified groove. Modern Joey are an amplified rock-history education. The Keystones, as we discovered in two Milwaukee Music Premieres, are as adept at shimmery summer sounds as a propulsive power tune. And Chapped Lips have honed their punk approach to fit any venue, from stages to basements to skate parks.
If that wasn’t short enough, just know things will be wonderfully electric. And I would dress to move. A lot.
Keep some energy in reserve, though, because one of the bedrock indie outfits of our time will be in the exact same place less than 24 hours later. Across a career that crossed the three-decade mark while I wasn’t looking, Spoon have proved they simply don’t know how to release a mediocre record. They obliterated Steven Hyden’s patented Five-Albums Test years ago and — in my opinion anyway — ran their tally to nine with 2022’s Lucifer on the Sofa.
This Sunday, Britt Daniel and the boys will be back in Milwaukee for a show with opener A Giant Dog. Between that and Saturday’s MKE special, I’d start hydrating now.
Best concerts in Milwaukee this week
- Sept. 4: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard w/Geese @ Miller High Life Theatre, 8 p.m.
- Sept. 4: Silversun Pickups w/Speedy Ortiz @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
- Sept. 5: NilexFriends, Emmitt James, Keyba, Melo @ The Cooperage, 5 p.m.
- Sept. 6: North Warren, Well + Good, Varsity Mac @ Cactus Club, 10 p.m.
- Sept. 7: Diet Lite, Modern Joey, The Keystones, Chapped Lips @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
- Sept. 7: Bad Bad Hats @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
- Sept. 7: Maximiano (album release) w/Long Mama, King Courteen @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.
- Sept. 7: Rat Bath (EP release) w/ Lung, Bug Moment, Noun, Garden Home @ X-Ray Arcade, 6 p.m.
- Sept. 8: Spoon w/A Giant Dog @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
- Sept. 9: Dale Hollow, Wire & Nail @ Cactus Club, 7:30 p.m.
- Sept. 10: Andy Shauf w/Hayden Pedigo @ Turner Hall, 7:30 p.m.
- Sept. 10: Deer Tick @ Vivarium, 8 p.m.
- Sept. 10: Graham Hunt (WMSE Local / Live) @ Anodyne on Bruce, 6 p.m.
- Sept. 10: World Suicide Prevention Day Fundraiser w/Totally Cashed, Killer High Life, Oh Well Ok, Alley Eyes, Secondhand Souls, Bronco @ Cactus Club, 6 p.m.
