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 sponsored by Educators Credit Union.
Nov. 13: Modest Mouse @ Riverside Theater
Everyone has their favorite albums they’ve picked up on the path to becoming a well-rounded, music-loving individual. But a select few really ingrain themselves in your life, instantly throwing you back to a particular time whenever you hear a track from it.
Modest Mouse’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News is one of those records for me, and the alternative icons will celebrate its 20th anniversary this Wednesday at the Riverside Theater.
Upon its release in 2004, the band’s breakout album immediately joined the ranks of delightfully weird music I was only recently discovering. Alongside LPs like The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Man Man’s The Man in a Blue Turban with a Face, Modest Mouse’s fourth studio effort fit right in. The offbeat arrangements and Isaac Brock’s vocal performance that ranged from over the top to strangely vulnerable made this an album worth celebrating — right after it came out and 20 years later.
Nov. 14: Wild Pink @ X-Ray Arcade
It’s quite possible that Wild Pink just released the album we’ll be celebrating with them 20 years from now. Dulling the Horns enjoyed a rapturous reception when it dropped last month, with Pitchfork’s Patrick Lyons nicely summarizing a record that seems to defy such an exercise: “Dulling the Horns is not a wild left turn, but it’s simultaneously weirder and more fun than anything in Wild Pink’s discography.”
There aren’t many better ways to describe a project that mixes ripping guitar riffs with out-of-left-field references like Michael Jordan’s time with the Washington Wizards. It’s one of those albums that begs you to make hyperbolic statements along the lines of, “There’s nothing out there like it” (although the world of music is vast, and there almost certainly is).
See how the weirdness and wildness translates to the stage when Wild Pink visits X-Ray Arcade this Thursday for a show with John Francis Flynn and Rainbow Cobra.
Best concerts in Milwaukee this week
- Nov. 13: Modest Mouse @ Riverside Theater, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 13: The Wild Feathers w/Nathan Graham @ Vivarium, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 13: Low Cut Connie @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 13: Livingston w/Micah Emrich @ The Rae, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 13: La Doña, El Sebas @ Cactus Club, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 14: Ben Harold & The Rising, Hello Sapien, Middle Child Syndrome @ Anodyne on Bruce, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 14: Wild Pink, John Francis Flynn, Rainbow Cobra @ X-Ray Arcade, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 15: Telethon, Breakup Tour, Nick Wilkinson & The Featured Players @ Cactus Club, 7:30 p.m.
- Nov. 16: Rod Wave @ Fiserv Forum
- Nov. 16: Reverend Horton Heat @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 16: Dear Nora, Marielle Allschwang @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 16: Body Meat, Anysia Kym, DORIS @ Cactus Club, 10 p.m.
- Nov. 16: Fruition w/Gardener @ Vivarium, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 18: Calicuzns, Shoobie, Glitzy, Buena Cara @ Cactus Club, 6:30 p.m.
