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.
To get very un-artistic for a moment, celebrating the anniversary of a great album is solid marketing. It allows a band to lean into nostalgia without losing sight of the quality that makes them so important to their fans. It’s also something that seems to be done with greater frequency in recent years, which is what makes the anniversary show happening this Thursday at the Vivarium particularly delightful.
For the tour that brings them to Milwaukee, tuneful Brooklyn-based outfit Real Estate didn’t go the usual route of waiting for a nice round number or even a multiple of five. No, this Thursday’s performance on the East Side is in recognition of the 11-year-and-10-month anniversary of 2014 album Atlas.
To really hammer home the tongue-in-cheekness, the set of shows that includes Milwaukee follows closely on the heels of the band’s previous tour celebrating the 11-year-and-7-month anniversary of Atlas. Will this formatting continue with future Real Estate tours? Unknown.
What is certain is that Thursday’s performance at the Vivarium has at its center one of the standout albums from 2010s indie rock from one of the genre’s standout bands. Real Estate’s third studio release didn’t represent a big shift in sound, but rather a shift in subject matter. Atlas is the kind of project that comes from a collection of musicians maturing as a band and as people.
Jayson Greene put it nicely in his Pitchfork review back in 2014: “This is a life moment when you engage in a little less dreamy reverie about who you might be, and begin assessing, with some alarm, who you have already become.”
Real Estate have become — and continue to be — a wonderful band. They’ll celebrate all of it Thursday with Atlas as an organizing principle and also, as they said in their release announcing the show, “a selection of our greatest hits, because we know you love those too.” Tickets for the Vivarium show are available online via AXS, or just walk up and get yours at the door.
Best concerts in Milwaukee this week
- Jan. 14: Dried Fruit, Our Vanity, Hyperbolic, Bowvee @ X-Ray Arcade, 7 p.m.
- Jan. 15: Real Estate — A Celebration of Atlas @ Vivarium, 7 p.m.
- Jan. 15: Gasoline Lollipops @ Anodyne, 7 p.m.
- Jan. 16: Cullah, Josh Trimble @ The Argo, 8 p.m.
- Jan. 16: Hey Mercedes, The Hallelujah Ward, Her Head's on Fire @ X-Ray Arcade, 7:30 p.m.
- Jan. 17: Violet Wilder @ The Argo, 8 p.m.
- Jan. 17: The People Brothers Band & Sugo @ Vivarium, 7 p.m.
- Jan. 17: Fake My Death, Mizzy, Hypersleep, Viscacha, Okay Omen (Palestine Benefit Show) @ MKE Ultra, 7 p.m.
- Jan. 17: Rachel Drew, Julien Kozak @ Anodyne, 7:30 p.m.
- Jan. 17: DJ Frank Straka — LCD Soundsystem vs. Daft Punk vs. Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ Mad Planet, 9 p.m.
- Jan. 19: Greg Freeman, Golomb @ Cactus Club, 7 p.m.
