This was a Studio Milwaukee Session the likes of which we’ve never seen.
It was obvious from the moment we walked into the performance space. While the majority of nationally touring artists who visit bring a backing band with them, Brett Dennen departed from that well-worn path and brought backing … paintings.
The six pieces, despite remaining politely silent throughout the set, accomplished what support musicians usually do in this setting: elevate the overall experience. It was a pop-up version of what Dennen has dubbed the “Art Is Life” tour, which was a few hours away from treating the Vivarium audience to an expanded version of the interactive concert we got at Studio Milwaukee.
That brings us to the second “never seen before” facet of this session. Typically, these performances are three songs for the on-air portion, followed by a non-broadcast encore of sorts just for the Radio Milwaukee members in attendance. Most artists play one song. Really generous artists play two.
On Thursday, Dennen got into the spirit of giving a little early and played an unprecedented THREE bonus songs.
Untethered by the constraints of live radio, he collected requests from the crowd, who were tasked with connecting their suggestions to one of the paintings on stage. In the process, we got a sampling of Dennen’s greatest hits, the first of which elicited the rare audible yelp from someone in the audience mid-performance.
This was a return visit to Studio Milwaukee for Dennen, who has a knack for making every time you see him feel like its own special thing. We can’t wait for the next one.
Studio MKE: Brett Dennen set list
- “Sydney (I’ll Come Running)”
- “Comeback Kid (That’s My Dog)”
- “See the World”
Non-broadcast performance
- “Cassidy”
- “Dharma Baby”
- “Bonfire”
