All year long, we welcome nationally and globally touring artists to our stage for Studio Milwaukee Sessions, sponsored by Ellenbecker Investment Group. If you want to be in the live audience for these VIP experiences, become a member today.
Rainy and temps in the 50s would be a tough way to kick off Summerfest (sorry, Garth Brooks). But it works just fine for a pre-Summerfest Studio Milwaukee Session, particularly when you have an artist like Micah Emrich bringing the seasonally appropriate vibes to the scene.
To be clear, the Milwaukee-based singer-songwriter/producer’s brand of R&B has a place in your rotation all year round. But the groove that Emrich carves out one track at a time just seems made to flow out of your car speakers, windows down, arm hanging out.
His music also lives in a space that’s increasingly rare in the days of genres crossing over and flavoring each other’s spaces. Session host and 88Nine program director Kenny Perez nailed it as “straight-up” R&B, which Emrich attributed to an artist who divided opinions in his younger days as a student in West Bend.
“Justin Bieber was the big thing when I was in middle school,” he told Perez during the mid-set interview. “All the guys hated him. All the girls loved him. And then I listened to him and I said, ‘Wait, what? The guys don't like him cuz he's what the girls want.’ So I was like, ‘I need to do that.’”
You could hear that influence throughout a performance that jumped across his last few years as an artist. From the pining “I Can Be Your Someone” to the betrayal of “Secrets” to the frustration-laced “Games, Emrich’s impeccable vocals previewed what he had in store for Summerfest’s T-Mobile Stage at 2:30 p.m. this Thursday, June 18.
Our session didn’t have the bells and whistles Emrich planned to bring to his festival appearance — a full band and, for the first time, dancers — but the talent that serves as the foundation for all of his music was more than enough to keep the audience locked in.
Emrich’s visit was the first of our free and open-to-the-public Summerfest Studio Milwaukee Sessions that will happen throughout the festival’s run. Make plans to join us at any of the following performance, and you’ll walk out with a Summerfest ticket you can use to see some of the 600+ artists playing this year:
- Wednesday, June 17 — Micah Emrich
- Thursday, June 25 — The Mountain Goats
- Wednesday, July 1 — Gold Steps
- Thursday, July 2 — Jobi Riccio
- Friday, July 3 — The Beths
Studio MKE: Micah Emrich set list
- “I Can Be Your Someone”
- “Secrets”
- “Games”
