May 17, 2016

As I’ve often written about in Urban Milwaukee, our local music scene is in the midst of a renaissance. Similarly, the Milwaukee comedy scene has flourished as of late. Committed to keeping the Milwaukee comedy scene healthy, Liz Ziner and Sammy Arechar, two expats now based in Chicago, founded the inaugural Cream City Comedy Festival.

November 17, 2015

On 'The Ballad of Emmett Till,' "challenging" art,

and the power of storytelling.

November 19, 2015

This Friday night at Turner Hall will be the Milwaukee debut of Berninger’s side project EL VY. The collaboration with Brent Knopf, a Portland-based producer who plays in the band Ramona Falls, has been a decade in the making. Berninger and Knopf met well before The National was playing arenas and headlining music festivals, during a West Coast tour of small, half-empty clubs with Knopf’s old band, Menomena. For years the project only existed on Berninger’s computer in a folder called “The Moon,” made up of files Knopf sent him from time to time.

November 5, 2015

Mac DeMarco’s rapid rise to indie cult status may be a mystery to the folks at Milwaukee Record, but the man himself is anything but mysterious, which is the main reason he’s so popular. Punch his name into YouTube and you’ll get a trove of results. Apparently DeMarco is incapable of turning down an interview request. Whatever you think of his jangly alt pop, DeMarco is a lovable dude. He combines a goofy Canadian sense of humor, millennial irreverence, freak-out video aesthetic and hip-hop generation sensibilities. 

October 27, 2015

Last Halloween I discovered local dream pop darlings GGOOLLDD at Yield Bar, which I recounted in my first happy hour column. This year they will be playing the 10th Annual Freakfest in Madison, but there is no shortage of great gigs this Halloween in Milwaukee. Here are a few of my favorites.

September 10, 2015

Kirkman’s set, which ran just over an hour, included nothing about Handler or her time at Lately, much less that Montreal comics panel in 2012, thank heavens. It did include hilarious stories about marriage, divorce, dating, and her signature anti-children material. Kirkman first came on my radar via her appearances on Paul F. Tompkins’ The Pod F. Tompkast, back in the heyday of comedy podcasts (early 2010s). Each episode featured a phone call between Tompkins and Kirkman. It was an intimate window into their friendship and a platform to showcase Kirkman’s storytelling skills. The Turner crowd last night got to see those skills in person and live on stage.

July 29, 2015

Monday night was a busy one for certain music lovers in Milwaukee. You could chose between Milwaukee-raised musician Juiceboxxx playing at Riverwest Public House and Toronto noise rock band METZ playing at Cactus Club in Bay View. I was sitting on my roof reading The Next Next Level a new book by Slate reporter Leon Neyfakh, which is about his relationship with Juiceboxxx, and listening to 91.7 WMSE when an interview with METZ came on. I set the paperback on my lap and listened in. METZ sounded like a crew of cool Canadians and were one of the most talked about bands when I lived in Montreal, but I still passed on their Cactus Club show. The Thunder Zone was calling.

July 22, 2015

Nothing compares to your first; first kiss, first love, first road trip, first concert. They may eventually be surpassed by superior experiences, but those can’t match the terrifying and triumphant exhilaration of your first. This past weekend marked a special first for Eau Claire’s own Justin Vernon, who co-curated and headlined an outdoor music festival in his hometown.

July 15, 2015

Ever since I started covering music in Milwaukee the Pabst Group has put on some notable “Ten Buck $hows” at Turner Hall. This Thursday will be their best yet, pairing the whimsical rock of Lady Lamb with the blistering charm of hometown favorite heavy pop outfit Soul Low. The two bands share a number of similarities, such as the quickness with which they took to making music. Both recorded in basements before they reached drinking age.

June 30, 2015

Summerfest always comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Or is that March? It’s hard to think straight with visions of Paris Hilton dancing in my head. I wasn’t even among the throngs of people at her show on Sunday night, but I saw pictures online and they continue to haunt me. Were there really more people waiting to see a spoiled, barely-talented product of reality TV than an onslaught of hard-working, gifted musicians? What does that say about us? Let’s not think too hard on the Paris paradox. So much else happened at Summerfest this past week that’s worth talking about.

June 24, 2015

There are over 800 bands at Summerfest and I am but one writer, so this is an admittedly biased and far-from-complete guide to the World’s Largest Music Festival. For example, I don’t like country. I’m over classic rock (though I would have seen The Rolling Stones for a decent price). I’m a hip-hop kid. Since college, however, my musical horizons have expanded to include all sorts of roots, rock, reggae, electronic, experimental, punk, pop, surf, ska, soul, R&B, blues and jazz. But like I said, no country.

May 29, 2015

At the height of my comedy fandom I was living in Montreal and always made sure to attend the Just for Laughs Festival, the biggest in the world. One summer there was a lot of talk about John Mulaney’s one-man show. I’d heard his name through the comedy podcast circuit and knew him as a writer on Saturday Night Live. 

May 14, 2015

Ten years ago I was a first-year undergrad at the University of Minnesota. On a sad, balmy Tuesday night in July I drove my roommates car to Midway Stadium in St. Paul to sell a pair of Bob Dylan tickets. It was a tragic exchange, but I felt it had to be done. 

May 8, 2015

The Milwaukee Comedy Festival recently announced their headliner for the 10th annual festival this August, prominent nerd comic Brian Posehn. Tonight, Milwaukee can see the nerd king of comedy, Chris Hardwick, live at the Pabst Theater. Hardwick is one of the hardest working people in show business and the leader of an LA-based multimedia empire known as Nerdist Industries.

March 31, 2015

The premise for Maria Bamford’s last stand-up special sounds like an April Fools’ joke. Instead of filming it in a fancy old theater or in a beloved comedy club, she shot it in the living room of her modest Eagle Rock, California home. The audience: just her parents. The kicker is that some of her best material is about her dysfunctional family, complete with impressions. This type of daring, surreal humor is signature Bamford.

March 27, 2015

“I’ve always been mad, I know I’ve been mad, like most of us are. But you have to explain why you are mad.”

About this time last year I was applying for a day job with a large government agency, which employs a drug test. It’s part of this ineffective prohibition program we’ve been running forever that wastes countless taxpayer dollars. It’s 2015, people. You know, the year Marty McFly and Doc Brown went to in Back to the Future II. 

March 25, 2015

My girlfriend moved to New York City shortly after 9/11. She dove into the music scene and saw the rise ofInterpol, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes. From her perspective, no band hit it big faster than TV on the Radio. A friend introduced her to their EP Young Liars (2003) and she immediately loved it. She remembers their multi-instrumentalist & vocalist Kyp Malone was a barista at a coffee shop on Bedford Avenue at the time. 

March 16, 2015

The last time the Alabama Shakes visited Milwaukee, in March 2012, they hadn’t yet released their debut album, the critically acclaimed and rocking Boys & Girls. Even so, their Pabst Theater show was sold-out, which was their biggest venue to date. 

January 26, 2015

There was a moment near the beginning of Chris Tucker’s headlining set at the Riverside Theater on Friday night where he hinted at the main reason he’s on tour. During a killer Tony Montana impression, one of about fifteen Tucker did throughout the night, the Cuban drug dealer was trying to negotiate with the IRS. 

December 31, 2014

Jim Gaffigan, the Pale Comedy King Of New York (by way of small town Indiana), returned to his “hometown-in-law” for his annual holiday run at the Pabst Theater, a three-show stop on the White Beard Tour, which is produced by his wife, Jeannie Gaffigan, a Milwaukee native. 

December 18, 2014

To me, the Underground Collaborative, in the basement of the Grand Avenue Mall, is one of the more exciting artistic spaces the city has to offer. The current production there is a staging of Amiri Baraka’s Obie Award winning 1964 play Dutchman. The one-act depicts an intense encounter on a NYC subway between a black man and white woman.

November 5, 2014

“To be a real writer, you’ve got to be willing to suffer in that chair and wrestle with the blank page,” Bob Odenkirk told the crowd during his Q&A last night at the Pabst Theater.

Now that I’ve begun filling this page (look, coming up with these openings isn’t easy) let me tell you how Odenkirk ripped the traditional author reading a new one. 

October 24, 2014

There was no need for Tig Notaro to guilt us into giving her a standing ovation last night at Turner Hall, but the fact that she did, and the way that she did it, only made it more worth giving. The veteran comic, comedy writer, breast cancer survivor, actor, podcast host and all-around awesome lady slayed the audience  in a tight set that came in just under an hour. 

October 21, 2014

During an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, John Hodgman made it clear that he is not exactly a stand-up comic. He is an author, actor and humorist. The Massachusetts native has penned a trio of books, appeared on a series of radio programs and a number of television shows (most famously, as “Resident Expert” on The Daily Show). 

October 20, 2014

Had the weather been better, British rockers Bastille might have shared their big sound with our big lake under the BMO Pavillion on Saturday night. As it was, the Pabst Group put on their first show at the Milwaukee Theatre, the new life of the old Auditorium. Renovations may not have rendered her as ornate as the Pabst, but she packs more in, and her acoustics are nice. 

October 13, 2014

Not since Sam Kinison has a comic abused audiences with such love as Lewis Black. Even at age 66, and with a cold, Black managed to pierce ears and incite laughter Friday night (he also performed Saturday night as well) at the Pabst Theater.

September 29, 2014

Last Friday night I was in an Uber cab en route to the Summerfest grounds. I told my friendly driver, Jerome, that I was going to review the Lorde concert.

“Take it easy on her man, she’s only, what, 17?”

It’s true, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, better known as Lorde, is indeed young, but as the friend who joined me at the show noted, “Lorde is 17 the way Lebron was 17.”

September 16, 2014

I logged into Facebook a few months ago and saw comedian Nick Swardson (fake) licking my college friend’s nipple. In between stand up gigs and supporting roles in Adam Sandler movies, the St. Paul, Minnesota native makes time for trivia nights at bars in his home state, one of the many reasons he is beloved.

August 25, 2014

Jeff Bridges is an international icon. If you don’t think so, consider this: there was a bar around the corner from my girl friend’s place in Edinburgh, Scotland called Lebowski’s. They featured 20 varieties of the White Russian, each inspired by a character from the Coen Brothers’ cult film. Patrons would often visit dressed as Bridges titular character, complete with a signature white robe.

June 5, 2014

A vintage Massachusetts sailboat adorned with gold African trim carried Ezra Koenig and his elite East Coast band of musicians, better known as Vampire Weekend, to the shores of Lake Michigan last night. (At least that’s how I picture they travel.) Their packed BMO Harris Pavilion performance at the Summerfest grounds was a preview of the upcoming 47th installment of the Big Gig.

May 20, 2014

Aziz Ansari is a little guy, but he’s a big deal. The only other time I’d seen him before Monday night at the Riverside Theater was at a small club in Brooklyn as a guest at a special edition of Hannibal Buress’ weekly show. Ansari walked right by me on his way to the stage and I can confirm he is one short dude. For comedians like him and Kevin Hart, their height seems inverse to their audience size.

May 19, 2014

I first saw Searching for Sugar Man, an Oscar-winning documentary, at the opening night of Pop Montreal, a mini-SXSW with its own rock star basketball game, which is usually dominated by Win Butler of Arcade Fire, aka the Tim Duncan of rock stars. It was an uber hip affair at a contemporary art gallery. The second time I saw the film was at a historic theater in British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, a retirement community outside of Vancouver. 

May 13, 2014

I’ve only been to Baltimore for less than 24 hours but the city left a lasting impression. It was a whirlwind one nighter during a road trip back in 2008. I remember bar hopping on a wide cobblestone road, prostitutes being pushed on us inside a bar by their hot pimp/bartender, and getting a Milwaukee vibe the next morning. 

May 7, 2014

Birds circle above the BMO Harris Bradley Center on an unusually brisk Monday night in May. Fourth Street is all but deserted. Is this a vision of downtown Milwaukee in the near future, if the Bucks depart? I was shaken from this frightening thought by a steady beat pulsing inside Turner Hall Ballroom, the only sign of life on the block. It was the sounds of DJ Kim Anh, the opening act for LA-based electropop duo Uh Huh Her.

April 29, 2014

The last time Ira Glass stepped on a stage in Milwaukee I was strolling along Navy Pier in Chicago. A friend was visiting from Canada and I was playing tour guide. We are both fans of This American Life and when we came across the WBEZ-Chicago studio (where Glass started hostingThis American Life in 1995), saw a poster for Glass’ tour and realized he was 93 miles away at the Pabst Theater, we could have kicked ourselves.

April 9, 2014

I’ll be honest, I can understand if you lost Phantogram in the wave of electronic acts that flooded the music scene since Katrina gut-checked New Orleans. MGMT might have made the vowel and lower case letter un-cool, but they wouldn’t be the only duo to push buttons, sing some stuff, and make the kids bob their heads and shake their tail feathers. 

April 7, 2014

Last Friday night the parade of scorching guitar solos at the Experience Hendrix 2014 Tour sizzled and melted away the chilly spring. On my way to the Riverside Theater I drove through an unfortunate bout of April hail, but the show let out to clear skies. It was the second Milwaukee date for the Experience, which boasted a few new players including Bootsy Collins, Robbie Krieger of The Doors, and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes.

April 3, 2014

I had a rough Saturday night. I’m talking about one hell of a birthday party, the full details of which I won’t list but it involved way too much drinking, not much sleep and waking up with a shiner over my eye. After that episode of March madness my soul was in need of salvation. 

March 18, 2014

I was on an elevator with Anthony Jeselnik a couple years ago at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival. Before I got the chance to say anything another guy hopped in and immediately starting gushing. He claimed to be a huge fan who had kept Jeselnik’s first Comedy Central special on his DVR for two years. Jeselnik smirked and slid into his ultra-arrogant persona.

March 12, 2014

After a party a few Saturdays ago I was so far in the bag that I created a personal ad in the “men seeking women” – “casual encounters” subsection of Craigslist Milwaukee titled “Party in the USA.” I indicated I was looking for someone to go with me to the Miley Cyrus concert. I even included my picture.