Thursday, Jan. 15
The Super Noble Brothers @ The Oriental Theatre, 7 p.m.
One
of the biggest crowd pleasers at the 2007 Milwaukee International Film
Festival, Mark Escribano’s longitudinal documentary The Super Noble
Brothers follows a fraternal trio of staples from the Milwaukee arts
and music scene as they jump from venture to venture, trying to make a
living from their art, often without much success. Set to a
soundtrack of kinetic, old-school funk and soul, the documentary is
grounded in the specifics of Milwaukee, but its story about
non-conformists determined to turn their idiosyncratic interests into
real careers is shared by hundreds of artists in similarly sized cities
around the country. Tonight Escribano presents his latest cut of the
film, along with a chic fashion show from Fashion Ninja.
Friday, Jan. 16
Disturbed w/ Skindred and Destrophy @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Though
Disturbed rode nu metal’s coattails to early fame, the group was never
as noxious as the standard-issue nu metal band and seldom left
listeners feeling sexually assaulted like with peers Slipknot and
Mushroomhead. It’s not too surprising, then, that Disturbed proved
themselves one of the more commercially savvy and resilient of the
turn-of-the-century metal bands, jettisoning most of their industrial
hiphop undertones when the tides turned against nu metal. By last
year’s Indestructible, their fourth studio record, the Chicago band had
morphed into a Voltron-sized hardrock act, more indebted to the
Pantera/Metallica school of arena-friendly thrash metal than the Fred
Durst Institute of In-Yo’-Faceness.
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus w/ Tickle Me Pink and The Becoming @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
If
it were possible to mash everything on alternative radio into a doughy
paste, then cook the batter in an Easy-Bake oven for a half hour, the
resulting band would probably be indistinguishable from The Red
Jumpsuit Apparatus. This shape-shifting Florida
group wraps Hoobastank’s faux-metal, All-American Rejects’ mall-pop and
Fall Out Boy’s arena-emo into one earnest package, with room to spare
for some acoustic “Hey There Delilah”-styled balladeering. Their 2006
major-label debut, Don’t You Fake It, housed the strikingly good hit
“Face Down,” an impassioned account of domestic violence as visceral as
anything on alt radio at the time, but little else of note. The band
looks for a follow-up hit next month when they release their new disc,
Lonely Road.
MAM After Dark: Gallery Night Edition @ The Milwaukee Art Museum, 5 p.m.
Perhaps
our good lord and savior isn’t an art lover. He certainly has a funny
way of cursing Milwaukee’s winter Gallery Nights with some of the most
insufferable weather of the year, and if current forecasts hold, Friday
should be brittle beyond all belief. Conveniently, though, the
Milwaukee Art Museum is offering something of a one-stop Gallery Night
destination for those too intimidated by the wind chill to hop from
gallery to gallery. In addition to a gallery tour of its new
exhibition, “Catesby, Audubon and the Discovery of a New World,” the
museum is hosting break dancers in Windhover Hall, printmaking lessons
in the DIY Studio and a beer tasting with 14 local, craft and imported
brews all doing their part to help you make it through the rest of this
unholy winter.
Saturday, Jan. 17
17 Hippies @ Alverno College, 8 p.m.
There
aren’t actually 17 of them, but Berlin’s 17 Hippies top off at a
stillrespectable 13 members, specializing in instruments ranging from
accordions, banjos, bagpipes, clarinets, violins and bouzoukis (a
lute-like tool that’s far less nefarious than its name sounds). All
those instruments and players suggest a cluttered slog of sound, yet
these Germans mercifully resist the over-boiling melting pot approach
now favored by so many acts in the world-music circuit. Instead, theirs
is a blithe, graceful sound, drawing mainly from classic acoustic folk
while welcoming soft, tasteful accents of Cajun and Balkan music.
The Wailers @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
Time
magazine declared Bob Marley & The Wailers’ 1977 album Exodus,
marked by the singles “Jamming” and “One Love,” the greatest album of
the 20th century. That opinion is shared by plenty of reggae
fans, too, so it was perhaps only a matter of time until The Wailers—or
what’s left of them, anyway, since Marley and three other original
members have passed on—did a tour performing their best-loved album in
its entirety. Though the band is basically a nostalgia act at this
point, albeit one that inherited one of the most powerful monikers in
reggae history, current frontman Elan Atias hits the same passionate
notes as Marley did decades ago.
Frank Caliendo @ The Riverside Theater, 8:30 p.m.
Frank
Caliendo takes a quantity over quality approach to celebrity
impersonations, doling out dozens of them with wildly mixed results.
Never mind that his Bill Clinton isn’t even in the same league as
Darrell Hammond’s, or that the average man on the street could do a
better Seinfeld impression than his; it doesn’t take much talent to
rise to the top of “MADtv,” and Caliendo’s manic energy and goodnatured
enthusiasm quickly made him that show’s breakout star. The Waukesha
native’s latest sketch comedy show on TBS, “Frank TV,” has performed
well by the standards of the network, even though its inaugural season
was interrupted by last year’s writers’ strike.
The Musical Box @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Mirroring
the insane success of Pink Floyd’s many tributes and cash-ins, Genesis
has spawned its own cottage industry of high-concept cover bands. The
unquestionable kings of this roost are The Musical Box, a lucrative
touring ensemble that not only recreates the sound of classic Genesis,
but also the elaborate spectacle, right down to the costumes and
lasers. Their latest tour places them in 1976, a tumultuous time when
Genesis released their first album sans Peter Gabriel, A Trick of the
Tail. Tonight’s performance will no doubt spark heated pre-show
conversations about the merits of Phil Collins as a singer.
Monday, Jan. 19
Foreplay Mondays @ The Miramar Theatre, 8 p.m.
A
new weekly event at the Miramar Theatre promises to offer a hub for
those insatiable individuals who find the “casual encounters” section
of Craigslist a bit too unreliable. Billing itself as a
couples-friendly gathering that also doubles as a meeting ground for
singles and swingers, Foreplay Mondays pairs all manner of salacious
art forms: heated poetry, erotica, nudie dancing, adult videos and,
stretching the conventional definition of art, perhaps, an
old-fashioned, whip-cracking dominatrix show.
