Thursday, March 26
Brian Regan @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m.
For
a comedian, a Patton Oswalt endorsement is like having Duke coach Mike
Krzyzewski tell you he likes the way you play basketball—it means
you’re pretty good at what you do. Brian Regan’s observational comedy
lives up to the praise Oswalt has given it. At first, Regan seems like
a normal comedian, bashing doctors, airports and all the same things
that regular comedians joke about, but his humor cuts a little deeper
than the normal stand-up. He has a way of making material about even
the most conventional targets funny again.
Friday, March 27
Brian Jonestown Massacre w/ Flavor Crystals @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
The
Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe is psychedelic rock’s answer
to The Game, an erratic frontman who runs his mouth off and beefs with
any and everyone possible, usually the nearest person to him, which
during his concerts is sometimes his own band (which he once broke into
a fistfight with on stage) and occasionally the audience (the 2004
documentary DiG! detailed him kicking an audience member in the head).
Of course, most Brian Jonestown Massacre shows go without incident, but
stories like these have given the band an almost mythical aura in
certain rock circles—even though they’ve come at the expense of the
greater, major-label success that once seemed like a sure thing for the
enigmatic group.
Asleep at the Wheel @ The Cedarburg PAC, 8 p.m.
Since
their inception in the ’70s, Austin’s Asleep at the Wheel have been the
most devout torch carriers of the Western swing style of country music
popularized by the late Bob Wills. Throughout the decades, the ensemble
has frequently crossed paths with another famous Wills fan, Willie
Nelson, most recently recording this year’s full-length collaboration
with Nelson called Willie and the Wheel, which included guests Vince
Gill and Paul Shaffer.
Saturday, March 28
Blue Note 7 @ The Wilson Center, 8 p.m.
With
a punchy, horn-filled lineup that mirrors those of the classic Blue
Note sessions, pianist Bill Charlap leads a septet of players for this
tour behind the 70th anniversary of the record label, perhaps the most
influential in the history of jazz. With saxophonist Ravi Coltrane,
guitarist Peter Bernstein and trumpeter Nicholas Payton, among others,
Charlap will cover some of the label’s most familiar standards,
including tunes by Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock.
Cute is What We Aim For @ The Rave, 7 p.m.
Having
already burned through two drummers and two bassists during their
whirlwind, three-year tenure, Cute Is What We Aim For have endured
enough reported personal conflicts to drive a season of “The
Hills”—which is appropriate, since this young emo group shares much the
same target demo as that MTV reality drama. No doubt their early
success is to blame for some of their instability; after being signed
to the powerful Fueled By Ramen label, the group became stars while
they were still teenagers. A slick, poppy new album, Rotation, suggests
they could find an original voice after treading a little too closely
to the Fall Out Boy formula, but the September departure of drummer Tom
Falcone suggests they still have a few interpersonal kinks to iron out.
Sharing this Take Action Tour with the group is Breathe Carolina, Every
Avenue and Meg & Dia, a sibling-fronted emo-pop group who by their
very nature evoke Tegan and Sara comparisons.
Flight Box @ Milwaukee Art Museum, 6:30 p.m.
Present
Music’s latest program revives Kamran Ince’s Flight Box, a piece
commissioned for the opening of Santiago Calatrava’s art museum
expansion that plays on the aeronautical quality of the architect’s
winged design. The bill will also include a half-dozen other pieces
that explore similar themes of space and flight, including works by
Karen Tanaka and Henry Brant. Attendees will also be invited to make
their own paper airplanes before the show, then compete with them in a
distance-throwing competition.
Sunday, March 29
Walter Trout @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Booze
and drugs defined Walter Trout’s early career as a young blues
musician. The former Canned Heat and Bluesbreakers guitarist would have
to be on something in order to get the right feeling to perform, but
after Carlos Santana gave him a talking to after a gig more than two
decades ago, Trout decided to clean himself up. He’s shredded solos
with the best: John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton and Joe Tex have all
stood by his side—but don’t be fooled, this is a guy who can command
the stage by himself.
Tuesday, March 31
Enter the Haggis @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Local
promoters are increasingly honing in on two can’t-miss genres that
reliably fill up music venues: Irish-rock and jam-music. Toronto’s
Enter the Haggis draws a little bit from column A and a little bit from
column B, laying down music grounded in the Celtic tradition while
fusing bits and pieces of rock, bluegrass, folk, prog, jazz and the
occasional dash of ska and reggae.
Cloud Cult w/ Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7:30 p.m.
Minneapolis’
Cloud Cult shares Eels’ love of quirky, electronic beats and cinematic
soundscapes and Beck’s knack for dynamic, flashy live shows.
Thematically, much of the group’s music is inspired by the 2002 death
of frontman Craig Minowa’s young son—somber subject matter that
furthers the Eels comparisons—but their visually loaded concerts feel
more like colorful birthday parties than funerals. Openers Margot and
the Nuclear So and So’s were unable to agree with Epic Records on a
final track listing for their major-label debut, so the album arrives
in two incarnations: the small-release Animal!, the band’s preferred
version, and the derisively titled Not Animal, the label’s
market-tested, mass-release version. Epic’s edit is the more defanged
the two, stripping Animal! of its more atmospheric, Radiohead-esque
moments, but it’s not like the label painted over a Rembrandt. With its
cutesy, paint-by-numbers indie-pop arrangements, Animal! isn’t
particularly feral, either.
Wednesday, April 1
Ladytron w/ The Faint and Telepathe @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
Tonight’s
Turner Hall Ballroom concert is one of the rare bills where all three
performers could be equal draws. Headliners Ladytron, a burgeoning
electro-pop band from Liverpool, are riding some serious nextbig-thing
buzz, thanks to a rumored collaboration with Christina Aguilera on her
next album. Not to be outdone, though, with their grinding, trance-like
synthesizers and Knife-like vocals, Telepathe is riding high from last
week’s South by Southwest festival, where they were one of the more
in-demand acts. And The Faint? Well, they’ll probably never be the next
big thing, but they’ll always be a reliable concert draw. The Omaha
synth-rock band, with its shout-outs to New Order and cleverly
existential take on dance music’s favorite theme—sex—always put on a
sharp show.
The Tallest Man on Earth w/ Red Cortez @ The Pabst Theater, 7 p.m.
How
does a scrawny Swede like Kristian Matsson so perfectly capture the
Appalachian spirit of bluesmen like Mississippi John Hurt? With a voice
so reedy it makes Bob Dylan sound like Pavarotti, Matsson fingerpicked
his way through last year’s earthy Shallow Grave, an album that earned
him the endorsement from 2008’s breakout star of the indie-folk scene,
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who has deemed the artist one of the best
he’s ever seen. Tonight’s free Tallest Man on Earth show inaugurates
the Pabst Theater’s new No Buck Show series.
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