Top shows this week: Concert for Refugees, more
LAMPEDUSA: CONCERT FOR REFUGEES
Style: A stacked bill of Americana artists — plus a rock legend — going acoustic for a special concert and cause.
Backstory: Last summer, 13-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris traveled to Ethiopia to witness the work of Jesuit Refugee Services' Global Education Initiative; in 2015 alone the non-profit provided education for 141,000 refugees in 38 countries. Following the formula for her recurring Concerts for a Landmine Free World tours, Harris called up some of her esteemed friends to go out on a tour benefitting JRS. Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, the Milk Carton Kids and Ruby Amanfu are on the bill, with Led Zeppelin frontman and accomplished solo artist Robert Plant joining the tour starting with this show.
Why you should go: Plant's made it clear that he only plans to play two to three songs, but regardless, you'll probably never get a chance to see a bill like this again, and special collaborations are almost a certainty.
Time and place: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St.
Price: $65 at the box office, the Riverside Theater box office, (414) 286-3663 and pabsttheater.org.
— Piet Levy
plevy@journalsentinel.com
GLORIA TREVI
Style: Latin pop bearing the expertise of a genuine international superstar.
Backstory: From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, Trevi was as popular in Latin America as Madonna was in the U.S., and she had a similar bent for tweaking bluenoses. In 2000, unfortunately, she was imprisoned for corruption of minors and sexual abuse. After being acquitted and released in 2004, she began rebuilding her career.
Why you should go: Trevi’s latest album, 2015’s “El Amor,” could hardly be less controversial, because, as its title indicates, it’s all songs about love. Yet she sings with melodramatic passion to match the gigantic pop classicism of the music, and the Mexico native’s current world tour for the album promises ear and eye candy.
Time and place:9:15 p.m. Friday, Riverside Theater, 116 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Price: $65 to $110.
— Jon M. Gilbertson,
Special to the Journal Sentinel
MEGADETH
Style: Older-school heavy metal that sets itself at odds with newer world orders.
Backstory: If the band Dave Mustaine formed after getting the ax from Metallica has never had as much influence or success as Metallica, his distinctive clenched-teeth vocals have helped make Megadeth instantly recognizable for over three decades.
Why you should go: Despite Mustaine’s fondness for paranoid politics, Megadeth’s most recent LP, this year’s “Dystopia,” reinforces a reputation — which had been flagging in the 21st century — for complex interplay, relentless headbanging and lyrics meant to make people pay attention and maybe think.
Openers: Swedish death-metal act Amon Amarth, durable California thrash group Suicidal Tendencies, power-metal provider Metal Church and groove-metal bi-gender band Butcher Babies.
Time and place:6 p.m. Saturday, UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, 400 W. Kilbourn Ave.
Price: $42 to $350 at the box office, (800) 745-3000 and ticketmaster.com.
— Jon M. Gilbertson
SKYLAR GREY
Style: Contemporary pop in the realm of Nelly Furtado and Lorde, yet not too much like everything else.
Backstory: Born in Mazomanie as Holly Brook Hafermann, the woman who first recorded as Holly Brook didn’t become Skylar Grey until earlier this decade, by which time she was co-writing hits like Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” and guesting on singles by Dr. Dre and Lupe Fiasco.
Why you should go: Her second Grey full-length, the recently released “Natural Causes,” coalesces myriad stated influences, including obvious ones like Fiona Apple and indies like Bon Iver, into music that seems ready to skulk its way toward pop charts rather than lunge onto them.
Opener:Morgxn, whose “Love You With the Lights On” single is a comer.
Time and place:8 p.m. Saturday, the Rave, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Price:$15 at the box office, (414) 342-7283 and therave.com.
— Jon M. Gilbertson
DONNY MCCASLIN GROUP
Style: Jazz mindful of the genre’s history of taking the past and turning it toward the future.
Backstory: Since the 1980s, Donny McCaslin has been playing saxophone — he also is a solid flautist — with as much stylistic variety as the instrument can magnificently encompass. He’s always been worth hearing, although many more heard him after he played with David Bowie, first on a single and then on Bowie’s final album, “Blackstar.”
Why you should go: Out later this month and dedicated to Bowie, the record “Beyond Now” features central “Blackstar” personnel and puts original compositions alongside covers of Bowie, Mutemath, the Chainsmokers and Deadmau5. McCaslin’s horn is not the only standout, but his playing is a special testament to Bowie’s keen ear.
Time and place:7:30 p.m. Thursday, South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, 901 15th Ave., South Milwaukee.
Price: $20 to $34 at the box office, (414) 766-5049 and southmilwaukeepac.org.
— Jon M. Gilbertson
Local Show Spotlight
CELEBRATE DAVE MONROE'S BIRTHDAY
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave. No cover, donations encouraged. The local, larger-than-life vinyl DJ, who passed away last year, is honored with a dance party benefitting Aurora Zilber Family Hospice. — Piet Levy