Top Milwaukee concerts this week: Jason Isbell; 2Cellos; Brothers Osborne
JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT
Style: Americana for arguably one of America's most celebrated songwriters touring right now
Backstory: Isbell was a key member of a promising Americana band, the Drive-By Truckers, until he was fired from the band because of an uncontrollable drinking problem. Musician Amanda Shires (his wife for nearly five years now) helped stage an intervention, and Isbell went to rehab in 2012, emerging an even stronger songwriter with the revered solo albums "Southeastern" in 2013 and "Something More Than Free" in 2015, earning two Grammys for the latter.
Why you should go?: Isbell reunited with his band the 400 Unit for last year's "The Nashville Sound," yet another lauded Isbell release that captured the anxiety and discourse that's been sweeping through the country within the past two years — and offered some healing and hope. Isbell and the band hit Summerfest a couple weeks after the album's release that summer, playing the Outlaw Music Festival at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. On a bill that boasted Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Sheryl Crow, Isbell's performance was the standout.
Opener: Veteran Americana artist James McMurty.
Time and place:8 p.m. Wednesday, Riverside Theater, 116 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Price:$32.50 to $60 at the box office, the Pabst Theater box office (144 E. Wells St.), (414) 286-3663 and pabsttheater.org.
— Piet Levy, plevy@journalsentinel.com
BLACK VEIL BRIDES AND ASKING ALEXANDRIA
Style: Metal for 21st-century fans who can appreciate heavy glory days.
Backstory: Andy Biersack began Black Veil Brides in Cincinnati but relocated to Hollywood and got a new lineup, and from 2009, the band built up a following with DIY scrappiness and big-haired “glamour.” Asking Alexandria started from Dubai but, also from 2009, went out from England to meet the world with a generally metalcore sound.
Why you should go: Although each band presents itself differently, the most recent albums from Black Veil Brides and Asking Alexandria — 2018’s “Vale” and 2017’s “Asking Alexandria," respectively — share gleaming production, aggressive melodicism, big drama and fondness for the brashness of 1980s metal. As co-headliners, they ought to fill the evening with loud entertainment.
Opener: Dallas rock outfit Crown the Empire, which is fitting metallic support.
Time and place:6:30 p.m. Friday,, the Rave, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Price: $30 to $120 at the box office, (414) 342-7283 and therave.com.
— Jon M. Gilbertson,
Special to the Journal Sentinel
BROTHERS OSBORNE
Style: Pop-country tuneage that doesn’t brandish backwoods bona fides.
Backstory: Roughly a decade ago, Maryland siblings T.J. and John Osborne moved to Nashville and signed a recording contract with EMI’s local division and a publishing contract with Warner/Chappell. Because that’s a story many immigrants to Music Row could tell, the next step for the brothers was to distinguish themselves.
Why you should go: In 2016, Brothers Osborne issued “Pawn Shop,” a debut album that did distinguish T.J. and John as being literal “bro-country” musicians unafraid to wink at the tropes of C&W genre and subgenres alike. Substantial hits like “It Ain’t My Fault” and “Stay a Little Longer” are dustily romantic and T.J. is a convincingly down-home and manly singer.
Time and place: After 7 p.m. Milwaukee Admirals vs. Grand Rapids Griffins game, Friday, UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, 400 W. Kilbourn Ave.
Price: Included with game ticket, $20 to $40 at the box office, (800) 745-3000 and ticketmaster.com.
— Jon M. Gilbertson
DWIGHT YOAKAM
Style: Prime exemplar of the continued liveliness of old-fashioned country music.
Backstory: In the mid-1980s, Nashville wasn’t clamoring for Kentucky man Yoakam’s Bakersfield besotted honky-tonk hipness. So he moved to L.A. and played in rock clubs alongside Los Lobos and X, finding fans well outside the purview of country-radio listeners. His first album, 1986’s “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.,” is now a chestnut.
Why you should go: While Yoakam has branched out into acting gigs that range from menacing to hilarious, he’s still working as a musician. His most recent disc, 2016’s marvelous bluegrass-minded “Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars … ,” reworks rather than adds to his songwriting catalog, yet he remains a first-rate, unusual C&W performer with plenty of goodies.
Time and place:8 p.m. Saturday, Riverside Theater.
Price:$44.50 to $94.50.
— Jon M. Gilbertson
2CELLOS
Style: Two cellos (natch) played by two well-trained and open-minded cellists.
Backstory: As teenage cellists under classical tutelage in Croatia, Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser were going to find common ground. After further training in London and Vienna, the successful but money-short pair put a double-cello cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” on YouTube, which led to a major-label album, “2Cellos,” in 2011.
Why you should go: On this rescheduled tour stop originally scheduled for last October, 2Cellos will focus on 2017’s “Score,” which features renditions of music from “Game of Thrones,” “Schindler’s List” and other movies and TV shows. Šulić and Hauser also will revamp songs by Jackson and AC/DC, among others, and mingle orchestral poise with mass pleasure.
Time and place: 8 p.m. Wednesday, BMO Harris Bradley Center, 1001 N. 4th St.
Price: $37.50 to $57.50 at the box office and through Ticketmaster.
— Jon M. Gilbertson
LOCAL SHOW SPOTLIGHT
PABLOVE BENEFIT CONCERT: 7 p.m. Saturday, Turner Hall Ballroom, 1040 N. 4th St. $20 to $40 at the door and through the Pabst. Nine Milwaukee musicians pay tribute to Tom Petty at the ninth annual concert benefiting the Pablove Foundation, which provides funding for pediatric cancer research. — Piet Levy