This Month in Milwaukee

13 THINGS TO DO IN AUGUST

BY HARRY CHERKINIAN, ALLAN HALLAS, ELIZABETH LINTONEN, DAVID LUHRSSEN AND BLAINE SCHULTZ

AUGUST 2-20 Peninsula Music Festival, Ephraim

The 70th season for this Door County summertime Symphony Series features several guest conductors and soloists in a repertoire that changes daily. Among the featured composers are Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Bruckern, Richard Strauss, Mendelssohn, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Shostakovich—masterworks spanning the symphonic traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries.

AUGUST 5 Telethon: Grand Spontanean: A Tale Told in Five Acts X-Ray Arcade

There are ambitious projects, and then there is the grandiose piece of local music that indie rockers Telethon have created. Grand Spontanean, a one-night only performance from the band, tells of an apocalyptic rock opera, in the style and flair for the dramatic with the quirkiness that only Telethon can provide. The band has already become mainstays on the local scene for their irreverent songwriting and high-energy performances, but this could very well take things to a new level at Cudahy’s X-Ray Arcade. This special 90-minute performance also marks the five-year anniversary of the self-proclaimed “very famous” all-ages venue.

THROUGH AUGUST 7 Newsies Sunset Playhouse

Newsies, the 1992 Disney film turned 2011 Broadway musical, promises a spectacular production with its nonstop, high-flying energy featuring a talented cast of young people. They sing, dance and tap their way across the stage, moving Newsies in joyful leaps and bounds, defying gravity. Newsies is based on a real-life event: the 1899 newsboys strike in New York City. The newsboys or “hawkers” that sold newspapers on the street fought back against wealthy publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.

AUGUST 7 Happy Together Tour Wisconsin State Fair Main Stage

As the ‘60s ended and the ‘70s began, Top-40 radio was filled with an unending rotation of succinct, catchy hits. For anyone wishing to relive those memories live and outdoors, the Happy Together Tour returns this year to the State Fair. With The Turtles’ founding members Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (aka Flo and Eddie) as hosts, the show rolls out members of Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, The Association, The Buckinghams, The Vogues and The Cowsills for an evening of tuneful nostalgia.

AUGUST 8 Motel Breakfast & Bug Moment Cactus Club

A pair of young, buzzing bands will take a long weekend into a Monday night show at Cactus Club. Motel Breakfast blend elements of indie rock, pop, and Americana in a way that could best be described as non-denominational drinking music for your pub of choice. Previous shows around Milwaukee have drawn big crowds, who often become livelier as the band’s set goes on. They’ll be joined by emerging pop act Bug Moment, who are quickly getting their name spread amongst the city’s music scene with regular shows following 2021’s Bugs LP.

Fereshtini #9 (#4 of 4 in series), 2007 © Siona Benjamin, courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee

WAUKESHA ROTARY BLUES FEST WAUKESHA ROTARY BLUES FEST

Photo courtesy of Waukesha Rotary Blues Fest.

AUG. 12-13

Waukesha Rotary Blues Fest p

Naga-Waukee Park, Delafield

This years’ headliners, the Duke Robillard Band and Sue Foley, are nationally known performers keeping the blues alive. Robillard is a veteran of Roomful of Blues and The Fabulous Thunderbirds; Foley has released 15 albums since debuting in 1992. The bands perform under a big tent, but you’re welcome to bring your own blanket or folding chair if you want to sit further back. Music runs from 1-10 p.m. daily.

AUGUST 13 Center Street Daze

Set in the heart of Riverwest, one of Milwaukee’s most diverse neighborhoods, this funky street festival returns for 2022. Since 1997 Center Street Daze has showcased businesses, artists and other vendors of the neighborhood and beyond. Set on Center Street from Humboldt to Holton Avenues, the community-oriented one-day event includes the Art Cart pushcart race, a classic car show, outdoor billiards, over 30 bands on eight stages and more than 100 vendors.

AUGUST 17 The Toasters, Something to Do, Highball Holiday X-Ray Arcade

Put on your dancing shoes. Generations and waves of ska will converge in Cudahy when legends The Toasters come to the venue on their “Four Decades of Ska” tour. They’ll be joined by local ska act Something to Do, who have become standouts in their own right as part of the next generation of ska acts. Highball Holiday round out the bill, fresh off of the release of their self-titled debut LP this past January, as well as several subsequent singles.

AUGUST 17

David Maraniss t

Milwaukee Public Central Library

An underdog story of loss, triumph, and sportsmanship, David Maraniss’ The Path Lit by Lightning is the true story of the Olympian, Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States. Join Maraniss as he shares his book and with it, the story of a reputation lost and found. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist will be presenting his work 6:30 p.m. in the Central Library’s August 17 in the library’s Centennial Hall.

Photo courtesy of Waukesha Rotary Blues Fest.

AUGUST 18-21

Milwaukee Irish Fest u

Summerfest Grounds

It’s still hard to believe and it’s still true: the world’s largest Irish music festival isn’t in Dublin or at Donegal Bay but on Milwaukee’s lakefront. This year’s lineup includes acts from around the globe as well as the Cream City, including We Banjo 3, Socks in the Frying Pan, Finbar MacCarthy, Frogwater, Atlantic Wave and the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance.

AUGUST 20 Ayre in the Square Catalano Square

The 2022 Ayre in the Square concert series wraps up its season on August 20, with a free outdoor show in the Third Ward at Catalano Square. In the final concert of the year, three bands will take the stage, headlined by a special double set from Funk Summit Bass Team. They’ll be joined by indie rockers Ben Harold & the Rising, as well as Oh Geeez, a pop band that has amassed a following online during the pandemic for crafting songs inspired by children’s series Duck Tales, amongst others. MILWAUKEE IRISH FEST

Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Irish Fest.

THROUGH SEPT. 3 Dad’s Season Tickets Northern Sky Theater, Fish Creek

If the thought of bacon-wrapped cheese curds makes you salivate, perhaps you’d better get a ticket to Northern Sky’s production of Dad’s Season Tickets. The tale focuses on the plight of a recent widower, Frank Kosinski (Jonathan Gillard Daly, a Milwaukee theater stalwart for more than 20 years). The white-haired Frank, who lives in Green Bay, is agonizing over which of his three daughters will inherit his Packers tickets when he dies (yes, this is a real thing in Wisconsin).

THROUGH SEPT. 25 “Beyond Borders: The Art of Siona Benjamin” Jewish Museum Milwaukee

Siona Benjamin’s paintings conjure universes of multiplicity where the myths of many nations cohere and inspire. One dominant recurring image is a woman in blue, representing both the artist and Lilith, the first woman and Adam’s legendary first wife. Blue is also the color associated with many deities in Hindu iconography. “Beyond Borders” contains a multitude of sources, including angels from Persian miniatures, the flames and arrows of Christian martyrdom, Hindu mandalas and many-armed goddesses, amulets common to the Islamic and Jewish Near East and a mix of alphabets (Lilith in Hindi) as well as Indian comic books, illuminated medieval manuscripts and ‘60s American pop art. t