This Month in Milwaukee

Space Station Detail - 'Amazing Stories', Vol 2, No. 7, Oct. 1927. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

This Month in Milwaukee 12 THINGS TO DO IN DECEMBER

BY ALLEN HALAS, ELIZABETH LINTONEN, DAVID LUHRSSEN AND ALAN SCULLY

SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS IN DECEMBER Ice Skating at Lynden Sculpture Garden (weather permitting)

The beautiful park-like Sculpture Garden offers skating on one of its ponds, Saturdays and Sundays, when weather and ice conditions permit. In December, the garden is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed on Thursdays).

THROUGH DECEMBER 11 The Nativity Variations Milwaukee Rep’s Quadracci Powerhouse

There is a world premiere this holiday season at the Rep from playwright Catherine Trieschmann. “The Nativity Variations was inspired by my years of writing and directing the youth Christmas play at my local Methodist Church. I wrote a comic essay about the experience for Slate,” Trieschmann says. The Rep’s Artistic Director Mark Clements read the piece and saw it as a strong basis for a play. “The Nativity Variations is far more comic and outlandish than anything I actually wrote for church, but the foundation very much comes from personal experience!”

THROUGH DECEMBER 16 “William Kentridge:

See for Yourself,” u

Warehouse Art Museum

William Kentridge might be the most important visual artist in the contemporary world, and if you dispute that claim, it’s harder to argue that he isn’t one of the most diverse, truly a multimedia artist in the fullest sense. Kentridge sculpts and produces linocuts, lithographs, screen prints, silk screens and etchings. He designs productions for opera and theater performances. He makes brilliant use of simple, even archaic technology, including films that reinvent and revisit the origins of animation as handmade drawings that move. But Kentridge’s drawings don’t only move, they move with significance.

THROUGH FEBRUARY 5

t “Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit”

Jewish Museum Milwaukee

The timeline for the exhibit begins BCE and extends through the present with many stops on the way. Einstein’s spacetime continuum gets a nod, as do a cast of astronauts and cosmonauts and science-fiction authors such as Robert Block and Isaac Asimov. A GeoDome Portal, a virtual reality environment, gives viewers many options, including close encounters with the planets of our solar system. Special events include Milwaukee film historian Patrick McGilligan’s talk on Mel Brooks (Dec. 1) and a screening of Brooks’ Spaceballs (Dec. 25).

Photo by Norbert Miguletz. Courtesy of the Warehouse Art Museum.

DECEMBER 2

Motel Breakfast, Sylmar q

The Back Room at Colectivo

The Back Room at Colectivo is becoming a haven for Milwaukee acts to try their hand at a larger room, and the East Side venue will welcome a veteran Midwest act in Motel Breakfast on Dec. 2. The band split its time between Chicago and Milwaukee while members of the band attended Marquette University, and now are bringing Cincinnati-based hybrid act Sylmar for part of the band’s final weekend of shows for the year.

MOTEL BREAKFAST

DECEMBER 9 & 10 Fall From Grace Festival X-Ray Arcade

Cudahy venue X-Ray Arcade may no longer be known as The Metal Grille, but it certainly hasn’t abandoned its fair share of heavy music. Fall From Grace Festival will take over the club for a Friday and Saturday night run this month, featuring five bands per night, headlined by long-running metal pioneers Coven, now going strong on their sixth decade of rock.

DECEMBER 15 Bleached Cross, Shamewave, Overhand, HUMID Cactus Club

Milwaukee group The Basement Collective are literally emerging from the underground on Dec. 15, bringing four local bands to Bay View’s storied Cactus Club. Bleached Cross, Shamewave, Overhand and HUMID all blend punk, indie and shoegaze together with a DIY ethos about themselves. The next generation of Milwaukee music is brooding, and you can discover four of your next favorites at this Thursday night all-ages show.

DECEMBER 16 & 17 Champagne Drip, Sippy The Miramar Theatre

If you’re itching to dance to some heavy electronic music before New Year’s Eve, Los Angeles-based DJ and Australia’s Sippy are throwing a weekend party at The Miramar Theatre with Brew City Bass and support from a host of local DJs. The Friday and Saturday night shows cap off a four-month run for the tour throughout the country, so expect the final parties from the pair to be an absolute blowout.

DECEMBER 6

John Gurda p

Historic Pabst Brewery 917 W Juneau Ave.

If you’re looking for relief from the chill of winter, look no further than a night spent at the Historic Pabst Brewery. Famed Milwaukee historian, John Gurda, presents a conversation about his new book, Brewtown Tales: More Stories from Milwaukee and Beyond, in partnership with Boswell Book Company. Packed with musings, stories, and fascinating trivia, the evening is perfect for anyone looking for some distinctive Milwaukee history. Gurda’s book talk will take place at 6:30 p.m.

DECEMBER 9-11 Bel Canto Chorus

“Christmas in the Basilica” u The Basilica of St. Josaphat is a beautiful, hushed setting for Bel Canto’s annual Christmas program featuring carols, hymns and a work by contemporary English choral composer John Rutter, his exalted, jubilant Gloria.

DECEMBER 16-18 Handel’s Messiah Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

The oratorio debuted in Dublin in 1742 and its rousing chorus has seldom been absent for long from concert stages. The text, derived from the King James Bible, summarizes prophesies of the coming Messiah and culminates with his triumphant birth. Ken-David Masur will conduct the MSO’s performance at the Bradley Symphony Center.

DECEMBER 17

Samantha Fish p

Shank Hall

Faster was released in September 2021 and marks the next chapter in what has been an impressive run of albums for Samantha Fish. After establishing herself as a blues artist to watch with her 2013 debut Black Wind Howlin’ and her 2015 follow-up Wildheart, Fish stretched out stylistically. She recorded Chills & Fever (2017) with members of the Detroit Cobras for a stellar album that included rocking vintage R&B, classic soul and sultry balladry. Later that year, her music took another turn on Belle of the West, as Fish successfully delved into rootsy Americana, with more of an acoustic, but still spunky sound. SAMANTHA FISH

Photo courtesy of Shank Hall.