BRONCHO ON STAGE THE WEEK’S BEST
WINDHAND
Style: A pleasurably shivering expansion beyond doom metal.
Backstory: Windhand formed in Richmond, Va., around 2009, and released its first LP, “Windhand,” in 2012. The group has been affiliated with the sludgy doom-metal subgenre, but lead singer Dorthia Cottrell has explored an acoustic-mode solo career and the band has connected with producer Jack Endino, who also worked with Nirvana and Soundgarden.
Why you should go: Windhand’s fourth LP and second with Endino, “Eternal Return,” incorporates the doom into heavy acid trips, stomps through the less-trampled regions of grunge and Cottrell’s increased effectiveness as the tip of Windhand’s spear. Live, the stomps likely will stomp harder and the trips will get … trippier.
Openers: Psychedelically punky Satan’s Satyrs — which shares Virginia origins, and a 2018 split EP, with the headliner — and Moon Rats, a Milwaukee combo bowing to metallic prog and stoner rock.
Time and place: 9 p.m. Friday, Cactus Club, 2496 S. Wentworth Ave. Price: $15 at cactusclubmilwaukee .com and the door.
— Jon M. Gilbertson, Special to the Journal Sentinel
NICKI BLUHM
Style: A strong emergence of a rootsrock frontwoman into solo status.
Backstory: When Nicki Bluhm was 19, she met her future musical and personal collaborator, Tim Bluhm of the Mother Hips. They married in 2007 and contributed their talents to Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers until 2015, when they began the process of divorcing, matrimonially and creatively. Nicki moved to Nashville and found friends and musicians both familiar and new.
Why you should go: Nicki’s new solo disc, “To Rise You Gotta Fall,” adroitly handles her emotional turmoil and smoothly presents her music with soulful, bluesy, woodsy and rocking facets. After teaming up with the likes of Ryan Adams and the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh, and after recording at Memphis’ Sam Phillips Recording Studio, she’s in a mood to prove her worth.
Opener: Old Crow Medicine Show alumnus Gill Landry, currently on a dark Americana journey.
Time and place: 8 p.m. Friday, Shank Hall, 1434 N. Farwell Ave.
Price: $15 at the box office, (866) 4683401 and ticketweb.com.
— Jon M. Gilbertson
MASON JENNINGS
Style: Earnest songs with a firm but easygoing grip on folk music.
Backstory: Born in Hawaii and raised mostly in Pittsburgh, Mason Jennings eventually moved to Minneapolis to nurture a musical career. And it’s easy to hear one of Minnesota’s most famous musicians, Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan, in the vocals of Jennings, especially on early albums like 2000’s “Birds Flying Away.”
Why you should go: While fellow musicians like Jack Johnson and Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock have assisted Jennings’ career, he had to take time off in 2016 while facing sobriety, divorce, depression and agoraphobia. His sweetly old-fashioned and folk-driven latest album, this year’s “Songs From When We Met,” takes inspiration from his second wife, Josie.
Time and place: 8 p.m. Saturday, the Back Room at Colectivo Coffee, 2211 N. Prospect Ave.
Price: $25 at the door, the Pabst Theater box office (144 E. Wells St.), the Riverside Theater box office (116 W. Wisconsin Ave.), (414) 286-3663 and pabst theater.org. — Jon M. Gilbertson
Style: The coalescing of styles into coherently askew pop-rock goodness.
Backstory: In 2010, some Oklahoma folks, more or less led by Ryan Lindsey, passed around demos and got a concert gig before most of the folks were even asked if that was something they’d like to do. In 2011, the firmed-up Broncho put out its first album, “Can’t Get Past the Lips,” and the catchy 2013 single “It’s On” got heard on the hip, popular TV series “Girls.”
Why you should go: No longer enamored with punk as it was in early days and more inclined to use New Wave elements for artistic rather than kitsch value, Broncho has, with its new and fourth album, “Bad Behavior,” achieved consistent tunefulness. Onstage, Lindsey and company could get grittier without losing Broncho’s slyly androgynous, guitar-carved grooves.
Openers: Valen, an L.A.-based singer-songwriter with indie hints, and Whips, a local group with more than hints of indie and rock.
Time and place: 9 p.m. Thursday, Cactus Club, 2496 S. Wentworth Ave.
Price: $12 in advance, $15 day of show.