Lady Gaga Tour Milwaukee Bradley Center Stop September 2

Lady Gaga plays the Bradley Center on September 2. She's white hot right now, and as long as she continues to come out on stage with crazy costumes, she may stay hot for more than a year or two. Why the harsh reality here? I'll be happy to lay it out for the Gaga fans.

She's popular here in the United States. She's not as popular worldwide, but close. In fact, the traffic her website receives is overwhelmingly from the US. The United Kingdom is less interested in her right now, and only six percent of her web traffic overall is from the U.K. If you want to be an international star, you have to be more popular than that. Yes, she's booking huge venues across the world as of this post, but just three short months ago, she played in a club smaller than the Rave in Milwaukee. I guess you have to start somewhere.

Her audience is mostly made up of the 14 to 20 year old crowd. That also means the parents have to pony up the dough to get their kids into the Lady Gaga Bradley Center show. Yes, there are adults that like her too, but those numbers are just not as high. Is she the new Madonna? Quite possibly. Will she settle the 32 million dollar lawsuit with the person who helped to create her image, most likely.

I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon, but this is a casting call artist and little more than that. She literally answered an ad, and was formed into the persona she is today. They test marketed this product, and rolled her out. They brought her back into the factory, adjusted a few things, and rolled her back out. Yes, she worked hard before being "discovered," and she has some talent, but we are looking at a product that was molded into the thing it is today. Most musicians, singers, and dancers do it. We see what people like, and work from there. Don't tell me that it's not true. We wouldn't be on stage if we didn't want to please the audience. You don't spend that kind of money on costumes and fake hype without a very thorough business plan. It's working. She's selling the product. She comes to Milwaukee in five months.

Steve Martin Riverside Theater Blue Grass Show

Steve Martin is bringing his blue grass show to the Riverside Theater on April 20th. Yes, Mr. Martin is a comedian. In fact, I find that his books are very funny. Cruel Shoes comes to mind when I think of one of his better efforts. He's always played banjo, on top of being very funny. The Riverside Theater Milwaukee is a great venue for his show. I wonder if he played his comedy routine there many years ago?

The band baking him up is called the Steep Canyon Rangers. The tour starts in Detroit on April 19th. At least our friend Steve Martin will have one warm up gig before coming to the Riverside Theater.

Live Show at Milwaukee Bucks Games?

The Milwaukee Admirals had the Dropkick Murphys perform after their hockey game. It was a huge success. Would the Milwaukee Bucks do anything like that? Probably not.

The NBA has so much more control over what teams do as far as promotions. A minor league hockey team is not nearly as high profile as the NBA. With that being said, would Bucks Tickets sell at a faster pace if the NBA allowed the Bradley Center management to have a live band perform just after the game?

The Bucks are a small market team. Revenue streams of any kind should be explored. Not to mention, you could draw new Bucks fans if you match up the right bands to play live. Some say that it's not needed. If you ever go to an early season Bucks game, you might disagree. The seats are empty in the upper levels for games on weeknights. Why not have a band play after the game.

Binky Tunny Last Show | We Will Miss Them

Binky Tunny is a band that I have followed since 2005. I first saw them play at a club in Sheboygan. We were the opening act. I remember that their guitar player had purple and yellow striped pants, and Binky played a Budweiser guitar. I later found out that she was sponsored by Bud.

It seemed that once I noticed the band, they were everywhere. I saw them at a church festival, Heartbreakers, the BBC, and of course Summerfest Milwaukee. They were what you would call a working band.

I must admit that it was hard to keep up with the line up changes. In those five years, they went through two guitar players, two drummers, and four bass players. Sometimes, you would see the band with seven people on stage, other times just three. No matter, it was always fun.

According to the Binky Tunny website, this is the last show. They are releasing a CD on the same night. Par for the course that Binky would release a disk and then shut the band down. I kind of like that idea too. They are offering up something for posterity, and saying goodbye for free at the Bomb Shelter on March 27th. I love free shows. I'll miss Binky Tunny and the Farmland Chokehold.

Justin Bieber Summerfest Marcus Amphitheater June 27th

Justin Bieber will perform his three popular songs on June 27th at Summerfest. This one has me wondering what the heck is going on with the booking of Marcus Amphitheater shows. I understood the two night Petty fest. I understand the three nights of country music, seeing that the Waukesha republicans need someone to see at Summerfest. Really? Justin Bieber as a headline act?