event
Sugar Stems
Also Playing: Slow Walker and The Delphines
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Fri Dec 21
10 pm
Sugar Stems, Slow Walker, and The Delphines at Cactus Club
Bands everywhere are partying like it’s 1963 in the 21st century, digging out old girl-group harmonies and Brill Building melodies and sprucing them up with crunchy guitars. Sugar Stems aren’t exactly revolutionaries in this regard, but the Milwaukee band’s debut, Sweet Sounds Of The Sugar Stems, is still a sparkling example of how this template can spin infectious power-pop gems that marry the sexy purr of Ronnie Spector with the giddy energy of The Go-Gos. Sweet Sounds is built around the interplay of ex-Flips singer-guitarist Betsy Borst and Drew Fredrichsen, who retains the gum-chomping, sleeve-rolling cool he mastered as guitarist for Sheboygan’s Jetty Boys. Tonight the band celebrates the release of the new Can’t Wait, and while there are no confections as perfect as “Black And Blue” or “Make You Love Me,” there are a few gems almost as pretty—and, true to form, every melody is hummable (or whistleable) almost instantly.
Cactus Club 2496 S Wentworth Ave, Milwaukee, WI
Bands everywhere are partying like it’s 1963 in the 21st century, digging out old girl-group harmonies and Brill Building melodies and sprucing them up with crunchy guitars. Sugar Stems aren’t exactly revolutionaries in this regard, but the Milwaukee band’s debut, Sweet Sounds Of The Sugar Stems, is still a sparkling example of how this template can spin infectious power-pop gems that marry the sexy purr of Ronnie Spector with the giddy energy of The Go-Gos. Sweet Sounds is built around the interplay of ex-Flips singer-guitarist Betsy Borst and Drew Fredrichsen, who retains the gum-chomping, sleeve-rolling cool he mastered as guitarist for Sheboygan’s Jetty Boys. Tonight the band celebrates the release of the new Can’t Wait, and while there are no confections as perfect as “Black And Blue” or “Make You Love Me,” there are a few gems almost as pretty—and, true to form, every melody is hummable (or whistleable) almost instantly.
Updated 12/11/2012
