I knew nothing other than the obvious about Ms. Lisa Marie Presley before Sunday's Pabst Theater concert.
To the delight of many music "critics," Presley has been easy prey on this, her first tour. Presley has admitted in recent news coverage that the media blitz around her debut disc, early extremely negative reviews, endless questions about her father and her whacked out relationships with Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage were pretty difficult. She's also said that being sick during the early stages of this tour was her toughest cross to bear. She's healthy now, and on Sunday night, at least, the young Presley -- rich with rock-chick eye make-up, a short leather skirt, nervous energy and a healthy dose of enthusiastic fans of both her and her dad -- made the stage her own.
With more than 550,000 albums sold since April, Presley clearly has her own place in the music world. In Milwaukee? Not so much, since commercial FM radio here has barely played her stuff other than the occasional spin of her single "Lights Out" on World Café and 99 WMYX. Chances are many of you don't even know that it is the name of the 35 year-old's debut album. Yet, somehow nearly 1,000 (937 to be exact) people found their way to the show.
Although she seemed confident on stage, Presley's six-piece band sometimes overwhelmed her gritty vocals. Chants of "You go Lisa Marie" and "We love you" were heard between nearly all of her 13 songs. There was no shortage of Elvis t-shirts or King impersonators (Tom Green sat first row). Common was the 45-year-old woman hoping to re-connect to the King via his offspring. But Sunday night was not about Elvis, it was about Lisa Marie.
Songs ran from the brutal self-analysis of "S.O.B." to the broken-hearted loss of "Nobody Noticed It." The crowd danced and sang to the dusky textures of her first single, "Lights Out," in which Presley confronts the dark side of her heritage singing:
"Someone turned the lights out there in Memphis
That's where my family's buried and gone
Last time I was there I noticed a space left
Next to them there in Memphis in the damn back lawn."
She ended with a strong version of Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker," and while there were none of dad's songs in the set, the encore concluded the night with George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
