The new Milwaukee Bucks arena has booked its venue-opening act, and that globally popular opener has a locally connected (and beloved) opener of its own. The Killers will perform the Grand Opening at the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center on Sept. 4, the Bucks announced Thursday, and the concert will also feature special guests and Milwaukee natives Violent Femmes.
The first-ever show at Milwaukee’s new state-of-the-art arena will be The Killers’ only Midwest appearance this fall. Tickets for the event will go on sale on Friday, Aug. 3 at 9 a.m. and can be purchased here.
"Grand Opening is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and we are so excited to make this an experience to remember with a stellar performance by The Killers and Milwaukee natives Violent Femmes," said Milwaukee Bucks President Peter Feigin. "This is just the beginning. We are committed to bringing the best of sports and entertainment to Milwaukee."
Formed in 2003, The Killers are a Las Vegas-based rock band that features singer/keyboardist Brandon Flowers, drummer Ronnie Vanucci, guitarist Dave Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer.
The band has received multiple Grammy nominations, American Music Award nominations, MTV Video Music Awards and more, as well as selling more than 25 million albums worldwide and headlining all of the world’s top festivals. The Killers released their newest studio album, Wonderful Wonderful, last September, and it landed at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart the week of its release.
Violent Femmes came together in 1981 and first attracted attention while busking in front of Milwaukee’s Oriental Theatre. Considered one of the most inventive and original bands of its era with a singular blend of folk and punk, sarcasm and spirituality, Violent Femmes released eight studio albums and more than a dozen iconic singles, accumulating worldwide sales of more than 10 million over three three-plus decades.
The Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center will hold a public grand opening event, along with the Bucks Block Party, on Aug. 26.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
