Condensed Milk: April 18, 2025

Jazz Fest, Pearl Jam, Big Chief Bo Dollis, AEW Dynamite, Luke Winslow-King, Mac Sabbath, Esperanza Spalding, Olivia Valentine

Jazz Fest is less than a week away, and this week we posted a short news piece observing that on the short first leg of Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter tour, Jazz Fest is the cheapest ticket available. New Orleanians may find ticket prices steep, but in some markets it’s cheaper to travel to New Orleans and see the show at the Fair Grounds than see it in their hometown.

The piece also points out that Jazz Fest has made an effort to make tickets more affordable for Louisianans by reducing prices every day for people whose charge card has a Louisiana zip code in the billing address.

We’ve also posted our Jazz Fest landing page. We’ve got a lot of pieces in the works to coincide with the festival, and they’ll start going up this weekend. The landing page will have links to everything we post or have posted relevant to this year’s Jazz Fest. You can see links to stories on artists playing each day of Jazz Fest, as well as our picks of the artists playing as part of the Mexico showcase. One of the acts I’m lost looking forward to is El Conjunto La Nueva Ola.

The late Big Chief Bo Dollis of The Wild Magnolias will be honored when a street will be renamed in his honor. On Saturday, fans will meet at Sportman Lounge at Second & Dryades at 3 p.m. At 4, there will be a second line to the corner of Jackson Avenue and Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, where a street sign with Dollis’ name on it will be unveiled at the corner at a ceremony at 5 p.m.

On Wednesday, All Elite Wrestling will return to the UNO Lakefront Arena for a live broadcast of AEW: Dynamite and the taping of Saturday night’s AEW: Collision. I interviewed “Timeless” Toni Storm (pictured) and Harley Cameron for a story that will run at Nola.com later this week.

Since Storm conducted the interview in character, My Spilt Milk will the whole of the interview as the show gets closer. We’ll post links to both stories on My Spilt Milk’s Facebook page and Alex Rawls’ Blue Sky feed.

AEW has been on a hot streak recently, and Wednesday’s show will include a match in the Owen Hart Cup tournament between Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander, and tag team action between newcomers “Speedball” Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight against The Young Bucks, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson. Tickets are on sale now.

Luke Winslow-King spent 15 years in New Orleans and did some formative time here, and he’s returning to play Jazz Fest with Roberto Luti on Saturday, April 26 at 4:40 p.m. in the Rhythmporium. Last year Winslow-King released a new album, Flash-A-Magic, and he and Luti will play Chickie Wah Wah on Tuesday night. Tickets are on sale now.

Mac Sabbath gives us Black Sabbath’s greatest hits with fast food-related lyrics, played by the demented McDonaldland characters. Their rock is solid, and they’ll play the House of Blues on Thursday night. Tickets are on sale now.

Last year, Esperanza Spalding released Milton + esperanza, her collaboration with Brazilian singer and songwriter Milton Nascimento. When she played a recent residency at The Blue Note in NYC, she performed songs from that album along with material from the substantial breadth of her career.

Spalding will play The Orpheum on Thursday night, and tickets are on sale now.

Olivia Valentine’s an indie rock band, not a singer. When I wrote about one of their songs last fall, I heard them at the midpoint between Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth and Pavement. On “And Now Just Be,” I’d swap Sonic Youth for The Cure, but you get the picture. Everything sounds familiar-esque, but not too familiar. You don’t know the songs already. And, they’re executed well enough that you hear the songs, not the band’s hopes.

Olivia Valentine will play Gasa Gasa with Across Phoenix and Chef Menteur. Tickets are on sale now.