March is already displaying its leonine side, just as the spring entertainment season really starts roaring. The fun around town this week includes: the Greenbush Day celebration; a performance by the Bellydance Superstars and a book reading by Agate Nesaule; a film screening by Shana Moulton and Erica Magrey; and, live music from Bronze Nazareth & the Wisemen, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, RTFO Bandwagon, Pnuma Trio, Lorenzo's Music, and Clem Snide.
Monday 3.23
NOTEWORTHY: Supermodel Christie Brinkley marries piano man Billy Joel, 1985.
BIRTHDAYS: Samurai filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, 1910; Irish author J.P. Donleavy, 1926.
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
Bronze Nazareth, a hip-hop MC and producer with ties to the Wu-Tang Clan and most recently to Immortal Technique, brings the Wu sound to the Midwest via Detroit and to the High Noon via the four-person rap group the Wisemen, which released the album Wisemen Approaching in 2007. Also playing: Phillie, Megaladon, Kevlaar 7, Illah Dayz, Beace, Salute, Fall Guys, Ill Nemesis & Big T.O.N.E. and DJ Pain 1.
Tuesday 3.24
NOTEWORTHY: Exxon Valdez oil spill, 1989.
BIRTHDAYS: Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1919; attorney/TV personality Star Jones, 1962.
UW Welcome Center, 21 N. Park St., 3 pm
Music, dance, storytelling and an awards presentation mark the annual celebration of Madison's legendarily diverse Greenbush neighborhood.
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
His name is long, but thankfully, his talent is pretty deep, at least if you like a grungy, folky and sometimes trippy type of indie rock. Catch him on his way home from South By Southwest, along with rootsy, foot-tappin' indie darlings Hoots & Hellmouth.
Wednesday 3.25
NOTEWORTHY: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and followers arrive in Montgomery to complete their four-day, 50-mile march from Selma, 1965.
BIRTHDAYS: Monumental sculptor Gutzon Borglum, 1871; statuesque U.S. pole-vaulter Stacy Dragila, 1971.
Project Lodge, 7 pm
Other than its name, Columbus, Ohio's RTFO Bandwagon has very little in common with REO Speedwagon. The band plays something it calls "miniature rock 'n' roll," a minimalist style of acoustic music with a few punk flourishes. Catch the band with local minimalists Max Elliott and Zola Jesus -- and friend Varlet Tarsod -- as they head back to the Midwest from South By Southwest.
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
The jam ethos meets the techno-inspired electronic consciousness in the academy-trained Pnuma Trio's extended grooves. With Steez.
Cafe Montmartre, 9:30 pm
A six-piece band whose only official influence is peer pressure -- at least according to the group's MySpace page -- blends gypsy swing with crunchy, sax-powered rock in a manner that's at times calming and at times disquieting.
Thursday 3.26
NEW MOON
NOTEWORTHY: Guns N' Roses sign with Geffen Records, 1986.
BIRTHDAYS: Vulcan actor Leonard Nimoy, 1931; aviophobic author Erica Jong, 1942.
Borders West, 7 pm
The Madison author, acclaimed for her World War II memoir A Woman in Amber, appears to talk up her debut novel, In Love With Jerzy Kosinski. The book's about a Latvian woman who flees the war and settles in Wisconsin, as Nesaule did.
Wisconsin Union Theater, 8 pm
This touring group aims to shatter your preconceptions of bellydancing. They perform a mix of tribal, Egyptian and cabaret styles, and don't be surprised to see touches of hip-hop, flamenco, jazz, salsa and tap-dancing in their family-friendly show.
UW Memorial Union's Fredric March Play Circle, 8 pm Starlight Cinema, the long-running experimental film series, hosts multimedia works by the New York-based video and performance artists. Moulton presents Body Mind + 7 = Spirit, which touches on carpal tunnel syndrome and Angela Lansbury, among other things. Magrey's Window incorporates themes of nostalgia and self-doubt.
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
Beginning as a jazz-punk experiment in 1991, Clem Snide has evolved into a band that filters pretty pop, vintage country and a bit of old-school cool jazz through a thoroughly modern lens. Read an interview with the group's founder, Eef Barzelay, in this week's Tour Stop. Plants & Animals and the Heligoats open.
