Enjoy a compilation of selected tracks by artists playing shows we're excited about in Madison during the week of June 1-8, 2017. For more information on these shows, read on under the Spotify playlist!
Matthȁus , Thursday, June 1, High Noon Saloon, 8 pm: Matthȁus , a chamber folk band from Chicago and St. Paul, drops its first EP, Trilogy, following in the indie-orchestral tradition of Midwestern staples Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens. With Melkweed, LASKA.
Dwarves + JFA, Thursday, June 1, Frequency, 9 pm: Dwarves formed in the Chicago area as a '60s garage-influenced band but soon grew into a sex, drugs and mayhem-espousing punk outfit. Three decades later, they still rock hard and still love to panic the prudes; if you don't know them, you probably don't want to Google them at work. Skate punk pioneer JFA is similarly legendary, anchored by founding guitarist Don Redondo and singer Brian Bannon. Madison vets Funrod make the perfect opener.
Maggie Faris, Thursday, June 1, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm: A proud Midwestern native, Maggie Faris has carved out quite the niche in the comedy landscape over the past 15 years, and is renowned for brave yet relatable and lighthearted views on the current social landscape, especially LGBT topics. In 2008 she was listed as one of the Funniest Lesbians in America by Curve Magazine. Come for the refreshing world view, and stay for the dorky non-sequiturs peppered through her set. With Spencer James, Ian Erickson. ALSO: Friday-Saturday, June 2-3, 8 & 10:30 pm.
Cloud Cult, Friday, June 2, Majestic Theatre, 8 pm: Monumental music collective Cloud Cult brings their audiovisual concept album The Seeker for a special performance at the Majestic Theater. The band, frequently accompanied by live painting and interpretive dance, performs the album live alongside a screening of the companion film of the same name, followed by a second set of material.
Big Neck Records Fest, Friday, June 2, High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm; Saturday, June 3, Mickey's Tavern, 10:30 pm: The Hussy celebrates their latest 7-inch release on garage punk stalwart Big Neck Records, and the first recordings with second guitarist Tyler Fassnacht. Friday's bill also marks the release of Wood Chickens' album on LP by the label as well, and includes sets by Memphis punkers Fresh Flesh and Madison screamers No Hoax. The fest moves to Mickey's Saturday night for fellow Big Neck artists Fire Heads, Gallery Night (with Big Neck legend Jimmy Hollywood, ex-Baseball Furies, Blowtops), D.C. pop-punkers Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Pittsburgh's sludgy T-Tops.
Jake La Botz, Saturday, June 3, Kiki’s House of Righteous Music, 8 pm:Traditional blues is where former roofer and boilermaker Jake La Botz begins. Then he makes the form even darker, creating haunted, musical habitats for his spooky poetry. You have to be doing something right if your biggest fan is actor/director Steve Buscemi. It appears that in his preference for musicians, as in his selection of roles, Buscemi likes authenticity. When not making freaked out blues songs, La Botz is known to appear on camera as he did in a cameo as the late Conway Twitty in a crazy True Detective television series scene. Netflix has selected him as a lead in a horror feature that begins shooting this month, so this might be a last chance to catch the peripatetic artist before he trades the stage for the screen — for good. RSVP to righteousmusicmgmt@gmail.com.
Fareed Haque Trio, Saturday, June 3, Café CODA, 8 pm: Born to a Pakistani father and a Chilean mother, Fareed is a virtuoso guitar player who has shared the stage with Sting, Cassandra Wilson and our own Ben Sidran. He spent years working with Paquito D’Rivera. For this show, he plays with Alex Austin (bass) and Rodrigo Villanueva (drums). You won’t want to miss his masterful melding of classical, jazz and world music traditions.
Diana Krall, Saturday, June 3, Overture Hall, 8 pm: While jazz “rock stars” may be hard to come by these days, Diana Krall is the closest thing we have to one. The vocalist-pianist is the only jazz musician to have eight albums debut atop the Billboard charts, she’s won five Grammys (three more than her husband, Elvis Costello), and gone platinum multiple times. Her most recent standards album, Turn Up the Quiet, was released earlier this year. “ One of the signature gifts of this most musically sophisticated of pop-jazz performers has long been the ability to make a giant venue feel like a shoebox jazz club,” The Guardian wrote of Krall’s 2015 performance at Royal Albert Hall. Let’s see how she does in the massive Overture Hall.
Michael McDermott, Sunday, June 4, High Noon Saloon, 7:30 pm: McDermott is living proof that being dubbed “the next Dylan” at age 24 is not a good thing. Until it is. The songwriter burned through most of the next two decades addicted to drugs as he somehow continued to write and perform. Sober now for five years, he has reignited the comparison with his new record, Willow Springs, which has all of the musical intelligence of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. With luck, his wife Heather Horton, who sings on the album, will join him on stage. With Kari Arnett.
Alan Munde & Don Stiernberg, Monday, June 5, Brink Lounge, 7 pm: Five-string banjo master Alan Munde and jazz mandolin maestro Don Stiernberg bring their finger-picking and toe-tapping tunes to the Brink Lounge. Both in the fifth decade of their musical careers, the duo will play bluegrass, originals, swing jazz and standards from the Great American Songbook. Chris Powers, host of WORT-FM's Mud Acres Bluegrass Special, will emcee the concert, presented by the Southern Wisconsin Bluegrass Music Association.
Toranavox, Thursday, June 8, Frequency, 8:30 pm: Brooklyn-based Toranavox is Japanese guitarist Ken Minami and Israeli drummer Eli Halfi; both sing, in their native languages and English. Their recordings feature tightly constructed high-energy hard rock, making a lot of noise for a duo. It'll be fun to see how they translate that dense studio sound to a live setting. With Mhos & Ohms, the Central.
Ragged Roots Revival, Thursday, June 8, High Noon Saloon, 8:30 pm: The Revival is a weekend music and camping festival July 13-16 in Wisconsin Dells. This show provides a local sneak preview of just a few of the performers, including Madison Americana masters WheelHouse; Beloit funk/rock/hip-hop hybrid Earth to Clark; Baraboo rock/soul outfit the Blacker Brothers band; and Old Soul Society singer/songwriter Derek Ramnarace.
Negative Example, Thursday, June 8, Art In, 7 pm: Madison’s Negative Example is a hard band to pin down. The energetic genre-defying post-punk outfit features a Madison institution: guitarist Bucky Pope, who fronted the 1980s darlings the Tar Babies. Negative Example’s first album caught the attention of New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff, who called Pope’s style “messy and generative, a bit more laid-back than before, grooving through all kinds of rough, peevish tracks.” With power-poppers Texas Bubble Gum Machine and Straka and Sphynx, a band whose frontwoman is a virtuoso of the bass ukulele.
Brooks Wheelan, Thursday, June 8, Comedy Club on State, 8:30 pm: Chris Farley isn’t Madison’s only connection to Saturday Night Live. In 2014, Brooks Wheelan — who appeared on SNL from 2013-2014 — recorded his debut stand-up album, This is Cool, Right? at the Comedy Club on State. Wheelan has returned to our fair city a few times since then, and the brutally honest and gleefully absurd stand-up has been hilarious each time. With Adam Burke, Omar Nava. ALSO: Friday-Saturday, June 9-10, 8 & 10:30 pm.
Find the full rundown of this week's Isthmus Picks here.
