Spring in Madison hits the another peak this weekend with the Capital City Jazz Fest, the Crazylegs Classic, and Party on the Terrace. The calendar also includes: a screening of Koch Brothers Exposed; a talk by Nathan Englander with Kevin González; productions of Cinderella and 900; a Candid Concert Opera performance; Slowed Motion at the Inferno; and, live music by Control, Blackbird Blackbird, The Infamous Stringdusters, Ezra Furman, Venus in Furs, Emily Hurd, Mike Farris, Surgeons in Heat, The Dear Hunter, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Greydon Square, Drunk Drivers, and Fountains of Wayne.
Friday 4.27
Quality Inn & Suites, Fitchburg, 6:30 pm
The Madison Jazz Society's trad-leaning fest is sold out Saturday and Sunday, but you might be able to get tickets to see the Milwaukee Connection, the Frisco Jazz Band and other national groups tear it up on Friday.
Oakwood Village-University Woods, 7 pm. Also Capitol Lakes, Saturday, April 28, 7 pm
The group stages small-scale presentations of operas -- just piano accompaniment, no sets and costumes, the better to enjoy the singing. This performance features music from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
Barrymore Theatre, 7:30 pm. Also Thursday, April 26, 7:30 pm
Lefty documentarian Robert Greenwald's film takes on the politically active industrialists Wisconsin liberals love to hate. John Nichols, Rep. Mark Pocan and others make live appearances.
Overture Hall, 8 pm. Also Sunday, April 29, 2:30 pm
For its season finale, Madison Opera presents Rossini's delightfully funny take on the fairy tale. (Disney, eat your heart out.) Director Garnett Bruce sets the action in 1930s Hollywood.
Project Lodge, 8 pm
Essences of post-punk and post-hardcore give this local band's songs an appealing insistence. This concert showcases Schulte, A, a new addition to a series of EPs named after artists who double as T-shirt designers. With the American Plains.
Broom Street Theater, 8 pm. Also Saturday, April 28, 8 pm
The daring theater company stages local playwright Rob Matsushita's romantic comedy about what unfolds on a phone sex line.
Sett at UW Union South, 9 pm
Blackbird Blackbird's Mike Maramag has carved out a definition of chillwave using spectral vocals, samples of nature sounds, and wavering electronic soundscapes built from guitars, drums and synths. With electro-pop enthusiasts Canopies.
Inferno, 9 pm
Moombahton is rumored to be the next big thing on the electronic-music horizon, and this show offers four different flavors of its thick bass lines and two-step beats. Two Milwaukee acts (Kayjay and Red's Life) and two Madison ones (the Deadly Vipers and Muchaches de Moomba) serve it up with style.
High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm
This effusive five-piece earned a Grammy nomination for "Magic #9," a catchy bluegrass ditty from their 2010 release, Things That Fly. This performance focuses on their new album, Silver Sky. With Head for the Hills.
Rathskeller at UW Memorial Union, 9:30 pm
The frontman of folky rock band Ezra Furman & the Harpoons performs tunes from his new solo album, The Year of No Returning, which he produced with funds from a fan-driven Kickstarter campaign. With Coo Woo and Chamberlin.
Frequency, 10 pm
Madison's surf-punk sweethearts have added a new member -- Cynthia Burnson of Screamin' Cyn Cyn & the Pons -- who'll man the guitars and keys from this show forward. With the Shondes and Dr. Dolphin.
Saturday 4.28
NOTEWORTHY: Thor Heyerdahl sets sail on Kon Tiki, 1947.
Capitol Square, 9:45 am
The eight-kilometer run/wheelchair race and two-mile walk benefits the UW athletic department. The course finishes at Camp Randall, where you can dance, maybe, at a post-race party featuring the UW Marching Band and Spoken Four.
Brink Lounge, 7 pm
This Chicago-based singer-songwriter brims with folk's charm and soul's unbridled emotion, which has led critics to compare her to Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen. With Beth Kille.
Nathan Englander, Kevin González
Gates of Heaven, 7:30 pm
The Madison Review, a UW literary journal, celebrates its spring issue with a talk by acclaimed author and part-time Madisonian Englander, whose work is mentioned in the company of great Jewish storytellers like Bernard Malamud and Isaac B. Singer. He's joined by Madison poet González.
Stoughton Opera House, 7:30 pm
After the breakup of his band Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, this bluesy rocker transitioned into the world of traditional gospel, inspired by a brush with death and a subsequent journey toward religion. Witness his transformation at this show.
Rathskeller at UW Memorial Union, 8 pm
Gear up for summer with this Milwaukee-based quartet, whose songs NPR has praised for being catchy, easygoing and unabashedly sunny. With the Midwest Beat, the Fatty Acids and Pioneer.
Sett at UW Union South, 9 pm
While melting faces in the post-hardcore band the Receiving End of Sirens, Casey Crescenzo conceived the idea of an ill-fated boy called the Dear Hunter, whose story he began to explore through a series of prog-inflected EPs that earned a thumbs-up from Alternative Press. With Gazettiers.
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
Named after their penchant for late-night jam sessions, this band's jazz-steeped rock fuels post-sunset concert outings while earning comparisons to artists like Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt. With Rayland Baxter.
Inferno, 9 pm
After growing up in a Compton group home, this brainy rapper went on to study physics and computer science in college. Both disciplines have shaped his hip-hop catalog, which includes 2010's The Karadashev Scale and 2012's The Mandelbrot Set. With Dharmonic Deluxe, Daisy Chains and DJ Larry Miller.
High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm
Shaped by Tom Waits, the Pixies and numerous cases of PBR, this band pairs raw, sweaty rock 'n' roll with a chaser of Midwestern pride. With the 4ontheFloor and Mad Trucker Gone Mad.
Sunday 4.29
NOTEWORTHY: Muhammad Ali stripped of heavyweight belt for refusing induction into U.S. Army, 1967.
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 2-6 pm
When the weather's nice, there's no finer place to be than the Terrace. This bash celebrates that fact with arts and crafts, rappelling, games and music of Maritime, Thin Hymns and Juniper Tar. Free.
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
The power-pop four-piece that spawned "Stacy's Mom" returns to Madison with Sky Full of Holes, a 2011 album filled with crunchy guitars and consummate storytelling (see Tour Stop). With Nicole Atkins.
