The season is winding down, but celebrations under the summer sun and stars continues with Middleton Good Neighbor Festival and the Orton Park Festival. The calendar also includes: the Offering of the Angels exhibit at the Chazen; productions of In Acting Shakespeare and Wrong for the Part; an Operation Welcome Home celebration; Dane Dances; the opening of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival; a '80s vs. '90s Michael Jackson edition; and, more live music from German Art Students, Hillary Reynolds Band, Naomi Punk, Tweed Funk, The Ditchrunners, Candy Machine Guns with Cleobury, The United Sons of Toil with The Paver, Afro Zep with Mama Digdown's Brass Band, Murzik, Stryper, and Ezra Furman with Brett Newski & the Corruption.
Friday 8.24
NOTEWORTHY: Thomas Edison patents motion-picture camera, 1891.
Chazen Museum of Art, through Nov. 25. Reception: Thursday, Aug. 23, 6:30 pm This must-see exhibition features paintings and tapestries by Italian masters from the late 14th to the early 18th centuries, including recently restored works by Botticelli, Tintoretto and Titian. The exhibition was organized by Italy's Uffizi Gallery, centering on the theme of the Eucharist. On Thursday, Aug. 30, conservation staff from London's National Gallery demonstrate the stages of creating an altarpiece in a video at 5:30 pm.
Middleton Good Neighbor Festival
Through Aug. 26, Fireman's Park
Even with its national accolades and increasingly bustling downtown, Middleton retains its small-town charm. The annual festival features such homely pleasures as a parade, magic, a carnival and lots of local music.
Through Aug. 26
Time for another fabulous Orton Park Fest, packed with music and other entertainment. Highlights include the low-flying trapeze troupe Cycropia Aerial Dance (Thursday, 7:45 pm, and Friday, 8:30 pm), the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars (Friday, 6 and 7:30 pm), Lou & Peter Berryman (Saturday, noon), Tret Fure (Saturday, 1:30 pm), the Sadies (Saturday, 9 pm), the Holmes Brothers (Sunday, 3:45 pm) and Anders Osborne (Sunday, 5:45 pm).
Operation Welcome Home Celebration
Brittingham Park, 4-7 pm
Operation Welcome Home works on behalf of the homeless and affordable housing. This benefit includes a photo exhibit, music, drag performances and a raffle. Plus, a hair show!
Monona Terrace rooftop, 5:30-9:30 pm
The annual event turns the Monona Terrace rooftop into a happening party zone on Fridays in August. Tonight's musical performers are Tony Castañeda and Paul Cebar.
High Noon Saloon, 5:30 pm
Self-described as "a girl group that crashed into a surf band that someone plugged into an overdrive pedal but then accidentally unplugged," this local trio douses catchy, upbeat songs in humor and whimsy. With Oedipus Tex.
Indie Coffee, 7 pm
Reynolds' honey-like voice binds this group's folk-pop confections, which often include the sweet sounds of a piano, guitar, cello and ukulele.
American Players Theatre's Touchstone Theatre, Spring Green, 8 pm. Also Thursday, Aug. 30, 7:30 pm
This funny, heartfelt one-man show, freely adapted by James DeVita from Ian McKellen's Acting Shakespeare, is about DeVita's bumpy journey to becoming a Shakespearean actor. It was a runaway hit during APT's 2009 season.
Project Lodge, 7:30 pm
This Seattle trio lace slow, spellbinding hardcore with insistent rhythms and mantra-like musings. This show will focus on their stellar new album, The Feeling. With Giant People, New Years Gang and the Boneyard.
Terrace at UW Memorial Union, 9:30 pm
This groovy event will feature bluesy funk from Tweed Funk, a Milwaukee group fronted by Smokey Holman. He's a soul man who recorded on Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records label in the early 1970s. With the Mustache.
High Noon Saloon, 10 pm
Inspired by music outlaws such as Johnny Cash and George Jones, these gents can turn a bland Friday night into a country-fried adventure. With All Murder and Nellie Wilson.
Saturday 8.25
NOTEWORTHY: Allies liberate Paris during World War II, 1944.
Token Creek Chamber Music Festival
4037 Highway 19 in DeForest, through Sept. 2
The annual festival is the brainchild of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison and his wife, violinist Rose Mary Harbison, who use their DeForest barn as a stage. Program I (Saturday, Aug. 25, 3 pm) is "Listen to the Land: Encounters with Nature & Art," which features music, a panel discussion with restoration ecologists and a guided walking tour of the Harbisons' property. Program II (Wednesday, 8:30 pm; Thursday shows sold out) is "Gershwin: No Sad Songs," featuring singer Ricky Richardson and a Harbison-centric quintet.
Knuckle Down Saloon, 7 pm
Admire several shades of metal and hard rock during this show headlined by Milwaukee's Candy Machine Guns and Madison's Cleobury. With Shy Recluse, Climbing the Aggrocrag, Fault Line Empires, Under Waves and Amberson Hall.
'80s vs. '90s: Michael Jackson Birthday Edition
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
At this retro dance party, DJs Nick Nice and Mike Carlson will lead a music-video tour of the one-gloved wonder's career, pausing to celebrate megahits such as "Billie Jean" and "Black or White." The best moonwalker in the house will win a prize at midnight.
The United Sons of Toil, The Paver
Frequency, 9 pm
The United Sons of Toil churn out the noise, while Chicago's Paver builds heavy post-rock with analog synthesizers and electric string instruments. With El Valiente.
Afro Zep, Mama Digdown's Brass Band
Terrace at UW Memorial Union, 9:30 pm
Afro Zep blends classic Led Zeppelin tunes with polyrhythmic drumming and grooves modeled after those of African artists such as Tinariwen and Thomas Mapfumo. Mama Digdown's Brass Band infuses Dixieland jazz with street beats and plenty of bounce.
Dragonfly Lounge, 9:30 pm
During dark, frigid Minneapolis winters, this band pens songs that brim with minor keys, melancholy lyrics and old-timey instruments such as accordions and glockenspiels. See how they sound in the summer. With Many Places and Ferdinand the Bull.
Sunday 8.26
NOTEWORTHY: Women gain right to vote, 1920.
Penn Park, 1 pm
The Immigrant Workers Union welcomes all of Madison to its event, featuring food, music and kids' activities.
Orpheum Theatre, 5:30 pm
Though heavy-metal stardom is an unusual career choice for super-devout Christians, these dudes go in for big hair and guitar shredding. They attracted a following in the late 1980s, and before long, videos for "Honestly" and "Free" were staples on MTV. Get inspired by the performance -- or simply the free admission.
Broom Street Theater, 7 pm (sold out) & 9 pm
This fundraiser for Kathie Rasmussen Women's Theatre features over 20 local actors in monologues and scenes that, reportedly, no director would sanction.
Ezra Furman, Brett Newski & the Corruption
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
Furman, a Chicago troubadour, will swathe the room in thoughtful lyrics and folk-pop melodies. Newski, the former frontman of The Nod, returns to Madison after an eye-opening trip through Asia. After rocking the High Noon, he and his bandmates will return to their new home in Saigon, Vietnam. With Conductors.
