Laurie Lindeen poses in front the Zuzu's Petals star at First Avenue in Minneapolis.
Friday 6.22
Jane Hammond: Paper Work
Chazen Museum of Art, through Aug. 12. Reception: 6:30-8 pm
The collage artist got her MFA from the UW and went on to conquer the art world. This exhibition features intricate works that reference board games, scrapbooks, maps and charts.
Laurie Lindeen
Borders West, 7 pm
Lindeen discusses her memoir Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story, which covers her years in Madison, her career with the Twin Cities indie band Zuzu's Petals and her relationship with husband Paul Westerberg of the Replacements.
The Sound of Music
Middleton-Cross Plains Performing Arts Center, 7:30 pm. Also Saturday (2 & 7:30 pm) & Sunday (2 pm), June 23 & 24
Music Theatre of Madison presents the Rodgers and Hammerstein crowd-pleaser about an Austrian nun prone to break into song. Local vocal star Kitt Reuter-Foss plays the mother abbess.
The Long Christmas Ride Home
Bartell Theatre, 8 pm. Thursday & Saturday, June 21 & 23, 8 pm Mercury Players Theatre presents Paula Vogel's puppet play for adults, chronicling a disastrous family holiday. Vogel uses incisive dialogue and poetic imagery to illuminate the wretched dynamics beneath a Hallmark Card faade.
The New Kentucky Quarter
Cafe Montmartre, 9 pm
In another era, TNKQ's lush, emotive take on country-leaning indie probably would have made them stars. They go their separate ways after tonight, and here's hoping their friends and fans will send 'em off in style.
The Crest
King Club, 9 pm
The local hip-hop heroes pair up with the Twin Cities-based DJ Abilities for a night of funky beats and freestyle surprises.
Rooftop Cinema
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 9:30 pm
The series screens short indie films each Friday in June on MMoCA's rooftop sculpture garden. This week's theme is "Film as/on a Battlefield."
DJ Kool Herc
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 9:30 pm
The rap pioneer helped change the face of popular music by emphasizing the breaks of funk recordings during his live sound-system sets. Baba Israel, K Swift and Queen GodIs fill out the bill.
Jose & Sumlimes
High Noon Saloon, 10 pm
The popular local Sublime cover act adds its own party-hearty energy to the SoCal punks' reggae-leaning song list.
Lucas Cates Band
Brocach Irish Pub, 10 pm
With his gentle, reflective songs and teen-idol good looks, singer-songwriter Cates has all the trappings of mass-market appeal. He plays in the latest installment of the Madison Music Project Charter Club Tour, based on Isthmus' online directory at MadisonMusicProject.com.
Saturday 6.23
Farmers' Market Drop-In Concert
Overture Center's Overture Hall, 11 am
It'd be a shame to let the Madison Symphony Orchestra's glorious 4,000-pipe organ sit silent over the summer. The MSO's Samuel Hutchison plays a free concert with help from Jennifer Morgan on oboe and English horn.
Blues Picnic
Warner Park, 11 am-9 pm
Smooth, funky Bobby Bryan and the Original Downtown Players headline at this year's picnic. The event's free, but it's also the Madison Blues Society's primary fund-raiser, so dig into those pockets after you enjoy the tunes.
Launchpad Contest Finals
Wisconsin Union Theater, 4-9 pm
The 12 high school garage bands left standing after the annual music contest's statewide regional events battle it out for a shot at a professional recording session and a gig at Summerfest.
Flyleaf
Barrymore Theatre, 7 pm
A crunching, goth-inflected Christian act fronted by a big-voiced female singer who yearns her way through the madness? Needless to say, Evanescence fans won't be disappointed in Flyleaf. Mighty Sideshow, Resident Hero and Dropping Daylight play the support slots.
Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society
Overture Center's Playhouse, 7:30 pm. Pre-concert chat: 6:45
The local chamber ensemble features topnotch musicianship and a playful approach to classical-music performance. This week's concert, "Dirty Dancing," showcases works with extraordinary rhythmic qualities.
Misalliance
American Players Theatre in Spring Green, 8 pm. Also Wednesday, June 27, 7:30 pm
In George Bernard Shaw's satire, the life of a free-spirited young woman changes dramatically when an airplane crash brings a new man into her life.
The Honeydogs
Cafe Montmartre, 9 pm
Literate frontman Adam Levy leads his pack into Elvis Costello territory one minute, then jumps to finger-pickin' country or light bossa nova beats. But unlike a lot of eclectic writers, he pulls off the quick stylistic shifts without throwing his listeners for a loop.
Tim Whalen Nonet
Restaurant Magnus, 9:30 pm
Pianist/arranger Whalen's disciplined nine-piece is packed with some of the best players in the region. Tonight he offer another one of his potent tributes to Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers.
Pupy Costello & His Big City Honky Tonk
High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm
Pupy sashays through his boisterous honky-tonk at the Mad Rollin' Dolls' post-match party. New York's Uncle Leon & the Alibis and Madison's Brainerd fill out the butt-kickin' boots-'n'-hats bill.
Living Dred
Annex, 9:30 pm
Will the dance-happy marriage of ska, punk and reggae ever be split asunder? Not if Wisconsin's own Living Dred have anything to say about it.
Natty Nation
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 9:30 pm
Natty Nation's summertime reggae parties down at the UW's open-air biergarten are legendary round these parts. Come early, skank late.
Michael Coleman & the Backbreakers
Harmony Bar, 9:45 pm
The funky, dance-friendly Chicago bluesman plays a fund-raiser for the Madison Blues Society, which sponsors today's Blues Picnic.
Sunday 6.24
Richard Chamberlain
Avol's Books, 2 pm
The Vietnam vet reads from his book Hitchhiking From Vietnam, an account of his road trip -- and spiritual journey -- from Madison to San Francisco in the 1970s.
Carillon Recital
Observatory Drive, between UW Ingraham Hall and Social Science Building, 3 pm
Lyle Anderson performs on the UW's iconic Memorial Carillon, and the overlook opposite the UW's Washburn Observatory provides an ideal spot for listening. Does summer in Madison get any more idyllic than this?