David Maraniss
Monday 8.11
A Shared Taste: The Janice and Jean-Pierre Golay Collection
Modernist Sculpture: The Terese and Alvin S. Lane Collection
Chazen Museum of Art
The Chazen displays works donated from two private collections. The Lane exhibit gathers sculptures by some of the 20th century's best-known practitioners (Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg), while the Golay collection emphasizes the human form as rendered in prints.
Wye Oak
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
The Baltimore boy/girl indie band draws ears with lazy-hazy female vocals that are just sweet enough, pulsing beats and droning guitars that fill up nearly all the spaces in music. Butterfly Assassins open.
Tuesday 8.12
Church Basement Ladies
Overture Center, 7:30. Also Wednesday (2 & 7:30 pm) & Thursday (7:30 pm), Aug. 13 & 14
The Minnesota-based musical comedy has become a regional phenomenon with its portrayal of the cooks at a mid-1960s Lutheran church. (Representative song title from the libretto: "The Pale Food Polka.") The cast features William Christopher, the Roman Catholic clergyman on M*A*S*H, here playing against type as a Lutheran clergyman.
Hieroglyphics
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
These Oakland-based backpack veterans were making conscious rhymes over creative tracks long before acknowledged fan Kanye West became a super star. They deserve all the love you can give 'em. Blue Scholars, Knobody, Musab and Tanya Morgan round out the night.
Wednesday 8.13
Scott Burns Quartet and Madison Jazz Orchestra
100 Block of State Street, 5 pm
The annual Jazz at Five series continues with young Chicago saxophonist Burns and his combo, plus local big-band aces the Madison Jazz Orchestra.
Aunt Goodness Medical Benefit
High Noon Saloon, 7 pm
Kudos to the Arge, Tancho Tancho, the Midwest Beat, the Low Czars and the Shinker Family Soul Revival for coming together to raise some much needed dollars for a longtime member of the Madison music scene.
Thursday 8.14
The Dear Hunter
Loft (Lussier Teen Center), 6:30 pm
Sure as fall follows summer, school's comin' quickly for teens everywhere. Here in Madison, a lucky few will be forestalling algebra and gym class with help from The Dear Hunter's dramatic, prog-influenced rock 'n' roll workshop. Lydia, You Me & Everyone We Know, Eye Alaska, and Pasiflora also appear. All ages!
David Maraniss
Borders West, 7 pm
The Pulitzer-winning local-kid-made-good returns for a timely talk about the Olympic year that brought us Cassius Clay, the first commercial broadcast of the games, and the ugly specter of doping. It's all in his latest book, Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World.
Joe Purdy
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
A regular at L.A.'s singer-songwriter power spot the Hotel Café, Purdy's placed his homey, bittersweet folk-rock on Lost, Grey's Anatomy and an oft-rotated Kia commercial. Meiko, Jay Nash and Chris Seefried complete the tunesmith summit.
Ben Weaver
Cafe Montmartre, 9:30 pm
Weaver's poetic, electronics-aided Americana is so moody and low key that at times it makes you think of the young Leonard Cohen. The Twin Cities-based Weaver isn't in Cohen's league just yet, but he is one of the bright spots in a genre that often seems bereft of new ideas. Dietrich Gosser opens.