Here is this week's critics' choice calendar. The Guide provides an extended listing of events in and around Madison.
Friday 6.27
NOTEWORTHY: U.S. decides to send troops to fight in Korean War, 1950.
National Women's Music Festival
Marriott Madison West, Middleton, all day. Also Thursday, Saturday & Sunday, June 26, 28 & 29
More than a dozen musical acts -- including Catie Curtis, Cheryl Wheeler and Lucie Blue Tremblay -- join forces at this annual celebration. There will also be workshops, films and a silent auction.
Kiser Firemen's Park, 4 pm-1 am. Also Thursday (5 pm-midnight, fireworks at dusk), Saturday (8 am-1 am) & Sunday (10 am-6 pm), June 26, 28 & 29
This community-wide celebration packs a lot into three and half days: hot air balloon rides, softball tournaments, a car show, a parade, a carnival and more. Not bad for little ol' Oregon.
Baer Park, Cross Plains, 5 pm-midnight. Also Saturday (7:30 am-midnight) & Sunday (10 am-9:30 pm, fireworks at dusk), June 28 & 29
This community festival features three days of carnival rides, sports tournaments, children's activities and live music.
Mystery to Me, 7 pm
Skalka discusses her new novel, Death Stalks Door County, in which a brooding Chicago ex-cop (is there any other kind?) is confronted by a series of mysterious deaths.
Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
Overture Center's Playhouse, 7:30 pm. Also Saturday, Stoughton Opera House (7:30 pm) & Sunday, Taliesin's Hillside Theater, Spring Green (2:30 & 6:30 pm), June 28 & 29
It's the year's third and final weekend of classical concerts curated by flutist Stephanie Jutt and pianist Jeffrey Sykes, who will team up with violinist Axel Strauss, cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau and pianist Randall Hodgkinson for two lively programs. On Friday night and Sunday afternoon, the Charlie Chaplin film The Count will be screened during a performance of Darius Milhaud's piano four-hands adventure Le beouf sur le toit. Another piano duet, William Hirtz's Fantasy on themes from "The Wizard of Oz," should be a highlight of the second program, performed Saturday evening in Stoughton and Sunday evening in Spring Green.
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
DJ Nick Nice takes dance partiers on a fantastic voyage through funk and disco records from the 1970s. This is also your chance to boogie with multiple John Travolta look-alikes, who should be in ample supply at the evening's costume contest.
High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm
AllMusic describes this excellent indie folk group as "the missing link between the Band and Bright Eyes," and we wholeheartedly agree. Though they're based in New York City, they've been known to do some very Madison things, like record an album in a chicken coop. With Robert Ellis.
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 9:30 pm
Natty Nation's dub-reggae fusion is guaranteed to get the Terrace crowd dancing. The long-running act is based in Madison but has fans all over the Midwest, as well as Japan and Jamaica.
Saturday 6.28
NOTEWORTHY: Stonewall Riots begin in New York City, 1969.
Warner Park, noon
The Madison Blues Society's free annual event features sizzling local blues-rock act Aaron Williams & the Hoodoo and versatile performer Kyle Henderson, who found a new calling as a blues musician after playing bass in the popular '80s rock band the Producers. With Blues Kids, Altered Five, Jim Schwall & Chris Aaron, and Barrelhouse Chuck.
Midwest Log Rolling Championships
Brittingham Boathouse, noon. Also Sunday, Wingra Park, 10 am
Saturday's activities include amateur (1 pm), celebrity (3 pm) and pro (4 pm) competitions, and Sunday features a 10 am boom run, a timed event where participants run head to head on adjacent logs. Spinning, rocking and even stopping the logs is allowed, and so is kicking water in opponents' faces.
Along John Nolen Drive, 2-11 pm
Talk about paradigm shifts. This year's fireworks extravaganza moves from the Warner Park lagoon to Lake Monona, with the best viewing (and festivities) along John Nolen Drive. Pyrotechnics start at 9:30 pm, but there'll be entertainment galore throughout the day, including music by Little Vito & the Torpedoes and Big Head Todd & the Monsters, as well as aquabatics by the Mad-City Ski Team.
American Players Theatre, Spring Green, 3 pm. Also Thursday & Tuesday, June 26 & July 1, 7:30 pm. Through Oct. 4
APT favorite Sarah Day stars as Joan Didion in this adaptation of the celebrated journalist's moving memoir about her husband's unexpected death and her daughter's hospitalization.
High Noon Saloon, 5:30 pm
The psychedelic rock act formerly known as Thee Rule introduce their debut album, The Paulie Project, an homage to late Madison musician Paulie Heenan.
Middleton High School's Breitenbach Stadium, 7 pm
The Drum Corps International event features exciting ensembles from around the region and as far away as Wyoming. We make no apologies about rooting for the mighty Madison Scouts.
Bartell Theatre, 7:30 pm. Also Saturday (7:30 pm) & Sunday (2 pm), June 28 & 29
A touring production presents a musical play based on the life of Paul Robeson, the brilliant African American actor, singer and civil rights activist ensnared in a McCarthy-era witch hunt. James Earl Jones originated the role on Broadway in the 1970s.
American Players Theatre, Spring Green, 8 pm. Through Oct. 4
Romeo was the first APT role for core company member Jim DeVita, who's since appeared in many productions of Shakespeare's tragic love story about the warring Montague and Capulet clans. He directs this time, emphasizing the poetic language of the Bard's script.
Mother Fool's Coffeehouse, 8 pm
This tuneful storyteller made fans out of Jackson Browne and pat mAcdonald at a recent edition of the Steel Bridge Songfest in Door County. His songs teem with compelling images, from homes sandbagged in preparation for a flood to rural towns overrun with crumbling strip malls. With Hot Taco.
Frequency, 9 pm
Citing David Bowie and Iggy Pop as influences, this post-punk, post-pop and New Wave act is known for its off-kilter sense of humor and wild, bizarre live shows. With Sexy Ester and Red Tape Diaries.
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 9 pm
"Free Up," off 2013's Day by Day EP, is a great introduction to this Madison-based reggae act led by vocalist Michelle Flood. They've performed with several national acts, including Matisyahu.
Sunday 6.29
Crescendo Espresso Bar, 6 pm
Ease yourself into the week ahead with dreamy folk-pop from this Denver act. With Giants & Pilgrims.
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
Bringing a hardcore background to a love of Americana and folk music, the Tillers have become fixtures on Ohio's festival circuit. They've also won CityBeat's Cincinnati Entertainment Award for folk music four times. With Joseph Huber.
Monday 6.30
NOTEWORTHY: East and West Germany merge their economies, 1990.
High Noon Saloon, 7 pm
This metal-meets-hardcore band hail from Massachusetts, but their sound is frequently compared to that of Swedish metal acts. With Dead by Wednesday, Order of the Jackal and Pangaea.
Tuesday 7.1
Alliant Energy Center, all day. Through July 5.
Hordes of motorcylists with teddy bears tied to their sissy bars descend upon our fair city in this National Gold Wing Road Riders Association event. The celebration kicks off on Tuesday with a grand Welcome Party in Middleton (John Q. Hammons Drive near Greenway Station, 3-9:30 pm), with music by Angels & Outlaws and Madison County, and wraps up with a Grand Parade through Madison starting at Warner Park at 8:30 am Saturday, July 5. Seminars and a trade show take place at the Alliant Energy Center throughout the week.
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
The Nashville rockers drew from the idea of exploration and growth for their recent album Mountains Beaches Cities. "Running Wild" is a good first listen. With Cowboy Winter and Red Rose.
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
DJ and producer George Evelyn, the man behind N.O.W., has reinvented himself numerous times, drawing from funk, electronic, trip-hop, soul, dub and reggae in his performances. This show celebrates his 25th year as a performer and the release of a two-disc set of greatest hits titled N.O.W. Is the Time. With DJ Umi.
Wednesday 7.2
Capitol Square, 7 pm
Gear up for Fourth of July festivities with an "American Fanfare"-themed pops concert on the Capitol lawn. Soprano Sarah Lawrence and tenor Calland Metts, both from Minnesota's Lyric Opera of the North, join the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra for modern classics from Porgy and Bess and Phantom of the Opera.
Thursday 7.3
NOTEWORTHY: Dow Jones and Company publishes its first stock average, 1884.
Bright Red Studios, 8 pm
"Experimental" is a broad term for describing music, but sometimes it's just the right word for an evening of dissonant, jazz- and post-punk-inspired tunes swathed in synths and clarinets. "Hidden Kingdom," a track from the Illinois act's 2013 release Raised High/Brought Low, should give you a sense of what the live show will entail. With Tar Pet and William Z. Villain.
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
The local stoner-rock gods celebrate the 10th anniversary of their album All Your Chicks Are Belong to Us. With Whisky Pig, Hogbitch and Devil to Drag.
Frequency, 9 pm
This punk band dare fans to "get wasted on freedom" at a pre-Independence Day show. They're known for self-deprecating humor and a mutating lineup, and their sound shows their admiration for other poppy Wisconsin punk acts like Masked Intruder and Jetty Boys. With Lipstick Homicide, Rational Anthem, Spruce Bringsteen and Help Desk.
Elver Park, 9:30 pm
The park opens for picnics at 7 pm, giving you plenty of time to find the perfect watching/noshing spot before the display: not so close as to singe your eyebrows, not so far that the kids don't hide under the blankets.
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 9:30 pm
This New Orleans-based jazz, folk and pop singer sells her music using a pay-what-you-want system, based on her belief that "music is magic, and everybody needs it." With Briar Rabbit.
Edited by futbolistas
