Monday 11.3
The Von Bondies
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
Detroit's Von Bondies are probably best remembered for a 2003 bar fight with White Stripes singer Jack White rather than their take on garage rock, but they're trying to change that. Their visit precedes the release of a new single, "Pale Bride," next month, followed by a new album, Love, Hate, And Then There's You, this winter. Also playing: the Shys, the Takeover UK.
Rock the Vote 2008
Brink Lounge, 10 pm
An impressive roster of local hip-hop artists -- including L.O.S.T S.O.U.L.S, Dumate, Rob Dz, Ox, Ghetto Fab and the Last Hope -- teams up to celebrate the election and motivate Madison to vote.
Tuesday 11.4
The Daily Page's Election Night Party with Rock Star Gomeroke
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
We here at Isthmus will project the talking heads and exit polls onto the big screen while audience members dress up as their favorite rock stars -- or political figures -- and sing karaoke with live support from the Gomers. Meanwhile, local politicos and bloggers will turn the upstairs area into the mother of all peanut galleries.
Digibot and Swill! and The John Ashcroft Fan Club
Frequency, 9 pm
Now-defunct power trio Swill! and tribute outfit John Ashcroft Fan Club will resurrect themselves for one night to rock the crowd into the early morning hours -- and a new national administration. Headliner Digibot will make a racket to honor the demise of their mortal enemy, the George W. Bush junta.
Kill Junior
Annex, 9 pm
The local hard rockers celebrate the release of their new CD, Confusiotomy. With Government Zero and Underground Day 1.
Wednesday 11.5
Sean Chercover
Booked for Murder, 6 pm
The Toronto- and Chicago-based author discusses his novel Trigger City, about Windy City private investigator Ray Dudgeon (he also figured in 2007's Big City, Bad Blood), who gets tangled up in the shadowy realm of U.S. intelligence-gathering.
Horse Feathers
The Frequency, 9 pm
The Portland, Ore. indie-folkers arrive on the heels of their recent release, the quietly musing House With No Home. Local phenom Jentri Colello opens.
Pigeon John
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
If Dave Chappelle and Weird Al had a love child who was raised by the Beastie Boys, Madonna and De La Soul, he might sound a bit like Pigeon John, the wisecracking, trailblazing underground hip-hop genius. Also playing: The Crest, Kanser.
Thursday 11.6
Sally Mayes
Overture Center's Capitol Theater, 7 pm
The cabaret singer and actress performs in Broadway shows, and at chic New York venues like the FireBird Cafe. Tonight she sings in what's billed as cabaret dinner theater, with chow from Catering a Fresco.
Smashing Pumpkins: If All Goes Wrong
Queen + Paul Rodgers: Let the Cosmos Rock
Point Cinema, 7:30 & 8 pm
The movie house hosts one-night-only screenings of two rock features. If All Goes Wrong documents recent shows by Chicago alt-rockers Smashing Pumpkins, and Let the Cosmos Rock has footage from a September concert in Ukraine by Queen and former Free and Bad Company yowler Rodgers.
Angelique Kidjo
Wisconsin Union Theater, 8 pm
The singer, originally from Benin, evokes the African diaspora in a range of styles.
Carrie Rodriguez
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
The young Texas fiddler is forging ahead in Americana circles with the new release She Ain't Me, which features tracks co-written by the Jayhawks' Gary Louris and Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic's Dan Wilson. With Romantica.
