Fall is getting chilly pretty fast, so heat things up this week with a busy calendar that includes: the debut of the Bricks Theatre with An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein and a production of Souvenir; performances by the Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company and Gallagher; and, live music by Jolie Holland, Dinosaur Jr., Po' Girl, Imani Winds, and Rain Machine.
Monday 10.12
COLUMBUS DAY
NOTEWORTHY: Enraged Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev bangs his shoe on podium at United Nations, 1960.
BIRTHDAYS: X-Man Hugh Jackman, 1968.
Tuesday 10.13
NOTEWORTHY: White House cornerstone laid, 1792.
BIRTHDAYS: Actress/Travolta bride Kelly Preston, 1962; pop music star Ashanti, 1980.
High Noon Saloon, 7 pm
Holland claims she couldn't trust rock 'n' roll until she made her fourth album, the recently released The Living and the Dead, which mixes smoky, jazz-style vocals with guitars that jangle like a '60s pop tune at one moment and wrangle like a good old country song the next. With Matt Bauer.
Majestic Theatre, 8:30 pm
The original lineup of proto-grunge pioneers is back with a feedback-frenzied new album (Farm) that will make your ears quiver and bleed in ecstasy when you hear it live. With Lou Barlow & The Missingmen (see Tour Stop).
Wednesday 10.14
NOTEWORTHY: 18-month-old Jessica McClure falls into abandoned backyard well, 1987.
BIRTHDAYS: Dixie Chick/patriot Natalie Maines, 1974; hip-hop artist Usher, 1978.
An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein
Frequency, 7 pm
The Bricks Theatre -- a new group that has sprung from the ashes of Madison Repertory Theatre -- presents grown-up works by Silverstein, best known as a children's writer but also the man who penned indelibly raunchy songs like "Polly in a Porny."
Bartell Theatre, 7:30 pm
Madison Theatre Guild presents Stephen Temperley's play about Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944), the soprano who was celebrated, if that's the right word, for her painfully bad singing.
Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company
Wisconsin Union Theater, 8 pm
The renowned group, founded in 1934, touches down with its folk dances of Ukraine, plus an 85-piece orchestra. Should be a tremendous night of leaping.
Thursday 10.15
BIRTHDAYS: York duchess/Weight Watchers pitchwoman Sarah Ferguson, 1959.
High Noon Saloon, 6:30 pm
The "urban roots" quartet, co-founded by the Be Good Tanyas' Trish Klein, plays the High Noon Saloon just two days after Jolie Holland, another musician who once belonged to the esteemed traditional-music group from British Columbia. Unlike Holland's new album, theirs (Deer in the Night) adds a bit of funk to the folk. With JT & the Clouds.
Mills Hall, UW Humanities Building, 7:30 pm
The New York-based, African-American-staffed woodwind quintet performs music of Gorgy Ligeti, Paquito D'Rivera and much more.
Majestic Theatre, 8:30 pm
Many comedy fans remember Gallagher's early-1980s heyday, when he delivered observational humor and smashed melons in a series of pay-cable specials. Years later he's still working the comedy circuit, though a sampler of fresh Gallagher gags on his website ("How does a slut feel? Whore-a-ble") are mostly just sad.
Annex, 9 pm
TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone has a new solo project (Rain Machine) with a new album that leaps between soft slow burners and guitar-driven rock anthems in a single bound, fueled by lyrics and vocals that are among the most expressive in indie rock at the moment. With Sharon Van Etten.
