Tommy Emmanuel
The new fall music tour season is starting, and warms up in Madison this week with performances by Mörglbl, Andrew Belle, The Ballroom Thieves, The Floozies, J. Roddy Walston & The Business, The Psychedelic Furs, Tommy Emmanuel, Victor & Penny, Elephant Revival, and Greensky Bluegrass. The calendar also includes: talks titled "Investigative Journalism in Turbulent Times” and "From Microbes to Public Goods"; more live music by White Birch Ensemble; and, the RuPaul's Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons show.
Monday 9.9
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
This French band was invited to book a show before it had a name, and a borborygmus was the first thing that came to frontman Christophe Godin's mind. "Sense of humor" and "jazz metal" aren't normally used in the same sentence, but the group successfully combine the two. With Neil Zaza.
Tuesday 9.10
NOTEWORTHY: After years of neutrality, Switzerland joins United Nations, 2002.
Investigative Journalism in Turbulent Times
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 7 pm
For the fall's first Academy Evenings event, staff from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, including Bill Lueders and Andy Hall, discuss why in-depth reporting is vital to democracy and respond to the Legislature's attempt to boot their offices from the UW campus.
High Noon Saloon, 7 pm
This singer-songwriter's music has been featured on several TV shows, including Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Pretty Little Liars. Get acquainted with his third LP, Black Bear, which was released last month. With the Young International.
Brink Lounge, 7 pm
Though formed in 2012, this outfit plays traditional Russian music, combining elements of Ukrainian, Polish and Hungarian folk.
Brink Lounge, 9 pm
This Boston folk trio have performed at more than 50 colleges nationwide since they formed only a year ago, and their second EP is due out this fall.
Frequency, 9 pm
Producer and guitarist Matt Hill and drummer Mark Hill unfurl funky electronic beats and high-end production that make for a killer dance party. With DJ Radish.
Wednesday 9.11
NOTEWORTHY: Last death from smallpox occurs in laboratory-associated outbreak, 1978.
Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, 7 pm
In a lecture subtitled "From Microbes to Public Goods," Princeton professor Simon Levin discusses how evolution has shaped individual and group behaviors during uncertain times, highlighting examples from the natural sciences (slime molds) and the social sciences (the wild world of insurance co-ops).
J. Roddy Walston & The Business
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
Walston's pounding piano and gravelly voice are cornerstones of the Tennessee rockers' signature sound. The Baltimore City Paper says he can even "make James Brown look lazy." With Taddy Porter and the Family Business.
Majestic Theatre, 8:30 pm
This English New Wave band's song "Pretty in Pink" inspired the title of John Hughes' 1986 film about high school cliques. See if anyone comes to the show dressed for the prom Molly Ringwald and Jon Cryer attended in the movie.
Thursday 9.12
RuPaul's Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons
Barrymore Theatre, 8 pm
Here's your chance to see drag's ruling power couple, Sharon Needles and Alaska Thunderfuck, in action. Queens from past seasons of Logo's hit reality series will perform mind-boggling makeup tricks, spew hilarious insults and set the runway ablaze with cuckoo couture to win the favor of judge Michelle Visage.
Overture Center's Capitol Theater, 7:30 pm
The Australian guitarist has five decades of performing experience and two Grammy nominations, including one for The Day The Finger Pickers Took Over the World, an album he recorded in 1996 with Chet Atkins.
Brink Lounge, 7 pm
A ukulele and jazz-guitar act from Kansas City, this duo perform old-school swing, jazz and pop.
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
Break in the Clouds, this gypsy-revival quintet's 2011 fusion of folk, Celtic and alt-country, was voted album of the year by the Indie Acoustic Music Project.
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
The five-piece "newgrass" act won the 2006 Telluride Bluegrass Festival band competition. Since then, they've made their way onto the Billboard charts with 2011's Handguns. With Pert Near Sandstone.
