What to do in Madison this weekend: International Festival, St. Patrick's Day music and more Isthmus Picks

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Note: Public Health Madison and Dane County allowed the most recent face covering public order to expire on Feb. 28. Many venues and businesses may continue to maintain individual requirements for masking, as well as proof of COVID-19 vaccination and/or a negative test for entry. Before heading out for any in-person event, confirm it is still taking place and check for any attendance guidelines on the relevant business websites or social media accounts.

Wisconsin Was There: Sharing the Legacies of Printmakers Who Served in the Military, through June 1, Wisconsin Veterans Museum: Yvette Pino, curator of veteran art for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, organized this exhibit featuring works spanning from the Civil War to modern times by more than 20 artists with state ties. The exhibit opens in conjunction with the SGC International's annual conference in Madison. During the conference (March 16-19) from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, Pino, Shawn Ganther and Ash Kyrie will demonstrate printmaking techniques in the museum's front window. Also, Pino will host a virtual edition of the museum's Drink and Draw art-making program, demonstrating monoprint techniques; it's free, but RSVP for a link (7 p.m., March 18).

Bach Around the Clock, March 16-20: A celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach featuring players both professional and amateur performing the composer's works, Bach Around the Clock takes place each year near Bach's March 21 birthday. The 2022 fest features a hybrid program of in-person concerts and lectures which will also be recorded for on-demand streaming. “Festival Day” is March 19, with performances beginning at 10 a.m. and continuing through the day at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. Guest artist Lawrence Quinnett will teach a master class and play all six of Bach's Partitas during three concerts during the festival. Find the full schedule at bachclock.com.

WIAA State High School Boys Basketball Tournament, March 17-19, Kohl Center: Students from around the state descend on the UW-Madison campus once again as the state boys basketball tourney returns to the Kohl Center. March 17 sessions include semifinals for Division 3 (1:35 p.m.) and Division 4 (6:35 p.m.; the second game in this session is Marshall vs. Roncalli); March 18 brings Division 5 (9:05 a.m.), Division 2 (1:35 p.m.), and Division 1 (6:35 p.m.) semis. Championship game sessions are at 11:05 a.m. (Div. 3-5) and 6:35 p.m. (Div. 1-2) on March 19, in descending order by division. Find more info at wiaawi.org.

St. Patrick's Day music, Thursday, March 17: If you're looking for a pint and some Irish music to go along with it, there's various good options all around town on St. Patrick's Day. On the far east side, Killarney Blarney is at Erin's Snug Irish Pub at 3 p.m. On the west side, Casey & Greg will be playing mostly Irish sounds at the Cider Farm Tasting Room starting at 5:30 p.m. If you're located centrally, The Currach is at the Harmony (7 p.m., with an appearance by Madison Pipes & Drums) and O'Darby holds down the fort at the Essen Haus (7 p.m.). A bit farther afield, SlipJig visits Main Street Music in Brooklyn (5 p.m.). And if you feel moved to contribute your own Irish song or two, the North Street Cabaret is hosting an open mic at 7:30 p.m.

Mel Chin reception, Thursday, March 17, MMoCA lobby, 5-8 p.m.: Conceptual artist Mel Chin will speak about his exhibit There's Something Happening Here, which looks back on his 43-year career with objects, projects, prints and drawings. The reception is free, and includes music from soprano Caitlin Mead accompanied by The Stolen Sea, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, and a nonalcoholic cash bar. Chin's lecture will take place at 6 p.m.; reservations are all claimed for the in-person talk, but find a livestream here. While you're in the neighborhood, pop in next door for the Overture Galleries' winter/spring 2022 exhibitions, featuring four galleries of work by printmakers coinciding with the SGC International annual conference; a reception and artist talks are from 4-6 p.m.

Printmaking open studios, March 18: Madison has long been a center for progressive printmaking and this day opens some of the inner sanctums to the public. Madison College will show off its brand new state-of-the-art print lab at the Truax campus (Room D1507) from 1-4 p.m. with demos, souvenir letterpress prints and the chance to screen print a T-shirt. Polka Press, 2132 Fordem Ave., will be open from 7-9 p.m. for a member exhibition and to show off its letterpress, screenprint, non-acid etching, relief, monoprint, and Risograph equipment. These events are in conjunction with the Southern Graphics Council International annual conference, March 16-19, hosted by the UW-Madison Art Department and School of Education this year; there are also art exhibits happening all over Madison, including at the Chazen, which hosts a reception from 5-7 p.m. March 18 for its Pressing Innovation exhibition. Find all the exhibits and other events open to the public in the conference calendar at sgcinternational.org.

Guided By Voices, Friday, March 18, Majestic, 8 p.m.: Hey, a new Guided By Voices record just came out! The March 4 release of Crystal Nuns Cathedral may not exactly be big news considering It's Not Them, It Couldn't Be Them, It Is Them — an instant classic in the prolific GBV canon — just came out in October. More newsworthy: GBV is actually playing a Madison show on this tour. Their last time in town, back in 2014, Bobby Bare Jr. was the opening act during what was billed a farewell tour. When the band re-formed in 2016 Bare ended up in GBV as part of what has turned out to be one of their most stable lineups.

Lich King, Friday, March 18, High Noon Saloon, 9:30 p.m.: Originally created as a one-man recording project to honor the thrash metal sound of the 1980s, founder Tom Martin transformed Lich King into a full band in 2009 and there was no looking back. The tempos are intense, the riffs heavy, and the lyrics might make you think a bit. (But, as stated in “Cut the Shit,” always remember: “Metal's supposed to be fun.”) Lich King's current tour run includes opening sets by Kentucky-based Stonecutters and Sheboygan's own thrash ambassadors Toxic Ruin.

International Festival, Saturday, March 19, Overture Center, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.: The International Fest is back in person with more than 30 music and dance performances throughout the O.C., global arts and crafts for sale and plenty of food. A new performer this year is Son del Atlantico, an Afro-Colombian band that plays cumbia, porro and other Latin styles fused with funk, rock and reggae. We also have it on good authority that Spice Yatra will be serving Indian dishes. Song and dance performances are free; food is not. Find more information at overture.org.

Calabasas Street, through March 27, Madison Youth Arts Center-Starlight Theater: Children's Theater of Madison recognizes the importance of bilingual performances with this one-act play by José Cruz González. Calabasas Street highlights storytelling in Latino/a culture, and questions our societal suspicions of lonely older women. Ultimately the neighborhood learns the importance of friendship and that things aren't always what they may appear to be. Performances at 2:30 and 7 p.m., March 19; 3 p.m.; March 20 and 27; 7 p.m., March 25; and 2:30 p.m., March 26; a sensory-friendly performance (designed for youth on the autism spectrum or with sensory or communication needs) is at 1 p.m., March 20.

Monsters of Poetry, Saturday, March 19, North Street Cabaret, 7 p.m.: Monsters of Poetry has been making poetry readings hip since 2009, and it's back live with a roster of I.S. Jones, Kabel Mishka Ligot, Jennifer Nelson and Barrett Swanson. Jones directs the Watershed Reading Series with Art + Lit Lab; Ligot earned his master of fine arts degree at UW-Madison; Nelson teaches art history at UW-Madison; and Swanson teaches creative writing at UW-Whitewater. The free reading is supported via a raffle featuring literary ephemera, signed books, handmade notecards, and curated mix CDs, with all raffle donations going to the evening's readers. Proof of vaccination required.

The Bad Plus, Saturday, March 19, The Bur Oak, 8 p.m.: With roots in Minneapolis, The Bad Plus is a jazz band with broad appeal — and is not afraid to break free of the genre with superb covers of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” This veteran outfit is now in its third decade and shows no signs of slowing down. Originally a piano-bass-drums trio, the band is now a quartet with no piano but rather a guitar and tenor sax. The Bad Plus will wrap up a short tour with their Madison stop, hosted by BlueStem Jazz. Hopefully, they'll then head into the studio to record the follow-up to a pair of 2019 albums, Activate Infinity and Never Stop II, before embarking on a seven-night stand at New York City’s Blue Note Jazz Club in July.

Maxo Kream, Saturday, March 19, Majestic, 8:30 p.m.: Rapper Maxo Kream is a heavy hitter on the microphone with a Gambino-like energy. He and his group of underground Texas affiliates have had a hand in the pushing of trap/drill music on mainstream media since before his major label debut, Punken, and is now here to bring some of that Southern hospitality onto one of our stages. Join in for a night of Swisher smoke, liquor on the rocks, and foot-rattling bass. With Peso Peso, Lul Bob.

Combat Naps, Saturday, March, 19, The Spaceship, 8 p.m.: Combat Naps started appearing in the listings for local music clubs during the before times, but became a favorite listen in the early days of the pandemic lockdown thanks to its many recordings posted on Bandcamp. Led by Neal Jochmann (also half of the duo Hippie Johnny), Combat Naps’ music explores a panorama of pop sounds in a variety of stylistic cul de sacs. It's always melodic and catchy yet retains an experimental spirit throughout. Madison virtual venue The Spaceship hosts Combat Naps for a livestream concert; find tickets at thespaceship.tv.

Iron Family, Sunday, March 20, Zoom, 2 p.m.: To help mark World Down Syndrome Day (March 21), GiGi's Playhouse Madison, Arts for All Wisconsin and the Waisman Center are collaborating to host a virtual screening of Iron Family. A 2021 Wisconsin Film Festival Golden Badger Award winner, the documentary follows Jazmine Faries, a playwright with Down syndrome, as she and her family work together to produce Faries' sixth annual summer play in their hometown of Iron River, Michigan. The screening is free; register for a Zoom link at waisman.wisc.edu.

Alexis Lombre Trio, Sunday, March 20, Cafe Coda, 7 p.m.: Pianist and vocalist Alexis Lombre visits Madison as part of Cafe Coda's Night of the Improvisor series, accompanied by trio members Brooke Skye, bass, and Louis Jones III, drums. Lombre has been working on music for her second album, and the one song released so far, “Come Find Me,” is a teaser for exciting new musical directions. It was also announced in February that Lombre is one of the awardees in the first class of the Next Jazz Legacy program, a collaboration by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, during which she will apprentice with multi-instrumentalist and composer Marcus Miller.

Amanda McCavour, Through Sept. 11, Chazen Museum of Art: First off, don't think traditional embroidery. McCavour's large-scale “thread drawings” in the exhibit Suspended Landscapes will fill the Paige Court in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Chazen Museum and its inaugural Elvehjem building. McCavour stitches with a sewing machine on a fabric base that dissolves in water, leaving a strong but delicate-seeming web of images. The Toronto based artist visited Madison several times to create a site-specific work incorporating images of Wisconsin flora on a big scale. McCavour also curated a show of artwork on campus that inspired her installation, alongside her own preparatory drawings and materials. The installation is on display through Sept. 11.

Annie Mack, Sunday, March 20, Bur Oak, 7:30 p.m.: The Minneapolis Star Tribune called Annie Mack “Minnesota’s heir to the Mavis Staples throne;” she’s all about conviction, and the Minneapolis native can indeed go from simmering soul straight into blues and gospel. Mack's growing fan base also includes music legend Taj Mahal. With Madison singer-songwriter Carisa.

We hope it’s handy for you to find Picks grouped together in a single post. The individual Picks can still be found in the usual places online: collected here, and sprinkled throughout all the events.