Mike Cammilleri's Hammond organ and Scott Beardsley's drums were once a Wednesday-night fixture at the Avenue Bar. The duo's residency stopped last spring, but they recently emerged for a few shows at the Wise restaurant on Monroe Street and Tempest Oyster Bar downtown. Their March 3 sets at Tempest were playfully kitschy and lovingly detailed. The Hammond is the real deal, an imposing piece of furniture complete with spinning speakers, and the duo pull off everything from debonair swing to Latin jazz to sprightly funk.
They're slated to play again at Tempest on Friday, April 20, at 9:30 p.m. Even if the music weren't one of Madison's little treasures, the show would be worthwhile for the opportunity to see someone play in the clamshell-shaped alcove at the back of Tempest's bar, a fixture almost as hilarious as the woody-wagon-looking speedboat plunked into the restaurant's front room.
