Jazz at 5
It's the last week of the last month of summer. The season has some life left in it, though. The calendar includes: an "Arts in Crisis" presentation; the season closer for Jazz at 5; more live music from Two Cow Garage, Those Darn Accordions, and The Nod; and, the opening of Long Day's Journey Into Night at APT.
Monday 8.24
NOTEWORTHY: UW's Sterling Hall bombed, 1970.
BIRTHDAYS: Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, 1965; Weasley actor Rupert Grint, 1988.
Michael Kaiser: Arts in Crisis
Overture Center's Capitol Theater, 2 pm
The recession has been devastating for the arts scene; just ask anyone associated with local groups that have folded, canceled seasons or laid off employees. Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, may have some answers for those arts nonprofits still standing (see Arts Beat).
Tuesday 8.25
NOTEWORTHY: Matthew Webb completes first recorded swim across the English Channel, 1875; National Park Service est., 1916.
BIRTHDAYS: Singer/songwriter/composer Declan McManus, 1954; filmmaker Tim Burton, 1958.
High Noon Saloon, 6 pm
The Columbus, Ohio band's description of their act as "classic rock meets roots punk" conjures up some weird images, such as the members of Journey as highway truckers with a leather-pants fetish, but their country-meets-rock sound is more appealing -- and considerably less disturbing. With Austin Lucas and Jon Snodgrass.
Wednesday 8.26
NOTEWORTHY: Krakatoa explodes, 1883; 19th Amendment takes effect, 1920.
BIRTHDAYS: Stranglers drummer Jet Black, 1958; Garbage singer Shirley Manson, 1966.
Jan Wheaton Quintet, Richie Cole
100 block of State Street, 5 pm (Overture lobby if it rains)
The summer Jazz at Five series concludes -- sob -- with local chanteuse Wheaton, she of the deftly witty singing, and alto sax man Cole, who's played with Doc Severinsen, Manhattan Transfer and everyone else.
High Noon Saloon, 8 pm
Accordions are cooler than ever these days thanks to dumpster-diving hipsters in chamber-pop groups. But Those Darn Accordions blow that cliché to smithereens with a bona fide rock show more in tune with the squeezeboxes of Weird Al and Frankie Yankovic.
Thursday 8.27
NOTEWORTHY: Stevie Ray Vaughan among victims in helicopter crash after performance at Alpine Valley, 1990.
BIRTHDAYS: Pee-wee actor/comedian Paul Reubens, 1952; singer Willy DeVille, 1953; Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, 1956.
American Players Theatre in Spring Green, 7:30 pm
APT opens its last play of the season in the indoor Touchstone Theatre, and what a doozy. Eugene O'Neill's masterwork is a devastating portrait of a family in bitter crisis. Should be fascinating to see Sarah Day, who's so marvelous in comic roles, take on this towering dramatic part.
Frequency, 10 pm
The young local combo celebrates the release of a new disc, Shoddy Heart, whose track "Frustrating (The S*** Out of You)" is a country-inflected classic. (The disc includes both dirty and radio-friendly mixes.) With The Selfish Gene, Meteorade.