Monday 6.16
Concert on the Green
Bishops Bay Country Club. Optional golf tournament: 11 am. Cocktail party: 5 pm. Concert: 6 pm. Picnic: 7 pm
This charity event benefits the Madison Symphony Orchestra's youth education programs. You get hors d'oeuvres and cocktails, a picnic dinner in an idyllic setting, and a concert of light classics featuring members of the MSO and conductor John DeMain.
Mitch Henck
Ivory Room, 8 pm
Henck comes out of the WIBA radio booth for an evening of comedy and Frank Sinatra covers with a four-piece band.
Burning Brides
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
Heavy without being lug-headed about it, Burning Brides treat the confluence of bass, guitar and drums as a kind of sonic sacrament. Despite its title, the just-released Anhedonia is a hard rocker's delight. Year Long Disaster and Brainerd open.
Tuesday 6.17
20 Years With Tandem Press Promega, 5445 E. Cheryl Parkway, through Aug. 29. Reception: 4:30-6:30 pm
The UW's Tandem Press marks its anniversary with an exhibition showcasing the impressive range of artists who've experimented there. It features prints by such big names as David Lynch, Art Spiegelman, Jim Dine and GRONK.
Cathy Sultan
A Room of One's Own, 6 pm
Sultan discusses Tragedy in South Lebanon, a chronicle of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Her book focuses on ordinary people caught up in the violence.
Joan Peterson
Borders West, 7 pm
Peterson presents her UW Press book Eat Smart in Sicily. Even if you're not interested in Sicily, you'll certainly be interested in the no-crust ricotta pie she'll be serving.
The Whigs
Majestic Theatre, 8 pm
Bluesy old-school rockers Rose Hill Drive (think Hendrix and Cream) are potent openers. But garagey South by Southwest faves the Whigs are plenty forceful themselves on the energetic hip-shakers that fill out the recent Mission Control. Blueheels also appear.
Wednesday 6.18
David Wroblewski
Barnes & Noble West, 7 pm
Wroblewski reads from his impressive debut novel, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, set in rural Wisconsin. It's a literary coming-of-age thriller about a mute boy who goes on the run with three dogs after realizing that his dog-trainer father has been murdered.
Rebecca Stott
University Book Store-Hilldale, 7 pm
The English historian reads from her acclaimed novel Ghostwalk, in which she applies her scholarly skills to a murder mystery/ghost story about Isaac Newton's academic rise in 17th-century Cambridge.
Eric Church
Marriott West in Middleton, 7:30 pm
The trad-leaning country hitmaker worships at the temple of Merle Haggard, which ain't such a bad religion to have. Lonestar and Jamey Johnson open.
Nathaniel Bartlett & Nils Bultmann
Overture Center's Promenade Hall, 8 pm
Bartlett plays contemporary classical music with a marimba hooked up to computers and an eight-channel cube of loudspeakers. He performs the world premiere Greg Wilder's "Elysium," while violist Bultmann, a fellow Madison native now based in San Francisco, offers music from his CD Terminally Unique.
Black Diamond Heavies
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
The punky, Tennessee-based blues/soul duo go for the jugular on their new gutbucket cover of Ike and Tina's "Nutbush City Limits" and come up with an instant underground hit. Ron Franklin and Shazy Hade open.
Thursday 6.19
The Black Angels
Annex, 9 pm
No, that's not the Doors exploding through the paisley-patterned time warp. It's Austin's Black Angels, one of the most convincing trad-minded psychedelic acts around. The Warlocks open.
Freedy Johnston
Frequency, 9:30 pm
A pop-rock songwriter with a strong sense of craft, Johnston should have hit it big after the release of the note-perfect "Bad Reputation." He didn't, but he keeps penning airtight tunes. Jay Moran also appears.
