Church Basement Ladies
The summer entertainment season is winding down, but there is never any shortage of music to be found about town. The calendar this week includes: a production of Church Basement Ladies; Mad Toast Live! and Jazz at Five; and, more live tunes by Gospel Gossip, The Heligoats, Oakhurst, and Bolth.
Monday 8.17
NOTEWORTHY: U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps becomes first athlete to win eight gold medals at one Olympics, 2008.
BIRTHDAYS: Go-Go's singer Belinda Carlisle, 1958; actor Sean Penn, 1960.
High Noon Saloon, 8:30 pm
If the School of Seven Bells concert a little while back didn't convince you that shoegaze is back with a vengeance, this band is bound to do it with Sarah Nienaber's ethereal vocals and a spine-tingling jolt of distortion. Brief Candles and Archie Powell & the Exports open.
Tuesday 8.18
NOTEWORTHY: 19th Amendment ratified, 1920.
BIRTHDAYS: Sundancing filmmaker/environmentalist Robert Redford, 1937; actors Edward Norton & Christian Slater and hip-hop artist Everlast, 1969.
Overture Center's Capitol Theater, 7:30 pm. Also Wednesday (2 & 7:30 pm) & Thursday (7:30 pm), Aug. 19 & 20; through Aug. 23
The Minnesota-based musical comedy has become a regional phenomenon with its portrayal of the cooks at a mid-1960s Lutheran church. (Representative song title from the libretto: "The Pale Food Polka.") The cast features William Christopher, the Roman Catholic clergyman on M*A*S*H, here playing against type as a Lutheran clergyman.
Brink Lounge, 8 pm
The weekly variety show reaches across the world to Graz, Austria, to feature the folk-and-roots fusion of Chuck Lemonds and the guitar magic of Madison-via-Minsk session musician Arkadiy Yushin. A podcast of the performance will be available the following week at 7 Steps to Havana
100 block of State Street, 5 pm (Overture Center lobby if it rains)
The glorious late-summer series Jazz at Five rolls on with the Latin jazz stylings of this internationally staffed septet.
Indie Coffee, 7 pm
The one-man band from the Land of Lincoln returns to town to showcase his latest set of indie-pop melodies and eccentric-yet-endearing lyrics among the aromas of French roasts and espresso shots.
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
The five guys of Oakhurst take bluegrass to new heights by fusing the Americana of the Appalachian Mountains with the Rocky Mountains rock 'n' roll of Colorado, their home base.
Frequency, 10 pm
On its MySpace page, the Indianapolis punk band describes its members as "four illegal immigrants, all having gay marriages." If you've got even a drop of sarcasm in your blood, their live show will transform you into a full-fledged smart-ass for the evening. With Pyroklast and the Gusto.
Thursday 8.20
NEW MOON
BIRTHDAYS: Today Show weatherman Al Roker, 1954; actress Joan Allen, 1956; Miracle the White Buffalo, 1994.
