Events

Things to do this week

Events happening June 20-26

Photo by Behnam Norouzi / Unsplash

Hi there!

Musicians will be performing at over 100 locations Tuesday for Make Music Madison.

What is Make Music Madison? Check out this helpful blurb I borrowed from the official website:

"Make Music Madison is:

Performed by Anyone, Enjoyed by Everyone.
A way to celebrate the summer solstice, enjoy the longest day of the year, and sample a buffet of musical merriment.
A DIY city-wide celebration when almost any way to make music can and will happen.
Open to music makers of all ages, skill levels, and musical persuasions."
See the full list of participating locations here."

See the full list of participating locations here.

— Sam

Pundamonium: The Madison Pun Slam
Monday | Show at 7 p.m. | High Noon Saloon | $7
Contestants make puns based on prompts and get ranked by the
Want to compete? Sign up before the show.

Lakeside Cinema: Teen Beach Movie (2013)
Monday | 9 p.m. | Memorial Terrace | Free
From IMDb: “Two surfing lovers, whose doomed relationship is nearing to a close, find themselves swept into a dimension-traversing wave that sends them into a beach movie musical in the 60's.”

Panel: Madison Media Discuss the Top Issues Shaping our Region's Future
Tuesday | 12 p.m. | Virtual | Free
Leaders from Madison365, Cap Times, and Our Lives magazine discuss the area's biggest stories.

Yid Vicious Paddle Party
Tuesday | 5:30 p.m. | Tenney Park | Free
Yid Vicious floats down the Yahara while performing. Float along with the band or catch the floating concert from the riverbank. Part of the Make Music Madison celebrations.

Panel: What to do about guns in Wisconsin
Tuesday | 6:30 p.m. | Virtual
Panel about changing our state's relationship with guns. Organized by Human Rights Watch.

Garden Tour: What’s in Bloom?
Wednesday | 7 p.m. | UW-Madison Arboretum | Free
Find, compare, and learn about flowers on native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. No registration required.

Concerts on the Rooftop: The LoveMonkeys
Thursday | Show at 7 p.m. | Monona Terrace | Free ticket required
The LoveMonkeys blend rock, pop and reggae.

Luke Leavitt's Sound Tile Piano Series
Friday | 5-7 p.m. | Garver Feed Mill | Free
Jazz pianist Luke Leavitt kicked off a new series in May called Sound Title, an improvised and evolving experiment that centers on the baby-grand piano parked in the lounge at Garver Feed Mill. For the most recent installment, on June 9, percussionist Tim Russell joined in, and Leavitt may bring along other guests in the future. Even such naturally loud instruments as a piano and drumkit can get swallowed up in this cavernous space.

How does music take hold of an audience when you've got people lining up for pizza over here, going to and from yoga classes over there, holding a whole entirely unrelated event on the other side of the space, and so on? But Leavitt thrives in the in-between—for instance, in the playful, off-kilter electronic music he makes under his own name and as Cop Circles, it's hard to tell where the earnestness ends and the self-aware humor begins, and it's more fun to just make peace with the way it all blends together. Decidedly ambient in approach, Sound Tile doesn't force its way into the space, and being the center of attention is definitely not the point. Leavitt inquires, insinuates, and prods his way into Garver's decentralized and undefined atmosphere, drawing on elements of contemporary classical and avant-garde music to create the feeling of something pleasantly adrift.
—Scott Gordon, Tone Madison

Friday Evening Classical Guitars: Leonardo Quintero, Gabor Szarvas
Friday | 7 p.m. | Lisa Link Peace Park | Free
Classical guitar concert near State Street.

Heartland Marimba Ensemble
Friday | 7 p.m. | First Unitarian Society | $25 suggested donation.
It's hard to imagine the pointillist fabric of modern classical music without the marimba's plucky attack and rich, ringing overtones. The Waterloo, Iowa-based organization Heartland Marimba brings together marimba players from across the Midwest in varying configurations, with a focus on performing new compositions.

On their current tour, six players—Ethan Strickland, Ryan Pearson, Jordan Nielsen, Sophia Lo, Nathaniel Holman, and Heartland Marimba co-artistic director Matthew Coley, a former member of Madison-based percussion ensemble Clocks In Motion—are performing 10 new pieces. Heartland Marimba co-artistic director Jenni Brandon contributes one, a quartet titled "Badwater Basin," and the other composers featured are: Carla Bartlett, Martin Van Klompenberg, Ian Wiese, Alex Shapira, Evan Erickson, Jonathan Posthuma, Madelyn Byrne, and Arturo Fernandez. With this many composers in the mix, the program offers a chance to appreciate the sheer variety of ways that multiple marimba players can overlap and interact.
—Scott Gordon, Tone Madison

Live on Queen St – Drag & Dance Block Party
Friday | Show at 7 p.m. | 100 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard | Free
Music and drag performances. Host: Bianca Lynn Breeze.

Luke McGovern, Carisa
Friday | Music at 7:30 p.m. | Communication

Last year, singer-songwriter Luke McGovern released the gorgeous, plaintive folk track "Pizza Box Ouija Board," which followed his superlative 2020 full-length Yer Goin' Nowhere, Luke McGovern. McGovern's knack for evoking a familiar, well-worn warmth via his music is undeniable and is a very specific trait that translates exceptionally well in live settings. Joining him for this show is opener Carisa, who has been booking shows with head-turning intensity; her set with David Stoler as part of Strollin' Capitol East last week was lovely and she's set to appear six times throughout Make Music Madison. Carisa's 2020 EP microcosm boasts an endearing blend of folk and jazz, with a subtle but distinctly modern strain, that speaks to the emergent musician's noticeably high levels of control and talent. McGovern and Carisa's pairing here makes a surprising amount of sense and should result in a beautiful night full of nostalgia-tipped moments of ease.
—Steven Spoerl, Tone Madison

CapitalQ Theatre Festival 2022
Friday-Sunday | Bartell Theatre | Prices vary
A new spin on “Queer Shorts,” this festival runs a single weekend and is filled with new and original short plays from local and national playwrights. Programming also includes theatre workshops and masterclasses.

World Giraffe Day Celebration
Saturday | Henry Vilas Zoo | 10 a.m.-2 p.m. | Free
A day to celebrate giraffes and also recognize the challenges they face in the wild. Giraffe training session, barn tours, a conservation pledge, and more. Zoo admission is free.

Communication Craft Swap!
Saturday | 10 a.m.-3 p.m. | Suggested donation of $1-5
Communication is hosting an art material swap for beading, sewing, painting, collage and beyond.

Social Justice Center Jubilee
Saturday | 5-9 p.m. | Free, donations requested
Tone Madison is once again sponsoring the Social Justice Center's summer fundraiser, which returns to the Willy Street community hub's back parking lot this year with a scaled-back but still very good music lineup. Able Baker has built up some well-deserved momentum in the past couple of years, as the band's lovably gloomy rock has developed more dimension, and punch—an evolution that's plain to see in the two singles Able Baker released earlier this year.

DJ Hanna (aka Tone Madison film writer Hanna Kohn) pulls elements from across the musical spectrum into brash, exuberant mixes. William Z. Villain rounds out the lineup with mischievously swinging, tragicomic and sometimes just plain tragic songs that deftly harness fragments of Eastern European music and Latin jazz.
—Scott Gordon, Tone Madison

BABEAPALOOZA!: An All-Female Comedy & Burlesque Spectacular
Sunday | Show at 2 p.m. | The Bur Oak | $15
BABEAPALOOZA first premiered in 2021 to celebrate female/identifying voices in the stand-up world. This time around, burlesque has been added! "Come for the ha-has, stay for the ta-tas."

Jazz at Allen Centennial Garden: JHS&M Quartet
Sunday | 5 p.m. | Free
The JHS&M Quartet will play carefully honed, tight new arrangements of modern jazz & classic pop..

Lakeside Cinema: She's the Man (2006)
Sunday | 9 p.m. | Memorial Union Terrace | Free
From IMDb: "When her brother decides to ditch for a couple weeks, Viola heads over to his elite boarding school, disguised as him, and proceeds to fall for his school's star soccer player, and soon learns she's not the only one with romantic troubles."