The A.V. Club's Madison fall show guide

The end of summer is a magical time for Madison, in which we gaze overwhelmed at the looming stampede of shows just waiting to descend and crush our schedules into a highly entertaining mess. This year as always, it's a good clusterfuck to be caught up in. The A.V. Club begins sorting through the season's oncoming crush of music, comedy, and spoken options here, but check back with us from week to week for more detailed coverage of these events and many more.

The big heap
We might as well begin this with all the acts who've shown a certain knack for riling up the ornery young folk. There's hardly anyone who can slice and weave through a story like Ghostface Killah (11/3, Barrymore), the rap act we're most looking forward to this season (even if half the crowd attempts to drown him out with incessant shouts of "WU-TANG!"). Israeli garage-rockers Monotonix (10/1, High Noon Saloon) last came through to turn the High Noon into their own personal jungle gym/dumpster/hedonistic rock 'n' roll flesh-sundae. The tunes may be crude, but the performance-art madness is pretty hard to fuck with. (Also, Milwaukee's Call Me Lightning is opening, and they're fantastic.) New York duo Matt And Kim (9/11, Majestic Theatre) don't boast the same swarthy badassery, instead working their crowds with a certain shrill, hyper charm. The fury of The Gossip (10/17, Majestic) is best experienced live, as lead singer Beth Ditto unleashes her considerable punk-soul vocals over the band's skeletal beat. But let's not forget the brow-furrowing world of independent hip-hop and Brother Ali's (11/19, Barrymore Theatre) ability to inspire his serious audience to groove.

That said, there's still room for quiet reflection, relatively speaking. Sufjan Stevens (9/28, Majestic) is doing his fans a favor by playing venues barely large enough to contain all the song titles on Illinoise. Fall brings us two of modern singer-songwriterdom's most beloved and debated eccentrics: The strangle-voiced but sympathetic John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats (11/6, High Noon), who will be out behind a new album of songs inspired by the Bible, The Life Of The World To Come; and former Pedro The Lion leader David Bazan (10/27, High Noon), finally ready to share his first solo album, Curse Your Branches. Bazan's support act, Say Hi, is another fine singer-songwriter who induces an emotional twinge amid his eccentricities. Winnipeg's The Weakerthans (9/27, High Noon) belie their punk-rock roots with plaintive tunes that can hold people at a hush, and Ben Weaver (9/12, Kiki's House Of Righteous Music) makes music that pretty much demands a quiet setting. Haley Bonar's (11/20, High Noon) folk-y guitar pop has a little more spunk to it, but still works best on delicate ears.

Madison even gets an intimate, pared-down taste of Britpop this season with a show from Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop of solid Scottish band Travis (10/23, Majestic), plus the smoothly crafted, slightly electro-embellished pop tunes of Irish band Bell X1 (9/28, High Noon). For those who like their hip-hop to create a lighter mood, Rootbeer (9/4, High Noon) boasts the disarmingly fun showmanship of L.A. rapper-singer Pigeon John. Bursting into another idiom entirely are acts like Dirty Dozen Brass Band (10/2, Wisconsin Union Theater), who charge their R&B with the bold sounds of their native New Orleans, and have kept it feisty and relevant by collaborating with such artists as Chuck D on their 2006 album What's Goin' On, a re-imagining of Marvin Gaye's classic of the same title.

The singular cleverness of Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent (10/16, High Noon), might be a bit more accessible than Why?'s (10/6, Rathskeller) ever-evolving and often mystifying collision of hip-hop, dense instrumental arrangements, and cracked poetry sung in an unmistakable through-the-nose whine. But they're both among the more eclectic musical treats on offer this fall, as is The Most Serene Republic (10/5, High Noon, co-headlining with Grand Archives) and Wolf Parade member Spencer Krug's playfully odd pop group Sunset Rubdown (10/20, High Noon). The occasionally weird art-rock adventures continue with such acts as Portugal. The Man and Drug Rug (10/8, Majestic) the always turbulent, wild-hearted And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (9/26, Majestic), and the Menomena side project Ramona Falls (9/10, High Noon). It's a safe bet some of the same crowd will back out to catch Built To Spill (9/25, Barrymore) or the newer band Chairlift (9/24, Terrace). Seattle's The Spits (9/3, Frequency) round it out with a mix of punk-style songwriting and warm, crackly new-wave synths and guitars. And, just as randomly, actress Juliette Lewis shares some more of her journeys into rock (10/4, High Noon).

If you're enjoying what these younger acts contribute, though, don't forget a few highlight bands who've been mixing and tweaking it up for a bit longer. In addition to the unbridled, antagonistic sonic fuckery of Texas' Butthole Surfers (10/6, Barrymore), Madison's own gang of sneering noise-rock smart-asses, Killdozer (9/25, High Noon), return for yet another reunion show. Getting back together has also worked out well for Dinosaur Jr. (10/13, Majestic): J. Mascis still rips up some pretty sweet guitar leads onstage, and the band's two albums of new material have been well-received. They Might Be Giants (10/11, Barrymore) are actually playing a show for kids and families this time through Madison, but will probably draw out plenty grown-up fans of their exuberantly odd musical nerd-outs anyway.

While you might accuse The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (9/9, Orpheum Stage Door) of being just a tad cutesy in their attempt to marry Belle And Sebastian with My Bloody Valentine, it also makes for some plenty agreeable pop music, as does the double bill of Throw Me The Statue and New Zealand's The Brunettes (8/28, The Annex). The Avett Brothers (10/21, Barrymore) have more of a bright, heart-on-sleeve folk angle on acoustic Americana than Duluth bluegrass stompers Trampled By Turtles (11/11, High Noon) or the elegant and somber Ontario band Great Lake Swimmers (10/23, Rathskeller), yet each band stirs up its own kind of welcoming hoedown. Eventually it'll be time to get violently lurched out of your reverie, perhaps via the spazzy shrieking and guitar-scraping of Japanese noise-rock band Melt-Banana (12/2, High Noon).

It's refreshing to note that the "singer-songwriter" category isn't always so easily defined in our local concert season. Jolie Holland (10/13, High Noon) winds her tunes up with an elusive, patient sensibility, while Michelle Shocked (9/14, Majestic) goes for more of a straight-up outpouring of spirit and politics. Ingrid Michaelson (10/24, Barrymore) sits at the more polished end of the spectrum, but with a bit of quiet charm that helps to balance out her more cloying moments. Mirah (10/2, Orpheum Stage Door) may lean toward the playfully lo-fi, K Records end of things, but in a well-rounded and approachable way. (Plus openers Norfolk And Western are there to sweeten the bill.) Not that we mean "singer-songwriter" as a euphemism for "music made by chicks": Joshua Radin (9/26, High Noon Saloon) lands in the same ballpark with his intimate, kinda precious tunes.

New developments
It's hard to talk much further about the fall concert schedule without bringing up the second annual Forward Music Festival (9/17-19, multiple venues), which is slated to drop more than 100 bands into venues across town in the course of one weekend. It's a bit crazy to try and sift through the whole lineup, though of course the big draws are headliner Andrew Bird and featured acts such as Low, Ra Ra Riot, Richard Buckner, Iran, and so on. Being run by a local upstart collective, Forward Fest also incorporates a lot of Madison and regional bands, from Jeremiah Nelson And The Achilles Heel to weird rap act Homeownered to bass-drums duo Nuclear Woods to Madison-spawned instrumental-rock group Cougar. This year, the festival will also incorporate the locally grown Reverence festival of industrial, electronic, and often goth-y acts. There's still more to discuss in this lineup, and we'll be previewing it in much greater detail a little closer to the festival date.

In a related endeavor, the small music-and-art space on East Johnson Street known as the Project Lodge recently came under new management that hopes to bring music and other events to the all-ages venue on a more regular basis, though we're still waiting to hear more details. Acts confirmed so far include Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (9/11). An even less conventional venue, the Good Style Shop downtown on East Washington Avenue, has been welcoming experimental acts from Madison and beyond—that is, when it's not busy operating as a sort of fashionably curated thrift store.

Road trips
Even though we like to think Madison does quite well for shows, excuses to make the 70-mile drive to Milwaukee abound. It ranges from pop mastermind Brian Wilson's "Greatest Hits Tour" (10/24, Pabst Theatre) to the beloved Bruce Springsteen (11/15, Bradley Center) to rap dominator Lil' Wayne (9/2, Marcus Amphitheater) to the horrors of a reunited Creed (9/1, Bradley Center). 

A little less out of the way, the historic Stoughton Opera House just a ways south of town is looking to get out of its shell a bit. Or at least it's bringing in unexpectedly young-folk-friendly acts like inventive guitar-tapper Kaki King (10/24), in addition to more aged ones like comedy duo The Smothers Brothers (11/15).

If you're a fan of the heavy stuff, we won't lie—you might come to regard Madison's concert calendar as something of a desert. East Side teen center The Loft hosts younger, metalcore-ish bands, but that doesn't always cut it. Sometimes you just have to look somewhere dirtier and angrier—again, Milwaukee. One way or another, it often catches tours that end up skipping Madison: Motörhead (8/29, Rave) is coming back, and whether or not you've got much regard for Slipknot (9/5, Rave), it'll have The Black Dahlia Murder in tow. Hey, no one ever said Wisconsin was a metal snob's paradise or anything, but at least there's a chance to catch a huge tour that'll bring together a wide swath of metal fans: Dethklok, though a fictional cartoon creation from the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, morphs into über-metal reality with support from Converge's monumentally brutal collision of metal and hardcore; Mastodon's crazy prog-metal stomp; and the equally distinctive High On Fire (10/18, Rave). Getting into death-ier territory, Brew City is also slated to bring in Lamb Of God (11/6, Rave). Anyway, we'll do our best to keep an eye out for decent metal shows a little closer to home, as they do happen once in a while. All That Remains, Lacuna Coil, Maylene And the Sons Of Disaster, and From Sword To Sunrise (10/3, Barrymore) will hold some folks over, as will stoner-metal group Weedeater (9/23, Frequency); and we'll suggest some local metal groups to look out for below. There's at least one great punk show you won't have to leave town for: New Jersey's Bouncing Souls (11/5, Majestic), heading through on their 20th-anniversary tour.

Free 'n' breezy
This issue drops just in time to tell you about the coming weekend's Orton Park Festival (Aug. 28-30, Orton Park on the near-East Side), a laid-back affair that'll feature Madison standbys The Rousers and a few out-of-town acts, like Latin genre-mixers Locos Por Juana and Chicago's Robbie Fulks. We're getting late in the season for actual outdoor festivals, but it should wrap up rather pleasantly with such events as college-radio station WSUM's annual Snake On The Lake festival, featuring such acts as Milwaukee's Maritime (9/4, Terrace) and a headlining DJ set from RJD2, and the Willy Street Fair (Sept. 19-20, Williamson Street), which always includes multiple stages of local rock, folk, and world-music acts. The Willy Street Fair's first day also ties in with the Madison World Music Festival (Sept. 16-19), which otherwise takes place at the Memorial Union's various venues, including the Terrace. It's one of the city's coolest musical events by far, offering free exposure to music from five continents this year. Acts on the lineup get into everything from traditional Mongolian music (Hanggai) to Ethiopian music (Minyeshu) to the sounds of the Basque Country (Kepa Junkera).

If you're wondering where the free SoCo Music Experience is (you know, that thing that brought Madison a free Flaming Lips show in 2007 and a free GZA/Black Keys show in 2008), it's kind of coming back, but in much smaller form. Instead of a big all-day outdoor festival, it'll be an indoor evening with Ghostland Observatory (10/8, Barrymore Theatre). It's free, but does require audience members to sign up through Southern Comfort's website. Finally, the music lineup at Taste Of Madison (Sept. 5-6, Capitol Square) is always a rather puzzling one for a somewhat family-oriented food festival; this year, it's already announced such headliners as lesser '90s grunge band Candlebox. The most bizarre thing about Taste, though, is that rapper Asher Roth is slated to bring his eternal-college-boy schtick to the Taste on Sept. 6.

But of course!
Like two shaggy, vaguely weed-scented magnets, college towns and certain acts are just inexorably drawn to each other. So let's not even feign surprise, Mr. and Miss College Will Be The Haziest Days Of My Life, to see such earnestly bland acts as OAR (9/3, Alliant Energy Center) and Carbon Leaf (9/20, Majestic Theatre, with Stephen Kellogg And The Sixers) heading back to town. And yes, of course Keller Williams has a Madison show lined up this fall (10/16, Barrymore).

That's not to say the jammy side of things doesn't offer some interesting dimensions. Phish's Mike Gordon (9/26, Barrymore) and String Cheese Incident's Kyle Hollingsworth (9/10, Majestic) contrast with the roosty workouts of Railroad Earth (10/29, Barrymore), and Yonder Mountain String Band (10/22, Orpheum Theatre) still maintains a certain homey charm. In a more electronically inclined direction, jamtronica outfits Pretty Lights (10/24, Majestic) and Disco Biscuits (10/29, Union Theater) return for what are sure to be packed, quasi-rave affairs. Of course, no one in this category can really match the bizarre spectacle of the masked and bucket-capped Buckethead (9/17, Barrymore) shredding his way through multi-genre instrumental sets that can span from metallic blizzardry to playful, jazz-influenced compositions. We're also used to seeing Michael Franti And Spearhead's (9/27, Union Theater) rousing mix of rock, reggae, and hip-hop come through town once a year, and this time he scoots up from the Barrymore to a larger venue.

Carousing and such
While so many shows in Madison tend to draw a rather reserved crowd, there are still some refuges for those who'd like to thrash about and get sweaty all night. It seems that Majestic's really trying to make itself one of the main places for said activity lately, putting on such danceable shows as a Michael Jackson Tribute with DJ Nick Nice (8/29), yet another set from frequent visitor and noted bhangra music spinner DJ Rekha (9/12), and sleekly styled club-assaulting remixers L.A. Riots (9/5). Bassnectar's (11/4, Majestic) multimedia shows center on dense, hypnotic beats but embrace a bit of a wild-hippie vibe as well. As for dance events a little off the beaten path, keep an eye on the calendar at the North Side's Inferno club, whose nights of DJs and electronic music span from hip-hop to metal to straight-up gothy industrial.

While we're in party mode, we may as well address the Halloween season. It's looking like Freak Fest will return once more to flood State Street with revelers and potentially irritating music over Halloween weekend, but we're still awaiting details. But there's still a fun way to create a Halloween monstrosity. Captured! By Robots (10/16, Annex), a sort of demented version of the Rock-Afire Explosion, finds one flesh-based musician the slave of a mechanical, metal-inclined band. Local blog Dane101.com will be expanding its annual Halloween celebration this year, hosting not one but two nights of local bands performing tribute sets to everyone from Elvis Costello to Joan Jett to Cake to Foo Fighters in what's dubbed A Freakin' Halloweekend (10/30-31, High Noon).

Locals and regulars
Madison's local artists produce a pretty stimulating variety of good stuff—you just have to be willing to root around and venture outside your comfort zone a bit. To get some idea of the different sounds at play around town, try the odd juxtapositions at the American Cancer Society Benefit show coming up at the High Noon (9/6): It features long-running klezmer mischief-makers Yid Vicious, but also The Cemetery Improvement Society's increasingly hard-to-define upstart blend of industrial-style beats and morose, melodic guitar. Dumate has easily become the best hip-hop act in the city, thanks to its clever rhymes and tautly swinging live instrumentation, and the next chance to catch them is as the opener for rap-and-rock hybrid Know Boundaries, a Madison act playing its final show (9/12, High Noon). Both bands share members with reggae standbys Natty Nation (10/3, High Noon).

Madison also has standbys from other eras entirely. Or at least Clyde Stubblefield, who made his name as the legendary Funky Drummer behind James Brown. His weekly Funky Mondays gig at The Frequency tends to make for a formidable yet easygoing funk and soul revue, complete with Stubblefield's big band and such guest vocalists as Motown-groomed showman Charlie Brooks. Speaking of regular gigs, they're always a good way to get introduced to the little pockets of local music. At their weekly Honky Tonk Tuesdays gig at Mickey's Tavern, local singer-songwriters Blake Thomas and Jeremiah Nelson don't really preside over much boot-scooting, but do share some country- and folk-informed tunes in a relaxed setting.

Of course, local bands don't always book shows months in advance, and we'll try to keep you posted on plenty of good ones throughout the season. However, we can tell you for now to look out for certain things. In addition to the aforementioned Dumate, hip-hop fans might gravitate to the friendly Rob Dz or the more menacing Lucha Libre; the adventurous Stink Tank or the more pop-savvy duo Fall Guys. For those in search of abrasion, noise-rock and post-punk have a pretty healthy presence here, thanks to such bands as the spazzy Zebras, bare-bones garage-rock duo The Hussy, math-rockers The United Sons Of Toil, and instrumental-rock bands like El Valiente, Czarbles, Revolving Doors, and All Tiny Creatures. While the local experimental-music community might as well be invisible to most people here, and doesn't necessarily seek a lot of publicity, it boasts some terrific stuff, from the twisted pop of Zola Jesus to the spooky, otherworldly abuse of Burial Hex. Despite the aforementioned lack of metal, we'd suggest checking out such locals as Luna Mortis, Buried Future, and Dissent And Revolt for starters.

On the more approachable side of things, Pale Young Gentlemen break out their string section and swooning, charming tunes for the occasional packed show, and Flatbear singer Jentri Colello and bandmates craft a rich, moody sound that pleases the folkies and alt-country fans without falling into anything too derivative. When you're wandering on State Street or at the Dane County Farmers' Market, keep an eye out for local duo Boo Bradley, whose acoustic take on the blues thrives on cool slide-guitar work and craft washboard rhythms. There's much more than we can cram in here, so just be curious and check back with us for further coverage of local bands.

Read aloud and/or laughed at
It's a wonder that Madison doesn't get a steady stream of awesome author events year-round, but at least we have the big dose of literary prestige known as the Wisconsin Book Festival (Oct. 7-11, multiple venues) to make up for that. Essayist and novelist Wendell Berry will take a break from life on his Kentucky farm to headline the annual festival of author talks and workshops that will focus on small-scale agriculture and sustainability. We're hoping to see a strong comics element to the festival as more details come out, what with American Splendor author Harvey Pekar scheduled to appear.

Michael Pollan is likely to be just as big a draw as Berry, at least where the local farming/foodie crowd is concerned: His work, in such books as The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense Of Food, has widely challenged people's assumptions about industrial food systems, and, simply put, what food actually is. He'll come to Madison to speak at local non-profit Reap Food Group's annual Food For Thought Festival (9/26, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.).

Alas, there's no huge yearly comedy event to make up for Madison's rather slow trickle of big-name stand-up comedians, though we always manage to pull in at least one good one who's also popular with the college crowd, like Mike Birbiglia (9/30, Barrymore). A few days later, Australian-born comic Jim Jeffries (10/2, Majestic) rides a tide of jolly offensiveness, stamping his heel down on such squeamish points as abortion, the Holocaust, drinking, and sexual molestation. The next weekend, young comedy singer-songwriter Bo Burnham (10/10, Majestic) teaches us how to awkwardly cram rambling jokes into pop-song verses with a bit of a Stephen Lynch vibe. The Capitol Steps (10/10, Overture Hall) come through the same night with comedy songs of a more nerdy, political, current-events bent. Broken Lizard, the comedy troupe behind such films as Beerfest and Super Troopers, will come through for a night of stand-up and sketches (11/5, Barrymore). Oh yeah, and that crazy Gallagher (10/15, Majestic) is still stalking the land and smashing the fuck out of watermelons, so prepare to get sprayed.

The prospect of watching some unknown local guy do stand-up tends to scare a lot of people off, yet we do have some funny people here, and they've set up a couple of easy points of entry for anyone making a first dabble. The Dan Potacke Show (Every other Monday, including Aug. 31, at The Frequency) is a happy-hour live variety program hosted by a fictional character, the desperate man-child Wisconsin native Dan Potacke. Though the whole point of the character is that he's a pathetic failure, he somehow manages to be a good host, setting up shows that usually include a short set from a local stand-up; interviews with local figures; music; and even hysterically uncomfortable game-show segments. The Comedy Club On State's weekly Big Deuce open mic (Wednesdays) always works in a rotating cast of fairly consistent regulars such as Mark Kump, JoAnne Poniatowski, and Dave Labedz, easing some of the potential tedium between the less-tested weirdos who sometimes sign up. Plus, it's about an hour-and-a-half show divided up into five-minute sets, so if someone's bombing, it at least won't be for long.