Plus more events we recommend checking out in Madison, October 31 through November 6 edition.
We’re partnering with the wonderful independent email newsletter Madison Minutes to bring you event recommendations every week. Some of these write-ups will appear in Madison Minutes‘ weekly event email, and all of which will appear here.
A few notes: This events roundup is, as before, selective and not comprehensive. Each week, we’ll focus on a handful of things our editors and writers find compelling, and that’s it. We’ll write up a few of them, and just list a few more. It’ll take us a while to get back to full strength with this part of our coverage, because we’ve had so many other exciting, demanding things to work on lately. Please reach out to us with suggestions—and info about your event, as long as you’re able to get it to us a few weeks in advance—at [email protected].
NOVEMBER 3
Please Baby Please at UW Cinematheque. Doors at 6:30 p.m., screening at 7 p.m. Free.
Let The Right One In at Union South Marquee. 7 p.m. Free.
NOVEMBER 4
The Green Knight at Union South Marquee. 9 p.m. Free. (Also November 5 at 6 p.m.)
David Lowery’s medieval art house fantasy The Green Knight (2021) asks its viewers to listen deeply to the breaths in between its siren calls as much as it commands observation of its treacherous cinematographic splendor—far beyond the conscious limitations of its sourced Arthurian adaptation.
In fact, Lowery’s contained epic unspools like the From Software version of that centuries-old Celtic tale and visual manifestation of Camelot. With the multi-platform release of runaway hit Elden Ring this past winter, those links hold even firmer in comparing their open worlds, the game’s Roundtable Hold, and the film’s wooded green chapel, which recalls the many churches strewn about The Lands Between. Like the best moments in the worlds of Hidetaka Miyazaki, The Green Knight is built on the pretensions of mysticism, dreaded dreams, and dark witticisms rather than pointedly dense orations or adherence to conventionally bloated motivations of high fantasy.
Daniel Hart’s score further evokes memories of the aforementioned game (with compositions by Tsukasa Saito) in the hushed, dissonant chants reverberating through foggy horizons and off-kilter semitone string phrasings that clash with the percussive snaps and rhythms of internal conflict. The music’s beckoning undulations always drums up those inner demons. So much of the film resides in subconscious life and death, soaked in the sex and violence of nature—rock, ash, water, vines, wood, blood, cum, amniotic fluid. The plot dissolves into a headless id, a flailing man (Dev Patel) in a kingdom of myth.
One of the most indelible films of last year.
—Grant Phipps
NOVEMBER 5
Bev Rage & The Drinks, Heavy Looks, Heather The Jerk at Mickey’s Tavern. 10 p.m. Free.
Glitz, grime, and glamor abound in Chicago band Bev Rage & The Drinks’ live show. Bev Rage infuse their scrappy queer-punk with sardonic venom and pointed bursts of genuine affection. Since releasing the Don’t Know Shit demo in 2016, the band’s shifted a few members and refined their sound. Exes & Hexes, the band’s recent full-length, is the most polished entry of Bev Rage’s discography and a direct result of year’s worth of artistic evolution. Charming, disarming, raucous, and rousing, Bev Rage will find themselves nicely complemented by Madison acts Heather The Jerk and Heavy Looks, who each flirt with similarly engaging dynamics. Heather The Jerk will be playing a rare live show following 2021’s fiery Cable Access TV—one of Tone Madison‘s top albums of that year—while Heavy Looks will be continuing a whirlwind run of local dates to support the recently-released Apathy.
—Steven Spoerl
Tone Madison NewsMatch Kickoff Party at Imaginary Factory. 7 p.m. Free; drinks and food for purchase, with proceeds from drinks benefitting Tone Madison; additional donations encouraged
Tone Madison invites you to celebrate the launch of our year-end fundraising campaign—and help us unlock $15,000 in matching funds from the national NewsMatch program! We simply cannot do this without the direct financial support of our readers, so we also want to express our thanks by showing you a good time.
Tone Madison staff and contributors will be on hand to answer your questions, spin some records, and we’ll be filling up I.F.’s walls with projections of the original editorial illustrations and photos we’ve published this year. Anyone who donates $50 or more during the evening may challenge Tone Madison publisher Scott Gordon to a ping pong match. You can donate directly at tonemadison.com/donate, and you can support us by ordering drinks!
Imaginary Factory will be serving its playful, innovative cocktails and mocktails until 11 p.m., donating 20% of night’s the proceeds to support Tone Madison’s independent journalism. Soups I Did It Again will be serving food throughout the evening.
We’ll have some other details to share soon about our year-end campaign, including a few other fun events during November and December. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up.
—Scott Gordon
Sō Percussion with Caroline Shaw at Wisconsin Union Theater. 7:30 p.m. $5-$35.
The Periodicals, DRL Band, Sean Michael Dargan 3 at Crystal Corner Bar. 8 p.m. $10.
NOVEMBER 6
Magdalena Bay, Bayli at Majestic. Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. $20 advance, $22 doors.
For over six years, the duo Magdalena Bay (Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin) have been cultivating their vivacious sound, style, and presence after dropping a spaced-out cover of Tears For Fears’ revered “Head Over Heels.” From regularly interactive Monday live streams on Twitch to comedic TikTok promos to a plethora of full-length music videos that meld digital and analogue aesthetics of the past three decades, Mica and Matt are now their own DIY brand of instantly charming pop personality.
Their tuneful penchant for all these appealing amalgamations was perfectly distilled on last year’s conceptual dance-pop record Mercurial World, which playfully envelopes a range of sonic influences from progressive electronic, crushed bitpop, synthwave, and R&B. The first single, “Chaeri,” is a magnified reflection on pandemic-fueled isolation and seasonal affective disorder, pulsating with Lewin’s darkly flirtatious house beat that just melts into Tenenbaum’s introverted, smoldering vocal performance throughout.
On the Luminelle label’s recently re-released deluxe edition of the record—which features a few remixes, several bonus tracks, and over a dozen anonymous confessions by Mag Bay’s most avid fans—the duo continues to extend their embrace of genres. Those include psychedelic pop (“All You Do“) and synth funk on the sugary rainbow that is “Unconditional,” a Pee-wee’s Playhouse-meets-’90s Nickelodeon celebration of ecstatic, uncontainable affection with an unrelentingly groovy electric bass line.
While citing the individual appeal of the group’s singles is significant, Mag Bay has also bucked the trend of writing in vacuum, crafting a seamless album experience through mastering the typically arduous art of the segue. Mercurial World is not only remarkably produced in their widening musical lane (with contemporary influences of Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek), but it’s a sparkling showcase of a steady artistic vision. Boasting such definable hooks with an almost elusively crystalline slickness, their upbeat earworms complement the theatricality and glam bent to their live shows, complete with costume sets and a live drummer, Nick Villamizar (who has roots in Mica and Matt’s former progressive rock band from the early-mid 2010s, Tabula Rasa).
Versatile NYC-based alternative R&B artist Bayli opens.
—Grant Phipps
