A few fresh events worth adding to your calendar.
Speedy Ortiz.
We’ve always got an eye on shows being announced in Madison. Here’s what stands out from the past week’s newly added events.
Madison New Music Festival. Aug. 10-12, multiple venues. The effort to bring Madison a summer festival focused on contemporary classical and new compositions continues. The second annual Madison New Music Festival will feature a night combining visual art and music at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; a new composition from UW-Madison trombone professor Mark Hetzler (also of Sinister Resonance), and pairings of beer and music on the Terrace.
Points & Pints. Aug. 15-17, High Noon Saloon. The whole thing of arcade games and pinball machines in bars is starting to take off in Madison, with one-off arcade nights at venues like Johnson Public House and more permanent affairs like the installation of pinball machines at Art In. The High Noon’s new three-night arcade-and-pinball event also features some good music. On the first night, the TV Dinner DJs will be spinning with Beau Devereaux of Samantha Glass. Night two brings four live bands, including the caustically catchy garage-punk outfit Dumb Vision and punk outfit Psychic Drag. Night three is a full-on gaming and pinball tournament.
Male Gaze. Aug. 26, Mickey’s Tavern. The San Francisco band puts a dark and cavernous, but at times surprisingly melodic, spin on post-punk.
Poney. Aug. 31. High Noon Saloon. Poney formed in Wausau and over the years developed a potent brew of metal, hardcore, and prog. We haven’t heard much for them the past few years, as some members moved to Madison and started other bands, most notably the standout thrash-punk act No Hoax. But new material to follow their 2013 album Rorschach has been in the works, and it’s great to see this fierce live band headlining a show again.
Dead Rider. Sept. 21, Frequency. Led by Todd Rittmann of ’90s noise-rock greats U.S. Maple, Chicago’s Dead Rider continues to pull that genre into ever more strange and fragmented territory.
My Favorite Murder. Oct. 20, Orpheum. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark bring their beloved true-crime podcast to Madison for a live recording.
Tera Melos, Speedy Ortiz. Oct. 24, High Noon Saloon. The math-y heroics of Tera Melos and the twisty but pop-leaning rock of Speedy Ortiz should make for one of the fall’s most pleasantly warped bills. Speedy Ortiz guitarist/singer Sadie Dupuis talked with us in 2014.
