Running from June 16 through 18 in Highland, Wisconsin, Bluelight features an eccentric mix of musicians from Madison and beyond.
Bluelight poster by Mollie Martin.
Bluelight is an annual music festival that takes place about 40 miles west of Madison in Highland, Wisconsin, but it’s very much a Madison affair. Locally based musician Spencer Bible (Tippy, Christian Dior) books the festival and hosts it in a barn on a plot of land his family owns, and usually about half of the artists in the lineup are from Madison. (I should note that I’ve played a couple of shows Bible has set up, and vice versa, and I’m friendly with a few of the people playing this year’s event.)
The fourth installment of Bluelight will take place June 16 through 18. As usual, the lineup spans 30-odd bands and is heavy on rock, psych, and oddball electronic music. Madison-based highlights include melancholy electro-pop outfit Mori Mente, a solo set from Claire Nelson-Lifson of power-pop standouts Proud Parents, punk trio Once A Month, R&B charmer Mr. Jackson, and noise-rock outfit Twelves.
The out-of-town outfits that stand out on this bill include pleasantly warpy Minneapolis shoegazers The Cult Of Lip (who recently put out an EP on Madison’s Rare Plant label), bruising Dubuque noise-jazz duo Sex Funeral, L.A. ambient artist Kevin Greenspon, and Kalamazoo, Michigan’s True FO, whose recent self-titled EP puts a muscular and bold spin on dream-pop.
Tickets to Bluelight are $15, which includes camping and parking. Time slots for the 30-plus bands playing this year are not yet firmed up, so watch the Facebook event for the full lineup. Bible recently wrote on the event page that he’s been “rly inspired by #fyrefest,” but luckily it sounds like a pretty agreeable place to get stranded.
