Plus more events we recommend checking out in Madison, September 19 through 25 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]
SEPTEMBER 21
The Low Czars, Aaron Scholz at Bur Oak. Doors at 7 p.m., music at 8 p.m. $8 advance, $10 doors.
Aaron Scholz has been a busy member of Madison’s music community for more than 20 years, but for a long time the original songs he wrote as a solo artist were somewhat on ice. A 15-year gap between actual Aaron Scholz albums ended with the 2021 release of Third Place. Built on a solid, crisp acoustic foundation, standout tracks like “Dorothy Door” and “St. Paul” contemplate forgotten places and overlooked people, but the lyrics are never exactly bleak, nor is the music. If anything, Scholz excels at making loneliness feel comforting and familiar. If any one line on the album sums it up, it’s on the closing track “The Place,” when Scholz sings: “I never hesitate to get out of the way.” Scholz opens with a solo set here and then performs as a member of the excellent cover band The Low Czars. —Scott Gordon
SEPTEMBER 22
Chasing Trane at Café Coda. 7 p.m. Free.
Brahmulus, Little Earthquakes at High Noon Saloon. Doors at 7 p.m., music at 8 p.m. $10 advance, $15 doors.
SEPTEMBER 23
“Enigma: The Prints Of David Lynch” gallery reception & David Lynch: The Art Life at Tandem Press. Gallery reception at 5 p.m., screening at 7 p.m. Free.
Excerpt from Jason Fuhrman’s article: In conjunction with a reception for Enigma on Friday, September 23, starting at 5 p.m., Tandem Press will also host an outdoor screening of the documentary David Lynch: The Art Life (2016), co-directed by Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, and Olivia Neergaard-Holm. The movie screening will begin at 7 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Apex building where Tandem is located on the North Side. Guests are encouraged to bring blankets or chairs.
Lynch worked closely with Tandem master printers Andy Rubin and Bruce Crownover and a group of graduate students to create several monotypes, editioned prints, and photogravures. Lynch returned to the studio in the summers of 1998, 1999, and 2001, and worked with the press remotely from 2007 to 2008. By all accounts, Lynch left the imprint of his eccentric personality on Tandem.
The predominantly monochromatic exhibition parallels Lynch’s cinema insofar as the meaning of the work remains obscure, but the power of his images cannot be denied. Lynch’s films compel audiences to watch differently—they often feel like paintings that are meant to be experienced, rather than explained. Similarly, the recurring motifs, rich symbolism, and dreamlike textures of his prints imbue the work with a distinctively narrative quality.
David Lynch: The Art Life screening alongside the reception for the Engima exhibition feels like the perfect pairing. The documentary plainly demonstrates how Lynch has always been a tactile artist while he manipulates various materials with his bare hands and leisurely performs manual labor. While few of Lynch’s films are actually mentioned in The Art Life, it emphasizes the myriad intricate connections between his various pursuits, and suggests that cinema represents just one facet of his vision.
Executioners at UW Cinematheque. Doors at 6:30 p.m., screening at 7 p.m. Free.
Sequel to The Heroic Trio (1993), which screened September 16. Excerpt of original preview by Ian Adcock: Co-directed by gangster film auteur Johnnie To and wuxia master Siu-Tung Ching, The Heroic Trio is a combination of both directors’ highly stylized and playfully postmodern signatures. Though The Heroic Trio wasn’t a hit during original release, everyone reunited for a low-budget post-apocalyptic sequel, Executioners, the very same year in an attempt to recoup production costs. Both films will be shown in newly restored 4K DCP with English subtitles, a welcome upgrade from the questionably dubbed Dimension Films versions that made the films cult classics in the VHS era.
Hanah Jon Taylor Artet: Tribute to John Coltrane at Café Coda. 7 p.m. $20.
Mark Doox’s religious-icon-style painting “St. John Coltrane The Divine Sound Baptist” looms large over the interior of Café Coda. It’s not the only portrait lining the Willy Street jazz club, but Coltrane is certainly a sort of patron saint of the place. This is, after all, a venue owned by saxophonist Hanah Jon Taylor, who cherishes the spirit of expansion and improvisation that drives Coltrane’s work. On the 76th anniversary of Coltrane’s birth, Taylor will perform here with Pawan Benjamin on woodwinds, Chris Rottmayer on piano, Dushun Mosley on percussion, and Jeremiah Hunt on bass. There’s no easy way to sum up Coltrane’s contributions to music in his 40 years, and you can expect that the Taylor Artet’s performance won’t be easy to pin down either. —Scott Gordon
