Inside A Dream: The Music Of David Lynch at High Noon Saloon

Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) of “Twin Peaks” screams nightmarishly at the center of a surreal black-and-white collage.

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“It was a dream! We live inside a dream!” exclaims Phillip Jeffries, the disturbed, long-lost FBI Special Agent portrayed by David Bowie in David Lynch’s 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Jeffries inexplicably materializes in the Philadelphia FBI office and delivers a rambling, incoherent speech, only to mysteriously vanish once again as he did years ago on assignment in Argentina.

Inside A Dream: The Music of David Lynch, a live tribute to the iconic surrealist filmmaker, comes to the High Noon Saloon this Sunday. The show borrows its title from this bizarre scene, while aiming to reproduce the otherworldly atmosphere of Lynch’s oeuvre. Featuring an eight-piece band that consists of talented musicians from Milwaukee and guest vocalist Kenzi Rayelle, the project derives inspiration from all of Lynch’s work to present a unique multimedia experience. Aidan White, Nicolas Buendia, David Brady, Paul Westfahl, Allen Russell, Ousia Moon, Troy Leisemann, and Luis Solis-Trinidad will all be performing live versions of songs and scores featured in Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire, and more, along with “deconstructed” Twin Peaks Red Room stage design and projected visual accompaniment.

Inside A Dream was created by White, a self-described “crazed Lynch fan.” In a 2022 interview for Milwaukee Record, he says, “Lynch is an incredibly visual director and is a craftsman at creating abstract stories, but in my opinion the music he constructs for his work is just as iconic as the stories themselves.” (It should be noted that composer Angelo Badalamenti collaborated extensively with Lynch on the music for his films, and so this is as much a celebration of him as Lynch.)

While this marks the show’s third installment, it is the debut performance in Madison. As for what to expect, in the words of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), the eccentric protagonist of Twin Peaks: “I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.”

—Jason Fuhrman