Proud Parents, Scrunchies, Graham Hunt, Jane Hobson at Crystal Corner Bar

A few dozen bands played the Dirtnap Records Super Show Extravaganza at the High Noon in June 2022, Madison’s biggest punk show of recent memory. One of the newer acts that played the two-day event was Minneapolis’ Scrunchies (pictured above), an indie-punk trio who will be making their return to Madison on March 4 at the Crystal Corner Bar. Proud Parents, Graham Hunt, and Jane Hobson will play as the night’s local support. Each of those three local acts has left an impression on Tone Madison‘s coverage over the past few years, with each claiming well-deserved spots in our year-end coverage of Madison music.

Hobson’s solo project has steadily evolved since debuting but hit a new high with 2022’s crushingly beautiful, bittersweet single “If You Ask.” Historically, Hobson’s recorded output has flittered between quiet, introspective folk and something more aggressive and sinister. Recent footage of Hobson playing live demonstrates that her band’s live show gains some punch when the gloves come off. (This video of Hobson covering The Cranberries’ “Zombie” at Mickey’s neatly encapsulates that willingness to lean into brute force.) Softness isn’t entirely absent in Hobson’s live show, though, and does still elevate the material. At Crystal Corner, it’ll also provide some balance amid an inordinately high-energy slate of indie-punk bands.

Artistic restlessness has driven Graham Hunt’s work for over a decade. From Midnight Reruns to Sundial Mottos, Midwives, The Reptile Fund, and everything in between, Hunt’s been a consistent force in Wisconsin’s punk community—which remained true even after a brief relocation to Chicago. Three records into a solo career (2019’s Leaving Silver City, 2021’s Painting Over Mold, 2022’s If You Knew Would You Believe It) that’s shown virtually no signs of slowing, Hunt’s consistently proven to be a versatile artist who excels in attention to detail. Each of Hunt’s records is stylistically distinct, yet couldn’t have come from anyone else. Live, Hunt’s band—a rotating cast of musicians that includes members of Disq, Cult Of Lip, Sat. Nite Duets, and more—is a powder keg of volatility and exacting precision. Whenever Hunt’s name is on a bill, it’s a non-negotiable, can’t-miss occasion.

Similarly unmissable are Proud Parents, who have been consistently invigorating Madison audiences with their distinct brand of sugar-rush indie-punk/power-pop catharsis since the mid-2010s. Everyone interested in attending this one should know what to expect from the jittery quartet by now, and subsequently know how infectious their unfettered joyfulness has always proven. Scrunchies are likely to be the biggest question mark to most of the audience, but as they ably demonstrated last year, they are a wrecking ball of a live act. Heavy, melodic, discordant, and unapologetically punchy, they are perfectly suited to the Crystal Corner Bar’s punk-leaning aesthetics.

All four of the bands on this bill are worth seeing on their own, but packaged together make up an incredibly enticing prospect. If you haven’t been to the Crystal since they started hosting live music again—or haven’t been at all—there may not be a better occasion to finally take foot inside.

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—Steven Spoerl