Here are some Madison show announcements from this week that you may have missed. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 18 at 10 a.m. unless otherwise noted.
Father John Misty
Tuesday, Sept. 18, Orpheum Theater
Love him or hate him, Josh Tillman has one hell of a work ethic. As Father John Misty, Tillman is coming off his hottest year yet. He released the Grammy-nominated opus Pure Comedy in 2017 and is now preparing another new album, God’s Favorite Customer, scheduled for an official release on June 1 (though it’s already leaked; see his meme). And if you think all that success would take Tillman in a more mainstream direction, let me point you to the single “Mr. Tillman,” a sunny, Zevonian take on Tillman’s nervous breakdown. Also, take it from me: I’ve seen Father John Misty three times now, and I’ve yet to be disappointed.
The Decemberists
Colin Meloy is one of those lyricists you need a thesaurus to listen to. With The Decemberists, Meloy has spent nearly two decades mastering the art of hyper-literate indie rock. His lyrics are often as dense and obtuse as David Foster Wallace novels (which is even more apt given their Infinite Jest-themed video for “Calamity Song”). But that’s not to say Meloy is a one-trick pony. Recent years have seen the band pivot from their more baroque indie pop sound toward Americana and, most recently, a little bit of synth pop, as they do on this year’s I’ll Be Your Girl.
Greta Van Fleet
Listen to Greta Van Fleet’s “Black Smoke Rising” and you’ll swear they’ve stolen some long lost Led Zeppelin classic from Jimmy Page’s vault. But the song is an original, written by a group of seriously young dudes (all in their late teens or early 20s) who can sometimes sound like a dead ringer for Zep — especially vocalist Jake Kiszka, whose feral howl is nearly identical to Robert Plant. And after their recent barnburner of a set at Coachella, Greta Van Fleet seems to be in the middle of a stratospheric rise to fame. Catch them now before you’re paying arena prices to do it. Tickets go sale at noon.
Kamasi Washington
Kamasi Washington is reinventing jazz. Though the sax virtuoso has been playing professionally since at least 2001 (when he was credited on Ryan Adams’ Gold — yeah, no shit!), he’s only recently come to more widespread notoriety. And that’s largely because he played on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 instant classic To Pimp a Butterfly. But more than anything, that was just the push that tipped Washington into prominence; that same year, Washington released his solo debut, The Epic, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart — and it’s a jazz album. Witness the rebirth of cool.
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