Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles/Patrick Sweeney; July 16, 2008; High Noon Saloon

The last time the Borgeses (as we have affectionately taken to calling them) were in town, it wasn’t even to play a show. Only two weeks before they had played Summerfest and then had a couple days off before heading to Chicago to play Fitzgerald’s American Music Festival, so they spent them in Madison. They went to see Robbie Schiller and Blake Thomas play their regular Honky Tonk Tuesday gig at Mickey’s, they went swimming at “the pond,” and played ping pong in my basement. In short, they made themselves at home. Since they are some of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever met, I couldn’t have been happier to have them around. When they told me they were coming in a day before their first show at the High Noon, I knew we would be doing it all again.

While this was their first time at the High Noon, it was their fourth time playing Madison in just about a year, and Madison has definitely taken a liking to them, just as they have taken to Madison. “We’re getting our own apartment here,” Sarah claimed to the decent sized audience who cheered uproariously in response. “I’m sure Kiki will be happy to hear that,” Binky added. Sarah is breathtakingly gorgeous, but she is definitely not a girly-girl. You only have to see her play once to know that is true. She tears it up on guitar while facing off with lead guitarist Mike Castellano or bending backwards into bassist Binky. And her songs reflect it as well. “Open Up Your Back Door” is as full of double entendres as an old blues song.

As the last song of the night she used the obvious sing-a-long to get their friends the Blueheels and everyone else they know on stage to echo the lines “turn your lights down low, open up your back door,” handing her guitar off to Josh as she did so. The first single from the record, a cover of the Reigning Sound’s “Stop and Think It Over” is a natural for the band; it’s a super catchy tune with some attitude. Behind her the awesomely named Broken Singles are a terrific band. The rhythm section (Binky and drummer Rob) power the songs, while Mike dresses them up. A sublimely stylish guitar player, he had every guitar player I know claiming they weren’t worthy. I can’t wait till the next time they come to town, and they better not get their own apartment.

Co-headliner Patrick Sweeney was an equally impressive guitar player, even if his songs weren’t quite as memorable. He had a terrific smile that he flashed every time he said something he found fumy. “For this next song we need it to be completely quiet,” he told the crowd, waiting for them to fall silent before turning to the band with a stage whisper of “I can’t believe they fell for it.” Songs he called “serious” turned out to be silly little instrumentals, but even so his guitar playing was the focus of his set. While never as over-the-top as some, there was a hint of Texas-style blues in his music. I didn’t feel the need to buy a CD after, but I enjoyed him all the same.

The Classic Tawnies; July 12, 2008; Emigail's Roadhouse, Edgerton

The Blueheels/Decibully/Jentri Colello; July 11, 2008; High Noon Saloon

After opening Blake Thomas’s CD release show the week before, Jentri Colello got her chance in the spotlight. Even though tonight’s show was billed as her EP release, she played first. It was a smart move. Sharing a bill with heavy-hitters like Decibully and the Blueheels guaranteed there would be a crowd, playing first insured they might be sober for her set, though I am not so sure she wouldn’t have been more comfortable in front of a bunch of drunks (for instance the group that the Blueheels played for later in the night). It is often hard to tell if her disconnectedness is from musical aloofness or nervousness. Either way, the way she gazes over the top of the audience’s heads, not making eye contact with anyone, save occasionally with her boyfriend (Blueheels’ Robbie Schiller who sang backing vocals on “Bird of Prey”), seems to make her songs all the more powerful.

And there is some weight behind them. From the ache of “Black Daisies” to the longing of “Texas,” these are tales of betrayal, lost love and infidelity, and every word seems true. Even though there isn’t a lot of range in her voice, which has been compared to Cat Power’s Chan Marshall minus the drama, it is absolutely what makes the songs and the band so quietly addictive. She has assembled a terrific band, friends of hers who are also terrific musicians. I’m not sure she could do it with out them.

I have come to the realization that some bands are indoor bands and some are outdoor bands, and it truly was a Eureka! moment. Prior to tonight I wasn’t sure how I felt about Milwaukee’s Decibully. I had seen them twice on the Terrace and been unimpressed, even bored, same could be said for their performance at Summerfest last weekend; however their opening set for Califone last summer had been amazing. Halfway through tonight’s similarly high-energy, musically dense set I figured it out, they are an indoor band. While there is no reason for a band like Spoon to not be good in the fresh air, other than Britt Daniels’ fair complexion, it is easy to see how Decibully could get lost where there are no walls to contain their sound.

Despite having at least seven guys on stage at all time, their sound is never overpowering. Instead, with several of them playing percussion instruments at any one time, it is smart and spare and enveloping. I can’t wait to see them again, as long as there is a roof over our heads.

The Blueheels had just played perhaps the biggest show of their life less than a week before on the Potawatomi stage at Summerfest and didn’t turn down the intensity at all for this show on a slightly smaller stage. Granted, there were no decapitated Bratz dolls flying through the air, or rubber chickens rocketed off the end of a pitchfork, but it was plenty entertaining all the same. A crowd that had been quietly respectful during Jentri’s set were now boisterous and quite likely drunk, singing along loudly whenever they knew the words and sometimes when they didn’t. As many times as I have seen the Blueheels, this is only the second time I have seen them play the High Noon. As their popularity continues to increase I expect to see them there a lot more.

The Classic Tawnies; July 7, 2008; Crystal Corner Bar

Blueheels; July 6, 2008; Summerfest, Milwaukee

I hope the Blueheels enjoyed their time at Summerfest, because I’m guessing it is unlikely they will get invited back. The “few surprises” that Robbie had promised turned into something so ridiculously over the top that I had to wonder what those unsuspecting folks who wandered in out of the sun for the band’s two hour set on the Potawatomi stage thought. The last time they played the House of Righteous Music they came with a gigantic bag of bubble gum that they scattered into the audience. For New Years Eve there were glowing rubber skulls. So why was I so surprised when halfway through the show a cardboard box full of mini-Bratz dolls, followed by a case of rubber chickens, were emptied into the audience by keyboard player Teddy Pedriana?

The audience responded by promptly tearing the dolls into pieces with gleeful abandon and volleying them back to the stage, where a Union-suited, cone-head wearing, pitchfork wielding Chris Billingsley tossed them right back. Well, when he wasn’t too busy dancing like a man possessed or playing air guitar next to lead guitarist Justin Bricco. The first several rows in front of the respectably large stage were populated by Blueheel loyalists, most giddily drunk, all happy as hell to see their favorite band playing their biggest gig yet. Yeah, I was right up there of course, but I have to confess, as fun as it was, it was hard to concentrate on the show with all the arms and heads and rubber chickens flying around.

But there was no doubt it was a rocker. It’s one thing to play three sets in four hours at Cranky Pat’s, but quite another to play one marathon set. When Bricco handed the guitar over to his dad, who was also serving as guitar tech, it may have been as much for a break as it was to give Dad Bricco a chance to show what he can do. The new record Lessons in Sunday Driving was well represented of course, title track “Lion and the Lamb” as fiery as I’ve heard it, while a few oldies like “Tennessee” and “Red Pajamas” also snuck in. The latter had been mostly absent from their sets lately and I couldn’t be happier to see it back. Also suspiciously absent on that song was Billingsley. With its chorus of “the Devil’s in red pajamas,” I can’t imagine a better song for a guy with a pitchfork wearing all red to be dancing on stage to.

For the end of the set the band invited everyone up, filling the stage with their fans who screamed the chorus of “Twist and Toil” in unison. Its mantra of “get up, go to work, go home, go to bed” seemed an unknown routine for them. As they filed back to their places on the other side of the barricade for one last song from the band, I was asked why the hell I wasn’t up there. I responded that someone had to be taking pictures, and I wouldn’t have missed that spectacle for anything. And as it turns out I can see it again next year, the Summerfest folks have already invited them back. Well, how about that, I was wrong. I guess they are cooler than I thought.

Blake Thomas & his band/Jentri Colello; July 5, 2008; Café Montmartre

When Blake Thomas moved back to Madison after a sabbatical in Austin, he brought with him a half dozen songs all spilling out of a broken heart. It took a few more months to write the rest of the songs that would make up Flatlands, his third full length, and even more time to get into a studio to set them to tape. All in all it seemed like a long journey to this day, but also curiously like it happened overnight.

The first recording of the record was done on Labor Day ’07, all eleven tracks committed to tape in a marathon one day recording session that yielded pretty stunning results. Even so, it wasn’t deemed “done” until Eric Anderson added keyboard parts and the staggeringly talented Shauncey Ali added his trademark fiddle. Oh, and the “drunken choir” had to have their say. The soon-to-be-classic barroom shout-along “I Don’t Want Your Heart I Want Your Liver” needed their hootin’ and hollerin’ for that realistic feel, and they were more than happy to repeat their role for the CD release show.

The night ended with an encore of that song, complete with broken glass, since “the band” didn’t know any more songs. These days Blake usually plays solo, but the CD release show called for something special. The band assembled tonight represented for the most part the players on the CD, the only notable absences were Chris Boeger on bass and Adam Davis on guitar. Luckily Justin Perkins (who produced the record) and Josh Harty were available. Like any good CD release show, they played the entire record in order… which is the way Blake has always insisted these songs were meant to be heard.

A cycle of heartbreak and loneliness that followed him to Texas and back, Flatlands may be the most complete record of his career. While songs like “Please Cash This Check” find him at the depths of despair, he only recently seemed to realize it is a really sad song. “You’ve Got Me Feeling Like the Moon” is a stunningly smart simile of a story diagramming the hopelessness of that relationship. While the moon may long for the sun, they will never occupy the same sky, as he puts so eloquently in song, “You’ve got me feeling like the moon, who’s just longing for the sun. Sometimes we’ll meet up in the afternoon and I’ll chase if you run.” Sigh. At the record’s end there is finally a glimpse of happiness in the final track; “In the Morning” sees hope with the dawn.

Before the full band took the stage, Blake and Shauncey treated us to a few songs from previous releases. The gorgeous simplicity of these versions (especially the aching “Kaitlyn”) has prompted more than one person to wish for a whole album’s worth of just the two of them. Jentri Colello started the night promptly at 10 with her own batch of smart, beautiful songs. Her debut EP Bird of Prey, which captures five of these songs, will see a release show of its own next weekend.

The last piece of tonight’s puzzle was comedian Jeff Lang, who while not particularly funny, did emcee the whole event quite well. A few of his jokes elicited chuckles from the crowd, but I thought he missed a chance at the best punchline of the night when he claimed that unlike most comedians he didn’t make jokes about not getting enough sex, saying “it’s never been a problem for me.” To me “because it’s not funny” would have been a much better answer. In fact, it was Jentri who got the biggest laugh of the night with a Jeremiah Nelson joke, “Did you hear about the guy who wrote a book on penguins?” “He should have used paper.”

Ba-dum bum. Thank you goodnight.