• Michael Brenneis' Light Blue Quartet, Thursday, March 12, North Street Cabaret, 7 p.m.: Drummer and composer Michael Brenneis has long been one of the Madison jazz scene’s busiest collaborators, leading his own ensembles such as Plutonium and Tomato Box, playing drums with the long-running New Breed Jazz Jam, and surfacing in other projects including Anders Svanoe’s ASTRO big band. (And that's just a sampling.) One of Brenneis' newest projects is the Light Blue Quartet; it’s named after the Thelonious Monk composition, and the group blends music from the 20th century jazz canon with original music. It’s an all-star ensemble, also including bassist John Christensen, pianist Matt Blair and sax player Austin Cebulske. Tickets at eventbrite.com.

• Back to the Future: The Musical, through March 15, Overture Hall: If your inner 14-year-old still thinks a DeLorean is the coolest object ever made, this one’s for you. Back to the Future: The Musical takes the movie’s chaos engine and puts it onstage at full speed: Marty, Doc, 1955, bad decisions, butterfly effects, and one giant race to set the timeline right before everything goes sideways. If you’re of a certain age it’s nostalgia, but it also works as pure musical theater fun, with enough momentum to keep even non-fan companions just along for the ride happy. Broadway tour performances at 7:30 p.m. March 10-13, 2 and 7:30 p.m. March 14, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. March 15. Tickets at overture.org.
• Los Lobos, Friday, March 13, Stoughton Opera House, 7:30 p.m.: Friday the 13th won’t be unlucky at all — at least if you have tickets to this sold-out concert by one of America’s most enduring and influential bands. Los Lobos has recorded 17 studio albums (and counting), won four Grammys (including “Best Americana Album” for 2021’s Native Sons), and secured a spot in pop-culture history with their 1987 version of the Mexican folk song “La Bamba.” Most of the original lineup from 1973 remains in place, with the newest member (multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin) joining back in 1982. A second appearance scheduled for March 14 has been canceled; instead, the band will be attending the SXSW premiere of their documentary, Los Lobos: Native Sons, in Austin, Texas.

• Erik Brandt & the Urban Hillbilly Quartet, Friday, March 13, Harmony Bar, 9 p.m.: Back in the '90s, the Urban Hillbilly Quartet got in on the ground floor of the fledgling genre that became known as Americana. The Minneapolis-based band has seen a few personnel changes over the years but continue to be led by accordion/guitar player Erik Brandt, a performer whose story songs and Midwest banter turn a bar room into a campout. With a reunion set by Madison artists Ticklepenny Corner.
• Andy Ewen, through March 21, Giant Jones Brewing: In the 1980s and '90s Andy Ewen created illustrations for The New York Times Book Review, The Progressive and Isthmus; more recently his professional life has been at the UW-Madison medical school. But many in Madison will know Ewen as frontman/songwriter for the band Honor Among Thieves. In an artist statement, Ewen describes the work in “Recent Drawings” as “semi-automatic…I just start by drawing a line or a shape, and then let my imagination free associate in a manner akin to lucid dreaming.” The tasting room at Giant Jones is open Wednesday-Saturday; find hours at giantjones.com.
• Tiara’s Hat Parade, through March 22, Madison Youth Arts: The next production from Children’s Theater of Madison is also a part of the World Premiere Wisconsin schedule. Tiara’s Hat Parade is based on the kids' picture book by Kelly Starling Lyons, and transformed into a stage show by actor-director-playwright Paige Hernandez. It tells the story of a young African American girl who comes up with an idea to help her mother revive her small business; Hernandez’s adaptation features Lydia Danielle playing all the play’s roles. Performances at 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday; tickets at overture.org.

• Fast*Fest, Saturday, March 14, Verona Area Community Theater, 1 p.m.: This new Wisconsin Association of Community Theatre event is geared to inspire interaction between performing arts groups and audiences. Three community theater groups — Kettle Moraine Playhouse from Slinger, Redbud Players from Columbus, and hosts Verona Area Community Theater — will perform a short play with minimal staging elements. The performances will be followed by discussion about the plays by the artists and theatergoers. Find tickets and more info at vact.org.
• Perfect Harmony Chorus, Saturday, March 14, Madison Youth Arts, 3 and 7:30 p.m.: For nearly three decades, Madison’s Perfect Harmony Chorus has mixed choral precision with a healthy dose of theatrical mischief. Their annual cabaret fundraiser returns March 14, now landing in the intimate Sunrise Theater at Madison Youth Arts — a black-box space where every raised eyebrow and punchline will land. For “In Our Musicals Era,” expect witty ensemble numbers and solo turns that let individual voices shine, all delivered with polish, humor and panache. Guest host Victoria Lynn will keep things moving, and a cocktail hour, raffle and silent auction add to the festive atmosphere. With limited seating, the room should be lively. Tickets at perfectharmonychorus.org.

• DATE CHANGE: Krissy Kludt, Saturday, March 14, Arts + Literature Lab, 4 p.m.: Southwestern Wisconsin poet Krissy Kludt launches her debut collection, I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little, with a reading from the book, just out from Green Writers Press. The poems use northern California as a setting, and, as described by the author, “traverse ordinary days and periods of loss; they are elegy and wish.” Following a reading local writer Heather Swan will join Kludt for a conversation, and the evening also includes food by AncestralRebel (storyteller-chefs Lucy Grignon and Farah Momen). Note: Moving to 4 pm, 3/14, due to the weather forecast.

• MANTIS, Saturday, March 14, Audio for the Arts, 7 p.m.: MANTIS is an experimental jazz trio built around the compositions and baritone sax playing of Anders Svanoe. As displayed on their self-titled 2022 album, Svanoe’s music for the band includes plenty of room for bassist Brad Townsend and drummer Nick Zielinski (both also members of ARP of the Covenant) to shine. MANTIS is free and swinging and will take the listener places you didn’t expect to go. They’re visiting Audio for the Arts studio as part of the Acoustic Moose concert series, and the evening also doubles as a live concert recording session.

• Shakey, Saturday, March 14, Atwood Music Hall, 8 p.m.: To properly tackle the diverse musical personas explored by Neil Young during his decades-long journey, you need a versatile band. Madison’s Shakey is more than up to the task. The six longtime core members include folks from several decades of local bands (Mecht Mensch, Killdozer, Midwest Beat, Yid Vicious, Cement Pond…the list could go on); all play multiple instruments, and recent shows have featured the addition of another multi-instrumentalist, James Strelow, on pedal steel. Expect the band to pull out all the stops for this concert celebrating their 20 years together. Tickets at theatwoodmusichall.com.
• CANCELED: St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Sunday, March 15, Capitol Square, 1:30 p.m.: Along with the first robin sighting, another harbinger of spring’s arrival is the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade around the Square. Unfortunately, the often-uncooperative March weather has proven a big concern for events this Sunday, and parade organizers have made the decision to cancel the 2026 parade. The Dane County Shamrock Club's annual Irish flag ceremony in the Capitol preceding the parade is also canceled.

• Rise Against, Sunday, March 15, The Sylvee, 7:30 p.m.: Chicago punk rockers Rise Against have been making a worthy hook-filled noise for a quarter-century, including racking up a slew of top 10 alt-rock tracks in the mid-2000s (“Savior,” “Prayer of the Refugee,” “The Good Left Undone”). But the band’s 10th and latest album, 2025’s Ricochet, might contain Rise Against’s most potent and urgent music yet — railing against disinformation, cruelty and division amid a world in chaos. This will be a coast-to-coast punk extravaganza, with California’s Destroy Boys and New York’s Koyo slated to open. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.

Find the individual Picks collected here, and as part of the full calendar of events.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect changes in events due to the weekend's predicted winter storm.