After 10 years of
hosting live events, the Majestic is stronger than ever bringing the city of
Madison more and more live acts. This summer the Majestic and Festival Foods
presented a series of live events on King Street to mark a decade of music and
entertainment. 
The seven shows
started in June with, ‘Dark Star Orchestra’ and ended with punk legends
‘Against Me!’. Unfortunately for me, my job did not allow me to enjoy any of
these until the final event headlined by ‘Against Me!’. Even though I only got
to one show it was defiantly worth it to see three touring bands hit the stage
to play their heart out. The vibe of this night was certainly punk rock,
starting off with a Canadian trio called ‘The Dirty Nil’, who I chatted to
briefly before their set. As I met with their tour manager, I was led through
the side door of the venue and up some stairs. In that brief moment of walking
through the halls of The Majestic theatre I could feel the stories and history
that have come from many a sold out night. After sitting down in the cramped
dressing room of the support acts I was greeted with Luke, lead man of ‘The
Dirty Nil’. Just like their live show the attitude coming from the band was one
of confidence and passion. The music they have crafted so far is cool and
evocative, which is probably why they recently won the Canadian Juno Award for
Breakthrough Group at the 2017 Juno Awards. “I guess the Canadian panel finally
came to their senses” discusses Luke in what seems to be a very electronic
driven industry where in these days. As we discuss the awards and music, Luke
hints at more music to come imminently along with maybe, collaboration with
Laura Jane Grace (lead singer/song writer of Against Me!), which would be
awesome. After we round up the brief chat (available on my autumn podcast) he
rushes off to prepare for his set and I descend back towards King Street.
The live sets by ‘The
Dirty Nil’ and second support, ‘Bleached’ were the perfect warm up acts.
Delivering their own unique style and flavour to their set, offering both male
and female vocals, they all played like it was the show of their lives.
Speaking of shows of their lives ‘Against Me!’ were not about to hold nothing
back. However, before they hit the stage there was a few touching announcements
from staff at the Majestic thanking everyone who has worked or got involved
with the venue in the past ten years. After the sentiment was concluded,
‘Against Me!’ finally hit the stage with a huge crowd pouring out of King
Street to watch them in action. They played a hit filled set from their
illustrious career of continued highs, starting with ‘True Trans Soul Rebel’
and finishing off in style with ‘Trash’. Check the image for
the full set list as it was full of awesomeness, such an amazing act live and
on record.
Not only did the night end with a bang but so did
the summer series of shows, we look forward to next year but also to the next
10 years celebrating and enjoying THE Majestic Theatre.
