The Read
Ellis moves between hard-shuffle Texas country, piano-driven pop with a lounge-lizard streak, and songwriting that is genuinely funny about how unpleasant people can be. The persona shifts from record to record and sometimes within a set, and it can read as a bit until you notice how good the songs underneath it are. He is also a serious guitar player, which the piano material tends to obscure. Eastside Bowl is a big converted bowling alley in Madison, which suits a performer who likes a little theater in the room. Expect the between-song patter to be sharper than average and the arrangements to move further from the records than you expect. If you only know one version of him, you will probably meet another one.
The Room
Eastside Bowl
1508A Gallatin Pike S
A Madison complex — venue, bowling alley, and bar under one roof — that became a real north-side anchor when Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights moved in.
Tickets
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Shape The Night
Before
Passage Kava LoungeKava is a root from the Pacific Islands — ground and mixed with water, mildly sedative, earthy, non-alcoholic. Nashville's kava lounge: Victorian aesthetic, 21+, open 8am to 2am every day of the year. Live music Monday and Tuesday, trivia Wednesday, karaoke Thursday.
Show: Robert Ellis at 8:00 PM
After
Dee's Country Cocktail LoungeAmy found a decaying old beer joint behind a donut bakery and sex toy shop in then-undiscovered Madison and kept the plywood floors. Margo Price and Elizabeth Cook were early regulars. Frozen drinks, Frito pie, 70s country lounge. Fri–Sat till 3am. The best bar in Madison.