Allnight July 01 2004

A quick guide to what’s happening in nightlife each week

Snicker or liquor

KATHLEEN MADIGAN will either win your heart or buy you a shot. She’s a seasoned comedian who appears weekly on NBC’s grudge match “Last Comic Standing,” and this week she’ll be at the Punchline, Wed.-Sat., July 7-10. And she’s got a deal for the doubters: “Men tell me they don’t think women comedians are as funny as the men. I always tell these men that if they pay for the ticket and come to the show and don’t laugh, I’ll personally come to their table and buy them two shots of Cuervo.”

But keeping a straight face at her show may be difficult, as this American Comedy Award-winner’s act is full of quirky and hilarious bits about all sorts of weird shit, like the massive size of Ted Kennedy’s head (it’s “like a Mardi Gras float,” she says) and how you could destroy the entire voting process with a volleyball (“Just aim at the cardboard voting booths and throw”). So go forth and try not to bust a gut. Maybe you can get drunk on her dollar.

$16-$17.50. 8:30 p.m. (July 7-8); 8 and 10:30 p.m. (July 9); 7, 9 and 11 p.m. (July 10). Punchline, 280 Hilderbrand Drive. 404-252-LAFF. www.punchline.com.

(Andrew Stewart)

Celebrating independents

In its second year as a summer benefit for the Atlanta UNDERGROUND Film Festival, MJQ’s INDEPENDENT’S DAY celebration will unite the worlds of music, film and art, free of corporate ties, and will feature a showcase of short films. If it’s not the visuals that get your head spinning at this free-wheeling get together Thurs., July 1, it’s going to be the DJs spinning. There may well be B-boys’ heads spinning once they hear the rattling crunk-punk-in-the-trunk delivered by Gnosis, Cozy Shawn, GNO6, Jamal and DJ DJ. Between them, these experienced deck-wreckers have a long history of playing the finest hip-hop, house and esoterica. Also out to support independent thought are two of the area’s most fiercely DIY bands: mystic gypsy-rockers A Fir-Ju Well and the organic crescendo-commanders Hope for Agoldensummer.

$7 donation to AUFF. Call for time. MJQ Concourse, 736 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-870-0575. www.mjqatlanta.com.

(Tony Ware/Nikhil Swaminathan)

In a trance

If there’s a perfect time for PAUL OAKENFOLD, it’s summer — when the idea of hushed surf, warm sand and beautiful people partying beautifully doesn’t seem so far away. And as one of the world’s most famous progressive house and trance DJs, Oakenfold takes his devotees to the shores of Ibiza with big beats, lush sound layers, sweeping anthemics and a savvy pop sensibility that’s made him a household name. The host of New York radio station K-Rock’s “rocktronica” show, “Solid State,” LIQUID TODD opens the show Wed., July 7.

$15. 9:30 p.m. eleven50, 1150-B Peachtree Road, 404-874-0428. www.eleven50.com. (Erin Behan)