The Danglers

Riverwest's Circle A has seen enormously talented bands on its tiny stage, but the performances by the Danglers on their live disc, captured on three nights earlier this year, must be among the most combustible. The Milwaukee trio of Dave Gelting, Jason Loveall and John Sparrow, augmented on some numbers by Jason Wietlispach and Matt Long, harkens back to the blazing fury and dexterity of early progressive rock—before it hardened into the genre conventions of prog. The Danglers often sound like they could have given King Crimson, circa “21st Century Schizoid Man,” a run for the stage. The band tips its hat to the era with a dynamic cover of Syd Barrett's “Astronomy Domine.”