Guest review by Lorenzo Zenitsky. Okay, so first things first, Bonny Doon‘s Thursday night performance at The Empty Bottle was my first show ever at The Empty Bottle and I think it might be my new favorite venue (Sorry Hideout!).…
Guest review by Patrick Daul. In an increasingly genre-less musical landscape, it seems more difficult than ever to define a band within a single stylistic framework. With Northwest Indiana trio Cloakroom, it’s downright tedious. How this band is described will…
Review by guest author Patrick Daul. With nine records in the bank and almost 15 years of touring under their belts, Pond is a veteran outfit with a firm identity and established fanbase. Their output has been consistently satisfying for…
Guest review by Lorenzo Zenitsky. It’s official, y’all: Plains, the collaboration between Jess Williamson and Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee, came into Chicago’ the Vic like a cannonball and none of us will ever be the same. What’s not official is…
Protomartyr have been kicking around the indie-rock and punk scenes for over a decade now and their story is defined by more of a slog than a meteoric rise-and-fall. They’re booked by festivals sparingly, with their small but feverish fanbase…
Guest review by Patrick Daul. Since tickets for this show first went on sale in late 2019, much has happened in the world of King Gizzard in the Lizard Wizard, and not just touring postponements. During the pandemic era alone,…
Reviewed by Michael Leach Patrick Reardon’s epic poem The Lost Tribes is a cri du coeur as thrilling for our time as Alan Ginsberg’s Howl was for his. It celebrates the lonely and the desperate, the forgotten and ignored, the…
A poem by guest author Josephine Chaparro. WhispersWhispersWhispers We heardWe heardWe heard WhispersWhispersWhispers Soon the whispers turned into soundsThe sounds turned into soldiersThe soldiers turned into guns, military tanks, and bombs What did we leave behind?This is what we left…
Dinkel’s Bakery, a North Side institution, is closing its doors on April 30 after 100 years. Its bereft customers are lining up for beloved breads and pastries. One customer was inspired to write a farewell to her favorite bakery. Guest…
By Carr Harkrader With its dramatic palazzo ornamentation, twinkling star-lit ceiling, and mischievous cherubs nuzzling within insets, the Music Box Theatre was perhaps the perfect place for a talk with the performer and all-around-raconteur Alan Cumming. Appearing at the theater…
Darkness on the Face of the Deep by Patrick T. Reardon Kelsay Books Review by Renny Golden In Darkness on the Face of the Deep, Third Coast Review writer Patrick T. Reardon’s poems grapple with the depths—ours. His poems take…
By Colleen Morrissey When the lockdowns began, artist Abraham Avnisan didn’t think it was possible to continue performing. Avnisan and his collaborators, Mark Jeffery and Judd Morrissey, had just debuted The Tenders, a series of mixed media dance performances, live…
By Brad Fiore During the months Chicago eaters have kept their appetites at their own kitchen tables, the foods that have thrived are those that are easily packed into Styrofoam clamshells and knot-topped plastic bags. In the past year, gyros,…
Review by Brooks Whitlock British actress Vanessa Kirby is going to be nominated for an Oscar this year for her performance in Pieces of a Woman. With the acclaimed Best Actress award from last year’s Venice Film Festival, as well…
By guest author W.C. Turck On Sunday, February 21, from 1-3pm CST, Kerri Kendall and Bill Turck will hold a radio roundtable on streaming theater one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Their show, Playtime with Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall, airs…
Review by Brooks Whitlock Chicago-based playwright Ike Holter is assuredly keyed into, like so much else in his captivating bibliography, the moods that defined the previous calendar year. Exhibit A: his audio play I Hate It Here: Stories From the…
The Loop: The ‘L’ Tracks that Shaped and Saved Chicago by Patrick T. Reardon Southern Illinois University Press Reviewed by Mary Wisniewski There are lovelier and more prestigious symbols of Chicago than the Loop “L”. The lake and the “Bean”;…
Reported by C.E. Archer-Helke In a Chicago Neighborhood Check-In as lively and vibrant as any in-person panel, Bernard Lloyd of Urban Juncture and Build Bronzeville; Billy Ocasio, “reformed” politician and current executive director of the National Museum of Puerto Rican…
By Allison Manley How to Walk on Water by Rachel Swearingen New American Press It’s energizing to pick up a short story collection, knowing almost nothing about it, and finding yourself pulled into each story after the first sentence. How to…
Reported by Carr Harkrader “Whoever heard of a revolution that came out singing, and not swinging,” Malcolm X asked about the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent civil rights strategy. In a perceptive talk as a part of the outstanding…
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