Howardian: Bedroom Music by a Garage Band
The veteran rocker Ian Vanek places a small drum kit at the front of the stage: bass drum, snare, ride cymbal, floor tom, and another tom. Though a minimal kit, […]
Let The Funk Be With You: Songhoy Blues’ Story Unfolds Through Soul
Minutes before Songhoy Blues made their way center stage to appear before an eager, excited crowd, I saw them huddled together behind a pair of windows placed above Martyrs’ kitchen doors. From […]
Junior Boys at Metro Chicago: Program Me into Light
Two modest Canadian guys named Junior Boys filled Metro Chicago Wednesday night with syncopating synth pulses, and vocals that made the audience below me feel like a tide. Behind Vocalist, […]
weAREproductions Damns Love, Lies in Fleetwood Macbeth at Public House Theatre
Writer/director and weAREproductions co-founder Ricky W. Glore has set the Scottish play in a 70s radio station. King (Duncan, played by lanky Aaron Sarka) is the reigning disc jockey with […]
Bottom Lounge Goes Nuts For CHON
I’ve never been quite sure how to characterize CHON‘s music. Is it instrumental metal with jazz and classical tendencies? Is it lounge music played on electric guitars, backed by ferocious […]
Gogol Bordello in Chicago: Celebration without a blackout
Gogol Bordello transformed the Metro Chicago stage Wednesday night into a street performance, as my preview for this concert predicted. Each band member had his or her own bottomless tank of […]
The Hideout Gave Eight Chicago Bands A Great SXSW Sendoff…And They Thanked Us Handsomely
As I walked into The Hideout around a quarter to seven last night, I almost immediately ran into Crown Larks frontman Jack Bouboushian, one of the nicest guys you’ll meet […]
Eliot Sumner in Chicago: A musician species
With a beer in hand, an honest smile and a light soul, Eliot Sumner welcomed the audience to her Information set Thursday night at Schubas Tavern. I only discovered the […]
Ty Segall and the Muggers Got Really Weird with Thalia Hall
At some point on Monday, between my morning coffee and heading off to run errands, Ty Segall and the Muggers descended on WGN Morning News. The loud screeches of a […]
Molehill: Camaraderie fills Martyrs’
A determined man with voluminous, curly hair made his way through the crowd Saturday night in the middle of a Molehill performance at Martyrs’. Even in darkness, it only took […]
Waco Brothers album release: Moving forward with the help of history
The rebellious words, “You can’t kill us/we’re already dead,” welcome you to the newest Waco Brothers album and journey, “Going Down in History.” Before listening to it, I anticipated a […]
Blacklisted!: An Afternoon of Songs “Joe McCarthy Didn’t Want You to Hear”
Making your living as an artist has never been an easy path, but it was particularly difficult in America from the late 1940s to the early 1960s during the Second […]