Cover Story: Judas Priest

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Features, Monthly by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Judas Priest
Nostradamus: Priest’s Prophetic Project

JP

Who could have predicted a band who’ve been around since the beginning of time (more precisely, since the inception of heavy metal) would produce such an audaciously ambitious project? Judas Priest’s Nostradamus is a 23-track, double-CD concept album. Unlike the central figures in other such releases like Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Who’s Tommy, or Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (also a seer), Nostradamus actually existed. With orchestral elements, Rob Halford’s piercingly high and alternately resonant low vocals, and one cut mainly sung in Italian, it almost deserves to be called a metal opera.

Appearing: 8/19 at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.

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Coldplay live!

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, Live Reviews by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Coldplay
United Center, Chicago
Wednesday, July 23, 2008

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“I was there” means so much more when whatever’s happening isn’t choreographed. Coldplay’s constant reminder that they were recording Wednesday’s performance for a DVD completely hijacked any notion of spontaneity, leaving the impression the crowd was already watching the video.

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Neil Diamond live!

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, Live Reviews by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Neil Diamond
United Center, Chicago
Saturday, July 26, 2008

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There are two distinct sides to Neil Diamond’s musical personality — the legitimate singer-songwriter or the ham-fisted Vegas crooner — and usually his latest album hints at what vibe will be predominant on tour. Thankfully 2008’s Home Before Dark leans in the much more astute direction of his mid-’60s beginnings, along with 2005’s 12 Songs, both of which were produced by Rick Rubin.

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Dokken preview

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, Stage Buzz by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Dokken
First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park
Sunday, August 3, 2008

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Because it’s protocol for some rock critics to hate, or pretend to hate, anything associated with ’80s metal, some of you will surely accuse us of ripping on Dokken’s Lightning Strikes Again (Rhino) simply because of their hair metal roots. The IE editorial staff, though, pumps ’80s metal from their iPods lovingly, not ironically.

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Cross Examination preview

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, Stage Buzz by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Cross Examination
Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago
Monday, August 4, 2008

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Ironically, the tour calling itself Thrash And Burn that stops at the Pearl Room in Mokena Monday night is not be the thrashiest show in Chicagoland that evening.

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Bryan Adams preview

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, Stage Buzz by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Bryan Adams
Sears Centre, Hoffman Estates
Tuesday, August 5, 2008

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The joke at the IE office focuses on the fantasy that if only Sting made an appearance at the Rod Stewart/Bryan Adams double-bill next week, the ad hoc trio could perform “All For Love” from the 1993 Kiefer Sutherland film, The Three Musketeers.

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Tilly And The Wall preview

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, Stage Buzz by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Tilly And The Wall
Abbey Pub, Chicago
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

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Garth Algar, standing over our shoulder while we read the newest Tilly And The Wall press release, declared, as he once did on the set of “Wayne’s World”: “We fear change.” He needn’t.

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Trouble In The Pumpkin Patch

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, News by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Pumpkins Watch: D’Arcy Lives!

Blah blah blah Smashing Pumpkins . . . lawsuit . . . blah blah royalties . . . garbldee garbledee goo . . . Iha . . . D’Arcy Wretzky?

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Dead Heart Bloom reviewed

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Weekly, Spins by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Dead Heart Bloom
Fall In
(KEI)

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Kicking off a series of three (presumably free, as this one is) 2008 EPs, Fall In slides through tastes more succinctly than Dead Heart Bloom’s two albums did.

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Taylor Hollingsworth reviewed

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Taylor Hollingsworth
Bad Little Kitty
(Mass)

holling

To smoke, or not to smoke: That was the question before Taylor Hollingsworth. He smoked.

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Trouble interview

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Features, Monthly by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

Trouble
Unlucky Number Seven

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By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work — Genesis 2:2

It’s a story that should be familiar to readers of hard rock and heavy metal news: Eighties legends kick off their big reunion twice in the last six years, tour internationally to the delight of a die-hard fanbase, promise a follow-up to the last album that came out more than a decade ago, and lose a member who is so iconic to the group that some fans call for a name change.

Appearing: August 9th at Double Door in Chicago.

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Lair Of The Minotaur interview

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Lair Of The Minotaur
Reign In Blood

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At 11 p.m. July 5th, while rowdy teenagers shot off their remaining fireworks, Lair Of The Minotaur frontman/guitarist Steve Rathbone sat indoors with family. The violent flashes they sought were to be found in the premiere of his band’s video for “War Metal Battle Master,” the title track from this year’s Southern Lord release (their third full-length and first without Pelican drummer Larry Herweg), on MTV2’s “Headbangers Ball.”

Appearing: August 17th at Buzzbomb (6301 W. 73rd) in Chicago.

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Metal Roundtable

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Features, Monthly by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

The Coast Is Here:
Chicago Metal’s Rising Tide

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When Illinois Entertainer decided to put together a Chicago heavy metal roundtable, we had no illusions it would be easy. Getting five people (four of them important, busy musicians; one of them a lowly, lazy writer) to agree on a time and location to talk about our city’s resurgent heavy music scene sounded daunting, to say the least.

So imagine our surprise when it turned out to be rather easy to get Minsk bassist and metal-guru producer Sanford Parker, Yakuza frontman Bruce Lamont, Indian bassist Ron Defries, and Sweet Cobra guitarist Matt Arluck together at Empty Bottle (where Lamont also works, it should be noted) on a hot-as-balls Sunday afternoon in June.

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Roundtable 2

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Monthly by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

IE: Is “community” a better choice of words?

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Roundtable 3

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in Monthly by IE E-Mail This Post/Page Print This Post/Page

RD: Then they had the music room at Medusa’s where they would pack a bunch of fucking dance-party kids and then junkies and shit upstairs, and then they had the punk room and you’d be so fucked up on nitrous or whatever by the time you got there you wouldn’t even know who you were watching.

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