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Photo Gallery: Eric Johnson at the Acorn Theater
If Eric Johnson isn’t your favorite guitar player, than odds are he is your “favorite guitar player’s guitar player.” He was especially impressive in the intimate confines of Three Oak’s (MI), Acorn Theater Thursday Night. Johnson’s two-hour set included an extended electric guitar performance, a short acoustic set, and a few tunes his from baby […]
Live Review and Gallery: Midnight Oil at the Vic Theatre
Midnight Oil The Vic Theatre May 18, 2017 The glorious roar and jangle of Midnight Oil’s twin guitars and the band’s righteous fury have been sorely missed by many fans in Chicago since their last date here in 2002, when the group headlined Taste of Chicago in support of the Capricornia album. The politically-charged […]
Review and Photo Gallery: Hall & Oates/Tears For Fears at Allstate Arena
If you graduated high school in the 80s, loved your radio, and wanted your MTV, Allstate Arena was the place to be on Monday night. Judging by the packed hall, word had gotten around. Two disparate but defining bands from the era joined forces for a satisfying night of music and memories. Tears for Fears […]
Photo Gallery – the xx at the Aragon Ballroom
Buoyed by the success of their new album, The xx brought the I See You tour to a sold-out Aragon Ballroom on a rainy Monday. The band returns later this summer as part of the considerably larger musical festival that will be affiliated with a musical operation called Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park. Curt Baran […]
May 2017: Media
When Wally Phillips retired from WGN Radio, the afternoon man Bob Collins replaced him. When Bob Collins died in a plane crash, the afternoon man Spike O’Dell replaced him. When Spike O’Dell retired, Steve Cochran was doing the afternoon show at WGN. “They offered me the job, and it was the worst deal offered to […]
Live Review and Photo Gallery: Rise Against at House Of Vans
It’s been way too long, right?” Thirty minutes into Rise Against’s Friday night set at House of Vans new location in the West Loop, frontman Tim McIlrath voiced what so many in the crowd were thinking. Rise Against’s last full length, The Black Market, dropped in 2014, and the band has kept a relatively low […]
Feature Story: New Order
When New Order keyboardist Gillian Gilbert stopped touring with the band in 1998, then quit altogether during the recording of its 2001 album Get Ready, she did it graciously, almost secretly, without any official departure announcement in the press. “And I wanted it that way,” she admits of her decision to stay home and take […]
Recap and Photo Gallery: John Mayer at United Center
John Mayer essentially wore 3 hats during the course of his show Tuesday at the United Center: pop songster with full band; singer/songwriter solo acoustic, and blues rock guitar aficionado with power trio. His rhythm section for the full band and trio was Steve Jordan on drums and Pino Palladino on bass, was exceptional. In […]
Stage Buzz Review: The Rolling Stones Exhibitionism at Navy Pier
The Rolling Stones Exhibitionism Navy Pier, Chicago Wednesday, April 12, 2017 With exponential amounts of albums, books, photographs, memorabilia and merchandise on the market relating to The Rolling Stones, it seems impossible that anyone could possibly unearth another morsel on what many might call the world’s greatest rock n’ roll band. But thanks to the […]
Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein at Big Shots
IE’s Ed Spinelli captured Misfits original guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein at Big Shots in Valparaiso, IN
Photo Gallery and Show Review: Radiohead at Sprint Center, Kansas City
If you scanned the parking lots at Kansas City’s Sprint Center on Wednesday night, you would have noticed something peculiar about the motionless cars. For each Missouri license plate, there were as many, if not more, vehicles adorned with placards from neighboring States and beyond. It would certainly seem to infer that if Radiohead doesn’t […]
Cover Story: Dreamcar
The universe may seem unfathomably complex. But sometimes, it’s much simpler – and more understandably linear – than we could ever dare to imagine. A couple of decades ago, for instance, No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal bought himself a house in Los Angeles, and unwittingly became the owner of an initially feral cat left behind […]
Media: April 2017
Charlie Meyerson has been a part of the Chicago media landscape now for four decades as a newscaster for WXRT, WNUA, WGN, the Chicago Tribune and more. Just last year he brought home an Edward R. Murrow award for a report he did at Rivet Radio. “One night at Rivet,” he explained, “we had a […]
Photo Gallery: Experience Hendrix at The Riverside Theater
Ed Spinelli went to the Cream City to capture to 2017 version of Experience Hendrix tour, and what a night it was. The Milwaukee version of the tour featured these six string Samsons: Featuring Billy Cox (from Jimi Hendrix Experience / Band Of Gypsys), Buddy Guy, Zakk Wylde (from Black Label Society / Ozzy Osbourne), […]
Review and Gallery: Regina Spektor at Chicago Theater
It’s a seemingly innocuous statement taken at face value. But color in Regina Spektor’s back story, and the words take on a considerate amount of heft. Fleeing the former Soviet Union when anti-semitism became “too much to bear.” Spektor reflected onstage at the Chicago Theatre, thousands of miles from her former homeland and a […]
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