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Recap/Photo Gallery – Green Day at Wrigley Field
Green Day, Wrigley Field and fall-like weather in the summer proved to be an unbeatable recipe Thursday. The Berkley, CA trio tore through a laundry list of Alt-rock radio hits during a marathon show that featured pyro, Close Encounter-worthy lights, audience members who briefly joined the band, fireworks and a drunken bunny. Curt Baran dropped […]
Recap/Gallery: Beck at Riverside Theater
Beck 8/16/2017 Riverside Theater Milwaukee, WI The last time Beck played in Milwaukee Bill Clinton was in the White House and the Teletubbies had just made their television debut. The reason for this drought is anybody’s guess, but all was forgiven the moment Beck hit the stage. Mr. Hansen cruised through a near-perfect set, while […]
![[Updated] Stage Buzz/Recap/Photo Gallery: Kiss at RiverEdge Park](http://illinoisentertainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DSC_3450-150x150.jpg "[Updated] Stage Buzz/Recap/Photo Gallery: Kiss at RiverEdge Park")
[Updated] Stage Buzz/Recap/Photo Gallery: Kiss at RiverEdge Park
Kiss brought all their pageantry and glory to RiverEdge Park in Aurora, Sunday. Despite the threat of thunderstorms hovering overhead, Kiss took the stage on time and ended just minutes before buckets of rain hit the western suburbs. Three generations of fans were treated to a classic catalog and all the pyro Kiss fans […]
Photo Gallery – Cheap Trick and Foreigner at HBP at Northerly Island
Ed Spinelli captured Rockford’s favorite sons (Cheap Trick) and one of AOR radio’s music staples (Foreigner) on a beautiful summer night on the lakefront
Photo Gallery: Rancid/Dropkick Murphys/Bouncing Souls at HBP at Northerly Island
The From Boston to Berkeley Tour descended on Chicago’s lakefront and brought with it no shortage of ripped denim vests and heavily inked skin. West coast punk rock vets Rancid have teamed up with Boston rowdies Dropkick Murphys for a summer tour that recently found its way to Huntington Bank Pavilion on Northerly Island. Mosh […]
Recap/Gallery: Lollapalooza 2017- Day 1
Another Lollapalooza, another weather-related evacuation. The first day of the 2017 version of the festival that descends on Chicago’s lakefront every August began with such promise. Forecasters kept pushing back arrival times for storms. Tens of thousands arrived on the city’s front lawn, some queuing up early to score prime viewing spots for headliners Lorde […]
Recap/Gallery: Lollapalooza 2017- Day 2
Day 2. The storm has moved on. Grant Park is in surprisingly excellent condition (aside from the fact that some of it smells like the inside of a cow barn), even after the downpour. But here’s where it gets confusing. People are wearing pants? Long sleeves? Jackets?! This is Chicago so we’re not going to […]
Recap/Gallery: Lollapalooza 2017- Day 3
On Day 3 good weather blessed the Lolla masses. The skies were blue, the music is loud and shots of Flint Eastwood, We Are The Grand, Blossoms, Michael Christmas, Bratton Bowman, San Fermin, Warpaint, Ron Gallo, ALVVAYS, Highly Suspect, Leon, Colony House, Royal Blood, Live, The London Souls, Jai Wolf, The Head And The Heart, […]
Recap/Gallery: Lollapalooza 2017- Day 4
Lollapalooza 2017 is in the history books. But not before photographer Curt Baran hit the park on its 4th day. He captured shots of Machine Gun Kelly, Maggie Rogers, Lo Moon, Joseph, No Name, Car Seat Headrest, Charlie XCX, Milky Chance, 6LACK, Tove Lo, Lil Yatchy, The Shins, Grouplove and the evening’s headliner Arcade Fire. […]
Live Review and Gallery: Arcade Fire at Metro
Arcade Fire Metro, Chicago Saturday, August 5th, 2017 It was minutes into Arcade Fire’s Saturday night at Metro before the group launched into the title track from their new album, Everything Now. Though it was only the start of the group’s sold out set, one of a few high profile after-shows this past weekend at […]
Photo Gallery: Retro Futura Tour at Wisconsin State Fair
While Lollapalooza was taking place in Chicago, a group of US Festival-era post wave bands including The English Beat (they were at the US Fesitival in 82′ and ’83), Paul Young, Modern English, Howard Jones and Katrina and the Waves came to Wisconsin’s annual bash in West Allis. Ed Spinelli caught the caravan.
Live Review and Gallery: The Fixx at The Arcada
The Fixx at The Arcada Theatre St. Charles, IL Thursday, August 3, 2017 The Fixx brought its Cold War funk and classic, longstanding line-up to St. Charles for a strong turnout on a rainy Thursday at the Arcada Theatre. The band played a tight set packed with popular favorites from the ‘80s, but received […]
Media: August 2017
It’s been ten years since I wrote my first novel $everance (ENC Press, 2007). That book was a satire about what had become of the media business since the original deregulation in 1996. It was intended to shine a light on the dangers of entrusting so much control over news and information in the hands […]
Cover Story: Depeche Mode
At 56, Depeche Mode bandleader Martin Gore no longer feels the need to pull any lyrical punches. So he gets right to the prickly, political point on the band’s latest Spirit set, starting with its clickety-clacking rhetorical question of a lead single “Where’s the Revolution,” with a grim societal accusation intoned in unusually ominous fashion […]
Review and Gallery: Paul McCartney at Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Paul McCartney Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, Tinley Park, IL Tuesday, July 25, 2017 Reviewed by Jeff Elbel. Photos by Curt Baran. Former Beatle Paul McCartney knows what people want. “We can tell what songs you like,” he said midway through a nearly three-hour show. “If it’s an old Beatles song, your phones light up. It’s like […]
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