Live Reviews
Straylight Run reviewed
Straylight Run Metro, Chicago Thursday, June 14, 2007 It might seem like an imposing paradox, but Thursday night at the Metro Straylight Run demonstrated how to straddle the line between bombast or pomp and a clearly visible and always vulnerable staggering sense of earnestness.
Roger Waters live!
Roger Waters United Center, Chicago Saturday, June 9, 2007 On Saturday fans at the United Center got treated to two shows for the price of one: One by rock legend Roger Waters, and one by an adept cover band.
The National live!
The National Metro, Chicago Thursday, June 7, 2007 Midway through The National’s 80-minute set on Thursday, frontman Matt Berninger crooned “We’re half-awake in a fake empire.” He was half right. An ineffective sound mix reduced his band’s subtle dynamism into mumbling incoherence.
Average White Band live!
Average White Band House Of Blues, Chicago Wednesday, June 6, 2007 After flying under the radar for the last several years, Scottish funk/R&B-tinged rockers the Average White Band is creeping back into limelight. Between being sampled by hip-hoppers like Diddy, Public Enemy, Ice-T, and even Janet Jackson, the recent resurgence on the road of other […]
The Faint live!
The Faint Metro, Chicago Tuesday, May 22, 2007 There are a few sure-fire signs summer has begun to hit Chicago. Parking dries up around Wrigley Field, Clark Street gets torn up from the Loop to Lincoln Park, and going to see a show at most indoor venues becomes an endurance test, thanks to the ever-present […]
The Arcade Fire live!
The Arcade Fire Chicago Theatre, Chicago Friday, May 18, 2007 Toward the end of the first night of a three-night stand, Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler made a rather crafty, self-conscious joke: “Well, we’ll see you tomorrow night!” Part of it was disbelief he could sell-out such a hall for a weekend; the other half […]
Two Cow Garage live!
Two Cow Garage The Hideout, Chicago Thursday, May 17, 2007 For the rusted-out, ’85 Camaro of a band they are, Two Cow Garage still packed a brass-knuckled punch at a packed Hideout on Thursday. Micah Schnabel’s perpetually hoarse, steel-wool howl scraped through the layers of guitar while drummer Dustin Harigle pounded the dusty rug of […]
Björk live!
Björk Auditorium Theatre, Chicago Saturday, May 12, 2007 Björk gets a lot of leeway because of her insatiable musical ambition and thorough reinventions, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t dump a lot of scrap in her fans laps. Saturday at the Auditorium the inconsistencies of her latest album, Volta (Elektra), carried into a set that […]
Mastodon live!
Mastodon Riviera, Chicago Saturday, May 12, 2007 Mastodon’s 2006 release, Blood Mountain (Warner Bros.), left a gigantic footprint in the heavy metal landscape, causing some to believe the Atlanta four-piece just might rock hard enough to propel the genre back into the collective consciousness. Even hailed by some as the savior of heavy metal, Mastodon […]
Regina Spektor live!
Regina Spektor Riviera, Chicago Sunday, May 13, 2007 Regina Spektor’s sold-out performance at Riviera on Sunday night won’t go down as historic for either her, personally, or the grand annals of pop music. It did, however, poke a lot of holes into two primary genres. Click here for a Flickr gallery of Spektor from Sunday […]
El-P live!
El-P Abbey Pub, Chicago Tuesday, May 8, 2007 The title of El-P’s new album, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Definitive Jux), says a lot about this Brooklyn native’s work ethic. Everything about the rapping producer’s dark, intricate hip-hop sounds like it was carefully crafted into the early a.m. hours . . . the same can […]
Amy Winehouse live!
Amy Winehouse Vic Theatre, Chicago Thursday, May 3, 2007 Click here for more pics from the show To hear her voice is to assume Amy Winehouse is an Amazonian reincarnation of Ronnie Spector or Dinah Washington. But there she was, onstage at a sold-out Vic Theatre, a five-foot-nothing frame struggling to support her barely there […]
Ben Gibbard live!
Ben Gibbard Metro, Chicago Friday, May 4, 2007 “Those guys were kind of obscure.” Such was the quip delivered onstage by Ben Gibbard during his Friday night, late show at the Metro, following a piano-only cover of Nirvana’s “All Apologies.” While obviously overly ironic, the statement very well could have applied to Gibbard’s full-band/day-job outfit, […]
Heaven And Hell, Megadeth live!
Heaven And Hell, Megadeth Allstate Arena, Rosemont Saturday, May 5, 2007 Metalheads, you may want to turn away from your screen and not read the next paragraph. Words no heavy music fan wants to say or read will appear. This is your last warning.
The Kooks, Illinois live!
The Kooks, Illinois Metro, Chicago Saturday, May 5, 2007 Watching The Kooks gratify a sold-out Metro on Saturday must have been what it was like to guard the French side of the Maginot Line in the early 1930s. Critics are lined up to shoot them down, but it probably won’t be enough to stem the […]
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