Stage Buzz
Greg Laswell live!
Greg Laswell, Jay Nash, Anya Marina Martyrs’, Chicago Wednesday, March 11, 2009 It was a satisfying (if a bit long) evening of acoustic/quasi-acoustic fare Wednesday evening – the perfect kind of night for Martyrs’. A group of West Coast buddies had been on tour for five weeks already, mixing and mellowing the show like […]
Kid You’ll Move Mountains preview
Kid You’ll Move Mountains Empty Bottle, Chicago Friday, March 20, 2009 Once we figured out where the pieces of suburban Troubled Hubble landed, it was natural for us to locate frontman Chris Otepka first, whose Heligoats dropped a debut on Greyday last year.
Pagan Knights Tour preview
Pagan Knights Tour Pearl Room, Mokena Friday, March 20, 2009 This whole Pagan metal/Viking metal/folk metal thing is becoming awfully confusing, and you need look no further than the Pagan Knights tour for proof.
Destruction & Mantic Ritual preview
Destruction, Mantic Ritual Pearl Room, Mokena Thursday, March 12, 2009 Old-schoolers love to gripe about the “new wave of thrash metal” — what gives kids who weren’t born when The Legacy came out the right to play this music? –but that’s a whole article in and of itself. Whether you do or don’t like bands […]
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives preview
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives Double Door, Chicago Friday, March 13, 2009 There are 24 hours in a day, so why not 24 songs to commemorate them? That’s the thinking behind The Soundtrack Of Our Lives’ double album (unless they’re playing down a Fox tie-in).
Red Red Meat preview
Red Red Meat Empty Bottle, Chicago March 17-18, 2009 Following their own 20th-anniversary, Sub Pop Records celebrate the double-decade reign of Nirvana’s Bleach by re-releasing Bunny Gets Paid from Chicago’s Red Red Meat. Eh?
Asobi Seksu preview
Asobi Seksu Empty Bottle, Chicago Thursday, March 5, 2009 Where a host of bands smear gallons of washed-out guitars and challenge their ethereal vocals to fight through, Asobi Seksu brandish a love for Tin Pan pop and girl groups.
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead preview
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago Friday, March 6, 2009 When And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead released Source Tags & Codes, their 2002 major-label debut, it appeared the group would stand as one of the new millennium’s premiere art-rock darlings. Yet underwhelming […]
Those Darlins preview
Those Darlins Metro, Chicago Friday, March 6, 2009 Kelley, Jessi, and Nikki Darlin’s Pabst-swillin’, air rifle-shootin’, Daisy Duke-wearin’ rednecktastic image might be exaggerated to better suite Those Darlins’ old-time country music. They might not be, too. Both Nikki and Jessi allegedly spent portions of their childhoods in electricity-and-plumbing-less poverty – hardships few of us have […]
Ian McLagan & The Bump Band preview
Ian McLagan & The Bump Band FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Saturday, March 7, 2009 Life dealt Ian McLagan a pretty stout hand. As keyboardist for the Small Faces and Faces, he got to contribute some, imbibe a lot, and generally let Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, and Rod Stewart deal with the press. He even got to parlay […]
Appleseed Cast preview
The Appleseed Cast Bottom Lounge, Chicago Friday, February 27, 2009 Back in college, The Appleseed Cast and me were best buds. We were into the jagged side of Sunny Day Real Estate, a land where bands like Mineral and Joan Of Arc made welts on their arms by tying guitar strings around them. That poppy […]
Burn Halo preview
Burn Halo Allstate Arena, Rosemont Friday, February 27, 2009 I swear (by the moon and the stars and the sky), swear, swear, swear, that when I was plotting the angle of this “Stage Buzz” while listening to Burn Halo’s self-titled debut, I had no idea the group was opening for Avenged Sevenfold.
These Arms Are Snakes, All The Saints preview
These Arms Are Snakes, All The Saints Subterranean, Chicago Saturday, February 28, 2009 Predictability’s not the first thing you look for in post hardcore bands, and it seems to have hit home with Seattle’s typically flailing These Arms Are Snakes.
Wolfy preview
Wolfy Elbo Room, Chicago Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Wolfy’s members aren’t French. Far from it, actually. They’re from Indianapolis. But neirth their home city nor country seems to have had the biggest influence on the band: It’s France.
Anni Rossi preview
Anni Rossi Empty Bottle, Chicago Friday, February 20, 2009 You have to wonder if her label, the venerable 4AD, knew Anni Rossi would be buried under Joanna Newsom comparisons. It’s hard to ignore the familiarities, despite some rather fundamental dissimilarities.










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