Tag: featured
Live Review and Photo Gallery: The Darkness at Park West
The Darkness Park West, Chicago, IL Wednesday, April 11, 2018 He’ll take your coat. He’ll share his water bottle if you appear to be parched. He’ll pull you onstage if you’re wearing his favorite shirt (the one bearing his own first name in lightning-strike font). Is there anything Justin Hawkins or his bandmates in the […]
Media: April 2018
I was 23 years old the day I walked into the Loop offices for the first time. After getting rejections from the other rock stations in Chicago (and there were quite a few at the time), I had thrown a Hail Mary pass to the biggest of them all, The Loop. I wrote a letter […]
Photo Gallery: Justin Timberlake at United Center
From boy band member from Tennesee to pop music superstar, Justin Timberlake has been no stranger to success. Basking in the afterglow of his recent Super Bowl performance, he brought his “Man Of The Woods” tour to United Center for the first of two nights (and he returns AGAIN this October). Curt Baran pulled his […]
Photo: Gallery: Puddles Pity Party at The Vic Theatre
Since he broke out on America’s Got Talent, Puddles has amused and entertained audiences with his sad clown persona, a killer voice, and an vaudevillian shtick. He’s an odd yolking of vintage Andy Kaufman-style performance art and kinescope-era variety acts, like the pioneers of television including Milton Berle and Sid Ceasar. Ed Spinneli was knocked […]
Live Review: The Eagles at United Center
Eagles/ JD & The Straight Shot United Center, Chicago Wednesday, March 14, 2018 Rather than making some grand entrance or busting out the big lights (those would come a bit later), core Eagles members Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, alongside Deacon Frey and Vince Gill, quietly got into position at the United […]
Photo Gallery: Lucius at Thalia Hall
On their most recent album, the appropriately titled Nudes, the women of Lucius strip it all down. The record is an all acoustic affair that bring the voices of Jess Wolf and Holly Laessig to the front of the mix, where they most deservedly belong. Their most recent tour brought them to the acoustically delicious […]
Gallery: Phil and Bob at Chicago Theatre
It may take a trip to the dry cleaners to get the “collie man” redolance removed from the curtains at the historic Chicago Theater and the patron’s jackets. On the second of two sold-out shows, former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh invited some of their friends over for an evening of stripped […]
Live Review and Gallery: P!nk at United Center
In today’s world of instant gratification, Pink gave her fans precisely what they wanted. A light show worthy of a U.F.O. landing, music played at deafening decibels, a gaggle of backup dancers and a headlining artist who flies through the air. Oh, and all of this occurred during the evening’s first song, “Get The Party […]
File: Hello, My Name is Kaki
Kaki King’s multimedia show The Neck is a Bridge to the Body made its Chicago debut at Lincoln Hall in 2015. The senses-saturating fusion of sight and sound has evolved since then, while the guitarist and her music have done the same. King promises new material in 2018 including the album Live at Berklee, so […]
Cover Story: The Vaccines
Fans will have to forgive the cheesy film reference, chortles Justin Young. But for a while there recently, the anchor for brainy British folk-punkers The Vaccines actually came to believe that he’d somehow lost his magical inner mojo, just like Austin Powers in Mike Myers’ hilarious espionage spoof The Spy Who Shagged Me. And no […]
Photo Gallery: John 5 at Reggies
Ed Spinelli was invited to spend the day with John 5 and the Creatures at Reggies, Sunday. Mingling with show VIPs, Eddie caught the band work through about 15 minutes of music, tuning-up for that nights performance, with a pre-show autograph VIP session. 5 and The Creatures are touring in support of their new live […]
Review and Photo Gallery: Marillion at Arcada Theater
Marillion Arcada Theatre, St. Charles, IL Monday, February 19, 2018 Review by Jeff Elbel Chicago-area fans of Marillion’s timely concept album FEAR saw the English band perform a rare victory lap on Monday at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles. The album had been introduced to local fans at the Vic in October 2016. The […]










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