Tag: featured
Stage Buzz: Judas Priest at Rosemont Theatre • Rosemont
After an impressive five-decades-long career, British heavy metal pioneers Judas Priest show no signs of slowing down with the release of their highly acclaimed 19th new studio album, Invincible Shield. On 14 super-charged tracks, Priest delivers the indisputable, classic heavy metal sound that hearkens back to the band’s heyday. While some legacy bands […]
IE 2024 Record Store Day Guide
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on […]
Photo Gallery: Mannequin Pussy at Thalia Hall • Chicago
Mannequin Pussy Thalia Hall Chicago, IL April 10, 2024 Recap and photos by Curt Baran Mannequin Pussy is on an absolute tear! After more than a decade together that has yielded four albums and an EP, the Philadelphia four-piece is arguably peaking. Their 2024 release, I Got Heaven, and its subsequent tour, brought them to […]
Cover Story: Elbow • Love & Friendship
In Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film covering his early mid-‘70s music-scribe years, Philip Seymour Hoffman — channeling legendary rock critic Lester Bangs — has some sage advice for Patrick Fugit’s earnest teen hopeful William Miller. In the cold, cutthroat new world he’s entering of publicists, exotic junkets, free booze, and possibly drugs, it’s all […]
Live Review & Photo Gallery: Mitski at Auditorium Theatre • Chicago
Mitski Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL Review of Friday, March 22, 2024, show by Jeff Elbel Photos of Sunday, March 24, 2024, show by Curt Baran On Friday, Mitski performed the second in a series of four sold-out concerts at Chicago’s storied Auditorium Theatre. The run of shows launched a new leg of touring in support […]
Photo Gallery: Sleater-Kinney with Black Belt Eagle Scout at Riviera Theatre • Chicago
Sleater-Kinney Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL March 21, 2024 Recap and gallery by Curt Baran Loss loomed large during Sleater-Kinney’s performance at the Riviera Theatre in Uptown Thursday night. The Olympia, Washington duo (expanded into a quintet for touring purposes) are out promoting their tenth studio album (Little Road) and grief certainly seems to be riding […]
Photo Gallery: Olivia Rodrigo with Chappell Roan • United Center • Chicago
Olivia Rodrigo with Chappell Roan United Center Chicago, IL Tuesday, March 19 Recap by Riley Vernon. Gallery by Curt Baran. Pop-rock superstar Olivia Rodrigo arrived in Chicago on Tuesday night with much fanfare on Night One of two sold-out performances as part of her highly anticipated and critically acclaimed Guts World Tour. Rodrigo brought a […]
Stage Buzz: Chelsea Wolfe, Mitski, Health, Buried and Me
Singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe invents her own musical hybrids. Throughout her career, she has fused together folk, doom metal, goth rock, industrial, experimental music, and noise rock to create a sound that’s truly her own. But the one thing that never changes is how entrancing and haunting her songs are. See Wolfe in action at […]
Photo Gallery: Alkaline Trio • Aragon Ballroom • Chicago
Alkaline Trio Aragon Ballroom Chicago, IL March 16, 2024 Recap and photos by Curt Baran Chicago’s favorite coffin chasers (and February IE cover stars), Alkaline Trio, brought their Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs tour to Uptown’s Aragon Ballroom for a much-anticipated hometown show. Hours before even a single note was played, the line to enter the […]
Recap and Photo Gallery: Mammoth WVH with Nita Stauss at The Forge • Joliet
Mammoth WVH The Forge Joliet, IL Saturday March 2, 2023 Recap and Photo Gallery by Edward Spinelli Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH treated fans to an intimate sold-out show at The Forge in Joliet on Saturday. After a stunning show at The Vic Theatre last Fall – WVH’s return to the Chicago area shows the […]
Cover Story: Ministry • Age of Disinformation + March 14 Aragon Ballroom Photo Gallery
My apologies, Dear Readers. And I’m not joking here. I really believed that — after an adventurous, always enlightening, occasionally drug-blurred four-decade career in rock journalism that kicked off in the Midwest fresh out of high school back in halcyon 1977 — I had nothing left to offer, no moving words left to conjure, no […]
Media • March 2024 : Tom Skilling’s Parting Words
You won’t be surprised to discover that retiring WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling has loved the weather since he was young. “My parents couldn’t figure out where the heck this weather passion came from,” Skilling admits. “I had a psychic tell me one time that I was a ship captain in a previous life. It’s […]
Recap and Photo Gallery: Porno For Pyros • Salt Shed • Chicago
Porno For Pyros The Salt Shed Chicago, IL February 26, 2024 Recap and photos by Curt Baran The “Final” tour in the Rock milieu has become about as dependable as the boy who cried wolf. But considering that he’s now reached his mid-60s, it certainly makes it easier to believe that Perry Farrell is packing […]
Stage Buzz: Wilmette, Porno For Pyros, Big Suit, Static-X
Chicago five-piece Wilmette is returning to its hometown to help its friends Ghoul For a Goblin celebrate the release of its debut album, You Know You’ll Still Find Me There. Bottom Bracket and Supercorp join as support. The party starts on Friday, February 23, at Cobra Lounge at 7 PM. It’s gonna be a night of great […]
Spins: Green Day • Saviors
Green Day Saviors (Reprise) Thirty years after sending punk to the top of the charts with breakthrough album Dookie, erstwhile upstarts Green Day return as power-pop elder statesmen with Saviors. With the band’s familiar friend and producer Rob Cavallo back at the helm for the first time in a decade, Saviors’ 15 tracks find frontman […]
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