Chicago Reader
These shows are recommended by the Chicago Reader staff at http://www.chicagoreader.com/
106 Follow See all
- Reincarnate - Graham Czach
- La Francesa - Los Vicios De Papa
- Blood On The Streets - Outernational
- All Night Blues - Fungi Girls
- I Walked With A Zombie - Roky Erickson
- Duelist - True Widow
- The Hunchback - Kurt Vile and the Violators
- Rad Times - Black Bananas
- Chinese Translation - M. Ward
- I'd Rather Go Blind - Gemma Ray
- Pale Blue Eyes - Alejandro Escovedo
- Upcoming Events
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Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection
Sat. 01/28 | 2:00PM - Sun. 07/08 @ Chicago Cultural Center
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Featured Review from Chicago Reader
January 27, 2012In 2001, longtime antiques dealer Richard Harris ditched his stock and started over from scratch, saying, “I believe it is incumbent upon me to make my collection a paean to death in all its many visages.” more at chicagoreader.com
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Outernational, Graham Czach, Los Vicios De Papá, The Employees
Fri. 05/18 | 8:00PM @ Abbey Pub (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 13, 2012Join NYC’s revolutionary “future rockers” Outernational, along with midwestern acts including Graham Czach, Los Vicios de Papa, and the Employees, as they present a night of music against NATO. The weekend’s picket lines will be unified, but the lines of genre will be blurred as radical messaging and good vibes are brought to the stage in a variety of styles. An ideal place to grab an end-of-protest drink. You’ll need it. Jamie Keilesmore at chicagoreader.com
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HoZac Blackout Fest 2012 featuring Red Kross, Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Homo...
Sat. 05/19 | 5:00PM @ Empty Bottle (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from Oh My Rockness
May 13, 2012Texas trio Fungi Girls is three young dudes (like, mid-teens young) that rock some short and noisy lo-fi garage pop that blisters by you, leaving a nice little psych trail in its wake. Yes you’ve heard all this before, but Fungi Girls prove you can always hear just a little bit more.
more at ohmyrockness.com -
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012When I was new to punk rock I’d see Redd Kross next to Black Flag and the Circle Jerks on reproductions of old LA punk flyers, so I figured they also played hardcore steeped in Cold War nihilism—and that’s what I thought I was bringing home when I finally located a copy of their 1982 debut, Born Innocent. So I was surprised when what emerged from my speakers was, while snotty enough to read as punk, more similar in sound and attitude to bubblegum bands and The Brady Bunch than to Redd Kross’s Hermosa Beach peers. Brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, the core of Redd Kross’s constantly shifting lineup, kept the band active through the 90s (if you ever find a copy of their 1993 EP 2500 Redd Kross Fans Can’t Be Wrong, buy it), but even the alt-rock boom failed to bring them mainstream recognition, and they disbanded following the death of guitarist Eddie Kurdziel in 1999. They’ve been playing together sporadically since the mid-aughts, and are touring again for Born Innocent’s 30th birthday, playing songs from that LP and from their self-titled debut EP. A new album, Researching the Blues (their first since 1997), is due on Merge in August. —Miles Raymer This show is part of the HoZac Blackout. Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Homostupids, Fungi Girls, Teledrome, Pleasure Leftists, Far-Out Fangtooth, Ketamines, the Barreracudas, and White Mystery open.
— Miles Raymer1035 N. Western Ave., Chicago Ukrainian Village/East Village IL 60622
41.90039;-87.68679
773-276-3600
emptybottle.com more at chicagoreader.com
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Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Every Saturday 11:30PM @ The Neo-Futurarium (map)
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Featured Review from Chicago Reader
January 25, 2011The Neo-Futurists perform 30 plays in 60 minutes in this “futurist evening in the grand Italian tradition.” The fare changes weekly in this long-running production; between 2 and 12 new scripts are performed each week depending on the roll of a die. more at chicagoreader.com
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HoZac Blackout Fest 2012 featuring Roky Erickson, Human Eye, Estrogen Highs, Bare...
Sun. 05/20 | 7:00PM @ Empty Bottle (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from ChicagoInnerview
May 15, 2012Rock is not dead — because Roky Erickson is not dead. The man who, some claim, invented psychedelia did so by pouring his own lustful madness and life into his music. It is for his and other transcendent souls of his era’s continuing life force that the rock and roll of the ‘60s remains more than a desperate Vegas side show. The rock of Erickson’s heyday was every kind as dangerous as rock is supposed to be. And occasionally, rock needs to be reminded. Erickson’s public mental health struggles are not just a footnote, but have become the story of him. This sad fact is as much his draw as is the glorious music that propelled him to the forefront of a monumental cultural movement. Symbiotically, rock is alive and hungry because Roky Erickson is alive and hungry. (Appearing with Human Eye and Estrogen Highs at Empty Bottle on May 20) –text: Phil Forsyth more at chicagoinnerview.com
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Kurt Vile & the Violators, Black Bananas, True Widow
Sun. 05/20 | 8:00PM @ Lincoln Hall (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from Oh My Rockness
May 13, 2012Oh yeah, when Vile isn’t writing songs on his own, he’s strumming it up for The War on Drugs (an excellent band). more at ohmyrockness.com
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Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012Though he came up in New York’s art-punk underground with his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore and has a long history of making noisy, experimental solo records, Lee Ranaldo has always been the member of the band who contributed the most straightforwardly melodic songs—and the only one who could reliably carry a tune with his voice. more at chicagoreader.com
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Featured Review from The Onion A.V. Club
May 09, 2012M. Ward was a talented, much-beloved indie singer-songwriter before he became the talented, much-beloved indie singer-songwriter by the side of Zooey Deschanel in She & Him. That duo tends toward softer, wispier strains than Ward does on his own, but his sound still slots in well with aspects of folk from the ’70s. more at avclub.com
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Ane Brun, Gemma Ray
Tue. 05/22 | 8:00PM @ Lincoln Hall (map)
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Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012On her terrific new album, It All Starts With One (PIAS), Sweden-based, Norway-bred singer Ane Brun uses ambiguity to change her songs’ complexion and leave you guessing. The opener “These Days” might be about accepting a lover’s dimming passion, or about breaking free from addiction while still keeping a wary eye on it: “These days I let you stay / A little further away.” more at chicagoreader.com
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Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012In January Alejandro Escovedo turned 61, and few rock singers have handled growing old so well. He opens his forthcoming album, Big Station (due June 5 on Fantasy), with a stomping, Stonesy burner that pokes fun at a guy who refuses to act his age—the ranting narrator of “Man of the World” staggers between machismo and impotence, singing, “You know I’m frustrated / Hot, overrated / I feel life dissipating.” Ironically, Escovedo is full of convincing swagger and soul on that song, but on the album’s other tunes he isn’t always so persuasive. more at chicagoreader.com
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Featured Review from The Onion A.V. Club
May 09, 2012Alejandro Escovedo
Also Playing: Jesse Malin
more at avclub.com
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- Past Events
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Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection
Sat. 01/28 | 2:00PM - Sun. 07/08 @ Chicago Cultural Center
-
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
January 27, 2012In 2001, longtime antiques dealer Richard Harris ditched his stock and started over from scratch, saying, “I believe it is incumbent upon me to make my collection a paean to death in all its many visages.” more at chicagoreader.com
-
-
Outernational, Graham Czach, Los Vicios De Papá, The Employees
Fri. 05/18 | 8:00PM @ Abbey Pub (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 13, 2012Join NYC’s revolutionary “future rockers” Outernational, along with midwestern acts including Graham Czach, Los Vicios de Papa, and the Employees, as they present a night of music against NATO. The weekend’s picket lines will be unified, but the lines of genre will be blurred as radical messaging and good vibes are brought to the stage in a variety of styles. An ideal place to grab an end-of-protest drink. You’ll need it. Jamie Keilesmore at chicagoreader.com
-
-
HoZac Blackout Fest 2012 featuring Red Kross, Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Homo...
Sat. 05/19 | 5:00PM @ Empty Bottle (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from Oh My Rockness
May 13, 2012Texas trio Fungi Girls is three young dudes (like, mid-teens young) that rock some short and noisy lo-fi garage pop that blisters by you, leaving a nice little psych trail in its wake. Yes you’ve heard all this before, but Fungi Girls prove you can always hear just a little bit more.
more at ohmyrockness.com -
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012When I was new to punk rock I’d see Redd Kross next to Black Flag and the Circle Jerks on reproductions of old LA punk flyers, so I figured they also played hardcore steeped in Cold War nihilism—and that’s what I thought I was bringing home when I finally located a copy of their 1982 debut, Born Innocent. So I was surprised when what emerged from my speakers was, while snotty enough to read as punk, more similar in sound and attitude to bubblegum bands and The Brady Bunch than to Redd Kross’s Hermosa Beach peers. Brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, the core of Redd Kross’s constantly shifting lineup, kept the band active through the 90s (if you ever find a copy of their 1993 EP 2500 Redd Kross Fans Can’t Be Wrong, buy it), but even the alt-rock boom failed to bring them mainstream recognition, and they disbanded following the death of guitarist Eddie Kurdziel in 1999. They’ve been playing together sporadically since the mid-aughts, and are touring again for Born Innocent’s 30th birthday, playing songs from that LP and from their self-titled debut EP. A new album, Researching the Blues (their first since 1997), is due on Merge in August. —Miles Raymer This show is part of the HoZac Blackout. Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Homostupids, Fungi Girls, Teledrome, Pleasure Leftists, Far-Out Fangtooth, Ketamines, the Barreracudas, and White Mystery open.
— Miles Raymer1035 N. Western Ave., Chicago Ukrainian Village/East Village IL 60622
41.90039;-87.68679
773-276-3600
emptybottle.com more at chicagoreader.com
-
-
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Every Saturday 11:30PM @ The Neo-Futurarium (map)
-
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
January 25, 2011The Neo-Futurists perform 30 plays in 60 minutes in this “futurist evening in the grand Italian tradition.” The fare changes weekly in this long-running production; between 2 and 12 new scripts are performed each week depending on the roll of a die. more at chicagoreader.com
-
-
HoZac Blackout Fest 2012 featuring Roky Erickson, Human Eye, Estrogen Highs, Bare...
Sun. 05/20 | 7:00PM @ Empty Bottle (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from ChicagoInnerview
May 15, 2012Rock is not dead — because Roky Erickson is not dead. The man who, some claim, invented psychedelia did so by pouring his own lustful madness and life into his music. It is for his and other transcendent souls of his era’s continuing life force that the rock and roll of the ‘60s remains more than a desperate Vegas side show. The rock of Erickson’s heyday was every kind as dangerous as rock is supposed to be. And occasionally, rock needs to be reminded. Erickson’s public mental health struggles are not just a footnote, but have become the story of him. This sad fact is as much his draw as is the glorious music that propelled him to the forefront of a monumental cultural movement. Symbiotically, rock is alive and hungry because Roky Erickson is alive and hungry. (Appearing with Human Eye and Estrogen Highs at Empty Bottle on May 20) –text: Phil Forsyth more at chicagoinnerview.com
-
-
-
Kurt Vile & the Violators, Black Bananas, True Widow
Sun. 05/20 | 8:00PM @ Lincoln Hall (map)
Buy Tickets-
Featured Review from Oh My Rockness
May 13, 2012Oh yeah, when Vile isn’t writing songs on his own, he’s strumming it up for The War on Drugs (an excellent band). more at ohmyrockness.com
-
-
-
-
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012Though he came up in New York’s art-punk underground with his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore and has a long history of making noisy, experimental solo records, Lee Ranaldo has always been the member of the band who contributed the most straightforwardly melodic songs—and the only one who could reliably carry a tune with his voice. more at chicagoreader.com
-
Featured Review from The Onion A.V. Club
May 09, 2012M. Ward was a talented, much-beloved indie singer-songwriter before he became the talented, much-beloved indie singer-songwriter by the side of Zooey Deschanel in She & Him. That duo tends toward softer, wispier strains than Ward does on his own, but his sound still slots in well with aspects of folk from the ’70s. more at avclub.com
-
-
Ane Brun, Gemma Ray
Tue. 05/22 | 8:00PM @ Lincoln Hall (map)
-
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012On her terrific new album, It All Starts With One (PIAS), Sweden-based, Norway-bred singer Ane Brun uses ambiguity to change her songs’ complexion and leave you guessing. The opener “These Days” might be about accepting a lover’s dimming passion, or about breaking free from addiction while still keeping a wary eye on it: “These days I let you stay / A little further away.” more at chicagoreader.com
-
-
-
Featured Review from Chicago Reader
May 11, 2012In January Alejandro Escovedo turned 61, and few rock singers have handled growing old so well. He opens his forthcoming album, Big Station (due June 5 on Fantasy), with a stomping, Stonesy burner that pokes fun at a guy who refuses to act his age—the ranting narrator of “Man of the World” staggers between machismo and impotence, singing, “You know I’m frustrated / Hot, overrated / I feel life dissipating.” Ironically, Escovedo is full of convincing swagger and soul on that song, but on the album’s other tunes he isn’t always so persuasive. more at chicagoreader.com
-
Featured Review from The Onion A.V. Club
May 09, 2012Alejandro Escovedo
Also Playing: Jesse Malin
more at avclub.com
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- Bands
