The Squeeze Songbook Tour date celebrated the band’s 45th anniversary and a rich back catalog that long ago earned appellations naming the songwriting engine of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook as the Lennon and McCartney of their generation. It’s a heavy crown for any songwriters to bear, but Difford and Tilbrook have done their best to keep it gleaming.
With minimal purple and pink hues lighting the stage, the camp fire-esque performance was all about the music (well, and Beam’s award-worthy beard) and the gentle sparks that crackle and pop between mutually admiring musicians.
One of the world’s premiere heavy metal bands of the 20th century, British powerhouse Iron Maiden continue to be a force in the new millennium. The sextet returned to the Chicago area on Thursday, bringing its “Legacy of the Beast” tour with dazzling spectacle, virtuoso playing, and relentless energy.
Mike Peters has written anthems to match the best of them, and the Alarm’s recent output and performances suggest more rousing sessions to come.
The Stray Cats revived rockabilly for generations of music fans in the ’80s, and the trio’s own songs continue to resonate. The band has returned with worthy new material from its 40th anniversary album.
George Clinton’s farewell One Nation Under A Groove tour featured Parliament-Funkadelic, Fishbone, Dumpstaphunk, and Miss Velvet & the Blue Wolf. For all of current society’s decisiveness, there was nothing but unity and diversity in the house as everyone was “getting down for the funk of it.”
It was a shame Earle wasn’t able to sell out the Egyptian, especially after Garth Brooks drew a record-breaking 86,000 attendees a month prior at the nearby Albertsons Stadium. But for those in attendance, who value authentic country music, Earle’s performance will be as memorable as his career — and his mentor Guy Clark’s.
Starr’s good-spirited message of peace and love remains well worth sharing, and the evening proved to be a great escape from the news cycle as well as a joyous musical celebration for generations of Beatles and Beach Boys fans.
Music fans up the road at Lollapalooza may have had their pick of more than 40 bands, but the Night Running tour packed adventurous musical variety onto one stage. Fans left Northerly Island confident that they had just seen the most spectacular rock show in Chicago.
The Mekons stormed into Los Angeles and rocked a packed house at Lodge Room last Monday, mixing songs from their new album Deserted with classics dating back to the mid-1980s.
Peter Frampton performed his final Chicago concert on Sunday, July 28, 2019. The set included hits like “Show Me the Way,” “Baby, I Love Your Way,” and “Do You Feel Like We Do” alongside Humble Pie favorites and new songs from #1 Billboard Blues album All Blues.
Andrew Bird played a hometown show that made a strong case for the accurate naming of his new album My Finest Work Yet.
The show encapsulated Alvin’s breakthrough as a songwriter and solo voice, and served as a calling card to draw people back for the new songs and stories he continues to tell.
Thirty miles from downtown Chicago in Naperville, Ribfest continues to be a summertime destination event for music fans in Illinois. This year, the crowd of thousands enjoyed Living Colour, Billy Idol, ZZ Ward, Grand Funk, Bad Company and more.
Loudly singing along to the opener “Bad Guy” nearly drowned out Billie Eilish‘s amplified vocals in the cavernous Minneapolis Armory. After years of bubbly pop stars, the outcasts and weird kids finally have their own major pop star to look up to.
A multi-generational crowd assembled at Moline, Illinois’ TaxSlayer Center to hear the most celebrated catalog in popular music, delivered by the living legend responsible for it.
A band with such an ambitious, sprawling sound may have seemed an unlikely fit for the minuscule venue, but the intensity of their performance inspired the tightly packed crowd to mosh, marvel and mentally connect with the band’s affecting themes.
Fontaines D.C’s homecoming performance, and Kevin Burke was there to bear witness
With fire in their sails and fury in their throats, the Boulder quartet barnstormed the Shredder in Boise on Wednesday night, pulverizing the well-attended club with 45 minutes of sludgy punk-metal.
In a sweet-and-sour set, the self-deprecating Tom Green revealed a soft exterior behind the crusty-looking iconic comedian of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Maximum riffage from Portland, Oregon, tore apart the Shredder in Boise on Saturday night courtesy of Lord Dying, a four-piece progressive-sludge unit.
Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and his sharp three-piece band returned to Chicago’s Vic Theatre to play material from 2018’s Call the Comet, other solo gems, breakout side project Electronica, and heavyweight hits from the Smiths. The seamless blend of old and new songs was a potent reminder of Marr’s role as the principal architect of the Smiths’ sound.
Far from a spent force, at 70, Parker is still an artist well worth your time, particularly in a live setting.
Treefort Music Fest is intended both to draw rising national talent to Boise and showcase what the city’s own music scene has to offer. And, as it occurs just as brisk breezes replace patches of ice in the downtown area, the spring-timing couldn’t be better.
It was a rare opportunity to see Ian Hunter flanked by pianist Morgan Fisher and guitarist Ariel Bender, the players who stood together during the heyday of Mott the Hoople leading to 1974 albums The Hoople and Live.
These legends are making vital new music every bit the equal of anything in their catalog.
Still, Swervedriver got a good crowd reaction and managed to play the best set I’ve ever seen them play
In March 2019 (and less than a month after the death of Peter Tork), The Monkees presented “The Mike & Mickey Show” in the Minneapolis area, showcasing longtime reunion holdhout Michael Nesmith and the most constant member and main voice of The Monkees, Mickey Dolenz.
Murray A. Lightburn from The Dears performed an intimate acoustic show at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles to promote his latest solo album Hear Me Out.
Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn strip music to the barest of bones – a skeletal rhythm track and a forceful vocal attack.
Mere days after the Boise outpost of Michael Dorf’s dwindling Knitting Factory franchises reopened after a fire tore down most of the structure last fall, what heavy-metal band took the stage to help rechristen the venue? In Flames, of course.
Tokyo psychedelic ensemble Kikagaku Moyo played to a capacity crowd at the Regent last Wednesday with support from The Mattson 2.
Featuring heavily dissonant riffs laden with death-metal vocals, Necrot gave a blitzkrieg of a performance that alternately dizzied and tizzied the club crowd.
Post-punk legends Gang of Four brought their influential blend of funk, disco and noise-rock to the Roxy last week. Founding guitarist Andy Gill led the band through a propulsive set that mixed newer material with classics from the band’s early years.
The musical legacy of 1970s glam rock was celebrated last Thursday at the Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles, as guest singers performed classics from the era accompanied by a solid house band.
Two guys, two guitars, and one small stage in the middle of the room.
John Maus performed a sold-out show at the Masonic Lodge in Los Angeles last Friday, with support from Maraschino. The dates were part of an ongoing North American tour that finds the singer returning to his one-man-band performance style.
Radiohead fans enamored of Thom Yorke’s experimental excursions into electronic music sold out the ornate and stately Chicago Theatre. The set list was built around Yorke’s solo material, primarily focused upon 2014’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes. The singer was clearly in his element while pursuing a musical vision purely his own.
The Scottish post-punk made a brooding, yet also uplifting, return at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.
Goth-punk legends The Damned celebrated the success of their latest album Evil Spirits with a fiery performance at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.
Coverage of Chicago’s Riot Fest includes text and photos of Johnny Marr, Elvis Costello, Gary Numan and more.
Beach House kicked off two-sold out nights at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, an ideal setting for their haunting brand of dream pop.
Photos and a quick excerpt from Day 3 of Lollapalooza.
Day 2 of Lollapalooza 2018
