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Review / Photos / Setlist / Stream / Download / Video: Ratdog @ Chicago Theater 3/7/14

Photos: Mike Kaiz PhotojournalismAs both Bob and Phil have conspired to avoid Chicago for nearly two years, it was great to see Grateful Dead family rally around Bobby at Friday night's sold out Ratdog gig.But Steve Kimock was the pope of this gig -- stealing the spotlight again and again, a considerable task, as...

Film and Q&A Review: East Nashville Tonight

Words / Photo / Video: @WeirScrewedOn a cold and sunny Sunday afternoon following a spectacular Hard Working Americans show, Todd Snider fans packed the City Winery to watch the documentary East Nashville Tonight, directed by Todd Barnes and his brother Brad. In addition to screening the film, fans were enticed with a Q&A with Snider...

Video and Preview: Greensky Bluegrass @ Bell's Beer Garden Opening

GreenskyBluegrass will do it again in 2014. "It" (besides being one of the best bands on the planet) is open the Bell's Brewery Beer Garden, an honor that they've held for over a decade.Chicago people. This is road trip worthy -- dare I say road trip mandatory. Their Thanksgiving gig indoors at Bell's topped my...

Stream or Download: Living Colour @ The Riviera 4/7/89

Living Colours fusion of hard rock with blues, funk, soul, hip-hop and jazz provided a breathe of fresh air in the 80s. The band, a four-piece powerhouse that rarely receives due credit, became popular with their excellent debut album, Vivid, in 1988.This 1989 performance at The Riviera captures the raw energy of Vivid in all of...

These Are My Jams, Volume Nine

Welcome to the ninth edition of the The Barns These Are My Jams series. To see what this is all about, check out Volume One and for more jams, our landing page for the entire series.I've been slowly been chipping away at getting caught up with posting these summaries. What's amazing about this run...

No Guitars In The Jazz Underground

We're falling behind again but bear with us as we catch up. This installment of Notes From The Jazz Underground features the playlist based on the January 17th show.The theme of the show was "NO GUITARS!!" After having done 4 straight shows that were dedicated to guitar slinging genius (Zappa, Scofield, McLaughlin and Santana), host...

Timeline: 45 Years Of The Allman Brothers Band

As we stare down what could be the final Beacon Theater Run in the forty-five year career, I was hoping to find a visual that could put it all in perspective.If you know where to look, wikipedia's got some great resources, and this chart provided me exactly what I was looking for.That's twenty...

Review / Setlist / Video: Umphrey's McGee @ The Riviera Theater 2/22/14

Then they opened the second set with 27 minutes worth of "Der Bluten Kat", that had me alternately enthralled and confused. There was plenty of great sound to sink my teeth into, but I still left grasping for that passage that I wanted to take away and listen to again and again.I might attribute it...

Review / Photos: Bob Mould @ City Winery 3/2/14

Words / Photos: Alex WoodEven without Workbooks 25th anniversary, Bob Mould has reason to celebrate.Always ahead of his contemporaries, Mould mastered punk in the 80s with Husker D and alternative rock in the 90s with Sugar.The cornerstone connecting the two, of course, was 1989s Workbook.The albumstands as a historical marker in the story...

Recap / Photos: Maceo Parker @ SPACE 3/1/14

Photos by Heidi Peters, additional reporting by Des PetersMaceo Parker has been on the front lines of funk from the days of James Brown through the P-Funk revolution and remains something of a hero to today's modern day funk crusaders.His set on Saturday night at Evanston's SPACE touched on all these spaces and more,...