Phish broke from the costume part of their costume album tradition on Halloween 2013. Rather than dress up as another band for their second set, they debuted 12 new songs under the banner of Wingsuit, "an album from the future."Much more information can be found in the program distributed to attendees at Halloweens since 1996, a cheeky...

Photos: Adam McCall PhotographyIt's been almost fifteen years since I first saw Yonder Mountain String Band perform at their first ever Chicago area show, huddled around a single microphone at Abbey Pub for no more than about two dozen people. Billing themselves at the time as "Colorado's Nakedest Bluegrass", this intriguing (yet meaningless) tagline, along...

This installment of Notes From The Jazz Underground features the playlist based on the October 18th show. If you're new to Jazz Underground, let me fill you in on a few things. First, it is the brainchild of Paul Abella, a local musician and radio programmer / host, who carved out a place for the eclectic...

If you're reading this site, and especially this post, it's likely that you're no casual music fan. It's time consuming, but not so bad being a hard-core -- we can obsess a little, we explore and poke and look for the next great thing... and sometimes we discover gold. Yes, every now and then, this...

Since 1987, if Widespread Panic was touring, you could be sure they'd play a show on October 31st. Not only that, they were always willing to put a little extra in for the Halloween show -- hell, the 1998 show even placed second in our list of the 21 Greatest Halloween Shows Of All Time. In 25 shows that...

We've lined up our picks for the best live music experience in Chicago this Halloween.Best Bet for a Freaky Good Time:The masterminds at Otter Presents are taking over the lovely City Winery on Halloween night. The main event features Brothers Past with support from Lynx. But that's not all.... Yes, there's a costume...

What seems like an unlikely pairing is actually winning some acclaim on a tour this fall. British blues master Jeff Beck and Brian Wilson (with former Beach boy compadres Al Jardine and David Marks) have superstar resumes if not superstar status or "buzz", but together they make for an entertaining evening of contrasts and collaborations....

Silver Wrapper brought East Coast prog-funk-fusion masters Kung Fu to town for a hump day showcase at Schubas. An enthusiastic Chicago crowd greeted the visiting team and were treated to an hour and forty-five minutes of thick grooves and instrumental mastery, including a cover of "Drop Dead Legs" (yup... a Van Halen deep cut). Here's...

Phish's first fall tour since 2010 kicks off today! As always, we'll be updating the Phish Rotation Infographic after each show to give you a feel what's been played so far and what's likely to come next.As a way to introduce (or reintroduce) this resource to folks, I thought I'd throw out a quick question...

It was fifteen years ago today that Phish entered the final stretch of the unfortunately short "Neil Young Phase" of their career, which lasted a scant fifteen days, from 10/3/98's Farm Aid Benefit outside of Chicago, to playing a pair of sets at Neil's annual Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline Ampitheater in advance of their...