Jan 27, 2015
It's hard to fathom exactly how incredible Panic en La Playa must be to WSP fans who are able to make the trip. Four nights. Stage right on the beach. Staying on site at an all-inclusive resort.After a blowout show on first night of the fourth edition of this destination festival, the band had...
Jan 26, 2015
It was one of the more exciting stories of 2014 for us. A new fall festival in Illinois featuring a lineup of rock, soul, roots and bluegrass with a heavy jam influence. And no EDM.When Phases of the Moon arrived in September, it was not without it's hiccups, but ultimately delivered a really interesting and...
Jan 23, 2015
By Brian Brinkman - @sufferingjukeIts been a weird year for me with music. Between traveling through SE Asia & India, throwing myself into a complete career shift, and ultimately moving to the East Coast for the first time in my life, I havent had a ton of time to sit and reflect on music like...
Jan 19, 2015
By: @WeirScrewedBy being both versatile and creative in a multitude of musical modalities, Jackie Greene is Americanas version of a Swiss army knife.Whether he is fronting a permutation of Phil and Friends, playing lead guitar for the recently defunct Black Crowes, or playing a subdued acoustic show, Greene can wear many different hats and...
Jan 16, 2015
The Leftover Salmon boys set up shop at Chicago's Vic Theater for two shows over New Year's Eve. There were plenty of reason to be excited with Keller Williams sharing the stage, but it it turned out the party planners had a big more up their sleeves....The NYE show also happened to coincide with...
Jan 16, 2015
Karl D and his boys played Chicago on New Year's Eve for the third consecutive year. While last year, they shared the stage with Robert Randolph, this year there was a bigger twist -- transforming themselves into a RUNDMC cover band for the holiday. Yeah, I'm calling in KarlDMC,There they are above decked out...
Jan 16, 2015
One of Chicago's best kept secrets is Blotto / Helping Phriendly Orchestra guitarist Mark Hague, so it's always a treat when he gets a chance to shine with a national touring act.Assembly Of Dust gave him that opportunity on the second night of their two night run in Chicago on January 9th & 10th. ...
Jan 16, 2015
I've recently expounded on the top ten shows of the year that I've seen personally, but as I try to put an punctation on our 2014 coverage, I just HAVE to call this one out as one of the most under-rated jams of the year. No, I wasn't there, but man was I caught off guard...
Jan 16, 2015
Who are the buzziest of buzz bands? Let's use this handy Venn Diagram courtesy of SPIN magazine to help us determine.They've taken the three of the biggest festivals -- one each from East, Central and West regions -- and conveniently demonstrated the overlap (and exclusives). I'd love to see this get redone once...
Jan 16, 2015
In years past, I've done my yearly round ups as a mixture of best "things" -- shows, albums, concepts -- that made in impact that year.In 2014, I had such a diversity of show experience that I would consider in the top echelon, that I decided to go shows only. It also gives me a...