Phish returns this weekend to Allstate Arena.  The former Rosemont Horizon has played host home of some memorable shows, including five previous Phish performances dating back to 1995.Chicago has long been a Midwest stronghold for the band, even more so in recent years as the band has scaled back its touring.  And like...

Photos: Patrick Jordan, phishfromtheroad InstagramAs one of your resident jaded vets, it takes a lot for me to classify something that happened at a 3.0 Phish show as best ever.  But even after a year has passed to contemplate, I think the encore at the third night of 2015s Dicks run still sits...

By: Carmel O'Farrell (@carmelocorn)If you haven't yet heard of Vulfpeck, maybe you're not paying attention.To put it mildly, the band is buzz-worthy.  Precisely, I think, because their causal renegade careless cool is offered like a code to crack.  Who are these guys and how do they get away with all this...

A friend of mine recently issued a challenge.A longtime musician, prolific stoner, and general musical omnivore, he never really "got" the Grateful Dead.He's theright age to have caught their late eighties popularbreakthroughin his impressionable years, and has the propensity to chew on some meaty sonic dishes -- he lists punk, krautrock, psych, jazz...

From the onset, Snarky Puppy presents as not-your-average-band. It's been described as a collective with a fluid lineup -- surely there are many different looks, all rooted in impeccable chops and a tendency to bend time with their boundary pushing jazz.The concept is magnified with albums like the just released Family Dinner, Volume 2, where...

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...

"Jambands are dead! Long live jambands!" That's a bit of wordplay that my friends and I have been tossing around since sometime in the early 2000s.There is a roughly 15 year stretch -- from "Touch Of Grey" being released as a single in 1987 to the inaugural Bonnaroo in 2002 -- that represents the last era ofpeak...

It seems unlikely, but the sound of the fiddle just seems to fit right with Widespread Panic's improv-heavy southern rock sound.Inspired by a few recent sit-ins, I put together this list of notable jams featuring the violin throughout their history.1. There is no other fiddler that this list could possibly have started with than...

Guest Post by Paul Abella.  Paul is a musician, radio host, pundit and early supporter of The Barn Presents.  As a jazz guy who actively embraces and celebrates jambands like Grateful Dead and Phish, and even champions jammers on our local scene, his sensibilities are a natural fit for the site.  We...

Chicago is a world class jazz city. That means it has world class jazz venues. But that doesn't mean they're all created equal. Some are 100% dedicated to the form. Others program jazz as a part of a more diverse lineup. Just as there are many permutations of the music, there are plenty of ways to...