Widespread Panic's lighting rig has been at a consistent level of awesome for the last several years now. But they just may have stumbled on a new use for it lately.They'd been utilizing three suspended LCD screens to flash some incredible poster images all night (some with trippy animation). Deep in the second set,...

Widespread Panic returns to Chicago this weekend to close out their Spring Tour. But they do so under the specter of recent comments alluding to a touring break or potential hiatus. An initial interview givenby JoJo Hermann ("were not going to tour anymore") proved to be so controversial, that his statementhad to be walked back...

Andrew Bird- Are You Serious [4/1]After a series of folk releases and experimental instrumentals, Are You Serious finds Andrew Bird going back to his older sound, but with a flare of accessibility that never existed prior. With a heavy emphasis on a percussion section of drums and bass within the production, the album strikes as...

It seems like the public will never know exactly what is going on with concert ticket sales, but it is up to consumersto be smart about what is available.It seems that -- with the Phish Wrigley Field on sale -- fans have been both smart and kind of dumb.I had the gut feeling...

Taste of Chicago has announced headliners at Petrillo Music Shell for this summer's Taste Of Chicago. As always, admission to Grant Park's Butler Field is free, but to get up close in one of the GA areas in the bandshell, you'll have to purchase tickets via TicketWeb.This year's line-up features hip-hop, indie, some truly "...

Beyondify is our periodic feature which features new music before it hits Spotify. As usual, we mine Bandcamp, Soundcloud, YouTube for the goods. There's even a new distribution platform featured prominently in this edition. Saudade features Jon Medeski, along with members of Deftones and Bad Brains. Like nearly every other Jon Medeski project, it's...

By: Jesse McMahan - @JesseMixManThere's been a littlehole in Chicago left when This Must Be The Bandcalled it quits.Luckily, one of their old stomping grounds, Martyrs', played host to Start Making Sense and the warm feelings came rushing back.I walked into the venue just asStart Making Sense had taken the stage --immediately the...

Wrigley Field is getting Phish this summer, so the South Side is getting.... The Dead?Well, a onetime member of the Grateful Dead and Chicago's premier Grateful Dead tribute band, at least.Grateful Dead join Elvis, Star Wars and "Bark at the Park" on the 2016 promo list at U.S. Cellular. The game will take...

Take a deep breath, because it may take a while to wrap your head around this one.Vulfpeck has become one of the most buzzed about funk bands out there, and a lot of the chatter can be attributed to how delightfully "off" they are, occupying a pranksterish space that adds a touch of twisted...

While we posted up our full show review of Friday's show, and a recap spotlighting the surprise Prince cover for Thursday's, Saturday's show closer ended up revealing quite a bit more about the The Avett Brothers than I had previously thought.Not unlike many of the other bands we follow around here, it appears they...