Cover of Zeitgeist

Back in 1988, the Smashing Pumpkins played their first show at the Metro theater in Chicago. This Friday at the Auditorium Theater, the Pumpkins celebrated 20 years of music (or “20 years of burning bridges,” as lead singer Billy Corgan put it) with the third of four shows in their hometown and the [...]

Photo by author.

“How long has it been, Chicago? Three months? My, how you’ve grown. So big!”
Following an on-par opening performance by Abstract Rude, Atmosphere’s frontman, Slug, took the stage; coat on, hood up, gloves donned. “It’s fuckin’ cold out,” he explained.
Atmosphere’s Paint the Nation tour had the potential to be incredibly disappointing. Paint the Nation [...]

SPACE aims to have two college-oriented shows each week.

The wrangling that took Friday’s Riviera concert from suggestion to reality.

Interviewing the band about exposure, ambitions… and yes, “Stacy’s Mom.”

A&O and Niteskool keep bringing great acts blah blah blah… true, but sometimes your conventional concert can get stale, and you start craving something different. Enter WNUR and Block Cinema’s Sonic Celluloid, an event where musical artists perform live music accompanying silent films. The show goes down May 22, 8 p.m. at Block. [...]

Show of the Week
Cut Copy and Black Kids, May 7, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Abbey Pub

Get your dancing shoes ready for this one. Australian trio Cut Copy create glowing electro-pop evoking the hip-moving qualities of Daft Punk but without sounding like a rip-off. Elsewhere, young buzz band Black Kids pump out [...]

Elbowing your way to the front is painful and rude. Here’s how to really attend a concert.

Show of the Week
Foals, April 26, 9:30 p.m. at Subterranean

The latest British buzz band to get decent hype Stateside (I saw their album Antidotes at Borders, that’s pretty solid), Foals merge the stiff leanings of math rock with more free-form jazz, creating a tightly-knit guitar sound capable of bursting off in any direction at any [...]

Most bands want to like their fans. Similarly, most music-lovers adore the dudes and dudettes on stage. Sometimes, though, this relationship becomes strained and ends in total pain. Take an incident at a recent Jay Reatard concert in Toronto, where Mr. Reatard clocked a pesky kid with a stupid hat right in [...]

Show of the Week
The New Pornographers with Okkervil River, April 20, 8 p.m. at Riviera Theater
Sorry, Stars, the best Canadian rock band coming to Chicago this Sunday would be super-group the New Pornographers. Boasting some of Canada’s best artists (Carl Newman, Neko Case, Dan Bejar of Destroyer), this group brings all the musical awesomeness [...]

One Voice, Northwestern’s student initiative aimed at stopping human trafficking, presents Canadian rock group Stars this Sunday at 3 p.m. on the Norris East Lawn. The show should be plenty great, especially if the good weather holds, and to help get you excited for the event, One-Click Wonders takes a look at the group [...]

Peter Shapiro, Communication ‘95, founded the Green Apple Music Festival, a nationwide music festival dedicated to environmental issues.

White Denim’s James Petralli in New York City. Photo by Daniella Zalcman on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons

“Kinetic” is one of those words that music critics have kind of killed. Once upon a time, it probably struck some kid as genius to steal a term he had learned in physics class and apply it to [...]

Frontman Adam Duritz was the enigmatic wild card at Thursday’s A&O Ball.