Riot Fest 2009 proves that punk is still alive and well in Chicago.

After his jam-packed concert at Welsh-Ryan Arena, North by Northwestern sat down with John Legend to talk about the evolution of his music and his time at Penn.

Chipped purple walls and a golden chandelier greet concertgoers as they enter the Riviera Theatre in uptown Chicago. The antiquated décor complements the old-fashioned splendor that is found in the music of Oregon natives, The Decemberists. Before the main act performs, Laura Veirs and the Hall of Flames, also based out of Portland, Oregon, board [...]

One student catches the latest pandemic with no cure in sight: JoBro fever.

Legend has a universal appeal, which makes him an excellent choice as the main performer for the A&O Productions fall concert.

Co-headliners Cloud Cult and Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s opposite moods get a variety of reactions.

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 [...]