Riot Fest – Congress Theater

Congress Theater, the flagship venue of Riot Fest, boasts the most dates, the biggest bands, and, if history has taught this girl anything, more out of control high schoolers than prom night laced with hypnotism and meth.
The first night, Thursday October 6, pulls no punches, featuring Social Distortion. The old school punk group will be [...]

Riot Fest – Bottom Lounge

The Bottom Lounge is a funny place – it sort of feels like it wants to be two bars in one. One bar tries to be a sports bar, with flat screens and domestic bottles of lite beer. The other bar has a giant venue with great sound enough stage for a gypsy ensemble. So [...]

Riot Fest at Cobra Lounge

Along the somewhat desolate stretch of Ashland in Chicago’s “west side” or “west loop” or whatever that area is called, lies an oasis to rock and roll called the Cobra Lounge. Well known to rock fans and anyone else who enjoys hitting people while listening to live music, Cobra Lounge will get into the Riot [...]

Riot Fest at the Double Door

With less than a month to go before Chicago opens its tattooed arms to the punk rock celebration of Riot Fest, we thought it would be worthwhile to take readers through the full line up in preparation. With five days, four venues and more bands than I feel like counting right now, there’s a lot [...]

Peter Bjorn and John – Extreme Audience Participation

Schuba’s, being a smaller and more intimate venue, tends to inspire minimal audience participation beyond cheering and bobbing a head along with the song. Peter Bjorn was not having it when he rolled in on August 29 to a sold out crowd. Peter Bjorn and John were there to indie rock the eff out and [...]

Tim Kasher – Bringing the Beautiful Pain

Everyone deals with sadness in their own way. Some people follow the fake it til you make it happiness path. Some people bury their sadness under many layers of denial, overcompensation and booze. Others wallow, marinating in misery until their pain dissolves into the pool sad songs in which they’ve sat. For those people, I [...]

Canasta – When in Doubt, More Trombone

Maybe the rest of the audience at the Hideout on Sunday night knew exactly what Canasta was going to bring to their set, but this girl was a bit surprised – mostly pleasantly – when they took the stage. In addition to the still-ringing ears many of us suffered after the wineglass playing gentleman who [...]

London Calling – Edgy Marketing Gone Awry

The thing is, I dig this song. The Clash is one of those bands I never tire of and their most successful tune, “London Calling,” is an easy crowd pleaser for most social events below a certain tax bracket. This girl is always down to listen to it.
That said I was a bit surprised to [...]

America’s Debt Ceiling and You – Why This Matters

Happy Birthday America! Like so many college graduation ceremonies, this celebration is bittersweet because, like so many college graduates, America, you are flat broke with no prospects in sight. But, unlike so many college graduates, you have the United States Congress working diligently on your debt. God help you.
On this day of celebration, as Americans [...]

Nick 13 – Rockabilly Prom Night

During what was arguably one of the freakiest hail storms in this girl’s history, your writer was safely inside Lincoln Hall, listening to Johnny Cash’s “Thirteen”, waiting for Nick 13 to take the stage. While we could distinguish the storm craziness from the music coming from inside the theater, we had more trouble distinguishing Nick [...]

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