Note: I originally started writing this last year for this show’s 15th anniversary, but couldn’t squeeze it out on time.  Alas, here it is a year later. This post is to commemorate an anniversary, but the anniversary that was on my mind on May 8, 1997 was the 20th birthday of one of the most [...]

I guess permanence isn’t something one should expect from Ryan Adams, the notoriously mercurial singer songwriter.  But I wish we could have the mid-to-late 00′s heyday of the Cardinals back, where they played this otherworldly country-punkish-jamband music that simply sounds like nothing else.  Or at least get to rewind to savor those years a little bit more. [...]

Go ahead and wear your Yo La Tengo fandom like a badge of honor.  For a band that seems to live at the outer-fringe of mainstream attention, they’re actually not hard to listen to or even get in to.  Despite some lovely pop hooks, the music is cerebral and doesn’t pander one bit –part of [...]

It's something of a Rolling Stones tradition to “warm up” for stadium tours with some club gigs.  For me, it's sort of encouraging — kind of a proof that the show isn't about fireworks, catwalks or video screens. The Stones deliver in this Chicago performance at the famed Double Door, running through a short set [...]

I have to admit, I hadn't listened to Soundgarden in a long time. Then, as if all worked out in advance, I recently saw that they were returning to Chicago in 2013 and within about an hour, this live show recorded in Chicago during their 90s heyday just kind of fell into my lap.  So, [...]

This show is surprisingly listenable given the era and circumstances in which it was recorded.  And what a setlist! I can't decide if catching a mid-seventies set like this would be preferable to a full workout of Quadrophenia or Tommy.  Alas, I wouldn't see The Who until the 1989 reunion tour, when they were already [...]

Just dug this one out to accompany an upcoming feature on the site.  No doubt those in attendance got their money’s worth.  Thirty songs worth of CSNY goodness. The Stream

File this under curious, but somehow every source on the Internet, including Bob Dylan’s own setlist site, have this show occurring at the Fox Theater in Chicago.  Of course, there is no Fox Theater in Chicago, at least not presently and circa 1990.  I guess Bob and his people could have just listened to this [...]

There are rumblings of another one of these collaborations soon, maybe this time with Jon Fishman (!) on the kit. Here’s a taste of the original Kottke and Gordon tour from the Park West in Chicago back in 2002, where percussion was not required.  Pound for pound — this could be the most satisfying of [...]

Another one in our Retro Jamming series covering great Chicago music of yesteryear.  One of the all-time greats in one of the city’s now defunct landmark theaters.  He’s on to stadiums now, but this is stadium sized sound. The Stream Download Entire Show (.zip mp3)