After hosting for over a decade at Vasa Park in Elgin, Mr. Blotto shocked fans by moving their 2012 festival to the Illinois-Iowas border.  The Iron Horse Campground in Sabula, IA was the scene for the band’s most recent full album cover encore, The Allman Brothers Band’s Eat A Peach, as well as other cover [...]

We had a ball at last year’s Whippersnap Festival, a fine mid-summer destination which married great regional talent with an emphasis on improv with some top notch national headliners.  The festival is back in 2013, though moving closer to Chicago, at HideAway Lakes campground in Yorkville, IL.  The lineup was released over the weekend on [...]

If the size of venue and price of Rolling Stones tickets have soured you on the 50 and Counting Tour, here’s a chance to see some of the same guys bringing it to the United Center in a more intimate and slightly tweaked format.  In their (*ahem*) advanced age, the Stones have scheduled a few [...]

Bob vs. Robert $$$ vs. Free Suburbs vs. City Folk vs. Rock Toyota vs. Grant Anyway you square it off, two of the most iconic rock entertainers in history will both be in town on July 12th.  Bob Dylan is joined by Chicago’s own Wilco and My Morning Jacket for the Americanarama tour at Toyota [...]

They dropped a hint via this clever VINE a few days ago. But on the morning of their much anticipated Chicago UMBowl IV event, Umphreys McGee clued fans in to their next city gig.  On Saturday, August 17th, they will play a double bill with STS9 which is promised for “For Your Mind-Expanding Musical Enjoyment” [...]

There have been hiatuses, New Year’s Runs, Wood Tours, and gigs En La Playa, but there hasn’t been a full on electric TOUR from Widespread Panic, since they stepped off the stage in Chicago on Halloween 2011.  That changes this week in St. Louis, but the first weekend stop finds them bunking down in our [...]

When a band has been continually on the road as much as New Orleans’ Galactic, major cities become more than just stops on a tour, they become wrapped up in aspects of the band’s narrative.  After the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, Chicago became the temporary (to the tune of seven years!) home of Galactic’s original [...]

If you’re a Chicago music fan who just can’t get enough of that sweet spot where rock meets jazz, Joe Marcinek is a name that comes up quite a bit.  Not content to be just a double threat — laying down both guitar and keys in the Indiana-based jazz-fusion quartet Fresh Hops — he’s branched [...]

Ravinia Festival may not be a festival in the way the most readers think of it — in fact, its cornerstone has always been a fine program of classical music, a genre that has yet to infiltrate any other festivals that I’ve been to (except the Clifford Ball). However, if you’re looking for a more [...]

Glorious! Add three nights of Phish to an extended Chicago weekend (July 19-21) that already includes the three-day Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park, Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field (Friday), and Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake at Soldier Field (Monday). Some details that are known are included below, but the venue layout and capacity are just a few items [...]