Rock history is sprinkled with big stars coming together to raise awareness and money for their personal favorite charity or overlooked causes.  It’s nice to know that this spirit also carries over to the local level — on Sunday, April 29th, a host of local bands will take the stage at Cubby Bear North in [...]

Chicago jam stalwarts Mr. Blotto are headed back to Scandanavian Park/Vasa Park in Elgin for 13th installment of their Blottopia festival on the weekend of July 27th & 28th.   Or, for Roman numeral inclined: Blottopia XIII. This will be the twelfth installment of the festival in this location.  Complete lineup will be released in the [...]

The Whippersnap Festival is back this year with some quality headliners, an action-packed undercard and a few more surprises in store. This year’s festival will be held July 19th, 20th & 21st at Stonehouse Park in Earlville, IL.  Bass legend George Porter Jr. and the funky Meters will topline the three day festival with the [...]

It’s Mark Hague’s favorite event of the year, and it’s a welcome relief for those that are have the festival jones big time in the heart of this oddball winter.  Hotel Blotto returns to the Best Western in LaPorte, IN on February 24th and 25th. This year’s festival also features Chester Brown and Old Shoe [...]

The Barn’s 2010 Holiday Mixtape was subtitled A Very Jamband Christmas and justifiably so — it’s intent was to collect a CD length holiday playlist that showcased the style of improv-leaning bands on Christmas classics.  Though at the time I thought I had cultivated the cream of jamband holiday fare, it became obvious that more [...]

Months ago, I was pumped about the announcement of two night Umphrey’s McGee run in Chicago over Thanksgiving weekend.  Little did I know at the time, but by the time this extended weekend would arrive, that party would start in Chicago well before UM takes the stage, and continue all the way through to Thanksgiving [...]

We at The Barn sincerely thank the bands and fans that came out to help celebrate our second anniversary on Saturday!  We hope everybody had as good time as we did. A highly entertaining evening began with a nice set of Phish tunes from The Vasoconstrictors; “Stash” and the set closing jam out of “Down [...]

For fans, Mark Hague is the type of musician you just have to love.  A key member of two of Chicago’s premier jambands (and possibly cooking up a third?), he brings the attitude and perspective of a superfan to what he does on stage.  And of course, as fans, we get to benefit from his [...]

There are certain musical truths in this world.  One of them (as this Venn Diagram explains) is that everybody loves Pink Floyd.  Their fans are rabid and diverse and they’ve  inspired musicians across a large swath of genres and backgrounds.  And so, when I set out to put together another Barn Presents Mix Tape featuring [...]

The Barn is happy to be offering a chance for free admission to this Saturday’s Anniversary show with Mr. Blotto & The Vasoconstrictors.  Entry is super easy, and just takes two simple steps: 1.  LIKE The Barn on facebook or FOLLOW @thebarnpresents on Twitter 2. Respond to Mr. Blotto’s facebook event and/or The Vasoconstrictors’s facebook [...]