Riot Fest secret show w/Naked Raygun
Only two weeks had passed since the first secret Riot Fest show and already there was another one and this time it featured Chicago punk rock Super Heroes Naked Raygun! Never one to pass up an opportunity to see one of my all time favorite bands from my own city, I found myself at the [...]
DeKalb Rocks multi-band reunion at Abbey Pub
Last week at the Abbey Pub the city of Chicago became home to a handful of bands from the DeKalb area that were around in the 1980s that all reunited just for a pair of shows (the other being in the actual town of DeKalb). The highlight of this show for me was the reuniting [...]
Caustic Defiance/Negative Element CD
Caustic Defiance/Negative Element – CD Akashic Records I am pretty sure that the Stepe brothers would have invented hardcore punk had they been born a few years earlier. At the very least they brought the world of punk rock to the Western Suburbs of Chicago in the early 1980s. Their band, Negative Element, I believe [...]
Riot Fest secret show w/ 88 Fingers Louie
As the countdown to Riot Fest begins (it is in October), the fine folks behind the annual punk rock goodness decided they were going to host a few secret shows here and the first one was last week. People who bought tickets in advance for the Riot Fest shows were randomly invited to a secret [...]
Pennywise singer leaves band
After a run of 19 years, lead singer and a founding member of Pennywise, Jim Lindberg, has made the decision to leave the band. The remaining members of Pennywise, Fletcher Dragge, Byron McMackin and Randy Bradbury, have issued the following statement regarding singer Jim Lindberg’s departure: “After 19 years with Pennywise, Jim Lindberg has decided to [...]
Blatant Dissent and Subverts reunion tomorrow night!
Two local old (and great) punk rock bands are reuniting for one night only. Blatant Dissent and the Subverts will be playing tomorrow night here in Chicago at Abbey Pub. Having never gotten the chance to see either band when I was a teenager, I’m really looking forward to correcting that tomorrow! If you are [...]
Dwarves limited edition Throbblehead
I never thought I’d see the day that they made punk rock action figures, but first it happened with “The Misfits”, then GG Allin and the mighty Tesco Vee, and now The Dwarves. Aggronautix who released the aforementioned GG and Tesco figures has now released a Dwarves figure featuring Blag the Ripper and HeWhoCannotBeNamed. The [...]
Vans Warped Tour 8/1 at First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre
Summer means nice warm weather (or at least it is supposed to), longer daylight hours, and the return of the annual Vans Warped Tour, now celebrating its 15th birthday. The weather forecast for the day wasn’t very promising, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me, and neither did anyone else because the place [...]
Rockstar Mayhem Festival 7/26 at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Last week I made the long journey to Tinley Park, IL for the Rockstar Mayhem Festival. For those of you who never heard of this, think Warped Tour for metal heads. This was an all-day outdoor show with 3 stages and a whole lot of bands. The festival was being headlined by Marilyn Manson and [...]
