Kreator, Voivod, +3 at Bottom Lounge 3/12
Friday night the Bottom Lounge played host to a big metal show featuring a couple big veterans playing alongside a few newer bands. The result was a little bit of something for everyone, providing the something you were looking for was fast, heavy and mostly brutal thrash or death metal. Newer band, Lazarus A.D. started [...]
DRI 2/9 at Reggie’s
Sunday night Reggie’s played host to a hardcore extravaganza which was headlined by the long awaited return of DRI! This was also a marathon show and a late one featuring five bands, which meant it was going to be a long night. Vicious Attack Vicious Attack Vicious Attack Vicious Attack, a local band, opened the [...]
Skinny Puppy 11/9 at House of Blues
Monday night was the most exciting night of the year in music for me, the return of my favorite band in the entire world, Skinny Puppy! It had been over two years since they last played here. This time they are on the In Solvent See tour which unfortunately is not in support of a [...]
You Weren’t There DVD release show
Saturday night was a big night in the world of Chicago punk rock, it was the official DVD release screening and show for the documentary, You Weren’t There. The documentary does a monumental job of telling the history of punk rock in Chicago, which was a city whose punk scene never got the recognition that [...]
Kylesa 10/12 at Reggie’s
There was no resting for me after Riot Fest because the very next night I went to one of my favorite clubs in the city, Reggie’s, to see Kylesa. After being totally blown away by them when they opened for Mastodon in the spring, I simply had to see them again so there was no [...]
Riot Fest 2009 Day Five
Sunday was the fifth and final day of the biggest Riot Fest yet, and it was being held simultaneously at two different venues. I choose to return to the Congress Theater for the show being held there and the chance to see a couple bands that I’d never seen before. She Likes Todd She Likes [...]
Riot Fest 2009 Day Four
Saturday’s Riot Fest show (well one of the them) had me back to the venue where Riot Fest all began, the Congress Theater. I’m quite fond of that venue and it’s nice big stage and good lighting so I pretty much figured I’d be in for a good time and of course a good time [...]
Riot Fest Day Three
Day three of Riot Fest had me returning to the Metro for a totally Chicago old school punk rock lineup. Nostalgia would be running wild this evening because three of the four bands were regulars on the Metro’s stage back in the old punk rock days and this evening would end up feeling like some [...]
Riot Fest 2009 Day Two
The only good thing about fall continued on Thursday over at the Beat Kitchen, which I believe is another first time for Riot Fest venue. This show was a three band bill and got off to a pretty early start. The small size of the venue and the popularity of the headlining band, 7 Seconds, [...]
Riot Fest 2009 Day One
Fall in Chicago means two things; winter is coming soon and the return of the annual Riot Fest. The former I loathe while the latter is something I look forward too every year and it is the only thing that takes the sting out summer being over, and my aging yet another year. This year’s [...]
Revolting Cocks 10/6 at House of Blues
Tuesday night brought the return of what was once a Chicago institution; the Revolting Cocks. For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, Revolting Cocks is a band that was started over 20 years ago as a collaboration between members of Ministry, Front 242, and other bands. Over the years the band has had [...]
Down and The Melvins 9/26 at Austin’s Fuel Room
Saturday night saw a pretty stellar lineup of bands playing Austin’s Fuel Room, which is a place until that day I had never heard of before. This show was originally scheduled to be at The Pearl Room but that club closed down for good a couple weeks ago so all the shows booked there had [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The Germs 6/23 at Reggie’s
Last week I happily went to Reggie’s yet again, this time to see The Germs (or what’s left of The Germs anyway). They played an all ages show that got off to a nice early start which was fine with me considering it was on a “school night”. We got to the club a little [...]
The Effigies and Life Sentence 5/16 at Reggies
It was an old school punk weekend last week as I went to two shows in two nights. Saturday night I went over to Reggie’s to see two more old(er) Chicago punk rock bands: The Effigies and Life Sentence. Originally The Freeze were supposed to headline this show but sadly they canceled their tour which [...]
MDC 5/1 at Reggie’s
After a winter-long show drought I started making up for lost time by going to my second show in as many days last week. This time it was for the classic hardcore band MDC. I saw them play here a few years ago and thought they were still quite good so I was looking forward [...]
Mastodon 4/30 at Metro
Thursday night I hopped on the L all excited to finally see Mastodon play over at Metro. I had been looking forward to this show ever since I saw they were going on tour because not only would I get to see Mastodon, but Kylesa was also playing with them and that’s another band I’ve [...]
Record Store Day at Reckless Wicker Park
I spent the afternoon of Record Store Day last Saturday over at Reckless Records in Wicker Park to pick up all the releases I wanted and catch two of the three in-store performances. When I got there, the place was really crowded and it had been most of the day from what I was told. [...]
Naked Raygun, Hot Water Music 1/2 at House of Blues
The city of Chicago got to start the new year right with a pair of shows that saw Naked Raygun and Hot Water Music team up at the House of Blues. It’s no secret that I’m a huge Naked Raygun fan (and who is Chicago isn’t?!), but I also enjoy Hot Water Music to a [...]
A look back at 2008 – part one: the shows
2008 seemed to fly by a lot quicker than I would have liked, especially the summer (where my return to skateboarding after a 20 year hiatus sadly got cut in half due to a back injury). I think the first half of the year was slow for me in regards to shooting shows but things [...]
Don’t Call Us No Wave Fest part two
Sunday night was the conclusion to the two day run of shows at Beat Kitchen. This time there would be three different bands: one I never heard of, one from the very old days of Chicago punk, and one newer band that I’ve heard the name of but wasn’t familiar with. Flophouse Flophouse Flophouse I [...]
