Champagne

Best wishes for a festive New Year’s Eve weekend and a happy, successful 2024 to all who read this blog. May all your goals and creative endeavors bear fruit. And, whether you choose to hit the town or celebrate at home; party all weekend or just on Sunday night, be sure to keep safe and stay healthy.

 

Here’s a fun option for an almost-end-of-the-year bash. The Dyes and Amazing Heeby Jeebies will share a New Year’s Eve-Eve double bill at The Outta Space Art Music Bar in Berwyn tomorrow night.

Some joints just celebrate the new year, but Montrose Saloon promises patrons will be able to “Enter the portal of 2024 with cherished local acts.” The Metalliques; Rose Lake; Vydoc; and Montrose Saloon honcho Eric Chial will perform during the festivities.

The Lemonheads’ New Year’s Eve Extravaganda at SPACE in Evanston sounds like fun, but keep in mind there’s a low ticket warning in effect for gig.

Super Creeps, the Chicago-based David Bowie tribute band, and their special guests My Biggest Thrills, will help Brit rock fans ring in the new year at Outta Space in Berwyn. Super Creeps will perform a couple sets of Bowie material, and My Biggest Thrills will honor The Mighty Lemon Drops, along with other new wave acts. The celebrating starts at 8:00 pm.

Today is Marianne Faithful’s birthday. You can celebrate and help a good cause by purchasing The Faithful - A Tribute To Marianne Faithful from the In The Q record label. It’s now available to stream on Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music; iHeart Radio, Deezer and Pandora. The album will help Faithful deal with complications from Long COVID, and several noted artists have donated their time to the project. A double vinyl LP version is on the way.

If reading more rock and roll books is one of your new year’s resolutions, consider Elizabeth Winder’s Parachute Women. It honors the women, especially Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, and Anita Pallenberg that Winder feels had a major and positive influence on the The Rolling Stones. 

More book suggestions: The Singers Talk, Jason Thomas Gordon’s book honoring the essential role lead vocalists play in creating music (with all royalties benefiting the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) and I Quit Everything by Freda Love Smith, who was a member of the Blake Babies, Some Girls, Sunshine Boys.

Sons Of The Silent Age, Chicago’s top notch David Bowie tribute act, has a new benefit coming up on January 13 at Metro. It’s titled David Bowie: Future Legend, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to NorthShore HealthSystem Foundation to help people overcome cancer. Actor-musician Michael Shannon will also take part, playing the songs of Brian Eno.

Getting back to the subject of books, you should also consider Jeff Tweedy’s World Within A Song. Subtitled Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music, it features the Wilco frontman exploring the art and importance of songwriting.

In a case of double-oops, I hadn’t mentioned Patti Smith’s December 27 concert at the Salt Shed venue in Chicago since a single line in the December 15 Slumgullion. It wasn’t even a proper sentence; it was more of a note to myself to write some copy about the event. (I’ve just gone in and fixed it, so let’s keep this our little secret.) Luckily, Chicago Tribune music critic Bob Gendron was on the case, so Smith fans can read his favorable review in today’s issue. “Though Smith is no stranger to remarkable performances,” Gendron notes, “her transcendent showing at the former Morton Salt facility unfolded as the stuff of legend.”

More book ideas: Eric M. Shade’s unauthorized biography All Over The Place - The Rise Of The Bangles From The L.A. Underground. Brian Kramp’s This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick. And from England, Fingers Crossed - How Music Saved Me From Success by Miki Berenyi from Lush.

Who wouldn’t want to be sedated these days? The Power Pop Shoppe radio program will present a celebration of The Ramones’ 50th anniversary with local acts Bishops Daredevil Stunt Club, Rolling Numbers, Golden Richards and Things That Fly at Montrose Saloon on January 13. The evening will offer a mix of Ramones covers and original songs by the participating acts.

The Hey Nonny venue in Arlington Heights will hold its annual Women’s Jazz Festival January 4 through 7. Tickets are available on the official website for individual shows, as well as for a four-day pass.

Chicago-based musician Matt Tiegler will showcase songs from his latest album next Thursday, January 4 at SPACE in Evanston. Released last October, Hands Free Down Hill features catchy indie rock tunes like “I Didn’t Get You” and the title track. Tommi Zender, who produced Hands Free Down Hill, will also perform at SPACE that night. Zender is well known on the Chicago music scene for his solo work, as well as a member local bands such as Push Puppets.

Androgynous Mustache, a local collective of musicians that has been behind several impressive tribute shows, will bring their annual Warren Zevon Tribute Show to SPACE in Evanston on January 24.

 

The critically acclaimed production of Sugar Hill: The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker ends its run at the Auditorium Theatre tomorrow night.

City Winery Chicago will unveil new variations for its weekend brunch series in 2024. The popular Beatles Brunch With Phil Angotti And Friends will continue on Sundays but will now rotate with Soul Brunch (January brings tributes to Tina Turner and ‘90s rhythm and blues). There will also be Phil Angotti And Friends events that cover other famous artists, such as Buddy Holly, The Police, and The Kinks.

Congratulations to composer/recording artist Shawn Maxwell on his pair of nominations in The Chicago Reader’s Best Of Chicago poll. He’s up for Best Individual Jazz Musician, and his ambitious Story At Eleven, which is a long-form composition in four movements, is under consideration for Best Local Album Of The Year. Story At Eleven is Maxwell’s eleventh album.

That Chicago Reader Best Of Chicago poll is divided into the seven major categories of Arts And Culture; Buy Local; Cannabis; City Life; Food And Drink; Music And Nightlife; and Sports And Recreation. Each of these is further broken down into several smaller categories. Voting will continue through January 14.

The critically acclaimed Beautiful: The Carole King Musical runs through Sunday at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire.

A production of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child will open next fall at the Nederlander Theatre in downtown Chicago. The blockbuster play was written by Jack Thorne, based on J.K. Rowling’s story, and will be directed by John Tiffany.

Yet another book suggestion: Trouser Press Books, the publisher whose Trouser Press magazine delighted cutting edge rock fans from 1974 to March 1984 (I still have copies), will celebrate the magazine’s 50th birthday with a ‘best of’ collection in March 2024.

Robyn Hitchcock will be at the 4-Star Theater in San Francisco on January 4 to introduce a new Syd Barrett documentary, and play a few of Barrett’s songs. Two days later in that same city, Hitchcock will perform with musician Kelley Stoltz at the sold out Syd Barrett Birthday Show at The Chapel venue.

The Goodman Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol will finish its run this Sunday.

The 2024 Joey’s Song Benefit Concert takes place at The Sylvee venue in Madison, Wisconsin on January 6. This year’s format involves a Battle Of The Bands pitting The Know-It-All Boyfriends against The Know-It-All Girlfriends. Participating musicians include Butch Vig and Duke Erikson from Garbage (and as any rock-savvy Wisconsin fan knows, Spooner), Chris Collingwood from Fountains Of Wayne and Freedy Johnson; and Gail Greenwood from Belly, Debbi and Vicki Peterson from The Bangles, and Linda Pitmon from The Minus Five. Joey’s Song is a charity devoted to raising money for epilepsy research and to provide services for children with special needs.

As with so many others who watched The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the 1960s, I was saddened to see the news that Tommy Smothers has passed away. In addition to being blessed with perfect comic timing, he deeply cared about his fellow human beings, and wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he believed. Plus, he and his brother Dick featured so many cool bands on their show. I was thrilled to see The Hollies on there, but The Who had the best-known appearance. Riff In Paradise, Tom. I guess now you’ll find out your Mom actually liked you and Dick equally.