Incoming

The Miki Berenyi Trio, featuring the Lush vocalist-guitarist, along with Siouxsie And The Banshees members Lol Tolhurst and Budgie (Tolhurst was also a member of The Cure) will perform at Bottom Lounge in Chicago’s West Loop this Friday. It’s part of a tour that also includes dates in San Francisco; Portland, OR; Seattle; Denver; and New York City. It will be interesting to see if Berenyi brings copies her memoir Fingers Crossed - How Music Saved Me From Success to sell on her American tour.

 

The Chicago Blues Festival, which is well-known around the globe for its top-notch performers, will include all-star tributes to Jimmy Rogers and Dinah Washington when it returns to Millennium Park this weekend. The Jimmy Rogers tribute takes place at 7:45 pm Friday; the Dinah Washington tribute starts at 5:00 pm on Saturday. Other highlights include Alligator Records band Southern Avenue on Saturday and the legendary Buddy Guy on Sunday.

The Arlington Heights Memorial Library is hosting a 21-and-older Women Up Front Vinyl Listening Party at the Empty Corner venue at 214 East Grove Street in Arlington Heights on June 6.  Guests are invited to bring records by their favorite women vocalists, musicians, or songwriters to play, as well as a beverage. Snacks will be provided.

This year’s Ravinia Festival in Highland Park kicks this weekend with the Return of The Flock concert on Friday; and James Taylor And His All-Star Band on Saturday and Sunday. Upcoming performances include Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; Kronos Quartet; Michael Franti And Spearhead; Violent Femmes with the Chicago Philharmonic; and Little Feat + Los Lobos. Several well-known acts will be coming to Ravinia this summer. See the official website for the full schedule.

Purple Reign - A Weekend Celebration For His Royal Badness will feature A Birthday Celebration this Friday at Joe’s Bar, and A Love Bizarre on Saturday at Logan Square Auditorium. Both locations are in Chicago, and will feature DJs spinning Prince music.

 

The Old Town Art Fair and Wells Street Art Festival, both longtime favorites in Chicago, take place this Saturday and Sunday. The two events are within blocks of each other in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Pre-sale tickets are now on sale for the B-52s Day of The Dead Dance Party taking place November 2 at Riviera Theatre on Chicago’s north side. The band also has shows coming up in Las Vegas November 13 – 16.

Jay Goeppner from the 1960s rock and roll tribute band Backdated will star in The Lennon Project at 7:00 pm on June 15 at the Raue Center For The Performing Arts in Crystal Lake, IL. The event, which is being sponsored by SoundTracks Of A Generation, promises to “present the songs and the life of John Lennon in a chronological soundscape.”

Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th Anniversary Tour with special guest Feist is coming to the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago next Tuesday, June 11. The Fumbling Towards Ecstasy album featured the biographical (and disturbing) single “Possession.” Other cities on the extensive tour include Cincinnati; Indianapolis; Toronto; Boston. New York; and Philadelphia.

The American leg of Kim Gordon’s The Collective Tour will make a stop in Chicago this Saturday, June 8. The Sonic Youth singer-guitarist’s second solo effort The Collective was recently released.

Chicago-based Americana singer-songwriter Steve Dawson’s much-anticipated new album Ghosts will be available from Pravda Records in LP, CD and download formats this Friday.

 

Thrift Store Halo has unveiled a new side project called Uncle Boogie. The band will play cover versions plucked from various decades and genres in Chicago area venues, including Mom’s Place just north of downtown Chicago this Saturday.

A Charity Classic Concert will be held this Saturday at the Rolling Green Country Club in Arlington Heights to benefit Gerry’s Cafe and Rolling Green Cafe Employee Care Foundation. The hard-hitting country rock band Hillbilly Rockstar and adventurous covers band EXPO ’76 will be performing.

Singer-guitarist Michael Steven Cohen will perform favorites from the Great American Songbook at Take Flight Spirits in Skokie next Saturday from 7:00 to 9:30 pm.

 

Chicago-based folk music icon Bonnie Koloc will share the stage with journalist Mark Guarino at Hideout Inn this Saturday. Along with an extended interview regarding her career and noted collaborations, Koloc will perform a few songs with singer-guitarist Steve Dawson. Guarino’s book Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival was named as “Book of the Year” by the Illinois State Historical Society this past weekend in Springfield.