Outdoor Barbecue

Mods and Rockers on their toes. Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia - A Mod Ballet, based on Rachel Fuller’s rearranged and orchestrated version of The Who’s 1973 double LP, is being staged at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London through July 13. It will then run July 15 – 19 at The Lowry in Salford. Paul Roberts is the choreographer and Rob Ashford is the director for this production.

Chicago area band Push Puppets discuss their new Tethered Together album with journalist Ashley Perez -Hollingsworth in the cover story for the July edition of the Illinois Entertainer. As on their previous releases, Push Puppets offer melodic, well-crafted indie rock on this fourth album, which is available in digital and CD formats on Bandcamp.

I recently discovered the Irish Rock ’N’ Roll Experience in Dublin has an online store that carries t-shirts, postcards, hats, magnets, posters, and other memorabilia related to acts such as U2, Thin Lizzy, The Cranberries, Rory Gallagher, Horslips, The Pogues, and the museum itself. I ordered €35.00 EUR worth of merch, so I’ll have to see how that translates into American dollars.

The Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber Of Commerce and The Old Town School Of Folk Music will present their annual Square Roots festival on the weekend of July 11 – 13. The performers include Calexico; Ted Leo And The Pharmacists; Mekons; Alejandro Escovedo; The Lone Bellow; Heartless Bastards; Cesar Rojas And The Chi-Town Playboys; Ike Reilly Assassination; and Natalie Bergman. The festival will be held on Lincoln Avenue between Montrose and Wilson.

Congratulations to Jeff Lynne on his amazing run with ELO. The final show of The Over And Out Tour takes place in London on July 13, and like earlier shows in Birmingham and Manchester, it’s sold out.

Chicago’s long-time, critically acclaimed alt-rock band Eleventh Dream Day has a rare public performance coming up at 7:00 pm on July 25 at Horner Park. The show will take place at 2741 W. Montrose Avenue on the city’s north side.

The London-based indie rock band Wolf Alice will release “The Sofa,” the second single from The Clearing on July 11. The release date for the album itself has been moved forward to August 22, and the band’s North American tour will kick off on September 10 in Atlanta. Wolf Alice will return to The Vic in Chicago on September 26; other stops include Washington, DC; Philadelphia; Boston; Montreal; Toronto; Dallas; Denver; and Los Angeles.

Tickets are now on sale for Chicago radio station WXRT’s Hometown Celebration: A Benefit for The Lin Brehmer Scholars Fund at Metro on August 21.The Linburgers, featuring Tributosaurus members Matt Spiegel and Curt Morrison, along with Heather Lynne Horton, Scott Lucas, Michael McDermott, and Eddie “King" Roeser, will perform, and the station’s on-air personalities will also be on hand. Brehmer will always be remembered by his many fans as our “Best Friend In The Whole World.” Metro is located at 3730 N. Clark Street.

Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne will kick off his massive Who Is The Sky? Tour with a show in Providence, RI on September 14. The North American dates include October 28, 29, and 31 at The Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, as well as stops in Pittsburgh; Washington, D.C.; New York; Toronto; Denver; Dallas; and Miami Beach. After a few months off, Byrne will launch a series of European concerts on February 12, 2026. His new album Who Is The Sky? will be available in various formats on September 6.

Tickets are now on sale for Roger McGuinn’s September 10 concert at The North Shore Center in Skokie, IL.

The Journey – Part 3, due out on July 11, will wrap up The Kinks’ 60th Anniversary Anthology series with a selection of songs from their 1977 – 1984 recordings. Available as two LPs, two CDs or as a download, it will include hits such as “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman,” “Come Dancing,” “Better Things,” “A Rock And Roll Fantasy,” “Low Budget,” “Destroyer,” and “Sleepwalker.” The Journey – Part 3 will also feature live recordings of “Till The End Of The Day,” “Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” “Apeman,” and other Kinks favorites.

Milwaukee-based power pop band Trolley will release its first new album in five years on October 3. In the meantime, the catchy single “A Carnival Of Black And White” is available via Bandcamp.

The indie label Kool Kat Musik will release Pop Aid 3: A Pop Compilation To Benefit Those Affected By The California Wildfires on July 18. The double-CD will feature 30 previously unreleased songs; participating acts include Go Time!, Scott McCarl, Herb Eimerman, Coke Belda, and Richard Turgeon. 100% of net profits from Pop Aid 3 will go directly to the American Red Cross. Kool Kat Musik previously released Pop Aid 2: A Compilation To Benefit Those Affected By Hurricanes Helene & Milton and Pop Aid: A Power Pop Compilation to Benefit the Citizens of Ukraine.

Enter Xeno, the latest release from the adventurous prog rock band Custard Flux, is now available in vinyl, with a bonus seven-inch single, 16-page booklet, and sticker. Custard Flux is led by The Luck Of Eden Hall founding member Gregory Curvey.

A new five-track, ten-inch vinyl E.P. of R.E.M.’s iconic first single “Radio Free Europe,” will be released on September 12 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the actual United States Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts news and information to various countries. The E.P. can already be downloaded on Bandcamp; and it can pre-ordered alone or in various bundles from the band’s official website.

Material Issue, the Chicago power pop trio that scored MTV hits such as “Valerie Loves Me” and “Diane” back in the early 1990s, and later returned with new vocalist-guitarist Phil Angotti, have a show coming up at the north-side venue Schubas on September 17.

American garage rock masters The Chesterfield Kings have released a seven-inch green vinyl single of “Your Strange Love,” a song they co-wrote with Steven Van Zandt for their 2024 album We’re Still The Same. The B-side is a cover of The Beatles song “It’s Only Love.”

Paul Weller’s Find El Dorado collection of reinterpretations of other artists’ material will be released on July 25. Robert Plant and Noel Gallagher are among the musicians who helped on the album.

Alaskan singer-songwriter Mark Ward has released an album of cover versions titled Translator that pays homage to the acts he listened to on a transistor radio as a boy. The revved-up takes on Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” and R. Dean Taylor’s “Indiana Wants Me” are particularly entertaining. Translator is available for download and CD on Ward’s Bandcamp page.

Fans of the sophisticated techno pop trio Ivy have a surprise coming on September 5. That’s when Traces Of You, a 10-track album of previously unreleased songs recorded by Adam Schlesinger, Andy Chase, and Dominique Durand between 1995 and 2012, will be released. Sadly, we lost Schlesinger due to COVID-19 in 2020.

The Dallas-based band Shortwaves released Mental Health In The Information Age, a proper, 12-track album on June 1 after posting a series of demos over the past year on their Bandcamp page. Vocalist-guitarist Joey Shortwave, AKA Joseph Holbrook, previously led The Lash Outs, and he brings a similar blend of satiric lyrics and punk/pop energy to these new songs.

Founding members Duke Erikson, Dave Benton, Joel Tappero, and Butch Vig of the indie rock band Spooner will reunite for a 50th Anniversary show on July 12 at the Atwood Music Hall in their original hometown of Madison, WI. Musicians Pauli Ryan and Alex Drossart will help out, and there will be more special guests. The Sean Michael Dargan Trio show will be the opening act.

Gina Birch from the Brit band The Raincoats has an album titled Trouble coming out on July 11. She’ll be backed by musicians Marie Merlet and Jenny Green. It’s the second solo effort from Birch, who’ll head out on tour with The Miki Berenyi Trio (led by the former Lush founder) this fall. They’ll be in Chicago on October 17 at Lincoln Hall.

YippieFest will return for its ninth year on the weekend of August 15 – 17 at Chopin Theatre on Chicago’s north side. The freewheeling entertainment event—once again hosted by the sketch/musical comedy group Famous In The Future—is inspired by the annual Abby Fest that was staged by Mary-Arrchie Theatre for several years. For the third year, YippieFest will donate all proceeds to local charities. This year’s recipients will be Howard Brown Health, Deborah’s Place, and Northwestern Settlement Food Pantry.