Depending on what time you read this, you might be able to check out one or more of the three following events.
Nicholas Tremulis, backed by a 13-piece band, will perform soul, folk, jazz, and salsa music during a free concert tonight (Friday) at 7:00 pm at Jefferson Memorial Park. The event is presented by the Ed Paschke Art Center, and the address is 4822 N. Long.
Love has a lot to do with it. Great Moments in Vinyl, a collection of area musicians known for its ambitious tribute shows, is performing the songs of Tina Turner starting at 7:30 tonight at the Beverly Arts Center on Chicago’s south side.
A triple bill at Liar’s Club on Chicago’s north side this evening kicks off at 10:00 pm with Thorazine Hammer, followed by Triple at 11:00 pm, and Code Noir at midnight.
Happy Belated Birthday to the talented and eccentric Australian musician/producer/indie label exec Joe Algeri. He’s performed with The Brittanicas, The Outryders, Gavin Eimerman, and The Jac.
Don’t feel bad if you had no idea the Grant Park Taste Of Chicago (there are also various neighborhood versions) takes place this weekend. The confusion can be traced to it being postponed from its traditional mid-summer slot due to the downtown NASCAR race. This year’s Taste Of Chicago headliners are Whitney; White Mystery; Nola Adé; Cloud Farmers; ÉSSO; Lupita Infante with Mariachi Sirenas; Proyecto Uno; Mamii; Slique Jay Adams; Meagan McNeal; and Masters of the Mic: Hip Hop 50 featuring Doug E. Fresh, EPMD, KRS-One and Slick Rick.
The 38th Annual Printers Row Lit Fest takes place tomorrow and Sunday, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm each day, on Dearborn between Polk Street and Ida B. Wells Drive. The festival features several guest speakers, and some will be of particular interest to those of us who follow the local entertainment scene. They include Freda Love Smith; Jon Langford; Mark Guarino; Dave Hoekstra; Rick Kogan; Maureen Ryan; as well as Chicago’s first Poet Laureate avery r. young. See the official website for thumbnail sketches of all speakers, the full schedule, and other information. Attendees will also find vendors selling new and antique books, as well as independent writers and small publishers promoting their work. Admission is free.
The 18th Annual Lakeview East Festival of the Arts will be staged on Broadway from Belmont to Hawthorne on September 9 and 10. In addition to 150 artists showcasing their work, there will be live music and food vendors.
The unconventional and beloved A Red Orchid Theatre kicked off its 2023-24 season yesterday with the premiere of Brett Neveu’s Revolution.
Shiiine On Weekender 2023, which is being billed as “An Indoor 3 Day Festival With Accommodation Included,” will be held November 17 – 19 at the Butlin’s Minehead Arena in Somerset, England. Scheduled acts include The Wonder Stuff; Inspiral Carpets; The Primitives; Martin McAloon Of Prefab Sprout; Miki Berenyi Trio; and Stereo MC’s.
The 30th Chicago Underground Film Festival will run September 13-17, with screenings at The Gene Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago and The Harper Theater, at 5238 S. Harper.
The Lemonheads will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their Come On Feel The Lemonheads album with a concert next Friday (September 15) at The House Of Blues in Boston. Juliana Hatfield, who helped out on several tracks during the recording, John P. Strohm, who founded The Blake Babies with Hatfield, and singer-songwriter Willy Mason, and will also be on hand to mark the occasion.
Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, the indie musician’s Electric Light Orchestra tribute album, is now available to pre-order on Bandcamp. It’s due out in November but the two songs (“I Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” and “Don’t Bring Me Down”) already available to download suggest this is going to be a fun collection.
The Singers Talk, Jason Thomas Gordon’s new book honoring the essential role lead vocalists play in creating music, is now available for purchase. All royalties will benefit the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through their Music Gives to St. Jude Kids campaign. An amazing number of well-known singers across several genres were interviewed for this work; including Tony Bennett, Roger Daltry, Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Bruce Springsteen, Chrissie Hynde, Smokey Robinson, Joan Jett, Emmylou Harris, Ann Wilson, Michael Stipe, Leean Rimes, Norah Jones, Aaron Neville, Rod Stewart, and Jeff Tweedy.
The latest edition of the Gman Author Series at Gman Tavern on Clark Street comes at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 12 with a Chicago Book Party for the 160-page Bowie - Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams graphic novel. Sponsored by Deep Eddy Vodka, the event will welcome Steve Horton, one of the co-writers, for a Question and Answer session led by Jill Hopkins. Admission is free with an RSVP (limit four) Here’s a quote about Bowie - Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams from a post I did on January 9, 2020: “Written by Steve Horton and illustrated by Michael Allred and Laura Allred, it’s a wildly ambitious and totally successful hardcover bio. In addition to Bowie, there are full color illustrations of Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, The Who, The Monkees, T Rex, Pink Floyd, and other of his musical contemporaries.”
Congratulations to author Tommy Orange, whose crime heist novel There There has been chosen by One Book, One Chicago this year.
Phil Angotti And Friends will continue their Beatles Brunch series at City Winery Chicago at noon this Sunday. The first half will cover John Lennon’s Imagine solo effort, and the second half will be devoted to The Beatles in general. Later this month, Angotti is having a vinyl LP release show for his latest, impressive album Once Around Again on September 23 at the Blue Island Beer Company. Ralph Covert, of The Bad Examples and Ralph’s World fame, will be his special guest. Blue Island Beer Company is located at 13357 Old Western Avenue in Blue Island.
A new CD titled An Introduction To . . . The Luck Of Eden Hall will be issued on the U.K. indie label Fruits der Mer Records in early October.
Reaction Formation, a band I had the honor of covering for the Illinois Entertainer several years back, is going to have a 40th Anniversary Reunion Show at GMan Tavern near Wrigley Field on September 22. The event’s Facebook post promises, “40 years of songs, stories, road trips, aspirations, daytime dreams, ragged and hopeful indie guitar rock, and memories that have yet to fade.”
The Rock-Expo in Aurora takes place on September 16 from noon to 5:00 pm at Two Brothers Roundhouse. The event will offer vinyl records, memorabilia, books and magazines. Author John Lyons will be on hand to discuss and sign copies of his book Joy and Fear: The Beatles Chicago and the Sixties.
The Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, located at 9 W. Cass Street in Joliet, has an impressive lineup of local acts scheduled for the September 16 VIP Pre-Party to its 3rd Annual Illinois Rock & Roll Museum Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on September 17. The Pre-Party takes place at The Forge venue, which at 22 W. Cass Street, is within walking distance of the Museum. The event will include Shoes, with special guest Leroy; Phil Angotti from The Idea and Material Reissue playing as a trio with Casey McDonough from NRBQ and The Flat Five, and Brad Elvis from The Handcuffs, The Romantics, the Elvis Brothers and Screams; the One Of The Boyzz band featuring Dirty Dan Buck from The Boyzz; Ralph Covert from The Bad Examples and Ralph’s World with special guest Randy Riesen; and the Gen Fuze covers band. The evening will include a tribute to the late Cliff Johnson of Off Broadway, d’Thumbs, USSA, and Pezband fame, at 10:00 pm. DJ Louzlounge will fill the time between sets with selections from Illinois-based power pop vinyl records.
For those who enjoy planning their holiday entertainment in advance, Michael McDermott and The Duke Street Kings will perform their Halloweensteen show with special guest Devin Scott Hodge at Park West on October 27, and The Smithereens, with guest lead vocalist Robin Wilson from The Gin Blossoms, will perform at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Out Of Time: The Material Issue Story, director Balin Schneider’s documentary on the ill-fated Chicago-based power pop trio Material Issue, is available to order for $25 on Blu-ray from the Factory 25 website. It comes with a 24-page booklet with essays by Schneider and Forbes journalist Jim Ryan. Out Of Time will also be one of the 11 movies being screened at the very first CHIRP Music Film Festival coming to the Davis Theater September 14 – 17.
The Chicago-based Congo Square Theatre Company, now in its 25th year, presented the rolling world premiere of Inda Craig-Galván’s Welcome To Matteson this past Wednesday. Directed by Ericka Ratcliff, the production runs through October 1. Congo Square Theatre Company is located at 1016 N. Dearborn Street in Chicago.
Carla Olson, the singer-guitarist known for fronting the Americana rock band The Textones, as well as for her successful solo career and collaborations with Mick Taylor from The Rolling Stones and Gene Clark from The Byrds, has a new album on the way titled Have Harmony, Will Travel 3. Clark is once again onboard, along with Jonathan Lea, who performs with The Jigsaw Seen and The Dave Davies Band. Former Hollies lead vocalist/current solo artist Allan Clarke co-wrote two songs with Olson and provides guest vocals on the album. Have Harmony, Will Travel 3 is available to pre-order on Amazon.
This year’s Riot Fest will take place in Douglass Park next weekend, September 15 – 17. Headline acts for include The Cure, Foo Fighters, and Death Cab For Cutie. The festival will also feature Kim Gordon, Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton, The Breeders, Warpaint, Smoking Popes, The Exploited, Tegan And Sara, White Reaper, Screaming Females, and Ani DiFranco.
Chicago-based power pop musician Dolph Chaney’s new album Mug was released Wednesday via Big Stir Records. It’s a mix of catchy rockers and tuneful ballads, and is now available for pre-order.
San Francisco Sounds: A Place In Time, the two-part documentary now streaming on MGM+, features interviews with and vintage performance footage of some of the best known acts from the city’s psychedelic heyday in late 1960s through the mid 1970s. San Francisco Sounds was created by Anoosh Tertzakian and Alison Ellwood, who previously gave us the Laurel Canyon documentary.
The latest album from The Pretenders will be released one week from today, on September 15. Judging from the songs “A Love” and “Let The Sun Come In,” which were released in advance, Relentless will be another winning effort from Chrissie Hynde and her mates.
The Des Plaines Theatre in downtown Des Plaines will present the Supernatural - Santana Tribute next Friday, September 15.
So, I sat down at my computer with a cup of tea this past Wednesday morning and rather enjoyed Jimmy Fallon’s live chat with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood on YouTube about The Rolling Stones’ upcoming Hackney Diamonds album. It’s their first collection of new original songs in 18 years. The conversation included a rundown of the album’s tracks, and it was interesting to learn two were recorded with drummer Charlie Watts before his death. The live chat was followed by the premiere of the “Angry” video, which features eye-popping graphics of the band members performing on billboards as a sports zips around various streets.
