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Tim Kasher Living Room Show

Published on April 1, 2014 by in Reviews, Shows

Tim Kasher Setlist - Living Room Show, Chicago 4/1/2014The ticket said no alcohol in bold letters, but true to form, Tim Kasher was drinking Modelo from a can when we arrived at an old industrial building in the North Central neighborhood. Tim came home to Chicago to wrap up a 2 week tour of living rooms, and he was all smiles as he crooned drunken love songs to an attentive crowd of 50 at a hidden loft space styled with colorful screen prints.

He slipped between soft fingerpicking and trashing a beat up Gibson acoustic, digging deep into his 20+ year catalog for gems like The Radiator Hums, Rest Your Head, and From the Hips. His pal Patrick Newbery supplied keys, drums, synth and horns to a setlist of fan favorites from Tim’s solo records and “covers” from his favorite bands Cursive and the Good Life. I came a little when he played Driftwood: A Fairy Tale at my request.

Tim on the keys for Notes in His Pocket in Chicago

Tim on the keys for The Recluse

He did interesting arrangements of Notes in His Pocket and the Recluse on the keys and even played drums while singing Cold Love. He joked that he moved to Chicago and just bought a drum set, so if anyone is looking for a drummer…

There were dudes filming the show (possibly from CHIRP Radio?) so maybe some vids will surface in the near future. Look for me – the handsome chap in the background with the smile plastered to his face. They had a huge pile of screen prints from Baker Prints to pick through after the show that you could grab for an anonymous donation to a box. Great show in a really unique spot.

Thanks to John, the host.

 

The loft pre-show

The loft, pre-show

 

Cool promo with my record

Cool promo with my record

 
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Shaky Knees

Published on March 13, 2014 by in Shows

shaky-knees-2014

 

This is going to be cool.

8tracks Shaky Knees 2014 Playlist

 

 

 
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Broken Bells @ The Vic

Published on March 2, 2014 by in Music, Shows

Broken Bells at the Vic Theatre – 3/1/14

 
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Thao & the Get Down Stay Downs @ City Winery

Published on February 2, 2014 by in Music, Shows
Thao loves me

Thao loves me

Thao Setlist - City Winery Chicago 2-1-14

 
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Deer Tick @ City Winery 5/8/13

Published on May 9, 2013 by in Reviews, Shows

John McCauley III kicked off Wednesday’s show at City Winery as Sinatra often did, asking “how did all these people get in my room?” He spent the rest of his night at the wine bar throwing back cans of Budweiser and alt-rocking.

On their second evening in Chicago, Deer Tick played a set of fan favorites, peppered with some great covers and even an appearance from Scott Lucas from Local H. Scott emerged from backstage when John forgot the lyrics to a NRBQ cover and later joined the band to add some flange-heavy guitar on Chevy Express.

I got into Deer Tick after stumbling across Middle Brother, John’s side project with Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez and Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes, so I was delighted when they broke out a couple Middle Brother tunes. I was even happier when they jumped into Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. I’m pretty sure they intended to end the set with that one, but the crowd went wild and they returned to the stage more times than I could count at that point in the night.

I will definitely be buying tickets the next time Deer Tick rolls through town.

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Deer Tick @ City Winery
John McCauley III and Ian O'Neil
Deer Tick @ City Winery
Deer Tick's Ian O'Neil
Deer Tick @ City Winery

 
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Rx Bandits – Resignation 10 Year Anniversary Tour

Published on May 7, 2013 by in Music, Shows


Oh man – I haven’t been this pumped for a show in some time! Yesterday, Rx Bandits announced a summer reunion tour in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the Resignation – one of my favorite albums of all time. It was one of those records that I could leave in my car cd player for days at a time. Heh, cds… it really has been 10 years.

They’re stopping at the Metro on July 24th to play the album front to back, followed by a second set of other songs.

I was one of the lucky few to score VIP tix which include some exclusive merch, a pre-show and most exiting – a meet and great with the band! I’ve got a couple months to craft some amusing anecdotes. I am in possession one extra VIP ticket, so let the ass kissing begin…

Pre-sales went fast, but tickets go on sale at noon on Friday through the Metro box office.

It was about 90 degrees outside when they last played Chicago in 2011 and about 100 inside the Bottom Lounge. The band has been on hiatus since then, but in the meantime, members have been plenty busy making music. Matt Embree release an EP with Lisa Papineau under the moniker ME & LP, recorded an experimental album as Biceratops with RX drummer Chris (C-gak) Tsagakis, and has also played solo shows as Love You Moon. Steve Choi has a somewhat hardcore side project called Peace’d Out and spent some time filling in on guitar for Zechs Marquise. It’s been nice to get a taste of jams from the boys for the last couple years, but I couldn’t be happier that RX Bandits are getting back together, and from the sounds of it, putting out some new music as well!


Slider photo by Rosario López

 
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Thao & the Get Down Stay Down Streaming on First Listen

Published on February 3, 2013 by in Music

Photo by Steve Terrell

Thao Nguyen and her band The Get Down Stay Downs are putting out a new record on February 5th. Stream ‘We the Common’ in it’s entirety before it comes on NPR’s First Listen.

Tickets haven’t sold out yet for their show at Lincoln Hall on March 29th. I’ve never seen them live before but they seem like they will put on a good show.

Slider photo by Christian Reed – Concert Co-Op

 
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Regina Spektor – Chicago Theatre Presale

Published on August 16, 2012 by in Shows

Regina is coming to the Chicago Theatre on October 17th. I got screwed on the ConcertMaps pre-sale a couple days ago by one of those “type these crazy looking words” dealies, but I’ll be trying again on tomorrow’s Ticketmaster presale. With any luck, I won’t be seeing her from the cheap seats *zing* but knowing Ticketmaster, they will just be shitty expensive seats.

Regina Spektor
Chicago Theatre
10/17/12
Presale begins: Friday 8/17/12 @ 10 am central
Presale code: ROWBOATS



Slider photo by Jason Meredith

 
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Dr. Dog @ Lincoln Hall 8/2/12

Published on August 3, 2012 by in Music

Lolla Pre-Show: Dr. Dog @ Lincoln Hall

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Scott McMicken
Dr. Dog
Dr. Dog
Dr. Dog
Scott McMicken
Scott and Tony
Dr. Dog

 
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M. Ward @ Vic Theatre 5/22/12

Published on May 23, 2012 by in Reviews, Shows

I’m not sure why this show wasn’t sold out because it kicked ass. M. (Matt) Ward was superb. Having just released A Wasteland Companion in April, I was apprehensively prepared to hear a bunch of new tracks, but to my delight, he played a lot of great old ones – some gems from Post War like Poison Cup, an awesome version of Rollercoaster with a sick violin accompaniment, and of course Chinese Translation. He even went five albums back for Helicopter and closed the show with a solo performance of the instrumental Duet for Guitar #3.

Matt has such a cool guitar playing style. It almost sounds metallic at times the way he picks it out and slaps the guitar (and no, I did not misspell Metallica – fudge those guys). He’s got a really unique earthy voice too. Sometimes its soft and soothing, other times he’s belting shit out. What a cool guy. He switched between a sexy black Gibson, I think maybe it was a Jonhy A, and an acoustic or two. His old pal Mike Coykendall was by his side as he seems to usually be. Mike broke at least two strings rocking a little too hard.

I saw him at Schuba’s earlier this year, which was of course more intimate, but I think they rocked a lot harder at this show. They had these cool paned windows hanging behind them that they projected cool stuff on like clouds. →

The opener, Lee Ranaldo Band, was kind of lame. They jammed pretty hard in a couple songs, like the singer played an overdriven electric in open tuning with a bow, but after like 10 seconds, it just sounded like noisy shit. I think they lost me when Lee started to say “We’ve got a new record..” and then stopped himself and said “Well, I’ve got a record out. These guys play on it.” He kind of sounded like a dick. I give them a C minus – but I’ve seen much worse openers.

Even with a mediocre opener, thumbs up – go M.

Slider photo by Rebecca Wilson and no, it’s not from this show. Yes – I am not cool.

 
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