Tortured Soul - 5/22/09 - Double Door

Tortured Soul is feel-good, live house music. The instruments are simple: drums, keys, soulful vocals, and guitar. They will blend jazz, funk, soul to keep the place rockin. I haven't seen them in over 5 years but I'm anxious it will be just as good as the last time I saw them. You have to live a band that has a motto “We don’t stop, because you don’t stop”. The drummer provides the lead vocals and I swear he was playing drums for a straight 2 hours before he took a 5 minute break. can't wait to see them at the double door nest friday. Here is a little taste of what they sound like live.

CHICAGO VENUES

Below, please fine a list of some of the better chicago venues for easy reference. Rock n roll

EARLY WARNINGS (master list)

Schubas

Empty Bottle

Double Door

Subterranean

Sonotheque

Arragon

Congress Theatre

HOB

Ravinia (summer only)

Abbey Pub

Metro

Beat Kitchen

Martyr's

the hideout

the vic

Park West

What's your favorite chicago venue? are there any great ones that are missing?

SummerBreeze 2009 - UofChicago - 5/16/09

Students at the University of Chicago should rejoyce. Their school has put together a stellar saturday evening with great bands, such as, Voxtrot (Austin, TX), Santigold (Brooklyn, NY and formerly known as Santogold), and Broken Social Scene (toronto, Canada). Many thanks to the people at Voxtrot. They put on an awesome show and got us into this event. Santi and BSS also had amazing sets. It was definitely a cool evening for a "summer breeze" event but the line-up was HOT! BSS's ability to incorporate so many sounds into their music is worth going to see live.

Passion Pit

Passion Pit is getting alot if ink right now. Just as much hype as MGMT was last summer. With their addition to many festivals this summer I can really see this band blowing up. They have a sold out show at Empty Bottle June 14th. I saw some A-Clown trying to sell his pair of tickets to the show for $100. What a douche!?! Its only $84 more than he/she paid for it. If you haven't heard of PP before, get a listen to "cuddle fuddle", "i've got your number" and of course, "sleepyhead".

The Worms

Discovery Channel Meets Disco...enjoy

Nightmares on Wax - Jan 31st - Abbey Pub

N.O.W is headed to Chicago this January at one of my favorite venues, Abbey Pub. I can't say I know songs from the latest album specifically, but the ones I do know seamlessly mix the energy of old school hip hop while injecting melodic jazz and hypnotizing down tempo sounds. They have posted a few songs from the latest album on his MySpace page, here . N.O.W's tasty beats provide a quick escape from the hustle and bustle of the big city life. Listen, Chill, Repeat

PRESETS/CUT COPY Sept 17th

YOU have to check out these two bands. I was extremely lucky to catch Cutters at SXSW during the TX/NYC Jelly garage party this year. Then again in Chicago at Abbey Pub. The presets show in late May was on a Friday. Needless to say, that was was outrageous. It was interesting to see how the crowd reacted to Presets. Lots of standing around, which was the direct opposite of the Presets show at Abbey. Regardless, Presets and Cutters at $20 is a steal in my book. The show was amazing and I almost got kicked out for multiple reasons. I blame jameson, et al.