It's Been Awhile...

So it's been a week since I posted anything. I apologize, but I've been really, really busy.

Luckily, in the week to come, I'm going to have a few cool articles. The first I'll have posted is a review Kanye West's Glow in the Dark tour, the second is a review of the new Cool Kids mixtape The Bake Sale. In addition to those articles I've got a few suprises in store for this week, so stay tuned!

This Week in Chicago

Tuesday, May 20

Mike Ness

Location: Park West, 8PM (Tuesday AND Wednesday)

Tickets: $30, Buy HERE

Finger Eleven

Location: The Fuel Room, Libertyville, Illinois 6PM

Tickets: $25, Buy HERE

Wednesday, May 21

Eric Hutchinson with Marie Digby and Justin Nozuka

Location: The Double Door

Tickets: $12 at the door, or buy HERE

Thursday, May 22

Stone Temple Pilots

Location: Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island

Tickets: $45 + a boatload of Ticketmaster charges, Buy HERE

Saturday, May 24

Rilo Kiley

Location: The Riviera Theater, 7:30 PM

Tickets: $25, Buy HERE

Featured Show of the Week

KANYE WEST, N.E.R.D., Rhianna, Lupe Fiasco: Glow in the Dark Tour

Location: Friday and Saturday at the United Center, 7PM

Tickets: Outrageous Prices, but if you're willing to feed Kanye's enourmous ego you can buy your tickets HERE

Patrycja Humienik: In Rhythm and Words

Local artist Patrycja Humienik, along with more than a dozen other local musicians and dancers, took the stage at Evanston’s Levy Center Friday evening and performed In Rhythm and Words; a show choreographed by Humienik in collaberation with some of the show's other dancers. The performance contained multiple forms of dance ranging from hip hop to belly dancing. Here are a few photos from the performance which lasted just under an hour:

While the dance portion of the performance contained an eclectic mix of choreography, the highlight for me came at the show’s introduction. Before the dancers took the stage, Humienik played an original song she wrote herself and recorded with other local musicians. The song, like the performance that followed it, contained a wide range of genres including soul, hip hop, and spoken word.

To hear a preview of the original song, Abandon the Material visit the show’s official website HERE.

In Rhythm and Words was certainly a first for me. As a huge fan of local arts, I have never before seen such a creative and unique hybrid of dance, music and spoken word. By combining multiple art mediums, In Rhythm and Words successfully bends the “laws of art” and forces the viewer to rethink how they interpret various genres of music and dance.

For those of you who missed Friday evening’s performance, you can still see the show in its final day Sunday at The Levy Senior Center located at 300 N. Dodge Ave. in Evanston. Sunday's show will also feature a special performance by Evanston's own Lars Kohlman!

The Official Barack Obama Campaign Playlist

I love music. I love Barack Obama. I love making playlists.

So I’ve created a mix that lists songs in chronological order as it applies to the campaign timeline.

1. Come Together- The Beatles-2004 Democratic Convention, Key-Note Address.
This is a pretty obvious pick right? Barack’s speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention was certainly a memorable one as it put him on the map as a rising star of the Democratic Party. In the speech, Barack called on Americans to come together and recognize that while we may have multiple differences we should never forget that we are all still Americans fighting together for common values like peace, justice and equality.

2. The Rising- Bruce Springsteen- Obama’s speech announcing his bid for the Democratic Nomination.
On a cold spring morning in Springfield, Illinois on the steps of the Illinois Capital Building where Abraham Lincoln announced his candidacy for President nearly a century-and-a-half prior, Obama confirmed to a crowd of over 10,000 supporters that he was running for President of the United States.


In Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising, Bruce invites the listener to “Come on up for the rising.” Essentially, in his announcement speech, Barack was calling on Americans to do the same thing.

3. U Black, Maybe- Common- Questions about Barack Obama’s racial identity
Early on in the primary process, before Barack had gained the overwhelming support of the African American community, many people began raising questions about Barack Obama’s racial identity. Many black elitists began questioning whether or not Obama was “black enough,” while other members of the African-American community doubted that he would be able to succeed in national politics because of the color of his skin. In U Black, Maybe Chicago rapper Common discusses the complications of racial identity in American culture.

4. Rebel Yell-Billy Idol- Barack wins the Iowa caucuses
January 3, 2008 was the night forever changed the American political landscape: Barack Obama, a young, black, first-term Senator from Illinois won the Iowa caucuses. In his victory speech that night, Obama predicted that his campaign would go on to clinch the Democratic nomination for president and eventually win against the Republicans in general election. To me, Rebel Yell seems like the perfect song to fit the moment: a revolution had truly begun.


5. Heroes-David Bowie- Super Tuesday
To refresh your memories “Super Tuesday” (which ironically turned out not to be uniquely super) was the day when nearly two-dozen states held primary elections and caucuses. For both campaigns, Super Tuesday was a pivotal moment in the campaign. That evening, while Obama won more states than his rival Hillary Clinton, he fell short in several delegate-rich states like New Jersey, Massachusetts and California. By the end of the night, most political pundits were calling Super Tuesday a “split decision” as neither candidate emerged as a true front-runner.

In Obama’s speech that evening, he said “We are the one’s we’ve been waiting for” in regards to changing America’s political landscape. For me, David Bowie’s Heroes perfectly sums up the mood of Obama’s supporters that evening. In the song, Bowie sings about the desire for glory which was a feeling I vividly remember having that evening.

6. The Glory- Kanye West- Obama’s 11 state winning streak
Remember how I described the Obama campaign’s thirst for glory in the last passage? Well, by the end of February Barack Obama and his supporters were feeling on top of the world after winning the 11 post-Super Tuesday contests in February. There was a sense among many of Barack’s supporters that after going on such an extensive winning streak he had finally delivered a fatal blow to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Thus, there is only one artist who can effectively match the overzealous cockiness that some of Barack’s supporters were displaying at the time: Kanye West

7. Gash- The Flaming Lips- Obama’s March-April Rough Patch
After stunning the political world with a massive winning streak, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign finally began to garner a few significant chinks in the armor. After losing hard-fought contests in Texas and Ohio, controversial sound bites of Barack Obama’s former pastor and so-called “spiritual adviser” Jeremiah Wright emerged on the cable news networks. Within days, these video clips and transcripts had circulated to nearly every major media market. Many who viewed the pastor’s speeches felt that it proved the Barack Obama, who was a member of Wright’s church for nearly two decades, was somehow unpatriotic. Barack’s poll numbers among white, working-class voters took an immediate hit, and as a result, Obama lost in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Personally, I believe the lyrics from Gash seem like an accurate depiction of the struggles Barack Obama’s campaign was facing after the Reverend Wright controversy exploded in the American media.

Is that gash in your leg
Really why you have stopped?
‘Cause I’ve noticed all the others
Though they’re gashed, they’re still going
‘Cause I feel like the real reason
That you’re quitting, that you’re admitting
That you’ve lost all the will to battle on


Will the fight for our sanity
Be the fight of our lives?
Now that we’ve lost all the reasons
That we thought that we had


Still the battle that we’re in
Rages on till the end
With explosions, wounds are open
Sights and smells, eyes and noses
But the thought that went unspoken
Was understanding that you’re broken
Still the last volunteer battles on


Battles on
Battles on


8. Take the Power Back- Rage Against The Machine- Obama Bounces Back
After weathering Hillary Clinton’s self-proclaimed “kitchen sink strategy,” Barack Obama’s campaign finally bounced back and delivered a major victory in North Carolina coupled with an incredibly narrow loss in the predominantly white, working-class Indiana. Essentially, by bouncing back with a strong performance in these two contests, Barack has all but locked up the Democratic nomination. Now, as we move onto the general election it’s time for the real revolution to begin.

As Zach De La Rocha wrote in Rage Against the Machine’s Take the Power Back:

We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power back!

Lolla Additions Confirmed

Remember when I reported here that Lollapalooza had accidently leaked the first round of lineup? Well today Lollapalooza confirmed these additions in an email. Iron and Wine, Toadies, Saul Williams, DeVotchka, and Wild Sweet Orange were all added to the lineup this afternoon.

This Week in Chicago

Tuesday, May 13


Liars
Location: Reggie's Rock Club, 8PM
Tickets: $16 HERE


Your Majesty! with Does it Offend You, Yeah?
Location: The Mansion, 8 PM
Tickets: $13, Buy HERE

Saturday, May 17

Jon Langford with The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Location: Abbey Pub
Tickets: $20, Buy HERE



FEATURED SHOW OF THE WEEK
THE CURE, SATURDAY, MAY 17, 7:30 pm
LOCATION: ALLSTATE ARENA
TICKETS: $50-65 + Ticketmaster Charges
Buy HERE

In Concert: Lars Kohlman

Monday evening, local musician Lars Kohlman took the stage at Evanston's Little Theater; here are a few photos from the evening's performance:

The crowd watches in Shock and Awe as Kohlman performs

Kohlman's set contained a mix of original folk tunes and cover songs ranging from Bob Dylan to Neil Young. After entering to the dramatic Ennio Morricone anthem The Ecstasy of Gold, Kohlman immediately launched into a brilliant rendition of Neil Young's On the Way Home. Following One the Way Home, which ironically was the same song Neil Young opened with on his 1971 solo tour, was an original Lars Kohlman track entitled The Sheep. The lyrical flow in The Sheep is heavily influenced by another Neil Young track: Cowgirl in the Sand. However, the lyrics in The Sheep have an intense political connotation. In The Sheep's second verse Kohlman sings about the realities of false patriotism in America.

Hello lonesome hearted bride
Do you fly your flag with pride?
The picture you sent me of our son
It makes me proud to hold a gun

While The Sheep was heavily laced with political content, the criticisms of American culture and foreign policy were not limited to the concert’s second track. In the hard-hitting anti war anthem Shock and Awe, Kohlman compared the faults of past American generations to the atrocities being committed by our nation's leaders today, arguing that perhaps America has not learned from its own history. For me, Shock and Awe was Kohlman's best song of the evening in large part because of the vivid and intense lyrics.
In addition to the opening song, On the Way Home, Kohlman also belted out Neil Young's Down by the River, which like Kohlman's original work, contains chilling lyrics.

Overall, the evening was an enjoyable musical experience for all in attendance. At the show's conclusion, Kohlman remained on the stage and held a brief question and answer session with his audience. In the discussion, one attendee commented that he felt the music that evening leaned, at times, too heavily on Kohlman's folk-rock predecessors Bob Dylan and Neil Young. While I agree with this statement as a music critic, it should be noted that Bob Dylan, who ironically has made a huge impact on influencing the music of Mr. Kohlman, released his debut self-titled album containing multiple cover songs. In other words, folk musicians usually become successful only after building on a musical foundation constructed by the artists who came before them.

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One final thing:

It should be noted that Lars Kohlman is a close friend of mine, and while I promised him I would try to write an objective review, it’s obviously very hard to find anything wrong with a performance when it happens to be one of your best friends on stage. That being said, I still sincerely believe that the concert, which was his first, was phenomenal. While talking with other concert-goers after the show, it became quickly apparent to me that we had all reached a similar conclusion: something truly special had occurred in The Little Theater that evening.

Throughout the past four months, I have witnessed personally Lars Kohlman’s growth as both a musician and a poet. Seeing someone literally morph from an amateur guitar player to a full-fledged performing artist has truly been amazing in itself. Monday night felt like the perfect culmination of that phenomenon. But somewhere between Kohlman’s fast-paced rendition of Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man and the vivid and heartfelt lyrics of Shock and Awe it hit me; Monday evening’s show was not a culmination of anything, rather, it was the beginning of what appears to be a fruitful and rewarding musical journey for Mr. Kohlman.

As a friend of Lars, I’m telling you to watch the video above and later listen to his full length album which he says will be recorded and released in the months to come.

As a music critic, I’m telling you one thing: This kid is the real deal.