LouieB

Not going to happen, unless John McCain invites a Democrat onto his ticket. LouieB

Wow, what a great time. The Hideout was packed and the improv was mindblowing. The opener was some spacey California group called My Barbarian in white linen clothes doing 60s inspired lyrics, which were inane at worse and somewhat entertaining at best. They were way too earnest and the crowd enjoyed them I guess, but maybe not in the way they expected. Thurston, Jim and Avryeel did two long improvs, one was loud and fast the other slower and softer. The first was about 45 minutes long with all kinds of crazy guitar and keyboard stuff (as well as some synth) and a good solid drumming b

NPR here used it as a bumper... LouieB

Is the change in the weather the reason hardly anyone is posting today? LouieB

Cool....should be fun. What time? As usual Chicago is an embarrassment of riches in the musical department. Not only are you (we) missing this show, we are also missing Lloyd Cole, Bettye Lavette and Robert Pollard. That is only scratching the surface of shows throughout the city tonight. Okay so what is the deal with the New York Dolls this Wednesday in Merrionette Park....strange... LouieB

Have fun. This guide helps alot. LouieB

What a shock....this was universally panned. LouieB

I don't have cable and so i miss the MTV crapola. But yea, I agree that the bulk of what is popular music these days on the commercial radio is only slightly better than what is sold on the contemporary country radio. I did grow up during the good old days and it was pretty amazing, since the top 40 did play a wide variety of stuff, rock, soul, crossover country and all sorts of groovy stuff, along with a pretty good dose of dreck (which is now considered okay with time). Early FM was also great. You could hear all kinds of great stuff on it, sometimes late at night. I am not sure you

You got it. I got my ticket and have all of Friday off for Vets day so will be there bright and early. Can I bitch about the online ticketing where I had to pay $3.50 when I would rather go to the club and get a paper ticket? Meanwhile this is pretty cool. It will be nice to see a real amalgam of Chicago inprov talent with some out of towners in one big show. I was lucky enough to see Sun Ra twice in my life, once with the entire Arkestra, dancers and all at jazzfest and once solo at a Jazz Showcase show honoring Walter Dyett. Fantastic. LouieB

Bought AM, saw the second night of the Being there tour at Lounge Ax.... LouieB

After being slightly nice to contemporary country music I switched over to the CMA awards a bit last night and frankly I am sorry I said ANYTHING nice about these guys. Everything I saw and heard was dreadful. But strangely enough I have been reading (and finished) Dave Van Ronk's book "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" and what he has to say in chapter 14 about the New Song Revolution is relevant. He wonders why anyone would want to write a song that others wouldn't sing and as mentioned here praises those who "cover"others songs because that is an art in itself. Frankly the entire book i

Why is it ever a shock when someone comes out any more, particularly people in the arts? This is not homophobia by the way, I have a nephew who is gay and studying theater, it is a fact. Sadly lots of people in the arts continue to hide their preference because of the stigma still attached to it. It is the same logic that drove many actors who were Jewish to take stage names because they would not get parts, the same kind of thing goes for gay actors as well. For every Nathan Lane, I am sure there are plenty of up and coming actors who don't feel coming out is a good career move. Louie

The smear campaign against her was one of the worst ever.....even the Trib endorsed her...go figure. LouieB

Don't miss them.... LouieB

The election in IL for governor has the most convoluted scenario ever, with the possibility that some Dems will vote Republican and some Republicans voting Democratic. In both cases the candidates have so much baggage that voting for the opposite party holds out hope for the party either in our out of power. LouieB

Cool. I am seeing Robyn on Wednesday and have all day Friday off (although I may go to work for a couple hours....its Vets day). I had not planned to see the Decemberists, just too much of a hassle I guess after Robyn, but this show could be kind of fun. Let me know. PBRs on me..... LouieB

Fuck it, fly in....PBRs on me... LouieB

I thought the Auditorium shows were the end of the tour. LouieB

I suspect this show will be closed before the end of the month..... I am unclear how this Dylan show went down, but Movin' Out did previews here in Chicago to highly mixed (actually mediocre) reviews and was heavily revised prior to it hitting Broadway. I wonder how long this Dylan show was in previews and what revising was actually done. LouieB

Well said and point well taken. I have to admit, I think Emmylou's songs are weak (although stronger when aided by the McGarrigles who are great songwriters). But the tradition of covering songs helped catapult many a fine songwriter's career back in the 60s. If not for Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Tom Rush, etc, many of whom we think of as great singersongwriters (Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, etc. etc.) may never have seen the light of day. Likewise Emmylou did the same for more people than we can possibly name. LouieB

Wow...these are the kinds of booking I usually look at carefully on the Hideout website and I totally missed that Thurston Moore was part of this booking. Needless to say I am interested with or without him. Anyone want to go? Avreeyl Ra is a fantastic drummer percussionist and Jim Baker (not the evangelist) is an incredible and strange (personally and artistically) keyboard player. He reminds me a bit of a far out combination of Bill Evans and Glenn Gould. (I am off work that day so I can start early......) LouieB

Nice horn rims.....how contemporary...... And by the same token Hank Williams wrote many of his own songs too. (In fact many country artists from the classic eras (the 20s-60s) wrote their own material.) Throughout the entire history of show biz there have been singers who have written their own songs. But let's not forget (I said this already) that the Beatles, Stones, et al where essentially cover bands in their early days. We are all better off (or maybe not) that artists write their own material. While the singersongwriter era clearly has changed the dynamics of what we want from

That would be strange..... LouieB

Anyone see the Park West show? Thanks. LouieB

Not dangerous at all, because I agree about this. Dylan is clear as a bell compared to what people think a "song" is these days. Simply singing words to music is not a song. I have expressed that here before and I still believe it. There is nothing wrong with the current crop of "strum and mumble" singers, (many of them are some of my favorite contemporary artists) but what they do doesn't really consititute songcraft. As an old Deadhead (it does help to meet people in real life) you know what a song is, it may be Robert Hunter writing lyrics and someone in the band putting a tune to it and