One fine day
My pet theory -- one I can't support, but a pet theory nonetheless -- is that the burgeoning Harrison Street Arts District in Oak Park will someday tip its hat...
Home > Reviews
All Stories
NEARLY 3 YEARS LATER: STILL A SHRINE
Where some see salt runoff and concrete, others spy the miraculous: an apparition resembling the Virgin Mary at the Kennedy Expressway underpass at Fullerton Avenue. The image drew crowds in...
Hall and Oates and boughs of holly
Face it: We'd all be better off tossing most 1980s pop-culture artifacts in a nuclear reactor. Mullet haircuts. Acrylic leg warmers. "Flashdance." Every slick MTV band with cheesy grins and...
Rockers’ faith doesn’t need a label
As veteran indie artists with devoted followings, Michelle Shocked and Over the Rhine share an uncommon distinction. Rooted in Christian faith -- as opposed to inhabiting the mawkish swamp of...
Harmonic convergence: Frankie Valli’s Chicago Theatre show delivers Four Seasons hits, while the hit musical about the Four Season takes place blocks away
Call it a "Jersey Boys" juxtaposition for the ages -- with a true-life musical at one end of the Loop, the main subject of said musical singing at the other,...
Of ‘Jersey Boys’ and concert joys
Many of those who attended Frankie Valli's sold-out Chicago Theatre show Friday fell into two neat, agreeable camps: Those who had seen "Jersey Boys" and were excited to catch the...
Voices rule in ‘Ten Commandments’
'The Ten Commandments' *** For those who recall those old Classics Illustrated comics of the 1940s and '50s -- and even for those who don't -- there's an endearing, earnest...
Musical inspiration, mutual admiration
Two female music innovators come to Chicago this weekend -- Ani DiFranco plays Saturday at the Auditorium Theatre and Sinead O'Connor Sunday at Symphony Center. On the Town spoke with...
The Decemberists with The Grant Park Symphony: Hit or miss?
(Up arrow) As a lifelong music-lover and musician, I have no time for musical hype, pretense or rehash: The sound must move me. And while my "trendy" alert stood at...
COOL SPOTTING
Cool is elusive. Sure, you can look it up in Webster's, but that would instantly mark you as uncool because dictionaries aren't cool. Besides, you should know it when you...