Monday, 2 Jun 2008
Oh my god. It is finally warm, sunny and green outside. And Jodi is one very happy young lady. To celebrate this newfound warmth, the most natural way to celebrate is of course, with music street fests!
I’m still a fairly recent new Chicagoan, so I was pretty surprised to find out all the exciting music fests that are quickly approaching. Of course I knew the biggies, July 18-20’s Pitchfork @Union Park and Lollapalooza Aug. 1-3 at Grant Park. (And you better BELIEVE I am counting down the days to catching Spoon, Vampire Weekend, Les Savy Fav, Kanye, BSS, Go Team, etc etc.) But did I know of Rib Fest? Belmont Art and Music Fest? Taste of Randolph Street? Nope. But I’m glad I looked ‘em up. Looks like Do Division Street was the first mini fest to kick things off. Too bad I missed out on Ted Leo and the 1900s, were any of you lucky enough to catch it? There’s plenty more fests in the coming future though. Check below for more thorough lists of only a few of the many upcoming showcases in June and mark your calendars now, kids. . . Cuz it’s officially time to celebrate summer!!
For a more thorough list of upcoming Chicago fests, go here.
Ribfest Chicago Sat. June 7 - Sun. June 8
Saturday: Boho Paisley/ Rafter/ Company of Thieves/ Skybox/ Treaty of Paris/ Mighty Short Bus/ Kevin Flynn & the Avondale Ramblers/ Pink Devil/ The Silos/ The Alternate Routes
Sunday: Inchworm/ The Bon Mots/ The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir/ Illinois/ Nada Surf/ Hot Heels Records/ Lush Budgett/ Van Ghost/ Joe Pug/ Ha Ha Tonka
For more info, go here.
Taste of Randolph Street Fri. June 20 - Sun. June 22
Friday: Mike Doughty/ Frisbie/ J. Davis Trio
Saturday: Drive by Truckers/ Bobby Bare Jr.
Sunday: Josh Ritter/ Matt Costa/ Delta Spirit/ The Everyday Visual/ Baby Loves Disco
For more info, go here.
Pizzafest June 21 12PM-10PM
Is a line-up really necessary? It’s called PIZZAFEST! And Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers will be at this day long pizza love fest on Racine and Fullerton. Mmmm.
BAM! Belmont Arts and Music Fest Sat. June 28 - Sun. June 29
Saturday: Cursive/ Maritime/ Sybris/ Unwed Sailor/ Parlor Mob/ Mark Rose/ Everthus The Deadbeats/ The Redwalls/ Waco Brothers/ Dot Dot Dot/ Steepwater/ Rockit/ Hey Champ
Sunday: American Music Club/ Jonathan Rice/ Maria Taylor/ Casiotone For the Painfully Alone/ Nik Freitas/ Yourself and the Air/ Smoking Popes/ Justin Townes Earle/ Air This Side of Caution/ Ezra Furman and the Harpoons/ Anne Harris Band/ Cavashawn
For more info, go here.
Some honorable mentions include Chicago’s Blues Festival (June 5-8), Andersonville’s Midsommarfest (June 14-15) and Chicago Pride Fest (June 28). July’s got plenty more in store for Chicago as well, including Pitchfork (July 18-20), Rock the Bells and Wicker Park Fest (July 26-27). Word on the street says there’s this OTHER fest going on the first weekend of August. . . Happy summer!
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Did you move to Chicago? That’s awesome.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:42 pm
ha. haven’t made the move to Chicago yet. Thankfully Jodi is holding down the big city coverage for us.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Went to the Taste of Division (or whatever it’s called these days) on Sunday. We got there for the second half of Frieghtened Rabbit’s set right before they started to play The Twist. They sounded really good and apparantly didn’t care that it was a family fest as every other word out of his mouth was F*ck. The crowd was pretty small at this point and after the show we decided to track down the Rib Sandwich stand. On the way I saw Pat Sansone from Wilco walking down the street, as I walked to say hi to him he stopped by a family that happened to be John Stirrat’s. Not wanting to be a prick and bother him while he was with his family, I polietly said “Hi” asked if they were working on a new Autumn Defense record and if they were enjoying the day. Shook both their hands and continued my mission for the Rib-wich.
I didn’t see the 1900s but they sounded good. The fest was only about a block and a half long so you could hear the bands from the other side of the fest.
Ted Leo’s sound sucked. Which was dissapointing because they looked like they were rocking up there. We were about 20 yards from the stage but we might as well have been on the other side of town. All you could hear was bass and drums. And this was after 20 min of soundchecking. So thumbs down to the board techs working the sound. We left early during Ted’s set because it was more frustrating than anything. Good times though.