Here are the Wisconsin and Illinois shows we recommend you take in this week. Check them out below and let us know which ones you’ll be attending or ones you think should really make our list.

Upcoming Shows:

6/14 – Great Lake Swimmers – Millennium Park (CHICAGO)
6/14 – Breathe Owl Breathe + Elephant Micah – Cactus Club (MILWAUKEE)
6/15 – Megafaun + Sam Quinn + Conrad Plymouth – Club Garibaldi (MILWAUKEE)
6/15 – Marah – Mad Planet (MILWAUKEE)
6/17 – Autumn Defense – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
6/17 – Megafaun + Sam Quinn + Icarus Himself – High Saloon (MADISON)
6/18 – Tinariwen – Jay Pritzker Pavilion (CHICAGO)
6/18 – Patty Griffin + Buddy Miller – House of Blues (CHICAGO)
6/18 – Jeremy Messersmith – Club Garibaldi (MILWAUKEE)
6/18 – JJ Grey & Mofro – Shank Hall (MILWAUKEE)
6/18 – The Fiery Furnaces – Empty Bottle (CHICAGO)
6/18 – MGMT – Riviera (CHICAGO)
6/18 – Kings Go Forth – Double Door (CHICAGO)
6/18 – The Phenomenal Handclap Band – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
6/19 – Lucero – Randolph Street Corridor (CHICAGO)
6/19 – Delta Spirit – Metro (CHICAGO)
6/19 – Kings Go Forth – UW Union Terrace (MADISON)
6/20 – MGMT – Riverside Theater (MILWAUKEE)
6/20 – Superchunk + The Love Language – Taste of Randolph Street Festival (CHICAGO)

Just Announced:

8/19 – Autolux + This Will Destroy You – The Annex (MADISON)
8/24 – Lou Barlow + Wye Oak – The Frequency (MADISON)
9/21 – Built To Spill – High Saloon (MADISON)
9/24 – Menomena + Suckers – High Noon Saloon (MADISON)
9/25 – Menomena + Suckers – Metro (CHICAGO)

+Bookmark our upcoming shows page for all your concert announcements+

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

Saturday at Bonnaroo is all about endurance. And pace. And, if you can get it, a bit of rest. I would say that around 5% of the folks here follow those important rules of thumb (which is to say I saw a lot of people passed out today. At 1pm). If Friday was a day of sampling, Saturday was a day of full sets, and I was lucky enough to find most of what I was interested in happening in one place. The fatigue is setting in, so I’ll be as brief as I can (with promises that with Sunday’s report — coming Monday! — to offer some final words on the fest once it has had some time to sink in).

Before parking my aching bones in That Tent for the day, I had a few stops to make:

11:45 – Dawes: I’m quickly becoming a groupie, aren’t I? We showed up early for the Sonic Stage set. I stood on the front row, sung along to every word, frequently yelled “Griffin!” during the set, hoping the drummer would notice me. I’m only kind of kidding. The set was similar to last night’s with a John Prine song thrown in to honor the performance from JP later that day. All day I told everybody who would listen about Dawes. I’m obsessed.

12:55 – The Avett Brothers: Remember that Chase Freedom lounge place I was talking about in the last update? Yesterday the Avett Brothers played that little tent for a handful of fans. It was a very rare opportunity to see one of my favorite bands in what could have easily been my front room. They played their way through a nice eleven-song set and I was charmed, once again, and my brother is their newest fan.

1:55 – Brandi Carlile: After the Avett’s I began my four hour residency in That Tent for what turned out to be a wonderful, indeed, historic afternoon. Carlile got us warmed up. This was my first time hearing her play live and while my tastes are more in line with the kind of stuff Jill Andrews was playing yesterday, Brandi’s songwriting and swagger were great to hear. She has some very devoted fans; several women, I noticed, were crying through some of the numbers.

3:15 – Dave Rawlings Machine: Dave and Gillian Welch are two of my favorite artists, hands down. Seeing them, regardless of who’s material they are focusing on, is a privilege and I was very much looking forward to their set. I should also add that Rawling’s record has been one I’ve played more than most over the last year. Though it took me a while to figure it out, the rest of the “Machine” was filled out by members from Old Crow Medicine Show, who, during “Sweet tooth,” would engage in some synchronized dancing. The band played some great songs, highlights for me included the epic “Method Acting/Cortez the Killer” and the appropriate-for-Bonnaroo “To be Young (is to be sad, is to be high).” Gillian also played “Miss Ohio.”

5:00 – Mumford & Sons: This was the historic part of the afternoon. It began when the major-buzzing English bluegrass (for lack of a better designation) band took the stage. We were already close to that stage since we’d been there for so long, but people packed in to see M&S. I was a little turned off by the huge fan influx, to be honest. That little too-cool-for-school voice in my head wondered what the big deal could be (this, even after loving their record – suppressing that inner hipster is tough sometimes. I’m not proud of these thoughts). The major question I had, and I think it is a legitimate one, was this: does band deserve the hype it was getting? I had to wonder and I kept wondering until about halfway through the first song of the set. It only took that long. I’ll spend some more time talking about why I think that M&S deserves every bit of hype that they are getting when I have a few more minutes than I have now, but I will say now that Mumford and Sons is a band well beyond the years of its young members. I hope they will be around for a long time. The last two songs was a big hootenanny of Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” and an Old Crow song with a name that evades a the moment (so bad without the internet for these details, folks.)

Here’s the rest of my night in a few words: I stayed in That Tent for about half good ol’ John Prine’s set. Ran into Taylor from Dawes again (who is a big fan). Tried to repress the urge to hug him. Wandered away in a daze. Tried to get into the press seats for Stevie Wonder. Realized I was not even close to cool enough for that. Regardless, however, I had the time of my life (and I’ve never felt this way before) watching Stevie play some of my favorite songs of all time (“Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “Sir Duke,” & “Living for the City”). I was told by the woman in front of me that I was singing loudly but that she liked it (a passive aggressive move, I think). And, most significantly, I think, had a moment watching Stevie Wonder – Stevie Wonder – play the harmonica during “For Once in My Life” where I had to fight the tears and pinch myself.

Great day.

Tomorrow I’ve got Calexico and Lucero on the agenda with the intention to pop around a bit to see what I can see. We have to leave a bit early tomorrow so I can make it back to teach a class on Monday (Summer session starts at the U of I!), but will look forward to catching Phoenix at Lolla later in the summer.

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

Day two here in Manchester was absolutely fantastic. I think on Friday, everyone starts finding a groove, figures out how to navigate the farm, makes a couple of friends, and – if the typical Bonnarooian is anything like me, hears some favorites on stage. Today three of my favorite bands – played. Almost back to back. I have a feeling I’ll be talking about much of what happened today for a long time—meeting both Bob Boilen (of NPR Music’s All Songs Considered) and Matt Berninger (of the National), for example. Incredible. What a day.

One thing I stressed a lot about before getting here was coping with missing bands because of conflicts. While this is an inevitability, Bonnarro is set up much better than other festivals I’ve been to (Lollapollooza, Newport Folk) to bounce between stages. It’s a little like a live mixtape, or deli tray or whatever– you can hear a few She & Him songs, for example, and be on your way to hear the National. No big loss. And it’s only a five minute walk from one place to the next. Catching one or two songs of a band is sometimes a perfect introduction.

Here’s a quick rundown, of who I heard and what I thought on Friday:

11:30 – Dr. Dog: acoustic set in the press tent. I kind of stumbled into this, as Dr. Dog played for the press assembled for an orientation. They played three or four songs on acoustic guitar, banjo, and steel resonator. Suitcases were banged on with floor pedals and, I think, they made fans of everyone there as soon as they opened their mouths to sing the first three-part harmony chorus. It was my first time seeing them, and that was surely the case for me.

12:00 – Trombone Shorty: As I mention above, sometimes Bonnaroo is best approached as a sampler – I caught the opening song as I walked from the press area to what would be the bluegrass tent for much of the day. Funky! Great horns (that’s the whole point, right?), really groovy wah-wah guitar, and I was dancing as I made my way past.

12:15 – Punch Brothers: Chris Thile’s band is my favorite bluegrass act playing right now, and probably in my top five favorite bands period. Thile has great stage presence –quipping easy one-liners between songs and what a crowd! I loved that there was so many fans there – we nearly filled the tent. They played songs off of all three records and drew heavily from their new record Antifogmatic (which comes out Tuesday and is great, by the way). The best thing about Punch Brothers is that they make technical and masterful playing look spontaneous. The set also included several covers, including “Reptilia” from the Strokes and Radiohead’s “Morning Bell.”

1:20 – Jill Andrews: I missed Jill Andrews when she came through Champaign and immediately regretted it. She played a small stage under a tent, café style with tables and chairs and presented the perfect moment to sit, chill out a bit and eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Jill offers a lovely combination of country infused folk, and I can’t wait until her first record. I couldn’t wait so much that I picked up her EP on my way out the tent.

3:00 – Punch Brothers pt. II: Sorry—I can’t get enough of these guys and jumped at a chance to see them  playing again at the smaller “Sonic” stage. It ended up being an ironic name because the set was marred with audio difficulties, forcing the band to gather old-time like around a single microphone in the middle. They didn’t play any repeats, and I was lucky enough to hear them play their version of Radiohead’s “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box” – and while the sound problems kept it from sounding as good as it could have, I am still amazed at the way they imitate all those Thom Yorke percussive taps and pops with various parts of their acoustic instruments. Brilliant.

4:00 – Hot Rize from the Chase Lounge: My brother has access to this little non-descript tent they’re calling the Chase Freedom Lounge. It’s for Chase card-holders only and they pipe in video feed from two stages, have lemonade, computers, clean bathrooms – it’s a freaking oasis. We sat and watched Sugar Hill’s incredible veterans of bluegrass joke and jibe their way through a country/bluegrass set . . . in the air conditioning. It almost felt like a sin. Almost.

4:30 – Dr. Dog, regular set: I was so impressed by the earlier set from Dr. Dog that I was anxious to see them again. Their main-stage set ended up being completely different than the morning stuff and showed the versatility of this really great band. I really enjoyed the dirty rock sound countered with sweet Hammond organ and great vocal sound, from both lead singers. I came to Bonnaroo having listened casually to Dr. Dog and will leave excited to see them again and explore their records more intently. This is what festivals should do.

5:00 – She and Him: I really just wanted to catch a glimpse of Zooey and Matt before moving across the farm to get a good spot for the National. They had the biggest crowd assembled that I had yet seen, and I think that this is due to both Zooey’s star power/name recognition, but also to the relative universal appeal of her sunshiny pop. When she (and him) came out she danced through their first song and I was glad that brings a decent presence to her stage, rather than just standing and singing. (It would be great if M. Ward shows up somewhere else today or tomorrow playing, but I doubt it’s gonna happen)

5:45 – The National: Wow, what a set. The crowd wondered out loud if Matt would take the stage as per usual in a suit. When he came out wearing a dress vest, we grinned. It came off after the second song. We grinned again. The National is tough to sum up in a little log blurb like this, so here are a few highlights:

• Matt found his way into the crowd on three separate occasions.
• He tossed his wine glass to the audience early in the set, only to ask for it back, fill it again and then supervise its return to the person who caught it.
• They played a long set, covering songs from their entire catalog with a healthy chunk coming off of High Violet.

It was a great show. Love that band.

7:30 – Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers: I tweeted about how crazy it was to go from the National to Steve Martin. Only at Bonnaroo could such emotional sonic opposites be encountered within minutes of each other. It was fun to see Steve Martin, to play along with his shtick, and enjoy his amazing back-up band. Martin can really play that banjo (it’s not just a gimmick! The Grammy was [probably] justified!]. At one point he talked about how he’s shooting a moive with Jack Black right now and then Jack Black himself, fresh off his Tenacious D set, stuck his head out from back-stage. The crowd went nuts.

8:30 – Dawes: And the awesome music just kept coming. Dawes blew me away once again. Instead of playing to a crowd of Edward Sharpe fans like they were last week when I saw them, this time they were playing to a small but intensely devoted group of their fans. It made such a difference. Everybody was singing along, dancing, and having an amazing time. They closed the set with a really sweet song with the repeated refrain, “I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be alright” and brought out members of the Magnetic Zeros for support. Notably, Jade and Taylor sang the chorus arm in arm. It was awesome. Dawes is very quickly becoming my favorite band of the moment and I make no apologies for going to see them again today in about an hour on that same small Sonic stage I mentioned before.

After Dawes I made my way back to the camping area to get some dinner, get cleaned up, and sit down for a while. Kings of Leon played a set to what was surely most of Bonnaroo and I was, frankly, happy to miss it.

We went back at midnight to see the Black Keys, and watched about half of their set. It was alright. I love that huge guitar sound, but – and this comes after spending several weeks listening to the records almost exclusively – the set got a bit repetitive and after being wowed by Dawes and the National, it was tough to stick around. We wandered a bit more, saw the massive (and I mean massive) crowd assembled to watch the Flaming Lips spectacle and made our way back to crash. What a day.

Today is going to great too. Hoping to catch Mumford & Sons, a bit of the Avett Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine(!), and of course the mighty Stevie Wonder. Here we go!

By Jeff Kollath

If you were one of the forty or so folks stuffed into Kiki’s House of Righteous Music on Friday night, you were lucky enough to see, hear, and experience the living, breathing jukebox that hails from Festus, Missouri, the Bottle Rockets. On the road for nearly twenty years, Brian Henneman and his crew have certainly earned their moniker as “reporters from the Heartland” with poignant and authentic songs about the barroom, the road, blue collar life,  romance, and just enough cover songs to keep those who aren’t paying attention interested.

Hitting the stage around 915, Henneman announced that they didn’t bring a setlist to the stage and the crowd was going to have make the calls. Overall, the crowd did a damn nice job of picking songs, screaming out hits like “$1,000 Car,” “Welfare Music,” and “Gravity Fails,” rarities like the brilliant “Financing His Romance” and ”Hey Moon” (about Moon Unit Zappa), along with a few covers like Doug Sahm’s “Mendocino” and, for the first time ever, “Route 66.” The in between song banter was priceless, with great stories about the road, the horror of playing at rib festivals, the smoking habits of Spanish fans encountered on a recent trip to Europe, and the bass player’s propensity for crying. One of the most entertaining parts of the night was the band’s cover of Neil Young’s “The Loner,” requested by a Madison record store owner with an affinity for Neil Young t-shirts. After a rough start, Henneman and company found the groove and blasted through the song, only to announced afterwards that it was about “20% off.” From where I was standing, you sure couldn’t tell – it was fantastic. “Get Down River” took on a new poignancy with recent flooding in Nashville and the horrible tragedy that occurred at a federal campground in rural Arkansas on early Friday morning.

The main set ended with my one request, “Indianapolis.” I first came across the Bottle Rockets while attending graduate school in Indianapolis. A friend of mine gave me a bootleg of a 1993 Coffee Creek (Uncle Tupelo + Bottle Rockets) show from Cicero’s in St. Louis that had a ton of Buck Owens, Doug Sahm, and Gram Parsons covers, but also had this gem of the song towards the end of the second disc. Songs about your hometown (real, adopted, or temporary) certainly take on new meaning when you are in the middle of something big, in my case, writing my thesis and the like. Knowing the city, I can just imagine where Henneman’s van is sitting in that song, probaly somewhere on the south side of downtown, where industry once reigned supreme and the South begins. While it doesn’t make the Circle City sound like a place you would want to spend a weekend, let alone three years, it has turned into a love letter for Indianapolis and makes me miss it every time I hear the song.

After a 15 minute smoke break, the band headed back downstairs for a seven song encore that checked the final few songs on the hit list – “When I Was Dumb” and “I’ll Be Comin’ Around,” most notably – and the closer, a great version of Hoyt Axton’s “Never Been to Spain.” It was so good that I came home, pulled out my previous favorite version of the song as heard on  “Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii” and played it twice. The King would like this band. The Bottle Rockets play the kind of rock and roll your friend’s band dreamt about while jamming aimlessly in their parents’ basement. The band plays the music the way it was meant to be played, with passion, talent, and absolute joy, and I cannot thank them enough for coming to Kiki’s to share it for almost three hours with the lucky few dozen of us who made the cut on Friday night.

SETLIST: $1,000 Car / Waiting On A Train / Nancy Sinatra / Mendocino / Welfare Music / Happy Anniversary / Sunday Sports / 24 Hours A Day / Route 66 / Financing His Romance / Wave That Flag / Pretty Little Angie / Perfect Far Away / Gravity Fails / The Loner / Hey Moon / Every Kind of Everything / Kit-Kat Clock / Gas Girl / Get Down River / Shame On Me / Get on the Bus / Smokin’ 100s Alone / Indianpaolis / ENCORE: The Long Way / When I Was Dumb / Lonely Cowboy / I’ll Be Comin’ Around / – / Hard Times / – / Never Been To Spain

Buy: Bottle Rockets

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

After getting off to a rough start (unprecedented line wait in the car – mine ended up being exactly ten hours — 8:30am-6:30pm), the sun eventually went down and Bonnaroo 2010 kicked off in earnest. Yesterday ended up being a bit of a wandering day for me, I sampled as much as I could and, after not sleeping the night before due to the all-night drive in from Champaign, I was in a bit of a daze anyway, so wander was about all I can do. (Another press guy just told me that I got pwnd by the cops by getting diverted into the main line. Apparently there was a press entrance. I don’t even want to think about it though. I had the experience of THE PEOPLE!)  Here is a quick rundown of what I saw yesterday:

7:00pm: Sarah Jarosz – I’ve said a lot about Sarah here on the blog before. I’m enchanted by her sweet poppy bluegrass and hearing her set after my horrible day in my non-air conditioned car was so sweet.  She played her way through a few of my favorites from the record, and threw covers from Patti Smith (“Long Black Limousines”) and Bob Dylan (“Ring them Bells”). I’m gonna see about an interview with Sarah here later today, so we’ll see how that goes.

7:30pm: Local Natives – I popped over to hear the Local Natives just in time to hear my favorite song on the record “Who Knows Who Cares.” It was my theme song of the day. Those harmonies were so sweet. I can’t wait to see them again soon.

8:00pm: me wandering around looking for food. Getting lost deep back stage, and almost inadvertently walked off site.

9:00pm: Dodos – I rocked these guys a bunch in the car in line. The large Bonnaroo stage seemed a bit much for these guys, though. Several times, the beat was lost, muddled, or just plain dropped by the drummer. They play frequently in Champaign, though, so I’ll look forward to that.

10:15pm: Blitzen Trapper – Man, these guys are good live. So pristine, with vocal harmonies so tight they are nearly crystalline. The set included favorites off of Furr as well as the great new record, Destroyer of the Void.

11:40pm: The xx – They left us waiting for about a half hour after set time, but The xx did finally emerge from the light. It was cool – yeah, heavy on the cool. As an aficionado of early records by the Cure, I should like this band more. But, meh. I’d much rather see this band again in a club. So, yes, meh for now. Plus, wow was I tired.

For the rest of the night, my brother and I wandered around the grounds, stopped in to hear a bit of Lotus, watched the ravers at the rave stage (whatever it’s called), and tried to see hip hop act WALE. But WALE was almost 30 minutes late starting, so we left and I slept.

Today is going to be amazing. I’ve got the Punch Brothers, Dr. Dog, the National, Dawes, Steve Martin, and the Black Keys on my list on bands not to miss. More tomorrow!

Remember Soul Train? Of course you do. The above video culls vintage Don Cornelius and Soul Train footage to the sounds of Luaka Bop’s artists including Javelin, Tom Zé, Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt, Milwaukee’s own Kings Go Forth. Nicely done.