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Interrobang's White Rabbit, Red Rabbit turns improv into a matter of life and...
Every week, a different actor takes the stage to lead the audience through this participatory experience. Interrobang Theatre Project presents Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour's experimental...
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The Faustian bargains in Witch take on extra resonance in the current...
The devil has a much easier time raking up the souls of castle-dwelling men. When the devil comes a-knockin' on the door of village pariah Elizabeth (Audrey Francis) to offer a Faustian bargain for...
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Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is scrumdiddlyumptious and...
There's also something weirdly liberating about the sight of Oompa Loompas toting knives. You only have to recall how poor James's parents get devoured by a bizarrely carnivorous rhinoceros in James...
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Space limitations temporarily constrain “New York’s Loudest Band” on Pinned
Once proclaimed “New York’s Loudest Band,” this Brooklyn-based trio has had a rough time of it since the recording Transfixiation, which was released in 2015. Front man Oliver Ackermann had cofounded...
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Chicagoans Via Rosa and Na’el Shehade revel in all the queasy feelings of...
Singer, producer, and chef Via Rosa moved to Chicago in 2010 to help take care of her grandmother and work with local production collective ThemPeople. As she told local culture site Chicago Creatives...
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Indie-rock heroes Swearin’ regroup for Fall Into the Sun
A history of 2010s indie-rock wouldn’t be complete without at least one chapter—if not a volume—about twin sisters and musicians Katie and Allison Crutchfield. As half of the Birmingham band P.S....
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Joyce Manor gets slick, but stays sentimental on Million Dollars to Kill Me
On its fifth LP, Million Dollars to Kill Me (Epitaph), indie and emo quartet Joyce Manor exhibits less rawness, more melody, and heightened production. And though it’s the band’s catchiest record to...
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Sharply observational songwriter Amy Rigby comes back with her first album in...
Amy Rigby’s new album, The Old Guys (Southern Domestic Recordings), begins with a bold 12-string guitar chord that sounds like Roger McGuinn filtered through Tom Petty. It kicks off with “From...
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Experimental performer Laetitia Sonami comes to Chicago with her latest...
The extent of onstage action during minimalist noise shows too often consists of a composer switching between a midi keyboard and a laptop—the sound is complex, but the execution is bland. The live...
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Progtoberfest IV delivers a long weekend of heady, techy, and whimsical music
Even if you don’t have tickets to see Phil Collins—the King of Prog-Pop himself—at United Center on Monday night, you can still get your fix of all things heady, techy, and whimsical this week in...
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Chicago rockers Dead Rider and UK spoken-word artist Paul Williams join up...
For nearly a decade, Chicago’s Dead Rider have devoted their genius to the underground rock scene; they’ve made five albums and each release has been a remarkable occasion. Their new one, Dead Rider...
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Lonely Parade creates postpunk perfection on The Pits
The oldest I’ve ever felt was during one night over the summer, when my band played a show with Montreal trio Lonely Parade. I watched the band’s members—who were not even legal drinking age—mop the...
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Prolific jazz drummer and composer Gerry Hemingway comes to town for a solo...
If Gerry Hemingway had retired from music in 1994, at the end of his 11-year-long tenure as the drummer with Anthony Braxton’s quartet; he would have been assured a lasting place in the annals of jazz...
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Chicagoan Robbie Fulks and country stalwart Linda Gail Lewis join forces on...
When most rockabilly artists make comeback albums, they always seem to include at least one song that looks back on the way things were at the dawn of their genre. Carl Perkins probably did this more...
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Rapper-singer Tobi Lou left Chicago to become one of its best new hopes
One of the most colorful and fluid rapper-singers to emerge from Chicagoland in the past few years built a foundation for his career on baseball. Tobi Adeyemi, who records and performs as Tobi Lou,...
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Chef Tim Graham blows up midwestern food at Twain
The Lettuce vet’s Logan Square restaurant puts whimsical twists on standards like wedge salad and beer-cheese soup. Ants on a log is a good walk spoiled. —Mark Twain…
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The passion is in the music in Patience and Sarah
Third Eye Ensemble tells the incredibly true adventure of two early American girls in love. The much-loved 1969 historical novel Patience and Sarah, penned by lesbian writer and activist Alma Routsong...
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Rock ’n’ Roll sifts through the failed embers of history and kindles a...
Between the lines of intellectual jargon, Tom Stoppard's play is about the loss of innocence. On its surface, Tom Stoppard's magisterial play is a jargon-heavy requiem for the Eastern bloc,...
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Dom Flemons carries on the musical traditions and spirit of early black cowboys
Modern-day musicologist Dom Flemons first appeared in the spotlight in the 2000s as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group of young black musicians keeping the African-American string-band...
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Chicago DIY rocker Sean Neumann makes firecracker power-pop as Jupiter Styles
Sean Neumann got hooked on this city’s south-suburban punk scene in the late 2000s, just in time for an early view of some of the musical voices that would influence Chicago’s DIY scene in the coming...
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