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Paul Metzger explores and deconstructs centuries of music with his...
We’re all looking for transcendence in some way, and Minneapolis’s Paul Metzger is searching for it through exploring his self-modified 23-string banjo. From Western art song and Appalachian...
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Father offers a topsy-turvy lyrical take on the current state of mumble-trap
In 2014 the world was introduced to Atlanta’s Father with “Look at Wrist,” a collaboration with Drake protege ILoveMakonnen on which the former’s twisted lyrics and deadpan delivery served as foils to...
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Pop-up restaurant Sao Song minds Chicago’s gap in Lao food
It’s a first step toward chef Andy Sisomboune’s dream of a brick-and-mortar spot. For Andy Sisomboune, khao piak sen is good for the soul. As a boy growing up in Elgin in the 90s and aughts, when he...
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In Dolores Prida's semiautobiographical play Casa Propia, a Cuban immigrant...
Director Sándor Menéndez creates an adult fairy tale, complete with songs. The late Cuban-American columnist and playwright Dolores Prida aptly called her 1999 semiautobiographical play, about a...
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Calamity West’s new play, In the Canyon, chronicles the slow erosion of...
Once again, her work makes the Jackalope Theatre Company feel like the center of something extraordinary. In ten short years, Jackalope Theatre Company has risen from a shoestring assemblage of...
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Circolombia's Acéléré is a story of old-fashioned romance and bodies launched...
The hour-long circus from Bogotá runs as part of the Chicago International Latino Theater Festival. In 1984 Cirque du Soleil started a revolution and won it. Now it's the Apple of acrobatic...
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Fight Night highlights just how little control ordinary Americans have over...
The Belgian troupe Ontroerend Goed interactive performance is perfectly timed. An emcee stands on a stage shaped exactly like a boxing ring sans ropes. A mike descends from above, as it does in every...
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Surrealistic elements help Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies transcend its...
Like the black experience, the show is messy, fun, shocking, and unpredictable. Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies is framed within the well-worn 1990s comedy trope "white people are like this/black...
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David Rabe's Cosmologies, expertly produced by the Gift, keeps you guessing
Is it a two-act hallucination or an alien abduction? David Rabe has spent a lifetime honing his craft. And it shows in Cosmologies, a remarkably well-written play receiving its midwest premiere at the...
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Behemoth and At the Gates maintain extreme-metal mastery in third decade of...
Two of Europe’s extreme-metal influencers, Poland’s Behemoth and Sweden’s At the Gates, represent a relative rarity in heavy music: beloved 90s veterans who are churning out some of their best work...
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Hip-hop outlet iLLANOiZE spotlights promising Chicago rappers, including Taco...
In July, local rapper Bekoe told told Reader contributor Matt Harvey that he founded multipronged hip-hop company iLLANOiZE in 2012 because he saw a void in coverage of the local scene. “During that...
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Los Campesinos! revisit their 2008 debut through a lens of survival and...
“Four sweaty boys with guitars tell me nothing about my life,” smirks vocalist Gareth David, aka Gareth Campesinos! of Los Campesinos!, on “ . . . And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes in Unison,” from the...
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Purveyors of postindustrial noise Uniform and the Body team up forMental...
Brooklyn’s Uniform and Portland’s the Body are two of the world’s harshest purveyors of postindustrial noise, so it was really only a matter of time before these like-minded duos joined forces to up...
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Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers lay out their cards on Bought to Rot
A Chicagoan since 2013, and a charismatic, influential figure in punk music for nearly 20 years as the leader of Against Me!, Laura Jane Grace has more recently become a role model and inspiration for...
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Three of todays brightest new songwriters team up for a tour, and some...
Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus are three singer-songwriters who have each made an impact in the music world in just the past couple of years, particularly with their recent solo...
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On their debut album, San Jose’s Awakebutstillinbed sound like emo’s next...
Shannon Taylor, who plays guitar and sings in San Jose emo band Awakebutstillinbed, screams like she could go hoarse at a moment’s notice and is determined to make every last second of her forceful...
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Chicago indie-pop duo Grapetooth will make you believe the hype with their...
Tonight, just two days short of the anniversary of their first gig, Chicago synth-based indie-pop duo Grapetooth celebrate their self-titled debut album (Polyvinyl), opening for Knox Fortune as part...
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R&B and soul legend Booker T. Jones brings his diverse grooves to SPACE
Booker T. Jones, most famous for fronting iconic R&B/soul band Booker T. & the MGs, is a much more diverse musician than people give him credit for. A child prodigy who picked up an assortment...
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Drone Activity Chicago drowns out the noise of the city with an...
Passing sirens, squealing brakes, fireworks, the metal-on-metal grind of el trains, the incongruously chirpy commercials preceding your streaming videos, and every damn noise coming out of everyone...
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Spirits to Enforce is an auspicious beginning for the Passage Theatre
The cast finds disarming poignancy in well-orchestrated absurdity. The Passage Theatre makes an auspicious debut with its revival of Mickle Maher's deadly difficult 2003 play, a work so doggedly...
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