Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. @ Lincoln Hall, Friday, May 24

Are these guys Red Wings fans?  They come from just outside of Detroit, so that’s a possibility, but you shouldn’t let an NHL playoff series between two original six rivals come between you and good tunes.  They stop by Lincoln Hall on Friday night for an XRT Big Beat Show.  Tickets here.

JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound @ Mayne Stage, Saturday, May 25

Easily, one of Chicago’s most exciting bands.  This show will be taking place at Mayne Stage, and if you haven’t yet been there yourself, you’ve probably heard nothing but good things about this room and are dying to check it out.  No better reason to get up there than JCBTUS.  Not only is it a JCBTUS show, it’s a JCBTUS CD release show for their album, “Howl.”  Tickets here.

John Talabot @ Lincoln Hall, Sunday, May 26

In this DJ’s opinion, John Talabot was responsible for one of the best albums of 2012, ƒIN.  John is a Spanish DJ/producer and if you’d like to hear his work, which many consider to be the finest electronic music produced in the past few years, it will be on display at Lincoln Hall this Sunday evening.  Tickets here.

Oh, and the concert promoters have given us next year’s dates for a good reason.  Tickets for 2014 go on sale this Friday.  Click here for more.

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Her album, Harmony was released in Canada last November and is finally making a U.S. debut later this month. You’re heard her award-winning song, “Stompa” rockin’ on XRT and the groovy track already has over 700,000 views on YouTube.

Sporting a Flying V Guitar, Serena told us she got the guitar specifically for the new record, and she wanted “Stompa” to have a T-Rex sound, but it ended up having a T-Rex meets Ella Fitzgerald sound instead.

With almost and Adele-like voice, she also belted out the songs, “Mary Go Round” and “What I Wouldn’t Do” in-studio a few weeks before our Free Sample show. You can check out all three tracks she performed in studio [VIDEO].

Click here here to purchase “Stompa”.

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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ The Vic, Friday, May 17

Peter Hayes spent some time with The Brian Jonestown Massacre back in the ’90s, but that gig wasn’t destined to last forever, so he left and formed BRMC.  Their debut was released in 2001 and was loaded with gems such as “Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘n’ Roll (Punk Song),” “Spread Your Love,” and “Love Burns.”  They’re now on album #7, Specter At The Feast, and will entertain this Friday night at The Vic with Dhani Harrrison’s band, Thenewno2, as openers.  Tickets here.

Rodriguez @ Arie Crown Theater, Friday, May 17

Sixto Díaz Rodríguez is the subject of the Academy Award winning documentary, Searching For Sugar Man, and last I checked, a few seats remain for his Friday night show at Arie Crown.  The film has revived his career and turned thousands of people on to his music, so if you’d like to see the man that was way under the radar for decades, I wouldn’t wait around too long to snatch up a few tickets.  You can find those here.

Your Local Farmers Market

We’re now into the middle of May and if your local farmers market hasn’t re-opened, it will be in the next couple of weeks.  With all we’re learning about trans fats, processed foods, Monsanto, the obesity epidemic, heart disease, diabetes, etc., it becomes more and more apparent that the best place to buy real, actual, honest food is at your local farmers market.  Oh, and staying local is always nice.  Do your apples really need to be shipped from New Zealand?  That’s quite a carbon footprint for an apple, innit?  The moral of the story is to eat more food that grows, and if it can be grown locally, we all win.  A list of Chicago markets can be found here, and if you’re in the ‘burbs, you’ll probably find your town listed here.

And look at that fine automobile that will be filled with locally grown/raised food this weekend…

Kurt Vile returned to Chicago for a sold out XRT Big Beat Show at Lincoln Hall on Tuesday. Backed by his band “The Violators”, Vile and the Violators pushed each note to the far reaches of the sonic threshold during the 14 song set that drew heavily from Vile’s most recent album Wakin On A Pretty Daze, with supplemental selections from Vile’s discography.

Opening with the album’s  9 minute title track, Vile quickly turned the audience into a sea of bobbing heads and grins, a state the audience   remained in throughout the show. Vile’s slacker vocals carried his candid lyrics over incredibly proficient guitar arrangements. Whether he was strumming, slamming, or finger picking, Vile revealed that the potential of 6 or at times 12  strings is near limitless.

“Girl Named Alex” and “Hunchback” featured more impressive dynamics that can  be found in Vile’s music in the form of psychedelic keyboard beds and a saxophone solo that placed “Hunchback” into a frenzy.  Vile drew from early releases for his stripped down encore that featured “Baby’s Arms” from Smoke Ring For My Halo and 2009 single “He’s Alright”

The band’s stage presence reflected a light-hearted group of musicians who seem to be exactly where they hoped to be when they first picked up their instruments. Chatter was kept to a minimum throughout the show, but when Vile bid farewell, he made sure his well wishes extended past the evening. “Thank You and Have A Nice Life” he announced as he left the stage.

Hear how Kurt Vile opened his Lincoln Hall show with a free download of “Waking On A Pretty Daze” and check out Kurt Vile’s visit to the XRT Studio.

“Waking On A Pretty Day” [Free Download] via Matador records.

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Trevor Powers (the man behind Youth Lagoon) just released his second album, Wondrous Bughouse.  One of the strongest releases of 2013 so far, Trevor creates music that some would find reminiscent of early Pink Floyd and when he says that he’s “becoming more fascinated with the human psyche and where the spiritual meets the physical world,” you know you’re going on a ride, you just have no idea where it will take you.

Trevor performs at Metro on Wednesday night and as of the time of this writing, the show is not yet sold out, so give him a look.  It’s a great excuse to get out of the house on what should be a warm, lovely Wednesday evening.

Tickets here.

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James Cotton @ Mayne Stage, Friday, May 10

James Cotton is a blues man that was born where?  Mississippi, of course.  James learned the ropes from Sonny Boy Williamson II, played with Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, and recorded for Sun Records.  James now resides on Chicago label, Alligator Records, who just released his album, Cotton Mouth Man.  Tickets here.

Black Moth Super Rainbow @ Metro, Saturday, May 11

A band from Pittsburgh that no one knows too much about, and tagging their music can be a bit tricky.  As you can see in the intro, I went with “experimental-psychedelic-synth-folktronic-post-something,” uh, rock.  But as usual, bands that are harder to describe are the more interesting ones.  See for yourself below.  Tickets here.

METZ @ Lincoln Hall, Sunday, May 12

How to describe this band’s music?  I think the Sub Pop website bio does a pretty good job of it, so I’ll copy and paste…

“There was a time, in recent history, when you needed to have at least twelve members to even be considered a band in Canada. It was nearly impossible to tour if you didn’t have access to some kind of personnel carrier, and making a record involved several years of tambourine overdubs. You know there were kids out there who just wanted to get in a van and play loud as hell through an Ampeg stack or a four-piece drum kit, but how could you call it a band if you didn’t even know a French horn player? By 2008, band membership had reached a critical mass. You’d go to a show and you might be the only person in the room who wasn’t playing an instrument. Hard times. Thankfully, there are always a few naturally resourceful people who refuse to be intimidated or excluded from making their own wild racket in public.”

In other words, they’re a loud rock ‘n’ roll band with only three members (gasp!).  Tickets here.

You’d be wrong.

On Saturday (May 4) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, McCartney kicked off his “Out There” tour with the Beatles classic “Eight Days A Week,” a song Sir Paul only performed once back in 1965 with the Fab Four (according to McCartney’s official website).

Other Beatles songs making their first appearance in a McCartney set list that night included “Your Mother Should Know,” “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!,” “Lovely Rita” and “All Together Now.” He also played two Wings classics that he’d never done in his solo career: “Listen To What The Man Said” and “Hi, Hi, Hi.”

McCartney’s concert comes months ofter local fans started a Facebook petition to get the Beatle to play in Belo Horizonte. At the end of the show Paul stood on stage with the ladies who started the petition: Priscila Brito (27), Luisa Mattos (25), Camila Flores (25) and Cecilia Cury (21). Paul publicly thanked the women and also signed Cecilia’s Beatles tattoo.

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– Brian Ives, Radio.com 

Blue Hawaii kicked off the evening with songs from 2013’s Untogether. The adorable lead singer Raph Standell-Preston (the female vocalist equipped with killer pipes) stated that this was “a more appropriate time for their music” because it is electronic pop after all. Assuring us that they would “Start slow and end fast,” they pumped the Metro with looped vocals echoing through trance/dance-club beats. This turned out to be a perfect warm up for Purity Ring, getting the crowd’s bodies moving and anticipation building.

After their 45 minute set, they left the stage and the atmosphere took a turn for the dreamy. Fog machines fired up and pumped up massive clouds of smoke, the twenty cocoon-like lights began to glow and a violet light filled the stage. Soon the space took on an ethereal quality as the fog took over the whole room. This surreal feeling only increased when Megan James and Corin Roddick took the stage.

Have you ever wondered what Homer’s Odysseus heard when he tied himself to the mast in order to hear the Siren’s otherworldly voices? Ms. James certainly supplied an answer with her enchanting voice, which is just dripping with honey and mystique. Purity Ring’s sound has been dubbed “witch house,” which comes as no surprise after attending one of their shows. Their opener “Amenamy,” she proved that she’s a breed all her own: part siren, part witch and part enchantress.

They maneuvered through tracks on their debut album Shrines—and oddly enough their cover of Soulja Boy’s “Grammy.” They powered through song after song, as James glided through the smoke’s changing colors in her white full length dress. The show was a visual wonder: James’ witchy vibe with Roddick’s custom cocoon-like instrument that synched percussion and lighting, there was an occult feeling of the whole thing. If you weren’t sure why they were dubbed witch house it soon became very apparent. During their song “Crawler Out,” James shone a construction lamp on her face and clawed at the air, like children telling ghost stories around the campfire. Next they worked straight through “Obedear,” “Ungirthed” and “Shuck” which all shone with their ghostly vocals and warped synth chords.

They ended this dreamy experience in the loveliest manner possible– with their single “Fineshrine.” An obvious crowd pleaser with its poetic lyrics and well-timed instrumentals, nearly every person mouthed along with James as her angelic voice washed over them.

If they had been exhausted by their 7 o’clock showing, neither band showed signs of it. The lights went up and the crowd began disperse as Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle” played (I was pleasantly surprised to find they were fans of hip hop). Overall, a 10 out of 10!

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Last night in Oakland, CA, Tom Waits did an extremely rare, surprise performance with The Rolling Stones on their classic 1964 cover of Sam Cooke’s “Little Red Rooster.” While the Stones’ version was recorded at Chicago’s legendary Chess Studios and hit #1 in the U.K., it somehow didn’t filter into the states until it was a track on their 1965 third studio album, The Rolling Stones, Now!.

Only a minute or so into the song, Waits appeared on stage and added his distinct, gritty growl alongside the Stones. The last time a Waits & Stones collaboration happened was on the 1987 song “Harlem Shuffle,” from their 1986 album Dirty Work. Tom Waits and Keith Richards have done numerous collaborations, including recording a pirate shanty for Johnny Depp’s Sons of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Seas Songs and Chanteys.

The Rolling Stones have three shows in Chicago on May 28th, May 31st, and June 3^rd at the United Center and you can win tickets from 93XRT- who knows what amazing surprises they have in store.

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Last week, the band shocked the city with a surprise $20 show at the tiny Echoplex club. Lucky fans who were able to score tickets rubbed elbows with celebrities like Johnny Depp and James Woods, as Mick Jagger and company ran through a high-profile dress rehearsal.

At Friday’s show, the well-heeled crowd spanned multiple generations, with some families (parents and children) attending the event together.

Inside the arena, the lights dimmed as a video of fan testimonials played on the big-screen behind the stage (including celebrities such as Iggy Pop and the aforementioned Johnny Depp) discussing their love for the band.

The video was followed by an unexpected performance from the UCLA Bruins Marching Band, who filled the aisles of the main floor while performing a rendition of Stones classic “Satisfaction,” much to the audience’s delight (although a smattering of good-natured boos from fans and alumni of crosstown rival college USC could be heard throughout the crowd).

The Stones finally hit the stage with the 1965 single “Get Off of My Cloud.” Mick Jagger ran around the expansive stage, which was shaped like the band’s famous tongue logo. The band pushed on with “The Last Time” and charged through fan favorites “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It),” “Paint it Black” and an explosive rendition of “Gimme Shelter.”

As the opening guitar strains of “Wild Horses” played, No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani strolled onstage.

(Getty Images)

For full concert review, including other special guests, go to Radio.com.

Don’t forget about the gig they have coming up on August 24 at First Midwest Bank Amphitheater in Tinley Park.  Oh, and get there early for opening act, Bat For Lashes.  Tickets here.

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Trixie Whitley @ SPACE, Friday, May 3

Trixie Whitley is the daughter of the late Chris Whitley and she performed on some of his albums while she was still a young child.  She’s been a dancer, a DJ, toured with a theater company, released EPs on her own and plays with Daniel Lanois’s Black Dub.  She’s finally found time to release her first full-length solo album, Fourth Corner, and she makes a stop at one of the nicest rooms in town on Friday night.  Tickets here.

Purity Ring @ Metro, Friday, May 3

Can you call Purity Ring a synthpop band?  For lack of a better term, yes, but there’s a lot more to it than catchy hooks that make you want to dance.  The duo hails from Montreal and they’re doing the old school, multiple-shows-in-one-night thing at the venue that recently placed fourth in Rolling Stone’s list of the best big rooms in America.  I have trouble tagging the sound of their music, so I’ll let it speak for itself below.  Friday’s 8:00 XRT Big Beat show is sold out, but as of this writing tickets still remain for the midnight gig.  Tickets here.

Shoes @ FitzGerald’s, Saturday, May 4

In 2012, Zion’s finest power pop band came back with their first all-new album in eighteen years and they’re up on Saturday for a show at one of the XRT staffers’ favorite hangouts.  Tickets here.

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Tributosaurus Becomes The Beatles: Volume 6 on Friday May 24, 2013 at 8:00 PM at the Copernicus Center Chicago. Don’t miss The White Album performed in its entirety, with faithful re-creations of the original arrangements. The White Album show is just one stop on Tributosaurus’s journey to perform all of their recorded songs from start to finish.

Tickets went on sale this morning, so be sure to grab yours here before they sell out! A portion of each ticket sold will again go to the Betty Hemmert Music Scholarship Fund.

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Free Energy @ Lincoln Hall, Friday, April 26

If you’ll always have a soft spot for the pop music of your youth, then you need to become acquainted with the music of Philadelphia’s Free Energy.  The debut album’s cover pretty much sums everything up.  It’s rock ‘n’ roll with Chuck Taylors, bubblegum and rainbows.  See below.  Tickets here.

Stanley Clarke @ SPACE, Friday, April 26

Jazz legend Stanley Clarke makes a stop at SPACE in Evanston on Friday night for not one show, but two.  Famous for his work in jazz, definitely, but he’s also made a name for himself in R&B, funk and even rock.  Early show starts at 7:00, late show is 9:30.  Tickets here.

The Lemonheads & Pet Lions @ Lincoln Hall, Sunday, April 28

The lineup has changed several times over the years, but Evan Dando is constant.  He started the band back in the mid-80s and close to 30 years later, Evan and the band march on.  Chicago band Pet Lions open the show and before you scoff at the idea of Sunday night rock ‘n’ roll, don’t forget that we should be in the 70s all weekend long, so a nice case of spring fever could have to ready to charge out on Sunday night.  Tickets here.

Charismatic lead singers Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs got the house jumping from the moment they hit the stage, backed by an irresistible rhythm section, hooky keys and a sizzling saxophone.

Tambourine shaking, mirror ball spinning, and the floor was bouncing through Fitz & Tantrums faves like “Don’t Gotta Work it Out” and the Staples’ “Respect Yourself” vibed “Dear Mr. President.”

The good mood got better yet as the crowd took instantly to songs that mine deeper into F&T’s eclectic mix, from More Than Just A Dream, coming May 7th. “Out of My League,” the lead single from the new album, is already a crowd-pleaser.

The band played a couple of choice covers, too: Eurithmics “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and the Raconteurs’ “Steady as She Goes.” By the time the encore opened with “MoneyGrabber,” I wondered if the ancient Double Door floor in front of the stage might actually cave in. In the meantime, Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick told everybody he wanted to “really get down,” and the bundle of bodies somehow crouched low until the chorus got everybody up and dancing again.

It was just what we needed on a cold, rainy night- a feel-good elixir- one that should hold us over until Fitz and the Tantrums return for a pair of XRT shows at Metro the 18th and 19th of June.

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His music is both down-to-earth and otherworldly. Songs are propelled by the catchy, tech-tinged dance rhythms of his backup band and James’ soulful intimacy, embodied in the spirited “A New Life.”

But the instruments and James’ voice took cosmic, at times cacophonic, turns, leaving some in the audience to talk amongst themselves, (give me a break people!) while most were mesmerized. Consider “God’s Love To Deliver,” evoking words of Dr. Martin Luther King, moving into jazz-fusion territory, and culminating with James’ saxophone in meditative focus a-la John Coltrane’s “Psalm From a Love Supreme.” Whew!

Dressed in a suit, tie and bright handkerchief, he glided and spun around the stage as though wearing roller shoes, though I never saw his footwear. He’d strum acoustic guitar, wail on an electric flying V like a man possessed, and at times appeared to be jumping for joy, with sunburst lighting behind him.

MMJ and Woody Guthrie got nods during the encore, as did Monsters of Folk material, a precursor, it seems, to the spiritual path James is following. With his long hair and beard, he looked the part, often bending down to touch his index finger to dozens of outstretched hands. It was almost like he was giving his blessing to the Jim James faithful, and they, in return, to him.

JD McPherson @ Metro, Friday, April 19

Richard Milne turned me on to JD a couple years ago and it’s really nice to see him growing an audience, getting play on local radio and playing bigger shows.  He’s back for another show at Metro this Friday night and you an bet that the place will be rockin’ and, uh, loaded with “North Side Gals.”  Sorry, I had to do it.  Tickets here.

Record Store Day, Saturday, April 20

This is it.  The day that vinyl enthusiasts dream of.  The day that the industry focuses on the place where most of us fell in love with music, the local record store.  For me it was Rasputin Records in Pleasant Hill, CA (now Concord, CA).  It was the place where I bought Ride The Lightning, Broken, Paranoid…  The list could go on and on, but the point is that if you haven’t been hitting the local record shop as often as you’d like, Record Store Day is a great day to get back at it with all of the exclusive releases available on that day only.  One of those releases is ON XRT: Live From The Archives, Vol. 14 on 180 gram vinyl.  There were only a few copies pressed, so if you have your sights set on one of ‘em, get to Reckless Records, Laurie’s Planet of Sound, Val’s Halla or Reggies on Saturday and get there early.  More info on LFTA Vol. 14 can be found here and any other Record Store Day questions can be answered here and also by calling your local record store directly.  They’d love to hear from you.

Chad Valley @ Schubas, Sunday, April 21

If you need some synth-pop in your life this coming weekend, Chad Valley is your guy.  Er, I mean, Chad Valley is your band.  Or, project.  Chad Valley is the recording name used by Hugo Manuel and he’ll be entertaining at one of the coziest spots in all of Chicago this Sunday night.  Tickets here.

After starting off the evening with a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Preaching Blues”, Living Colour embarked on the celebration of Vivid by performing the entire album front to back. Normally reserved for encore appearances, the album’s lead track “Cult Of Personality” did exactly what you would expect it to, rock your socks off. Vernon Reid’s guitar wizardry, Will Calhoun’s pounding drums, Doug Wimbish’s funky bass lines, and Corey Glover’s emphatic shrieks were all on display as the band roared through Vivid. I imagined the feeling of being completely engulfed by the raw energy and heavy sound of the band was the same feeling Mick Jagger had when he first discovered them at CBGB’s in New York back in the late 80’s.

As a tribute to Chicago, the group opened several songs with blues improvisations that seamlessly transitioned into a Living Colour track. Vernon Reid remarked in between songs that Chicago has and always will hold a special place in the band’s hearts as it was an evening they were set to perform at the Riviera when they found out Vivid has reached Platinum status. Afterwards, Reid commented that the following events came in a haze due to his euphoric state caused by the album’s Platinum status and his ingestion of a large amount of “coffee”. Between Reid’s peculiar stage antics and Glover’s odd comments in between and during songs, the band brings an organic sense of “weird” that isn’t forced nor found too often in live music. Even Wimbish and Calhoun remained distinctively stoic as they flaunted their musicianship during the show.

What year is it Corey Glover? It’s 2013, but by the way your group performed, it felt like 1988 all over again.

View the setlist here

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I can’t really say Larry McCray is under-rated because every one I know who has seen him has rated him highly. Maybe he’s just underexposed (I’m dong MY best) or under-recorded. Great guitar playing that slashes and burns when it’s what’s called for, or can cry sweetly. A terrific singer who can sing the blues with soul and/or really tear into it. At Reggie’s we’ll have a chance to see him raise the roof in front of a different crowd and expect first-timers to be blown away. It should be a great night.

And another thing. Back to the subject of blues at Reggie’s. Most of the blues performed there recently has taken a decidedly guitar-oriented direction. Jimmy Thackery and Popa Chubby come to mind. Blues with a rock attitude. Perfect. This is the place. These bookings are all part of Reggie’s “Music Made In America” series. The series is mostly blues or blues related, but that’s not a rule or anything. There have been great shows there recently by The Royal Southern Brotherhood and Devon Allman to mention a couple. Keep this place on your radar. Tomorrow, Saturday, expect Nikki Hill to just kill it with whatever you call that which she does, rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, rockabilly, blues and what ever. Click on her name to check out her music.

One other note about Reggie’s. If you think their location at 2105 S. State St. is out of the way or hard to get to, think again. They’re closer to downtown than Fullerton Ave. is on the Northside. They’re not far from Michigan Avenue, L.S.D., and expressways. And they’re just a block from the Chinatown/Cermak Red Line stop.

So, the lesson we’ve learned here? It’s another great weekend to go out and see some live blues in Chicago!

For the line-up of the 30th Annual Chicago Blues Festival visit our Blues Breakers page at 93XRT.com/Blues and look for our posting from 4/1/13.