In celebration of their huge 30th Anniversary, The Smashing Pumpkins kicked off their intimate anniversary tour at The Sylvee, Madison, WI’s brand new music venue. Less than two weeks removed from the November 16th release of the iconic alt rock band’s new album, Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun (or “The Smashing Pumpkin’s new album” for short), there was no better place to catch a performance on Wednesday night.
Opening their set with with ‘Solora’, one of the records from the band’s new album, the band’s original members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin performed just four tracks from the LP (including live debuts of ‘Knights of Malta’ and ‘Travels’) with a ton of focus on their catalog of hits, rightfully so for an anniversary tour. While keeps fans entertained with classic Smashing Pumpkins tracks like ‘Today’ and a rare performance of ‘Dross’, Corgan and company switched things up with an awesome cover of The Cure’s classic track ‘Friday I’m in Love’.
While the Pumpkins recent summer arena tour filled the seats and was met with critical acclaim, Wednesday night’s performance was special on a completely different level. With edgy lighting and production completely different from their arena tour, a specially curated setlist to honor the band’s 30-year history and all in an intimate club setting, fans experienced a show that they’ll never forget.
And to cap off an already amazing night, The Smashing Pumpkins closed their set with ‘Heavy Metal Machine’, ‘Ava Adore’ and their hit single ‘1979’, only to return for not one but two encore performances, ending the night with ‘Siva’, the band’s first single from their debut album Gish. Everything came full circle on Wednesday night as Madison enjoyed The Smashing Pumpkins’ first 30 years.
Check out our photos from last night’s performance below and get your tickets for the band’s remaining available tour dates here.
Chicago’s WGCI brought some of the biggest names in rap to the historic United Center on Saturday night for their annual Big Jam.
With amazing headlining performances from Cardi B and Lil Baby, as well as sets from Tory Lanez, Kodak Black, Young Dolph and more, fans certainly got their money’s worth for perhaps the best Big Jam to date.
Check out our photos from last night’s performance below!
Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival was back and better in 2018. With a new location at Dodger Stadium and an amazing lineup from top to bottom, fans in Los Angeles definitely got their money’s worth at the carnival this year. From headlining performances with Kids See Ghosts, Tyler, The Creators and Post Malone, to wild sets from A$AP Rocky, Jaden Smith and more, this year was one to remember!
Check out our favorite photos from the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival below.
Tyler, The Creator’s amazing Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival blessed Los Angeles with another year of great music but at a brand location, LA’s Dodger Stadium. With a new venue and an epic lineup, the closing day of this year’s carnival saw performances from Post Malone, Jaden Smith, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Taco with special guests Tyler, The Creator and Juice WRLD, Jorja Smith and a very special headlining performance by Kanye West and Kid Cudi for their Kids See Ghosts album.
Check out our photos from Day 2 on the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2018 below.
Tyler, The Creator’s amazing Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival blessed Los Angeles with another year of great music but at a brand location, LA’s Dodger Stadium. With a new venue and an epic lineup, the opening day of this year’s carnival saw performances from Tyler himself, as well as A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Little Dragon, Pusha T, Virgil Abloh, Rex Orange County, Wallows and many more!
Check out our photos from Day 1 on the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2018 below.
Winter is coming, but live music is showing no signs of stopping in the Windy City. Before the holiday concerts start to come to town in December, November has a collection of great shows that you need to check out. From a number of concerts taking part in the Red Bull Music Festival to the Smashing Pumpkins, Chicago is hosting a ton of great shows next month.
Check out our list of the 7 can’t miss concerts in Chicago this November!
Despite their 1972 single, the Eagles refused to take it easy during their Milwaukee tour stop on Thursday night. With nearly two and a half hours of great music and two very special guest spots, from country music legend Vince Gill and Eagles’ legacy, Deacon Frey (son of the late Glenn Frey), Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit delivered a memorable performance at the city’s brand new Fiserv Forum, one of the first few concerts performed in the $524 million dollar arena.
From the very moments gates opened, fans knew they were in for a special evening. At one point the world thought the days of seeing the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers live were over, after the passing of frontman Glenn Frey in 2016. Fellow co-founder, Don Henley, naturally doubted that the band would tour again. But it wasn’t too long after, that the band found new life and a way to pay tribute to Frey. Not only did Henley, Walsh and Schmit add some star power with the addition of Vince Gill, but the band also helped fill the shoes of Frey by inviting his son, Deacon, for a string of live performances in 2017, shoes that Henley told the crowd on Thursday were very big to fill, to which the crowd rose from their seats to give Deacon Frey a well deserved standing ovation.
With no opener necessary, the Eagles hit the stage minutes after 8:00 and opened with Steve Young’s 1969 track, ‘Seven Bridges Road’. A track which the Eagles have performed for decades, ever since their Eagles Live album in 1980, ‘Seven Bridges Road’ was originally a pre-concert locker room warm up for the band, which is now a staple in the group’s setlist. While the track doesn’t have the notoriety that some of the Eagles’ original tracks have, it was a perfect opening track to warm up the band for the next two and a half hours.
Immediately the classics and hits came, as the young Frey led the band with a performance of the classic record and first single from the Eagles’ 1972 self-titled debut, ‘Take It Easy’. While the Eagles have been performing for nearly five decades, the youthful musician fit in perfectly. Glenn Frey’s oldest son still has some room to grow, as he is still a stranger to such a big stage when compared to the veterans who stood beside him, but he is hitting the ground running with his new gig.
The band then followed things up with more hits and fan favorites, including their records ‘One of These Nights’, from their fourth studio album, and ‘Take It To The Limit’, originally sung by former bass player, Randy Meisner, and now led by the 21-time Grammy winning Vince Gill.
Henley even showed off his sense of humor when introducing Gill, telling the crowd that “Vince and I had some cheese curds before this,” which was certainly a treat for the cheeseheads who filled the arena. While also thanking the crowd for coming out on a school night, Henley’s personality shined from start to finish.
The Eagles continued the momentum with their intoxicating track, ‘Tequila Sunrise’ (from Desperado) and ‘Witchy Woman (from their ’72 debut). Throughout the entire performance the band gave attention to their entire discography, while sprinkling in performances from some of Walsh and Gill’s solo work.
And to cap things off on an already great night, the Eagles said goodbye to Milwaukee with a special encore performance that included ‘Desperado’ and their biggest record, ‘Hotel California’. Needless to say, the Fiserv Forum was such a lovely place on Thursday night.
While the night stood out due to the band’s new additions, of Frey and Gill, and the decades of hits that filled up 26-song setlist, what was most enjoyable was the teamwork the band displayed throughout the show. The Eagles have been through their share of drama, and hostility between members was prevalent for a number of years, yet tonight in their current form, the band was a well oiled machine where no one member shined at the expense of others.
From the young Deacon Frey to Don Henley, everyone on stage last night delivered a great performance. Although the Eagles may be considered relatively tame when compared to Metallica and the Foo Fighters (who performed at the arena Tuesday and Wednesday), if you ask last night’s crowd, Henley, Walsh and company delivered the arena’s best concert yet and they certainly took it to the limit.
Check out our photos from last night’s performance below and get your tickets for the Eagles remaining tour dates here.
Just days away from the release of their highly anticipated debut album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, Michigan rockers Greta Van Fleet closed out the current leg of their headlining tour at The Sylvee, Madison’s brand new music venue. With a sold-out crowd, lead singer Josh Kiszka, brothers Jake and Sam on guitar and drummer Danny Wagner were all poised to deliver an energetic performance that would set the standard at The Sylvee for all bands that will soon follow.
Thursday night was a night for celebration for many reasons. Not only is rock’s biggest emerging band days away from their debut’s release date, while also capping off the current leg of their tour, but the band had also just announced its big North American tour for 2019, a tour which will also make its final appearance at Wisconsin’s capital city, this time across the street at the Breese Stevens Field. Many fans in Madison got their first taste of Greta Van Fleet live last evening, and without a doubt a majority of yesterday’s crowd will return for Round 2 next summer.
So as the general admission venue filled up and the audience filled their stomachs with a custom locally brewed Greta Van Fleet American Pale Ale, the Kiszka brothers and Wagner greeted the crowd with their breakout single and everyone’s favorite, ‘Highway Tune’.
And while it’s hard to imagine how a performance could possible go up-hill form there, Greta Van Fleet managed to pull it off with ‘Edge of Darkness’ which continued for nearly 10-minutes and featured a show-stopping guitar solo from Jake Kiszka and ended with Josh breaking his tambourine over his knee before throwing the pieces into the crowd for a few lucky fans. The track alone made the night feel like it would never end, and the crowd certainly didn’t want it to.
Throughout the night, Greta Van Fleet teased their new album while taking brief breaks between songs to talk to the crowd. “We’re not gonna lie, this is one of the greatest audiences we’ve ever seen,” Josh told the crowd after ‘You’re The One’, a new record from their upcoming album.
And not only was it a great audience, but it was an especially diverse audience, proving that Greta Van Fleet’s music casts a wide net and is for anyone to enjoy. The front row was filled with middle aged men and women who likely grew up on hard rock while also mixed with college kids who walked to the venue from their campus apartments. Nothing brings people together like music.
As the night went on, the crowd watched in awe as Greta Van Fleet showed off their veteran talents and stage presence, despite being less than a week away from their first full length project and barely old enough to drink their own custom ale. Then, to cap off an already memorable night, Greta Van Fleet said goodbye to their Madison fans with performances of ‘Black Smoke Rising’ and ‘Safari Song’.
Although Badger fans won’t be rooting for anything Michigan related this weekend, as the University of Wisconsin football team faces Michigan in Ann Arbor, Wisconsin is all in on Greta Van Fleet, as is the rest of the music world. The band is easy to root for, and whether or not hard rock is you go-to genre of choice, you can’t help but be impressed by Greta Van Fleet’s revival of a nostalgic sound from decades past.
As more people become aware of the awesomeness that is Greta Van Fleet, the only question that remains is will the Breese Steven Field be a big enough venue for the band by the time summer comes along?
Check out our photos from last night’s performance below and get your tickets for Greta Van Fleet’s 2019 tour here.
It was just over a year ago that Ed Sheeran delivered an amazing performance at Chicago’s Allstate Arena for his headlining Divide (÷) Tour, and 13 months later Sheeran’s tour is still rolling and bigger than ever, as Sheeran made the leap from performing U.S. arenas to selling out stadiums. So although the songs and style have stayed about the same, Thursday night’s sold-out performance at Soldier Field was on an entirely different level than shows past.
Marking the Grammy winning singer’s biggest Chicago show to date, fans fought the cold to fill the home of the Chicago Bears to watch Ed Sheeran and his memorable one-man-show.
So to get the night started, fans who arrived on-time were rewarded with two great opening sets, from emerging ‘I Like Me Better’ singer Lauv and Northern Ireland’s Snow Patrol. From Lauv showing us why he is one of our favorite new artists to Snow Patrol closing their set with their mega-hit ‘Chasing Cars’, the first half of the night had its share of great moments.
But despite great sets to kick off the night, there was no denying that Ed Sheeran is the man who everyone came to see. And when we say “the man”, we couldn’t mean it more literally because it was Ed Sheeran and Ed Sheeran alone who blessed the stage for the headlining performance. No band, no backup singers, just Ed Sheeran, his guitar, a mic and a loop pedal, a long-time Sheeran staple for his live shows. However, with tens of thousands of fans in attendance and surely a few first timers, Sheeran still took the time to preface that he was performing with no pre-recorded instrumentals or a band hidden behind his massive stage production.
Sheeran started off his set on a high note with his ÷ single ‘Castle On The Hill’, before showing off his rapping skills with ‘Eraser’. Throughout the performance Sheeran jumped from tracks from ÷ and hits from his previous LPs, putting together a carefully crafted setlist. One minute fans are singing along to ‘The A Team’ and the next Chicago’s Irish community is jamming out to Ed’s performance of ‘Galway Girl’.
What was most surprising about Sheeran’s Soldier Field show was the night’s overall mood. Despite a huge stage and performing at the biggest venue in Chicago (reserved for the biggest names in music), Ed Sheeran still delivers an especially intimate performance. Talking with fans between songs and leaving the poppy tour theatrics at home, it feels like it’s just you and Sheeran in the room, that is until Sheeran closed out his performance with his 2014 track ‘Sing’, where there was no avoiding the 50,000 fans joining in the song’s chorus.
The night didn’t end there however, as Sheeran returned after his regular set to perform a 2-song encore of ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ and his huge 2017 single ‘Shape Of You’, the track that likely played the biggest role in raising Sheeran to the stadium status that he holds in the U.S. today. While Sheeran’s regular set already made for a memorable night, the encore was the cherry on top of an amazing performance.
It isn’t hard to find a surplus of reasons to catch Ed Sheeran live on tour. He has dominated the charts for the past two years and his infectious personality makes him one of our favorite singer to root for, and did we mention he has one of the best voices in music today? While pop tours often follow a cookie-cutter format, Ed Sheeran’s creativity makes for a very unique and special experience that all music fans enjoy.
Last night’s show was certainly perfect in more ways than one.
Check out our photos from last night’s performance below and get your tickets for the remaining dates of the Divide Tour here.
While on the surface it may seem like an unlikely pairing, Sting and Shaggy complemented each other in the best way possible on Tuesday night at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom for their co-headlining 44/876 Tour.
Rewind to earlier in the year when the two first released their debut single ‘Don’t Make Me Wait’, music fans everywhere raised eyebrows over the catchy but unexpected collaboration. But when you think about Sting and The Police’s strong reggae influences, it’s almost a no brainer for Sting and Shaggy to team up in some capacity. Both artists played a big role throughout the years in bringing reggae into mainstream radio, so when you dig deeper, the two have more similarities than they do differences.
So thanks to Martin Kierszenbaum (Sting’s manager and Shaggy’s A&R), the two combined forces, recorded a single, recorded an album and are now touring the country together in support of their new LP. Fast forward to October 2nd and fans at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom were able to enjoy the duo live and in person.
And if you went into Tuesday’s show not knowing what to expect, you weren’t alone. Would Shaggy open the show? Would the two perform together? Or some format even more unexpected than the collaboration itself?
What fans got though was a true co-headlining tour from Shaggy and Sting, where the two performed together on stage throughout the entire night, delivering cuts from their album, as well as Sting, Shaggy and The Police’s greatest hits. Although their 44/876 album (named after the UK’s +44 country code and Jamaica’s 876 area code) is certainly a great listen, the two were certainly aware that their fans came to hear the decades of hits. So with their 2-hour performance, Sting and Shaggy were able to deliver all of the above.
One thing that was instantly apparent was how much fun the two have performing together. Opening with Sting’s 1987 track ‘Englishman in New York’, Shaggy put his spin on things, flipping the song into ‘Jamaican in New York’, before performing their album’s title track. The two seemed to enjoy backing up the other, as much as they enjoyed performing their collaborative songs together.
It’s no surprise that Sting is able to enjoy himself at yesterdays venue either. Not only was it the legendary singer’s birthday, but Sting is no stranger to the Aragon Ballroom. Many fans in attendance last night were surely in the same building a year ago for Sting’s sold-out show in 2017. But Sting’s Aragon connections go back further than that, as The Police performed at the Aragon Ballroom on November 20th, 1980 for the band’s second tour ever. From that point on, the band hit stadium status and delivered memorable Chicago performances at Comiskey Park (’83) and Wrigley Field (2007).
With the two having the time of their lives, their fans followed, as the crowd enjoyed the performances from start to finish. Highlights were present throughout the night, but personal favorites included their performance of ‘Don’t Make Me Wait’ as well as their mash-up of ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Boombastic’, which brought their regular set to an end before their encore performance of The Police’s classic hit ‘Every Breath You Take’, Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’ and more.
A year ago, Chicago music fans didn’t know they needed a Sting and Shaggy concert in the lives, but Chicago is so glad it got one!
Check out our photos from last night’s performance below and get your tickets for the remaining dates of the 44/876 Tour here.
The Early Registration 