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Live Recap: Winnetka Festival 2025

June 26, 2025 / Rachel Zyzda

Winnetka Festival returned to downtown Winnetka on Friday, June 20th and Saturday, June 21st, featuring a jam-packed lineup of more than 20 artists across the two days and two stages.

I got the chance to catch the last part of Saturday’s festivities, arriving shortly before sunset to see Kam Franklin and her band at the Lincoln Stage. Franklin’s soulful powerhouse vocals captured the audience’s attention, and her raw, compassionate storytelling in songs like “Byrd And Shepard” pulled at our heartstrings. Before performing the song, Franklin told the crowd “It’s about James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard. James Byrd Jr. was killed in 1998 in a dragging death in Jasper, Texas for being black and Matthew Shepard was killed in October 1998 for being gay.” In the song, she sings “Fact checker, fact fact checker/They’re trying to ban the books/But we won't forget ya” in homage to the men who suffered these hate crimes and a stark reminder that we can’t forget the tragedies of history.

Next up, Pete Yorn and his bandmates took the Main Stage on the other end of the festival grounds. Yorn opened up his set with a cover of “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)” by The Buzzcocks, which he introduced as a song from the movie Shrek. The band also sprinkled in a couple of other covers later on in the show, sharing their own version of “Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order and “Atlantic City” by The Boss. In between the covers, Yorn also made sure to play a few newer tracks from his 2024 album The Hard Way, including the titular track, “Different Roads,” and “Real Good Love.” Long-time fans were also ecstatic to hear some of his earlier material like “Life On a Chain” and “Murray” from his 2001 debut album musicforthemorningafter.

While Yorn wrapped up his set, Eggy began their show that closed out the Lincoln Stage for the festival. The quartet provided the jam band vibes of the evening, performing an eclectic mix of their expansive discography. Their setlist surprisingly didn’t include much from their most recent album, 20204’s Waiting Game, but like Pete Yorn, they also threw some covers into the mix. Fans got to travel back to the 60’s and 70’s and experience Eggy’s versions of “Skin It Back” by Little Feat and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” by Crosby, Stills & Nash while the sun went down.

Last but not least, Cold War Kids wrapped up Winnetka Fest 2025 at the Main Stage. While night had fallen at last, the air was still muggy and thick with the heat of the day, but that didn’t stop fans from singing and dancing along to the hit-heavy setlist that the band delivered. Opening with the 2017 single “Love Is Mystical” from their LA Divine album, Cold War Kids then ventured through their winding discography that spans over 20 years. The band reciprocated the energy that the fans brought to the performance by jumping and moving across the stage, and the lead singer Nathan Willett made sure to express his gratitude saying, “We were at The Salt Shed last year around this time. We love Chicago, and now we love Winnetka.” After playing for a little over an hour, Cold War Kids ironically wrapped up their set by playing their song called “First” as the last and final tune of the evening and festival.

Check out more photos of the festival below, and be sure to check out the lineups for Out Of Space and Evanston Folk Festival coming up later this Summer to continue the festivities.

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categories / Festival, Gigs, Music, Photos, Reviews
tags / Kam Franklin, Pete Yorn, Eggy, Cold War Kids, Winnetka Music Festival, Out of Space, Music Festival, Live Recap, Photo Set, Photo recap

Live Recap: Perfume Genius with Urika’s Bedroom at The Vic Theatre

June 22, 2025 / Cat Florea

Perfume Genius, the musical project of Michael Alden Hadreas, returned to Chicago on June 17th to play a stunning show at The Vic Theatre in honor of his new album Glory.

The night opened with Urika’s Bedroom performing a set that felt like stepping into a hazy, dreamy soundscape. Their music was delicate and ethereal, floating across the room in soft, shimmering layers. The light show added a subtle glow to their already atmospheric sound, making the room feel intimate and otherworldly — a beautiful, quiet beginning to the night.

Then came Perfume Genius, who transformed the stage into a strange, visceral, exhilarating performance space. From the start, the stage was framed by long, orange cords curled around like tendrils, hinting at the chaos to come. The set moved fluidly between tender, beautiful moments — like a lullaby rendition of “Me & Angel”, or a haunting cover of “Kanga Roo” by Big Star — to physical, kinetic displays that felt part modern dance, part raw impulse. During “It’s a Mirror,” Hadreas jumped on an exercise ball mid-song; in “No Front Teeth,” he spun wildly in a chair. At one point, during “Clean Heart,” he gathered the stage cables around himself, sat in a chair, and reached for the ball with his legs in a strange, tender moment of theatricality.

The choreography was wild and magnetic — moves like The Matrix during “Otherside”, chair dancing, leaping to the rail, then bouncing across the stage. The lighting played its part too: some songs like “Describe” glowed in eerie red, while others kept the singer backlit by towering, blinding lights, with smoke adding to the atmosphere. Perfume Genius created a show that felt entirely alive, unpredictable, and deeply human.

Check out photos of the evening below and see where you can catch the tour next here.

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categories / Gigs, Music, Photos, Reviews
tags / Perfume Genius, Urika's Bedroom, The Vic, Photo recap, Photo Gallery, Live Recap, Glory

Photos: Jensen McRae with Lauren Juzang at Lincoln Hall

May 19, 2025 / Rachel Zyzda

On Thursday, May 15th, singer-songwriter Jensen McRae headlined a sold-out show at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, with support from Lauren Juzang.

Check out a photo recap of the show below and see where you can catch Jensen on the road next here—including a stop at The Metro in Chicago in October.

Jensen McRae Setlist:

The Rearranger
My Ego Dies at the End
God Has a Hitman
Mother Wound
Savannah
Fever Dream
Taken (MUNA cover)
Tuesday
I Can Change Him
Daffodils
Dead Girl Walking
White Boy
Thinking of You (Katy Perry cover)
Good Legs
If I Have a Boy
Novelty
Let Me Be Wrong
Praying for Your Downfall
I Don’t Do Drugs
Massachusetts

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categories / Photos, Gigs, Music
tags / Photo recap, Photo Gallery, Lincoln Hall, Jensen McRae, Lauren Juzang, Chicago, Live Show, Live Music, Praying For Your Downfall

Photos: Japanese Breakfast at The Salt Shed

May 04, 2025 / Rachel Zyzda

Japanese Breakfast performed three back-to-back nights at The Salt Shed in Chicago this week, in honor of the new album For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) that was just released at the end of March. Check out photos of the second night, Thursday, May 1st, below and see where you can catch the tour next here.

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categories / Gigs, Music
tags / Japanese Breakfast, Salt Shed, Photo recap, Photo Gallery, Live Show

Photos: Lauren Mayberry at Thalia Hall

February 07, 2025 / Rachel Zyzda

CHVRCHES singer Lauren Mayberry recently released her solo album Vicious Creature, and ventured out for a tour in honor of the new songs. On Wednesday, February 5th, Mayberry and her band performed at Thalia Hall with support from Cult of Venus. Check out photos of the Chicago show below and see where you can catch the tour next here.

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categories / Photos, Music, Gigs
tags / Lauren Mayberry, Thalia Hall, CHVRCHES, Photo Set, Photography, Live Show

Photo Recap: Franz Ferdinand at Q101's Twisted Xmas

December 14, 2024 / Rachel Zyzda

Franz Ferdinand performed on Tuesday, December 10th to a sold-out Aragon Ballroom, alongside almost monday and Cage The Elephant as part of Q101’s annual holiday show, Twisted Xmas. Franz Ferdinand’s hour-long set journeyed through their musical catalog, performing some of the hits from their earlier albums as well as some brand-new material off their upcoming album The Human Fear —out January 10th, 2025. See the full setlist below, along with photos from their set and view their upcoming tour dates here.

Setlist:

The Dark of the Matinée
No You Girls
Night or Day
Walk Away
Build It Up
Evil Eye
Do You Want To
Hooked
Michael
The Doctor
Love Illumination
Take Me Out
Ulysses
Audacious
This Fire

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categories / Photos, Gigs, Music
tags / Franz Ferdinand, Cage the Elephant, almost monday, Aragon Ballroom, Photo Set, Photo Recap, Q101, Concerts, Live Recap

Amusement & Muses: A Live Recap of Bastille Presents "Ampersand" in Los Angeles

November 25, 2024 / Rachel Zyzda

What if you could end your day doing the shit you love with the ones you love? Better yet, what if you could do that two days in a row? For many Bastille fans, they had the opportunity to do just that as they attended the first (and most likely the only) run of U.S. tour dates for the Bastille-adjacent project entitled “Ampersand,” which took place Friday, November 22nd and Saturday, November 23rd at the grandiose United Theater on Broadway (FKA The Theatre at Ace Hotel).

If you want the TLDR version of the concerts, songwriter and lead vocalist of Bastille Dan Smith can sum up the evenings in three points; “For the sake of argument, I didn’t shit myself, I barely talked between songs, and the French was perfect,” he told the Los Angeles theater.

But if you want the longer story, take a walk with me through these songs as I unreliably narrate these gigs.

Stepping back to introduce the Ampersand project, this collection of songs puts a spotlight on Smith’s storytelling craft as he examines the lives of famous and infamous historical or mythological figures. The name “Ampersand” comes from all of the stories on the album being comprised of a pairing and song titles that all include a (you guessed it) &— Take the track “Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her” or “Seasons & Narcissus,” the former of which opens with the question “What if you could end your days doing the shit you love with the ones you love?” to call it back to my introduction.

Ampersand came to be a side quest for Smith on what was slated to be a year off for the members of Bastille, so as he began to weave together these stories, Dan enlisted the assistance of other songwriters and vocalists to build out the musical arrangements. Two of those musicians include Moira Mack and Charlie Barnes, so it only made sense that in addition to performing in the live Ampersand band, Moira & Charlie (see what I did there?) opened up the shows on Friday and Saturday night, respectively.

Ahead of Mack’s set on Friday evening, Smith tested out his chops as MC to recall how he’d first stumbled upon Moira Mack on a night out in Los Angeles where he heard her performing a cover of “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding. It’s rare that supporting acts will get a personalized introduction from the headlining performers, so with Dan’s glowing endorsement, I knew we’d be in for a treat with Moira’s performance. Spoiler alert; we got a goosebump-inducing reenactment of the Redding cover that started it all, which really let the soulful and powerful facets of Mack’s vocal abilities shine. However, the rest of her set included her original songs, some of which were unreleased and included one written only days prior to the gig, in response to the devastating election results. In just a short thirty minutes, Moira was able to demonstrate her emotive songwriting and vast vocal range, including silky and delicate falsettos that smoothly transitioned into bolder and richer textures.

Speaking of smooth transitions, the stage was quickly turned over for Dan & Moira to return for the main event, alongside the rest of the Ampersand live band members Charlie Barnes, Merrick Winter, AK Patterson, and Florrie.

Fittingly, the set began with the first track from the album called “Intros & Narrators,” in which Smith confesses he never wanted to be the main character and sings “Maybe to me, other stories are more interesting and maybe to me, they’re a mirror back on everything/So much bigger, bolder, braver than I’ll ever be,” which set up the aforementioned premise of this project in a musical format. Dan addressed the crowd after the introductory song, saying, “This album is a collection of stories about people that I think are fascinating, mostly real, some fictional or mythological,” also pointing out that each person was illustrated on the stage backdrop with artwork done by Harriet Bruce.

In addition to bringing in new live band members and collaborating with visual artists for this special project, Smith has also endeavored into the podcasting realm to provide more context to the Ampersand songs. Entitled “Muses: An Ampersand Podcast,” the show features Smith and co-host Emma Nagouse diving into the background of the people and characters that Dan wrote about, and listeners also get a glimpse into his creative process for each tune. Along with being the co-host of the podcast, Nagouse essentially acted as a muse for these songs as well because she suggested several of the figures for Smith to dig into.

One of the subject suggestions from Emma was Paul & Eslanda Robeson, which Dan wrote about on the track “Essie & Paul,” and it instantly became one of my favorites from the album. A hauntingly hypnotic strings arrangement acts as the heartbeat of the song’s melody, which conjured up images of a Bridgerton ballroom scene the first time I heard it. (Funny enough, just this week the music video for “Eve & Paradise Lost” debuted, starring Simone Ashley from Bridgerton, so maybe if we’re lucky maybe we can manifest a feature of “Essie & Paul” in the next season). Throughout the show, Smith essentially gave a quick synopsis of each song’s main character— think CliffsNotes version of the podcast—to give some additional context. He introduced “Essie & Paul” by sharing, “This was really hard to write because it’s about Paul Robeson and Eslanda Robeson who were this fucking incredible power couple. Paul Robeson people know as an actor and singer but he was a civil rights activist and his wife Eslanda was his manager and his friend. She was an anthropologist, she was incredible. It’s quite daunting to write about both of them. I knew the song would never be good enough as a tribute to them but I still wanted to write it cause I thought about them a lot.” For the record, I think he did them justice with the song, and the rest of the audience agreed based off the applause that greeted the band at the end of it. Along with his humility, Smith threw in some humor when setting up the performance of the tune, joking “For this song as you may have noticed, we’ve been playing everything live tonight, apart from this one bit on this song that requires a full string section. We just came from the UK and didn’t have the budget for it, so as well as pretending that there was no terrible rambling chats between songs, the other thing is if people ask ‘how was the gig?’ say it was nuts, they had a full string section that came out for one song! I’ve never seen that before, it was crazy!”

Another standout live performance moment occurred earlier in the setlist with “Drawbridge & The Baroness,” which describes The Drawbridge Dilemma from the baroness’ POV. The song features stunning falsetto vocal chops from Smith as well as a crescendoing bridge that were recognized with extended applause and an affirming “you’re amazing!” from a young audience member. Dan described the song as his favorite one on the album but “a fucking nightmare to sing live” which is fair given the dramatic range he exerts for it—hopefully the audience’s reaction makes it all worth it!

As we journeyed through these stories told in song format, Dan continued to share those behind-the-scenes tidbits with the audience about the songs. It turns out that he’s been writing songs since he was 14 years old, and the album’s anchoring track “Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024” was one of his first songwriting attempts brought on by a poem his dad wrote while traveling around the U.S. in 1977. Smith also confessed that he found out he got some of the French translation wrong for the song “Mademoiselle & the Nunnery Blaze,” BUT circling back to the TLDR version of events, “The French was perfect,” according to Dan.

Now, I did mention this was the longer story journey of the Ampersand shows, but I’ll still spare everyone from diving into each and every song included on the setlist and remind you that you can tune into the Muses podcast to hear it straight from the source. The podcast is currently working its way through the Ampersand songs, but Dan did share that there’s an episode in the works about Bastille’s breakout hit “Pompeii,” which the band was able to fit in a rendition of during this run of shows. The Ampersand setlist also includes a couple of other outliers with a special arrangement of 2016’s “Good Grief” and a version of “Orpheus & Eurydice” that was written for the Netflix show Kaos. Rumor has it that a demo of the latter performed by Charlie Barnes & Dan will be dropping later this week so keep an ear out!

The Ampersand adventure concluded with the single “Blue Sky & The Painter,” which is characteristically upbeat in melody and depressing in lyrics, describing the life of artist Edvard Munch. “This is about Edvard Munch and it’s a really happy one to finish on. It’s about his creativity and depression,” Smith told the crowd ahead of the final song.

Both of the Los Angeles concerts were incredible from a musical performance aspect, adding a special depth and richness to the recorded versions of these stories, but what really stood out to me was how Smith seemed even more relaxed and himself between songs. He did share at the start of the show, “What I’ve realized with these gigs is I think it’s because I’m sitting down and I can’t see anything, I find myself talking the most almighty amount of crap in between songs.” Selfishly, I hope this isn’t the only ever run of Ampersand shows because I want to experience the magic of it all again—including the extra comedic banter and charm from Dan. There are a few remaining Ampersand events on the calendar, and I highly recommend trying to snag tickets if you can!

Check out more photos from the evening below and listen to Ampersand here.

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categories / Gigs, Music, Photos, Reviews
tags / Bastille, Ampersand, Dan Smith, Live Review, Live Recap, Moira Mack, Charlie Barnes, Los A, LA, DTLA, Muses

Photos: The Last Dinner Party with King Isis

August 08, 2024 / Rachel Zyzda

The Last Dinner Party and King Isis closed out the third day of Lolla with a sold out aftershow at Thalia Hall. Check out photos from the evening below and see where you can catch them on tour next here.

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categories / Gigs, Music, Photos, Festival
tags / King Isis, The Last Dinner Party, Thalia Hall, Live Show, Photo Set, Lolla aftershow, Lollapalooza

Pitchfork Music Festival 2024: Friday Highlights

July 21, 2024 / Rachel Zyzda

Pitchfork Music Festival 2024 returned to Union Park, kicking off on Friday, July 19th. Although we’ve had storms and heat waves in Chicago in recent weeks, the weather forecast looks great for the entire weekend, and fans were able to start the weekend of festivities with sun and comfortable temperatures to go along with the day-one lineup that included everything from the lofi and laidback Black Duck to amped up electronic acts like 100 gecs and Jai Paul to the soulful rockers Black Pumas.

Around 5:15 PM, DJ and singer Yaeji kicked off the dance party that bounced between the Red and Green stages for the rest of the evening. Flanked by two backup dancers, Yaeji glided across the stage, singing her bilingual lyrics of English and Korean words. A highlight of her set included her most popular song “Raingurl” that features a hypnotic beat and had the whole crowd moving in unison.

Meanwhile over at the Blue Stage, Amen Dunes, which is the musical project of singer-songwriter Damon McMahon, held down the experimental indie rock quota of the festival for the day. The band’s set included a handful of new songs from the album Death Jokes that just came out in May 2024, like “Purple Land” and “Exodus.” Fans also got to hear some familiar favorites like “Miki Dora” from Amen Dunes’ 2018 album Freedom.

Next up, 100 gecs cranked up the energy ten-fold, drawing in a massive crowd to join their rave mosh pit. The duo Dylan Brady and Laura Les kept the crowd smiling and dancing along with their quirky lyrics and outlandish electronic tracks, opening up the show with their song “Dumbest Girl Alive.” Les and Brady also did a great job at setting up their upcoming songs with their witty stage banter—before playing “Frog On The Floor” the duo told the audience to “look to your right, look to your left, now look down and make sure there’s not a frog on the floor!” They also asked the crowd to cheer if they’d ever had a tooth pulled or lost a tooth, adding “let me hear it if you’ve ever gone -1 on a tooth” before they performed “I Got My Tooth Removed.” In addition to all of the dancing I witnessed during 100 gecs, I also spotted my first crowdsurfer of the day during their set.

Violinist and singer-songwriter Sudan Archives as well as DJ and producer Jai Paul kept the dance parties going at the Blue and Red stages next as we got into some of the final moments of the day one.

Jeff Rosenstock and his band closed out the Blue Stage with my favorite performance of the day, which began with the song “Chop Suey!” by System of a Down playing over the speakers until Rosenstock and his bandmates took their places onstage and finished out playing the song live. From there, the set launched into a feel-good rowdy rock set that was a nice change of pace from the heavily electronic-based music on the lineup. While I spotted one or two crowdsurfers earlier, there were too many to keep track of towards the end of Jeff Rosenstock’s performance— including Jeff himself jumping offstage while playing the saxophone. While the crowd might have been rambunctious, Rosenstock made sure to encourage everyone to remain respectful, asking everyone to say hi to their festival neighbors and keep it a friendly space for others. “Make it a habit throughout the weekend, and if throughout the weekend some fucking dumb dipshit person starts groping the person next to you, and starts getting in their space, just gather the nice people around you and push that person the fuck out of the way so everybody can enjoy the weekend.”

As the sun began to go down, Black Pumas began their soulful rock and roll headlining show over on the main stage to wrap up Friday’s festivities. Their show opened on a high note-literally- as lead vocalist Eric Burton showed off his silky and dynamic vocal range. Burton also took the opportunity to connect and get close to the audience, hopping down from the stage to join the fans on the barricade as he serenaded them. The Black Pumas’ performance made for a great way to ease into some of the more pop-heavy performers that are slated for the rest of Pitchfork Fest.

Keep an eye out for highlights from Saturday and Sunday of Pitchfork Fest.

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categories / Reviews, Music, Festival, Gigs
tags / Black Pumas, Jeff Rosenstock, Sudan Archives, Jai Paul, 100 gecs, Amen Dunes, Yaeji, Pitchfork, Pitchfork Music Festival, P4K

Live Recap: Winnetka Bowling League at Lincoln Hall

July 16, 2024 / Rachel Zyzda

This past Friday night, Winnetka Bowling League performed a sold out show at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, drawing in one of the largest crowds I’ve seen at this venue.

The band’s current tour is in celebration of their debut album Sha La La, which was just released on May 31st this year, so it was fitting that the setlist opened with the title track of the record. In the song, lead vocalist Matthew Koma sings about a string of past phases and simpler times that he misses like “our feed before it was political” and “the world before it was polluted with space cowboy billionaires,” so it was fitting that the stage was decked out with old box tv sets and nostalgic candy machines.

Before they got too far into the set, Koma took some time to address the crowd, saying how special Chicago is to them. “We don’t say that to all the girls, ok? It’s the first place that we came to on one of our first headlining tours, and it was our first show that we ever sold out. It made us think we should keep doing this,” he said, before dedicating the next song “On The 5” to their OG fans.

The setlist featured a lot of the material from their debut record, but similar to “On The 5,” the band sprinkled in plenty of other songs from the full WBL discography. In addition to plenty of music, the band also delivered a lot of laughs between songs, which was fitting because one of the opening acts was actually a stand up comedian named Caroline Baniewicz.

Ahead of playing “Come to the Beach” Koma told the audience about his experience with his BetterHelp therapist while he’s on the road. “We’ve been working on communication because I can communicate pretty well through songs, but in real life when it comes to confrontation I kind of take side streets, so we’ve been working on that. You wait for an opportunity in real life where you can apply what you’re talking about on BetterHelp. So a couple of weeks ago, there was this guy on Instagram who kept commenting on all our videos and kept kind of saying ‘fuck you.’ He said other stuff but every time I read it, it just said ‘fuck you.’ I thought I’m gonna come back with a quippy reply, and then I thought about my BetterHelp guy and how he wants me to be more direct. So Sam [Beresford] and I were driving to the airport and Sam found his home address and his phone number, and I said I’m just gonna call him and be like why ‘fuck you’? Then I fell back into the old habit and I signed him up for the US Army. Anyways, I think there’s a misconception that if you go to therapy, you have to stop being an asshole and I’m just here to say you can still be a piece of shit. That has absolutely nothing to do with this next song.”

The show continued with more great tunes and quips from Koma, including another story about a recent trip to CVS ahead of playing their song by the same name. After both of those stories, I definitely think that BetterHelp and CVS should sponsor the next WBL tour!

As the show began to wind down, the band played one of their newer singles called “This is Life,” which was a collaboration with Medium Build and Dawes that they released only a few weeks after Sha La La came out. Koma continues to be one of my favorite lyricists and the band flawlessly brought Winnetka Bowling League’s songs to life during the show at Lincoln Hall, so I hope they continue to consistently deliver new material and bring it to the stage.

If you get a chance to see the tour, don’t miss it. You can check out photos of the Chicago gig below, and see where you can catch the tour next here.

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categories / Gigs, Music, Photos, Reviews
tags / Winnetka Bowling League, Sha La La, Lincoln Hall, Live Recap, New Music, Concert Photography, Concert Review