To this day, I cant go to a Springsteen show without someone telling me a tall tale about how they saw Springsteen play an eight-hour show
and then he took out a broom and swept the floor of the club. Its almost laughable, but understandable.
- Read the full Rock Reads: Bruce Springsteen: The Light in Darkness review
Urban kicked it all off with an intimate full band performance for a few hundred fans at Joes on Weed Street in Chicago. He brought the tour full circle with a one-off acoustic/ Q&A performance for a mere 300-fans once again at Joes.
- Read the full Keith Urban Live in Chicago Nov 2009 review
Arriving in Chicago for their first show in a half decade, and the bands first performance at the United Center, it was like a entering a time machine back to the 1970s where KISS ruled arenas.
- Read the full KISS Live in Chicago Nov 2009 review
Flexing a range of musical styles and perfect pacing, Kelly Clarkson did everything right. She is someone who through her enthusiasm and fortitude has become more than a television star, but someone who is without question, a truly significant artist. (5 stars)
- Read the full Kelly Clarkson Live October 2009 review
Bon Jovis eleventh studio record, The Circle is an enticing enigma. Playing to their strengths with a sound ready-made for arena bombast, its immediately alluring and entrancing, but is this a positive or a negative is the question at the tip of everyones tongue? (3 stars)
- Read the full Bon Jovi - The Circle review
This book is a standalone entity and while it shares its name with the title of a new song and their documentary, its more or less a collection of pictures and stories celebrating the bands quarter of a century together. (4.5 stars)
- Read the full Rock Reads: Bon Jovi - When We Were Beautiful review
This was Will Hoges first plugged-in full band show in Chicago in nearly a year-and-a-half. Arriving on-stage in a shirt, tie and a vest looking like a consummate professional, Hoge and his band shred through a 100-minute set that elated the Chicago crowd.
- Read the full Will Hoge: Highway Wings and Harrowing Hearts review
Finding middle ground between the E Street Band and Social Distortion, Lucero delivers a two-hour plus show nightly where the band tears through nearly thirty songs, through a melding of influences, proving they are a force to be reckoned with.
- Read the full Lucero Live review
Taking a page from the rock eras great singer-songwriters, McDermott has a penchant for making you believe that hes in the throes of war in each of his songs as he exerts himself to the point where your speakers will tower over from the avalanche of emotions. (3.5 stars)
- Read the full Michael McDermott - Hey La Hey review
Sadly many people only know of Europe from the hits from the The Final Countdown record, which is a misfortune because theres more to them than meets the eye. I know what youre thinking, but stay with me. (3.5 stars)
- Read the full Europe - Last Look At Eden review
Nashville singer-songwriter Will Hoges fifth full length record The Wreckage finds broken souls questioning everything as the their walls close in on them. The eleven songs that encompass The Wreckageare drenched in melancholy. (3.5 stars)
- Read the full Will Hoge - The Wreckage review
Anvil! The Story of Anvil is more than a momentous music documentary, or even an indispensable documentary; it is simply one of the best films of 2009. I have yet to meet someone who hasnt been overwhelmingly moved by the film. (5 stars)
- Read the full Anvil! The Story of Anvil DVD review
How would the entire Born To Run album performed in sequence within the larger scope of a show? Springsteen and the E Street Band hushed the cynic in me with a tense and telescoping performance of eight of the greatest songs to ever be assembled and sequenced on a circular piece of vinyl.
- Read the full Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band -The Born To Run Concert review
This Is Thirteen feels like an ageless metal record- it isnt death metal, speed or thrash metal, but simply a distinguished metal record cut from the cloth of their classic past where they embrace all of the elements that made them so influential in the first place. (3 stars)
- Read the full Anvil - This Is Thirteen review
Pearl Jam at their best is an arena rock band who creates anthems to be sung and screamed with tens of thousands of other fans. Through the towering crowd and visceral reactions, we discover unheralded gems, hear favorites in an entirely distinctive light.
- Read the full Pearl Jam Month: Live In Chicago Night 2 review
Riot Act is still a very crucial record with illuminating lyrics many choose to overlook. However, its also deemed to be the bands least sonically rewarding. Records live inside of you and despite some of their faults; a song like this can appear out of nowhere and just reinvigorate you
- Read the full Pearl Jam Month: Riot Act review
Backspacer is a quintessential Pearl Jam record it whips past you in a mere 37-minutes. Im not going to tell you this is a return to form or their best since Vs., but its an unbelievably resilient record that continues to disclose harmonious wonders with every listen. (3.5 stars)
- Read the full Pearl Jam Month: Backspacer review
Early on in U2s second 360 Tour show at Soldier Field in Chicago (their second North American show) Bono told the crowd Weve got new songs, weve got old songs, weve got songs weve never played before. It was an ostentatious proclamation that could have meant several things
- Read the full U2 Live in Chicago Night Two (With Photos) review
Four songs into U2s opening night of their US tour, the bands more prevailing side shined through as the Magnificent lifted off like a rocket ship into space. The latest stage by U2 is the most mammoth, audacious, and insane playground ever designed for a rock show.
- Read the full U2 - Opening Night of US Tour review
One of the twentieth centurys greatest inventions was the electric guitar and over the course of 100-minutes, three guitar gods from different generations (The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White) try to define and express what this instrument means to them. (3.5 stars)
- Read the full It Might Get Loud (Film Review) review
Bon Jovi - We Weren't Born To Follow (single review)
Bon Jovi - These Days Part II (A Personal Journey)
Pearl Jam Live In Chicago Aug 23, 2009
What John Hughes Means To Me
Rock Reads: So What! The Good, The Mad, and The Ugly: The Official Metallica Illustrated Chronicle
Metallica's Hall of Humanity
Metallica's Ride the Lightning... Twenty-Five Years Later
Rock Reads - To Live Is To Die: The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton (5 stars)
Michael Jackson: The Curtain Has Fallen on an Icon
Soraia: The Real Thing
The Return of Will Hoge (5 stars)
Britney Spears Live: Sequin, Sex & Spectacle
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart: 2008's Most Disappointing Albums
The Top 20 Concerts of 2008
The Top 25 Albums of 2008
Michael Franti & Spearhead: A Triumphant Tonic For Tragic Souls
Paul Stanley - One Live KISS DVD (3.5 stars)
Tina Turner Rolling and Rocking
Butch Walker: The Phoenix
James - Hey Ma (Album of the Year) (5 stars)
John Mellencamp: No American Fool
Will Hoge & Jason Isbell: Rising Above It All (5 stars)
The Beatles 'Love' (5 stars)
Madonna: What It Feels Like For A Fan
The Rolling Stones - Shine A Light (IMAX) (5 stars)
Boss Live: Springsteen in Omaha
REO Speedwagon: Finding Their Way Home
Wilco
Live
Buddy
Guy & Robert Randolph: Carrying The Weight of the Blues
Bon
Jovi Shelter From the Storm (Live Chicago Feb 2008)
U2
3D
Good
Charlotte Live - Blissful and Buoyant In Brussels
Amy
Winehouse: Back In Black at the Grammys
The
Screen Door Best of 2007 Special
The
Swell Season: A 'Once' In A Lifetime Concert
Keith
Urban: Like A Rolling Stone
We
All Shine On: The Legacy of John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell
John
Mellencamp Live
Alice
Cooper: Between High School & Old School
Bruce
Springsteen and the E Street Band Live
Album
of the Year: Will Hoge's Draw The Curtains
Richie
Sambora: "The Answer" Is In the Question
Allman
Brothers Band Live
Van
Halen - Everybody Wants Some
Keith
Urban Live
Poison
Live
The
Police: In Violation of Sucking
Ryan
Adams: Reborn
Paul
McCartney at Amoeba Music
Jesse
Malin: Guitar Redemptions and Connections
Bon
Jovi - (You Want To) Make A Memory
Pussycat
Dolls & Danity Kane: Atrocity at the Allstate
Snow
Patrol - Chasing Hearts and Dreams
Farkus:
Chicago's Forceful and Fresh Foursome
Bon
Jovi: 52,612 Fans Can't Be Wrong
Will
Hoge: Letting It Loose
25
Best Albums of 2006
Pearl
Jam: Band of The Hour
Rock
Star Supernova - Super Disaster
Nancy
Wilson: A Marriage of Music and Film
U2:
Swinging To The Music
Will
Hoge: The Redemption of Rock N Roll
Bruce
Springsteen: Rising Up Out of the Darkness
Half
Way There: The Best Albums of 2006
So Far
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