Part I: Music
Approximately one year ago, my wife and I followed in the footsteps of many-a-Midwesterner and made the move to Chicago, fulfilling a lifelong dream of “making it” in the big city. After one year of living the city life, I wanted to take time to reflect on the ups and downs (mostly ups) of our first of many years in one of the greatest cities in the world (and I’m not being hyperbolic by saying that).
In the first of a three (ish) part series assessing our first year in the city, I am focusing on one of my greatest passions in life: live music.
It is likely no secret to many who live in the American Midwest or who are familiar with the logistics of touring musicians, but Chicago is truly one of the greatest music cities in the world. Due, in large part, to the centralized location of the city, Chicago is almost always guaranteed to feature on any touring musicians itinerary. Coming from an area of the country that often has to suffer through long-term concert droughts (no offense, West Michigan), we intended, and have so far succeeded, in fully taking advantage of Chicago’s amazing music scene.
We have had the luck of attending a number of shows in various venues over the past year and will highlight some of my favorites here.
LCD Soundsystem
Aragon Ballroom
(No I won’t call it “Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom”)
Seeing LCD Soundsystem at the Detroit Masonic Temple in 2017 to this day remains a concert-going experience without equal for me. If I am ranking the best concerts I have ever attended, the return of James Murphy and his band from “beyond the grave” will certainly rank as #1.
While this latest outing by LCD Soundsystem didn’t quite live up to my lofty expectations, I cannot deny the high-quality performance that the band still puts on. Although we may have inadvertently attended on the “worst” day of their 4-night run in Chicago, we still wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.
While music is obviously subjective and tastes may vary, I believe that you haven’t lived until you’ve danced along to the (appropriately named) “Dance Yrself Clean” or gotten the frisson tingles from a live rendition of “All my Friends” (now that might be a bit hyperbolic, but I stand by it).
The only dark spot on an otherwise amazing performance was the baffling and disappointing exclusion of “Daft Punk is Playing at My House”, but what can you do?
Arm’s Length and saturdays at your place
Do Division
This might be a bit of an oddball, since I would not consider myself a true fan of either of these bands (although you can’t deny that “Tarot Cards” is a bop), however I can’t deny the allure and nostalgia of our first free Chicago neighborhood street fest. Whether this is a common occurrence in many big cities and we have been blinded by our years in a sub-500,000 population city or if this is truly something that makes Chicago unique, the free summer street festival is one of the greatest things about living in the city.
You may have heard people say that Chicago is a “summer city” or really comes alive in the summer and I maintain that you can’t fully understand the magnitude of that statement until you’ve spent a summer in the city and attended a street festival.
For those uninitiated, Chicago is well known for its free street festivals put on by various neighborhoods. Some of these festivals are larger and have a bigger draw than others (looking at you Wicker Park Fest) but all of them have the same things in common:
They are free (ignore the “suggested donation” if you so please)
They offer some great food trucks
They generally have some fun live music.
In this case, we made the trek from our north-end of the woods down to the West Town/Ukrainian Village area to check out the free Do Division festival. We specifically made the trek in order to see Arm’s Length and (fellow Western Michiganders) saturdays at your place.
The appreciation I have for any free concert, especially one with bands that I am actually aware of, cannot be understated. And the experience of viewing (from afar) a circle pit in the middle of a residential neighborhood on a Sunday night is really something to behold.
Hot Mulligan and Friends
Aragon Ballroom
In a year filled with festival disappointments (looking at you RiotFest), it brings me some comfort to look back on the show that ended up turning into its own miniature indoor festival. I am used to most concerts featuring a main act and one, maybe two openers. Looking at the lineup for Hot Mulligan’s Friday show at Aragon this past winter, it is difficult to compare it to just a “standard” concert lineup.
Hot Mulligan (another group of fellow Michiganders) really brought out the big guns in bringing along Ben Quad, Heart Attack Man, Free Throw, and Spanish Love Songs for one big first show in Chicago.
Having five bands back-to-back already beats out many festivals I have attended in the past, but add in the fact that they changed the venue somewhat last second to one within walking distance and arguably with better vibes (sorry House of Blues) and this made for one great night of screaming along to some of our favorite songs.
The Hives
The Bottom Lounge
At the height of their fame, backed by hits such as “Hate to Say I Told You So”, The Hives were regularly regarded by critics as one of the best live acts in rock music at the time (here is some proof to back up that claim).
After a couple of not-so-stellar releases with the Black and White Album and Lex Hives the band seemed to have taken a bit of a self-imposed hiatus only occasionally performing in their native Sweden and other European festival appearances.
That is, until 2023, with the release of one of their better albums “The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons”, they embarked on what might be one of the shortest “comeback” tours ever. Only stopping in 12 North American cities, when we saw that they were performing in Chicago, we had to get tickets. Forget that this tour was announced before we even moved to Chicago!
Harkening back to my younger years when I saw them at the Crofoot in Pontiac, Michigan, I had high, admittedly rose-tinted expectations of this return to American soil for The Hives. Even with those high expectations, I can 100% confirm that they met, and even exceeded those expectations. Despite the additional years “Howlin’” Pelle Almqvist still lived up to his moniker and put on a fun and energetic show.
BONUS ROUND
I never claimed every concert had to be in the city of Chicago, did I?
In that case, I’ll include one more…
Fall Out Boy
Fiserv Arena (Milwaukee)
While I have never claimed to be a huge Fall Out Boy fan (although the additional of Hot Mulligan and Jimmy Eat World did not hurt), I cannot deny the appeal of a giant snail head banging to an early-2000’s pop-punk anthem.
Join me again “next week” while I recount my favorite meals and foods from the last year of Chicago-living.