A GLANCE AT the Reader’s live music listings makes it plain that navigating the scene here can be tough. Rock, jazz, blues, hip-hop, international, folk, country, and experimental music are all well represented here year-round, and up-and-coming and veteran locals can be seen in bars across the city on any given night. Touring national acts play a smaller selection of venues.
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Schubas (3159 N. Southport, 773- 525-2508) in Lakeview offers an intimate setting for a mixture of indie-pop outfits, singer-songwriters, alt-country, and indie rock. About a mile west is the Beat Kitchen (2100 W. Belmont, 773-281-4444), one of the main outlets for the bookings of MP Productions, the operation run by Brian Peterson, who used to book the punk rock shows at the legendary Fireside Bowl, which still hosts the occasional gig. He favors a hard-hitting mix of punk, metal, and indie rock upstarts, but there are occasional flashes of the club’s past with rootsier performers. Peterson also programs some shows at the Subterranean (2011 W. North, 773-278-6600), which emphasizes indie pop acts. The pricey Jazz Showcase (59 W. Grand, 312-670-2473) is the city’s mainstream acoustic jazz haven, where some of the biggest names in the biz take up six-night residencies; the club recently lost its lease, though it’s bound to resurface somewhere next year. The gorgeous
Green Mill (4802 N. Broadway, 773-878-5552), famously a hang of Al Capone’s, features top local jazz talent weeknights and brings in national acts on the weekends with affordable covers. For more avant-garde jazz there’s the Velvet Lounge (67 E. Cermak, 312-791-9050), the longstanding club owned by Chicago tenor sax great Fred Anderson, which just opened at a new location and features some of the finest players affiliated with theAssociation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. The city’s thriving and acclaimed local free jazz scene can be heard thanks to the co-op Umbrella Music (umbrellamusic.org), which programs shows at a constellation of venues including Elastic (2830 N. Milwaukee, 773-772-3616), the
Kingston Mines (2548 N. Halsted, 773-477-4646), Rosa’s Lounge (3420 W. Armitage, 773-342-0452), and the recently cleaned-up and relocated Checkerboard Lounge (5201 S. Harper, 773-684-1472). For something more authentic and gritty try Lee’s Unleaded Blues(7401 S. South Chicago, 773-493-3477) or Artis’s (1249 E. 87th, 773-734-0491).
There’s a handful of decent neighborhood stores, most carrying a mix of new and used records and CDs. In Roscoe Village there’s Hard Boiled (2010 W. Roscoe, 773-755-2619), which also stocks an interesting selection of contemporary Asian cinema on DVD. In Lincoln Square there’s Laurie’s Planet of Sound (4639 N. Lincoln, 773-271-3569) and in North Center Evil Clown (4314 N. Lincoln, 773-509-0708). In Lakeview there’s the
Mosaic, the international music show I host on Saturdays from 2 to 4 PM). There’s also Northeastern’s WZRD (88.3,wzrdchicago.com), whose signal only reaches the extreme north side. The University of Chicago’s WHPK (88.5, whpk.uchicago.edu) reaches the south side with a mix similar to WNUR. WDCB(90.9), the College of DuPage’s station, has become the premier source for mainstream jazz in the area. Fortunately, WNUR, WLUW, and WDCB can all be heard online.
