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 Old Town School of Folk Music (4544 N. Lincoln, 773-628-6000) has the best small theater in the city, with excellent sound and sight lines; this Chicago institution (in Lincoln Square, not Old Town) offers a nice mix of country, folk, singer-songwriters, jazz, and international music. In some ways the tiny Hideout mirrors the Old Town’s eclectic spirit, with a good mix of alt-country, indie rock, and jazz, administered by one of Chicago’s friendliest staffs. Out west in Berwyn, FitzGerald’s (6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, 708-788-2118) is a haven for American roots music of all stripes, but it focuses on country, blues, and the music of New Orleans. Perhaps the most eclectic club in Chicago is the HotHouse (31 E. Balbo, 312-362-9707), a consistent presenter of international music, as well as jazz, neosoul, spoken word, folk, and some rock.
Despite the richness of our music scene, the record-store business is in dire straits. There are two Tower Records locations, but after the company’s recent Chapter 11 filing, it’s anyone’s guess how long they’ll be around. Virgin Megastore (540 N. Michigan, 312-645-9300) is a decent chain store, but over the last few years DVDs have been steadily crowding out the CDs. The way things are going with digital downloads and mail order, the key to survival for brick-and-mortar shops may be finding a niche. The best stores in Chicago are specialists: for jazz and blues there’s the massive Jazz Record Mart (25 E. Illinois, 312-222-1467), for rare groove, Brazilian, hip-hop, soul, and jazz there’s Dusty Groove (1120 N. Ashland, 773-342-5800), and for dance music there’s Gramophone (2843 N. Clark, 773-472-3683). Wax Addict (1014 N. Ashland, 773-772-9930) also specializes in dance music, and Evanston’s venerable (and pricey) Vintage Vinyl (925 Davis, 847-328-2899) maintains an astonishing selection of rare classics and obscure 60s and 70s rock and pop.
The public station WBEZ (91.5) features mainstream jazz programming on weeknights, as well as some decent specialty shows on the weekends, but at the end of the year they’re ditching all that. They promise music will be a big part of future programming; they just won’t say how.
