What was slated to be an ordinary hip-hop concert has turned into a mild boondoggle of ‘they said/they said/they said’ proportions between an up-and-coming rap duo, Near North concert venue the House of Blues, and the Chicago Police Department. more ›

Electronic act Bassnectar has decided to bring his own security detail to his sold-out show at the Congress Theater after hearing the venue had security issues. Also, Congress owner Eddie Carranza has called a community meeting at the theater on Sunday. more ›

Why doesn't the Congress Theater have to clean up? Because it sells out anyway. more ›

Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) is bringing Congress Theater owner Eddie Carranza before City Hall for a Deleterious Impact/Public Nuisance Hearing next month in an effort to get the venue to clean things up. more ›

Prosecutors reveal more grisly details on the case. All three teens are being charged as adults. more ›

A 15-year-old from Chicago and a 16-year-old from Oak Park have been charged with the sexual assault and battery of a Highland Park girl outside the Congress Theater on New Year's Eve. more ›

The woman who was beaten and raped near the Congress Theater in Logan Square is recovering quickly. Sadly, police now believe as many as eight people were involved in the attack. more ›

Police have released the three men who had been held as "persons of interest" in connection to the New Year's Eve attack on an 18-year-old woman near the Congress Theater in Logan Square. more ›

An 18-year-old woman was found naked, bloody and unconscious in a front lawn near the Congress Theater in Logan Square on New Year's Eve. more ›

Though we would’ve loved to have seen the free Cro-Mags shows at either Reggie's or Cobra Lounge or wound our weekend down with the Smoking Popes, our aging punk rock bodies could really only keep focused on one thing - The Descendents. more ›

Tonight, Saturday and Sunday Riot Fest will be in full swing at five venues across the city, with a great line-up that's bigger and broader-stroked than previous years. more ›

Need a little aural pick-me-up after a long Monday? Good news - Chicagoist fav Zach Condon, a.k.a Beirut (a.k.a. the finest Balkan-inspired folk purveyor ever to blast out of New Mexico) brings his eclectic live show to the Congress Theater tonight in support of his fantastic latest offering, The Rip Tide. more ›

The last band to combine the Civil War and big guitars successfully was Guns N' Roses, until Titus Andronicus came along. The punk combo from New Jersey has been honing their stage show through relentless touring over the past couple years, transforming from a band seemingly unsure how to capture a stage the size of Metro's into a band entrancing thousands at last year's Pitchfork Music Festival. Their sophomore album, The Monitor, does indeed have a Civil War theme though it's loose enough to include odes to keggers rubbing up against songs proclaiming the hopelessness of the battlefields. more ›

Sun-Times reporter Dave Hoekstra was on the scene for Chuck Berry's collapse at the Congress Theater Saturday night. The picture Hoekstra paints is surreal, with an audience of all ages, the Congress smelling as we always remembered, and an 84-year-old rock 'n roll legend struggling to go on with the show. more ›

About an hour into his "Winter Dance" show at the Congress Theater on Saturday night, 84-year-old Rock N' Roll Hall of Famer Chuck Berry collapsed on-top of his keyboards before a standing-room only crowd. After Berry didn't move for several minutes, he was helped off stage by three people. He came back on stage 20 minutes later, although most of the audience had left by that point. He tried to play another song before stopping and telling the audience he had no strength and leaving the stage again. more ›

It seems like shows at Congress Theater are doomed to disappoint. But this weekend, Congress held a different type of event that was a huge hit. Yesterday’s Vintage Bazaar, a self-described “modern pop-up vintage flea market” filled the floor with 60 vendors that offered vintage collectibles, furniture, clothing, house wares and other odds and ends. The first Vintage Bazzar was held at Dank Haus in Lincoln Square last February. more ›

Girl Talk's upcoming New Year's Eve shindig at the expansive Congress Theater sold out in record time and there's nothing we hate worse than dealing with the murky shark tank that is Craigslist. We were poking around Facebook on our lunch break when we we noticed an update to the Empty Bottle's fan page and twitter account posted Tuesday evening suggesting that a limited additional number of tickets would be available to purchase for some lucky fans by shooting an email to rsvp@emptybottle.com with "Girl Talk" in the subject line. You have untilTuesdayto give it a shot. more ›

The fact that Halloween falls on a weekend means the city has gone into party machine overdrive. One of the stand-out events that's on our calender is the Freaky Deaky night at Congress Theater on October 30 with Chromeo, Crystal Castles, Boys Noize, and a host of the usual local DJs to get you ready for the main acts. And what main acts. Boys Noize's new album Power is a head kick of grunting metallic electro and Crystal Castles' Alice Glass has way more in common with Iggy Pop than Kylie Minogue, so the two acts together should be enough to pummel the dancing crowd into a fine mist of blood and sweat. It's going to be insane. more ›

Halloween is quickly approaching and next week brings a host of musicians through the city to get your ghoulish weekend kick-started days in advance. more ›

We got word that Girl Talk is playing Congress Theater on New Year's Eve, and though it's not on the venue's website yet, the appearance has been confirmed by the Empty Bottle and tickets appear to be available already. We've seen Girl Talk in that room once before and that leads us to believe that this is gonna definitely be one of the spots people are going to want to be on December 31, 2009. If you're looking to have your mind blown with a few thousand "friends" squirming and smiling beside you, grab you tickets now. more ›

While we patiently wait for Lupe Fiasco to release his next album -- mid-December, we hope, we hope! -- at least we're getting a semi-regular dose of him playing live around town! He continues the trend of not forgetting his home base with a concert at the Congress Theater on October 29. more ›

O.K., our head hurts contemplating this. What happens when a satirical site written in the voice of a faux-hipster ironically detached blogger co-hosts an actual real-life hipster dance party at The Congress Theater? Well, we guess we're gonna find out. more ›

If you've ever watched "Iron Chef America" and thought, "this would be better if the subject was digital design and kitchen stadium was actually the Congress Theater," then Cut & Paste 2009 is for you. more ›

Piano pop-rocker Ben Folds will be rocking Chicago's Apple Store at 3 p.m. in a special performance to help promote his new LP Way To Normal. Folds will be performing a 30-minute set followed by a 30-minute signing opportunity for fans. If you want to get in, you'd better start lining up now. more ›