In a piece appearing on The Record yesterday, Dave Grohl weighs in on arena rocking versus club rocking and how to try and merge the two. In it we also learn that Grohl's very first live show was seeing Naked Raygun play The Cubby Bear! Here's what he has to say about the show: more ›

If you saw Metric at Cubby Bear a few weeks ago and -- like us -- was put off by the band not hitting the stage until after midnight even though the show was listed as beginning at 9 p.m., the bar has heard your complaints and wants to make it up to you. They are offering all attendees two free tickets to show of their choice between now and December 31, 2010. Email kim [at] ravenswoodevents [dot] com and include a scan of your Metric ticket stub or attach your Ticketmaster receipt to claim this offer. We applaud the venue for owning up to this communication mishap and trying to make it up ... a move we rarely see in today's concert scene. more ›

Metric's show at Metro last June is on our list as one of the best of the year. The quartet delivered danceable anthems interlaced with melodramatic flourishes that expanded the songs' reach instead of hindering them. Emily Haines is a magnetic focus point for the band, but her partners in music Joules Scott-Key, James Shaw, and Josh Winstead provide a formidable backdrop for her to work off. Winstead in particular creates a strong visual foil for Haines as he swings his bass around nailing the rhythms to the floor. more ›

Check out this pretty fantastic look from Opening Day 1984 (airing on - we think - the old show Eye on Chicago) at the two very different crowds that frequented the Cubby Bear at the time, a time when Cubs games were always during the day, the punks came out at night, and no one had yet to utter the phrase "Dave Matthews Band." more ›

Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, 610 S. Michigan, Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m., $10. more ›

Like moths to a flame, like hipsters to a thrift store, like emotional eaters to the cookie dough – such is the overpowering draw of the Golden Tee arcade game to patrons at the neighborhood bar. It’s never part of the plan. A group of buddies meet up for a night of crushing beers and cruising chicks, but inevitably they find themselves in the corner, hovering over the Golden Tee, then wondering why they end up with no new numbers in their cell phones. more ›

Talk about buzz. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is at the top of everybody's to-see list (it opens Dec 21), but you can catch something even better than a just sneak peak. John C Reilly is performing in person, in character as Dewey Cox, complete with back-up band The Hard Walkers, at the Cubby Bear tonight as part of the Cox Across America tour. The Coxtacular starts with a screening at 7pm and... more ›

Today the Reader is holding a book swap. At the Cubby Bear. more ›

Yup, it's Halloween night. And, assuming you're not completely incapacitated from celebrating this holiday for the last week, you're probably blinded by the flurry of options on how to spend tonight. Allow us to make a few suggestions. We talked to Jesse Thorn a couple days ago about his The Sound Of Young America show. Well tonight is the live 8 p.m. taping at Second City's e.t.c. stage. Thorn will be interviewing engineer and Shellac-man... more ›

We think even our grandfather knows The Police are playing Wrigley Field tonight, and he lives in South Texas. Their two-night stand in Chicago certainly wins the award for most hyped show of the year (and we've definitely been guilty of adding to the pre-show buzz). Even though tickets have long been sold-out, enough people bought extra tickets ahead of time in hopes of making a profit that the re-sale market for tonight and tomorrow's... more ›

The Midnight Shows are one of those bands trying to revive soul music and give it back its original edge. We're talking about dark alley, drug-deal gone bad, miniskirt riding up the ass kind of soul. We're talking about songs filled with grit, burnishing the edges off a crowd as they work up a sweat. more ›

Alright, it's time to us to get all Rod Serling on you, for a moment. more ›

We here at Chicagoist Towers confess that we are occasionally music snobs, and that this rampant snobbery can allow the occasional gem to slip undiscovered under our very noses. For years we have avoided The Katie Todd Band for a number of reasons. She was often paired with bands we considered only fit for the Cubby Bear circuit or (even worse, shudder) the suburbs. In our defense, we do remember being pretty drunk at Double Door a few years ago, and she was dishing out a rather generic, and pretty lousy, dose of chick-frat rock. Come to think of it, we’ve never really had anything nice to say about her. more ›

Procrastinating indie kids and drunken Dads throughout the city will look a little down in the mouth this weekend as both the Boy Least Likely To and Jimmy Buffet shows are sold out this weekend. Plus, the lead singer of Snow Patrol lost his voice so their show is postponed as well. But there are still plenty of good shows going on over the next couple of days. But did we miss a memo or... more ›

Photo via pantagrapher more ›

Chicagoist was sent the listing of the Top 10 Dive Bars in Chicago as voted by what we are assuming are extremely rich people who have no idea what a dive bar is. We love dive bars, in fact, if given the chance we would live in one even though it may cause us to lose our job – that’s how much we love dive bars. The toothless gentlemen, the neverending stories, the loss of hope that pervades the entire place… ahh, who’s up for drinks? But this list has us in a tizzy. more ›

Everybody loves his mashup albums these days. There have been countless revolving around Jay-Z and his "farewell" The Black Album, from The Slack Album (Jay-Z meets Pavement) to The Black and Blue Album (Jay-Z meets Weezer, a.k.a. Rivers Gets a Cap in his Ass) to Danger Mouse's justly heralded Jay-Z meets the Beatles project The Grey Album. (Chicagoist thinks these albums come into being when the DJs behind them think up a clever album title.) There was even the Jay-Z-Metallica mashup The Black on Black Album. Jay-Z – we're getting real tired of typing "Jay-Z" – ever the brilliant marketer, made all this possible by making a-cappella versions of Black Album tracks readily available. more ›