Evanston's Eddie Vedder -- a hometown boy who has since made good in a little band named Pearl Jam -- performed the first of two sold-out solo shows at The Auditorium Theatre last Thursday. We admit we went into the show with low expectations since we honestly do enjoy Vedder but were less than impressed with his first solo outing, the Into The Wild soundtrack. We figured selections from that album would feature prominently and......

Man is there a lot going on tonight. Are you sure it's only Wednesday? Because it sure feels like the party is already kicking into high Friday mode. The last few weeks have been a tad lackluster, music-wise, but December is taking this year out with a bang! Here are just a few of tonight's options. Evan Dando resurrects The Lemonheads tonight at Double Door. We caught him last time he came through town and......

Eighty years ago AT&T was quite the different company when it came to privacy of its customers and free speech. A quote lifted from a Boing Boing post on Thursday where AT&T spoke out against warrantless surveillance, "The telephone has become part and parcel of the social and business intercourse of the people of the United States, and this telephone system offers a means of espionage to which general warrants and writs of assistance were......

We've finally recovered (well, mostly) from the whirlwind weekend that was Lollapalooza 2007. There were certain highs, and definite lows, but overall we've still pleased that the festival has chosen Chicago as its home. In its third year many of the past problems (like sound bleed or wonky scheduling that necessitated obscene amounts of walking in extremely limited spans of time) seemed mostly solved. There were a few cruel overlaps schedule-wise, but when you have......

Each morning we're going to highlight five bands playing at Lollapalooza that we think are worth seeing. Some will be popular, some less known, but we believe they're all worth your time. Today we're keeping it short and not including an after fest show because, to be honest, we're beginning to get a little worn down. We love that all this great music is happening in our fair city, but it tends to get a......

Lollapalooza Performer Kid Sister...

The city's biggest music festival of the summer kicks off tomorrow, and you can feel the excitement building in the Chicagoist offices. However, we've had to put our cub reporters through some summer festival basic training, since this one blows all the others out of the water in sheer scope and size. The bands are the draw, and the primary source of fun, but there are a few other things you -- and our cub......

The day is finally here! We get to mark up the schedule, fight with our friends over who to see, and determine what time we have to wake up to make it down to Grant Park. The Lollapalooza schedule is finally out. Also, if a three-day pass seemed excessive, the single day tickets are now on sale for $80. Which headliner will make the previously unconvinced head to the festival? Will it be Daft Punk......

The Onion's A.V. Club has leaked the line-up for Lollapalooza one day early, and you can read it here. If it's legit, Chicagoist is one happy camper! Many of the bands were already suspected, but a couple surprises do pop up. (Juliette and the Licks? Fuck yeah! Silverchair? Well, considering that their latest is actually good, we're even looking forward to seeing them too!) Chicago represents with acts like Rhymefest, Lupe Fiasco, Chin Up Chin......

Chicagoist needs to stop making bets that the Smashing Pumpkins will play Lollapalooza this year. With Pearl Jam already rumored to headline and the Pumpkins playing every fest known to man this summer, we thought that Billy Corgan would actually have some sort of allegiance to our fair town. Not so fast. We got the news today that the Smashing Pumpkins are headlining the U.S. Virgin Fest in Baltimore the same weekend as Lolla. Now,......

Whether or not you think Pearl Jam is a viable Lollapalooza headliner (we do think they're a good choice, by the way), no one can argue against sixty bucks for a three-day pass. Problem is, there are only 3,000 passes available at that price, so if you want one, you had better grab it now.......

Metra still can't pay the bills. Bonus time to party on the Dan Ryan local lanes! Prince Charles hates McDonald's. Perhaps he would change his mind if he had a smoothie? Bobby Jenks, hulking pile of muscle that he is, tweaked his shoulder in spring training. So long, Burt. We'll have to find new reasons to use this picture. Lollapalooza 2007 = Pearl Jam. A con man scammed some women out of $1 million......

We don’t get excited about reunion tours. We’re above that. Unless of course it’s The Police, in which case we jump up and down clapping our hands like a school bus full of those girls Gwen Stefani pays to follow her around. We had been told that the revered (by us) group would be playing Soldier Field this summer as part of their 30th Anniversary / Cashin’ In / We’re In The R’N’R Hall O’......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

It seems obvious now, but if you were an avid rock music fan in 1992 and someone told you that of the four standard bearers of the Seattle sound (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains whose current Phil Anselmo-William DuVall-fronted incarnation isn’t fooling anyone), Pearl Jam would be the one to survive over a decade later, you would have been forgiven for thinking they were high. Yet all the signs were there. Consider......

Who's the Empire Carpet Guy?...

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory? SFist wonders. Technology comes in the form of new Mac goodness......

Got an extra grand? Want to wear flannel? Want to help others? The perfect solution goes on sale Saturday at 10 am. Pearl Jam is playing a benefit concert at the House of Blues here in Chicago on October 5th to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. All net proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, and the Jazz Foundation of America. The last two charities......